Forum Moderators: skibum
I think the file that matters is called hosts. There's usually a hosts.txt there too, but I think that's a backup.
Do a file find for a file called 'hosts'. It can be in different places depending on which Windoes you're using. If you look in that file and see hundreds of sites mapped to 127.0.0.1, that's likely your problem -- some software did that for ad-blocking purposes.
*You should always make a backup of any file you change.*
Either clean it out, except a line that reads: 127.0.0.1 localhost
Or look for a backup. There's sometimes a file nearby called hosts.sam or hosts.txt. Copy that to hosts and that should take care of it.
Restart Windows and that should do it.
I have noticed on my XP machine that sometimes my qksrv links and images do not work. I dump my cookies and everything is fine. I am not sure but it seems that a qksrv cookie has caused this to happen on my XP machine occasionally. Strange, but true.