Why do I get the error "page cannot be displayed"?

Please help. I can not access my e-mail account, or any other websites that requires a password to be entered. As soon as I enter my password "page cannot be displayed" appears. I know it is a problem with my home computer or connection as I'm able to access my e-mail from other computers. I have tried changing my security settings, hitting refresh and every thing else it tells me to do on "this page cannot be displayed" page. I have no problems accessing other web pages, such as this one.

I have no idea whats wrong, please help.

Thanks.

This question was answered on November 23, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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This problem may occur if any one or more of the following conditions is true:

" Internet Explorer connection settings are incorrect

" An incorrect entry exists in a Hosts file

" The Winsock.dll, Wsock32.dll, or Wsock.vxd file is missing or damaged

" There are multiple copies of the Winsock.dll, Wsock32.dll, or Wsock.vxd file, or one of these files is in the wrong folder

" TCP/IP is not installed or is not functioning correctly

" The WinSock2 registry key is damaged

" The Internet Connection Sharing installation is damaged or is not functioning

" The Rnr20.dll file is missing or damaged or the "Library Path" value in the following registry key is missing or contains the wrong location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\ Parameters\NameSpace_Catalog5\Catalog_Entries\000000000001

" If you are using America Online (AOL) or CompuServe, there may be parental control restrictions applied to the account

" Incorrectly configured or non-functioning firewall or proxy software

Note When you try to view Web pages in Internet Explorer after you install MSN (Microsoft Network) 5.1, you may have similar symptoms.

This problem may occur if Internet Explorer is configured to use a proxy server to search when none is specified.

To resolve this issue, configure Internet Explorer to automatically detect settings To do this, follow these steps

1 Delete your temporary Internet files and cookies To do this, follow these steps:

a Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel

b Double-click Internet Options

c Under Temporary Internet Files, click the Settings button

d Click the View Files button

e Press CTRL A to select all files

f Press DEL or click the Delete option at the top of the window

g Click the Yes button on the dialog box that appears

h After all the files are gone, close the window

i Click OK two times

j Close Control Panel

Before you go to step 2, remove any firewall, Internet security, or proxy software.

2 Verify that you can connect to your ISP and the connection settings for Internet Explorer are correct To do this, use one of the following methods:

" Verify that the Use a Proxy Server check box is cleared if you do not use a proxy server To view this check box, start Internet Explorer, click Internet Options on the Tools (or View) menu, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings for LAN, DSL, and cable modem users If you use a dial-up modem, click the dial-up connection on the Connections tab, and then click the Settings button

" Try a different access number to the ISP that is not a toll number

3 If you cannot connect, remove and reinstall Dial-Up Networking To do this, follow these steps.

To remove and reinstall Dial-Up Networking, follow these steps:

a Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs

b On the Windows Setup tab, click Communications, and then click Details

c Clear the Dial-Up Networking check box, and then click Yes if you receive a message that Dial-Up Networking is required by other components

d Click OK until you are prompted to restart your computer If you are not prompted to restart your computer, restart it manually

e After Windows restarts, repeat steps a through d., except select the Dial-Up Networking check box in step c

4 Click Start, point to Programs, and then click MS-DOS Prompt

5 Type ping 127.0.0.1 at the prompt, and then press ENTER If you receive four replies, go to step 6 If you do not receive four replies, remove, reinstall, and then configure TCP/IP.

Note AOL must be removed before you follow these steps Contact AOL for information about backing up any personal data before you remove the service

To remove TCP/IP, follow these steps:

a Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network

b Click a component on the Configuration tab, click Properties, and then note the component settings Repeat this step until you have recorded the configuration information for all your components

c Remove all TCP/IP-related network components from network properties To do this, click a component on the Configuration tab, and then click Remove Repeat this step until all TCP/IP-related network components are deleted from network properties, click OK, and then click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer If you are not prompted to restart the computer, do so manually

To reinstall and configure TCP/IP, follow these steps:

a Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network

b On the Configuration tab, click Add, click Protocol, and then click Add

c In the Manufacturers box, click Microsoft, in the Network Protocols box, and then click TCP/IP

d Click OK two times, and then click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer If you are not prompted to restart your computer, do so manually.

Note You may receive "version conflict" error messages If you receive this error message, click No when you are prompted to keep a newer version of each file

e Repeat step 5

6 Connect to your ISP, and then start Internet Explorer Try to visit www.microsoft.com by name and by the Internet Protocol (IP) address If you can connect by using the IP address but not the fully qualified domain name (FQDN), look for entries in the Hosts file on the local computer To do this, follow these steps:

a Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files or Folders

b In the Named box, type hosts, and then click your hard disk in the Look in box

c If you find the Host file, open the file in Notepad to view the contents If there are no entries other than the entry for the local host (for example, 127.0.0.1 Localhost), contact your ISP about potential problems with their DNS server

7 If a Web site does not load when you use either the FQDN or IP address, click Start, point to Programs, click MS-DOS Prompt, and then try to ping a known good Web site by using both the FQDN and IP address

Note Many larger Web sites have this feature disabled Therefore, you cannot ping these sites.

If you cannot ping the site by using either the FQDN or IP address, verify that you can still ping the local host (127.0.0.1), and verify that the Library Path value in the following registry key is pointing to the correct location for the Rnr20.dll file:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\NameSpace_Catalog5\Catalog_Entries\000000000001

8 View Network properties for multiple instances of the TCP/IP protocol that are bound to the dial-up adapter

9 Look for multiple instances of the Winsock files Rename any file that is not in the appropriate folder unless it is in an AOL folder, C:\Windows\Sysbckup, or C:\Windows\Ws2bakup The following folders are correct for the Winsock files:

Winsock.dll in C:\Windows

Wsock32.dll, Wsock.vxd, Wsock2.vxd, Ws2_32.dll in C:\Windows\System

The dates and versions of these files should match the version of Windows and the system date for that version, except when Winsock2 or DUN 1.3 have been added to Windows 95 If you find a C:\Windows\Ws2bakup folder, Winsock2 has been installed, and DUN 1.3 is listed in the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel if it is installed

To rename and replace the Winsock files, follow these steps:

a Click Start point to Find, and then click Files or Folders

b In the Named box, type the correct file name (for example, type wsock32.dll, winsock.dll, or wsock.vxd), click your hard disk in the Look in box, and then click Find Now

c To rename extra copies of the files, right-click the file, click Rename, and change the file name extension to .old For example, rename the Wsock32.dll to Wsock32.old

If you receive an error message that a file by that name already exists, type a different file name extension (for example, .zzz) If you receive an error message that the file cannot be renamed because it is in use, restart the computer to a DOS prompt, and then rename the file from DOS.

10 If your computer is running Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition, go to step 13 If your computer is running Windows 95, look for the Ws2bakup.bat file on your hard disk To do this, follow these steps:

a Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files or Folders

b In the Named box, type ws2bakup.bat, click your hard disk in the Look in box, and then click Find Now

c If you find the file, go to step 11 If you do not find the file, go to step 13

11 After you locate the Ws2bakup.bat file, follow these steps:

a Click Start, click Run, type c:\windir\ws2bakup\ws2bakup.bat in the Open box, where windir is the folder where you installed Windows, and then press ENTER.

If you receive an error message that a sharing violation has occurred, press A to stop running this command Repeat this step until the batch file has finished running

b Click Start, and then click Shut Down

c Click Restart the Computer in MS-DOS Mode, and then click OK

d At the command prompt, type c:\windir\ws2bakup\ws2bakup.bat, and then press ENTER

If you receive an error message while you are updating the registry, ignore the error message.

12 Type exit to restart Windows

13 Export and delete the WinSock2 registry keys that are located in the following registry keys.

Note Remove AOL before you follow these steps Contact AOL for information about how to back up any personal data before you remove the service.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\AFVXD

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\DHCP

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\MSTCP

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\Winsock

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\Winsock2

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RemoteAccess\Authentication\SMM_Files

About the author

Posted by Henry of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on November 23, 2004

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