really weird aol problem

[killie99]

Was at a mates last night and he has aol as his service provider. I tried to access www.microsoft.com while at his house from my laptop and I couldn't get to it, just get a white screen and the webite never loads. Tried from his desktop using the AOL browser and it loads ok. Fired up mircosoft internet explorer on his desktop and I can't access www.microsoft.com - wtf????
Tried a tracert on www.microsoft.com and it times out after 9 hops ......
Got back home connected to my broadband and I can access www.microsoft.com with no problem.

Conclusion is that there is nothing wrong with my laptop and somehow the AOL connection is the issue. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

I phoned him tonight and asked him to try getting to the microsoft website and he still can't get to it using internet explorer but he gets to it through the AOL browser.

I tried changing the DNS settings to OPENDNS but it didn't make any difference .

As far as I could tell it's only the microsoft webite that is doing this - anyone any ideas as to why this is happening?

[CWH]

Hi,
It's a 'known problem' with AOL and there is a Microsoft KB article specifically referring how to set up Internet Explorer with AOL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/165474

Colin

[killie99]

you sure, that looks a pretty old article and says it only applies to Win98!

[watercooled]

Try accessing the Symantec or Kaspersky websites - some malware such as the Conficker worm blocks access to certain domains.

[Nanek]

If you're using the AOL browser try uninstalling it and connecting directly to the net, i used to be on AOL and their crappy software was such a hassle :|

[killie99]

Try accessing the Symantec or Kaspersky websites - some malware such as the Conficker worm blocks access to certain domains.

definately not a virus - my laptop which works perfectly in my house cannot get to the microsoft website if I go to his house and connect through his router. Even tried another router incase it was some screwball problem with the router ....