Very odd issue: Some website's images won't load

[TheVoice]

Hi all,

Hope you might be able to help me figure this one out. Since yesterday (or perhaps Saturday, not sure), I've been having a strange problem. Certain websites, especially www.threadless.com and www.tomshardware.com won't load their images; the images themselves display the 'broken link' icon after a while of seemingly trying to load them. This happens on both Firefox and IE7.

It gets weirder though because some pages, like Amazon, BitTech, InterfaceLift and a few others will sometimes refuse to load images, and other times will load fine. OcUK's main page wasn't loading earlier, but does seem to now. Other sites that did load fully earlier on, now won't.

It's got nothing to do with my internet connection or router, as far as I can tell, because all the other systems on this connection work fine. I haven't, to my knowledge at least, changed any particular network settings or installed anything that could have done this.

This has got me completely baffled. It has to have something to do with my PC somehow, and it can't just be a Firefox thing if IE also has problems. I just don't understand what could cause it to behave like this.

Let me know if there's any more info that could help, and thanks for any suggestions.

[z80]

Are you still having trouble? Could just have been a temporary issue with your ISP.

[TheVoice]

Yep I am. Don't think I can lay the blame on my internet connection or router because all the other systems that connect through it (a combination of Macs and PCs) aren't having such issues. Just my PC, and it's only been since Sunday.

Can't figure this out at all.

[z80]

Have you installed any new network related drivers or software recently?

For a site you are still having trouble with can you try the following;

Click start click run. Type cmd then pres ok.
In the black command window that appears type:

ping -t www.tomshardware.com

then press enter.

Check for a minute or two and see if you get any time out messages.

To stop pinging hold down CTRL and press c

[TheVoice]

Pinging www.amazon.co.uk [87.238.81.129] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 213.242.106.46: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 213.242.106.46: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Also:

Pinging www.amazon.com [72.21.210.11] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Reply from 4.79.230.46: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 4.79.230.46: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 4.79.230.46: Destination net unreachable.

Ping statistics for 72.21.210.11:
Packets: Sent = 11, Received = 3, Lost = 8 (72% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms


The "Destination net unreachable." bit makes it look like a network/connectivity issue, but surely if that was the case, the other systems on this connection would experience it too?

Thanks for the help by the way, appreciate it.

[z80]

open a command window again and do;

tracert www.amazon.co.uk

and paste the result here - we should be able to determine where the problems are.

Also is this a wired or wireless connection you have on your pc?

[TheVoice]

It's a wireless connection, but I've tried it with a network cable and there's no change in behaviour. The problem 100% definitely resides with my PC.


Tracing route to www.amazon.co.uk [87.238.85.129]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms . [192.168.2.1]
2 35 ms 12 ms 14 ms 82.152.192.1
3 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 81.5.191.177
4 * 10 ms 13 ms ge-1-1.metro2-londencyh00.London1.Level3.net [21
2.187.151.157]
5 12 ms 13 ms 11 ms so-1-3-0.gar1.London1.Level3.net [212.113.3.25]

6 11 ms 19 ms 12 ms ae-0-55.bbr1.London1.Level3.net [4.68.116.129]
7 21 ms 21 ms 20 ms so-2-0.hsa1.Dublin1.Level3.net [4.68.128.114]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * 213.242.106.46 reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

[excalibur2]

Well I sometimes get a problem with Opera opening or it doesn't display properly on links, then I open Firefox and it's alright.

But for you (if on ordinary BB), your local BT exchange might be on red.

Edit: just noticed you said other computers on the same line are not affected.

[TheVoice]

All fixed. USed TuneUp Utilities to optimise my connection and it somehow sorted the problem.

[z80]

ahh well at least its sorted now.

[bledd]

usually crap like the nvidia firewall or zone alarm cause these kinds of problems