"Connection refused when attempting to contact" one particular site

All other sites I browse to, so far, are showing up.

[Alligator Dream]

I searched for "connection refused" and didn't find any threads that seemed to have this exact problem (there was one where someone couldn't access any sites, but this is a little different).

I am using Mozilla 1.5. (I know I should upgrade; I just don't want to right now. I'm leery of downloading anything new these days, since I recently stupidly got myself infected with all manner of adware and spyware and had to spend a whole weekend ridding myself of it.)

This morning I was trying to get to a site and got a "The connection was refused when trying to contact www.example.com."

However, I can visit all of my other regularly-browsed sites with no problem. When I ping the site, I get a response every time, so it doesn't seem that that particular site is down.

I'm leery of trying to use IE to see if it's a Mozilla thing (IE got hijacked when I had my adware troubles, and though I've run Ad-Aware and it comes up clean, I kinda don't want to open up IE ever again).

I've searched my system for any files containing the site name and deleted any and all cookies and temp files I found, just in case, but I still can't access the site.

Bearing in mind that I'm only modestly endowed with technical/computer knowledge, is there anything anyone can tell me short of "upgrade to a newer version"? I'm not aware of having "done" anything this morning to my settings, but then I wasn't aware of the adware situation right away either.

[edited by: BlobFisk at 2:29 pm (utc) on Aug. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] Examplified post [/edit]

[encyclo]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Alligator_Dream.

If it is just one site, then it simply means that the site is down. I checked the site you mentioned just now and it's the same from here. I suppose it'll come back online soon.

Just because you can ping the server doesn't mean that Apache (or their web server software) is responding.

As for your Mozilla version, you should really upgrade to Mozilla 1.7.2 because there have been a couple of security-related problems with the older versions. Your risk is low, but getting the new version directly from mozilla.org is safe, and if you are concerned about spyware and other security-related problems then you'd be advised to upgrade.

[Swift]

Hello, I am having exactly the same problem but I know that the site is up because everyone else I know can access it - I am using IE 6 (using windows ME) and have also tried on Firefox getting the same connection refused message. However, what is odd is that I can access the site on my AOL browser - no problem there except i hate the AOL browser lol

I have cleared history files, temp internet files, cookies etc and have checked for proxies, of which there are none. I did temporarily get on the home page the other night but only the once (All other sites are fine, no problems at all)

I am at wits end, please help if u can :)

[Swift]

Helloooo anyone here?

[tedster]

I can only guess - but there may be some reason that the site is blocking hits from your IP address. I guess this, because you see the same thing with different browsers. That rules out causes like cookies that are dependent on the browser.

So the IP address for your non-AOL connection would be a constant factor, across browsers. When you use AOL and see the pages, you are using a different IP address and you may even be accessing AOL's cached version of the website instead of the actual server for the site.

[Swift]

Thanks I have been trying ever since I posted and have come up with the fact that it must be a security thing. We have four diff areas on this pc for four diff users and one of the other users can access the site no problem. I am therefore assuming its in the internet options somewhere

Darn frustrating tho lol

Thanks again

[UDaMan]

Sounds like it may be a content filter on your connection, is a proxy server being used anywhere?

[Swift]

I cant find that there is one - cept i know AOL uses proxy but there is nothing states in my internet options

[Swift]

ok this is really strange now - i tried again today and, eureka, I got on the site. However, i couldnt move away from the first page - i then typed in another page reference and got on there too.

Sounds good eh? Well it isnt, because once i had left there I couldnt get back

So it appears sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt and, to be honest, I really am now at a loss!

Shall I just give up?

[victor]

I see similar strangenesses.

There are a couple of sites that I routinely cannot get to with one browser. I can get to them with another browsers. And I can usually get to them if I have refreshly rebooted the machine.

If I run Xenu Link Sleuth against a site that has a link to these sites, it always says they cannot be found. But if I click "retry broken links" it will always find them the second time.

Basically, something mysterious is going on.

[Span]

Since you are talking about a couple of sites maybe this is not relevant, but what if you try to access those sites by IP instead of domain name?

[kaled]

I've been looking at sites in Australia recently (from UK using Firefox) and frequently get site not found errors but when I try again it works.

I suspect that
A) There are some dodgy servers out there.
B) Other browsers automatically retry before giving up.

It's also worth noting that each browser keeps it's own proxy list so if you set up and forget about a proxy in IE, IE may well behave differently to Opera (by finding or not finding a site).

Kaled.

[Swift]

It makes sense what u say because i had just booted up when i got on to the site - doesnt help tho does it lol - cant get on at all - and all was ok before i formatted :(

I downloaded that programme - it just said it couldnt connect and then froze on me when i asked for a report - tried it 3 times but to no avail.

This is getting quite an interesting topic - anyone else come across this problem?

[victor]

what if you try to access those sites by IP instead of domain name?

Good question -- I should have told you in my first message.

Just as strange -- if the browser times out with the www address , it'll also time out with the IP address.

[Swift]

I did try the IP instead of www and got the same result

Where do I find it if IE has any previous proxy addresses?

[Swift]

Well I don't believe this but I can now access the website in question.

I tried everything, and I mean everything. Tried it today after about 3 days lapse and got straight in, no problem - I am just wondering how long it will last!

I did do a number of scans over the last couple of days, adaware, trojan, registry, virus etc. The only thing that was very unusual was that my registry had about 800 errors in it - I can only assume that when these were fixed, that also fixed the IE problem.

Would still like to know for sure tho :)

[Swift]

Hi

I was right to wonder - it worked fine until this morning - have been getting into the site with no problems at all until today - now it wont let me in

I do know why though but I just can't put it right. A little window came up this time and said the site was blocked in relation to privacy and cookies.

I have deleted all cookies since then, changed my privacy settings to allow all cookies, added the site to my safe list and still I can't get in.

What else can I do with my cookies or privacy controls to allow this website? I would have thought if i allowed all cookies then it wouldn't have mattered what the site was.

Any suggestions?

[kaled]

Any suggestions?

Try an alternative browser such as Firefox or Opera. If that doesn't fix it, the problem is not browser related. Look at your firewall settings. If you are running XP, enable its firewall and then close down any other you are running. If you have other funny programs running by Norton, etc. close those down too.

Kaled.

[Swift]

Thanks for your reply - I have tried all those things, have used firefox and nothing works - last time it just re-appeared one day, hadn't done anything different apart from a few scans, i.e. registry, spyware etc.

Its really got be foxed - I use ME btw

[kaled]

Ok, my best guess is that it is a faulty server at your end. Contact your ISP and ask them for an address for a proxy server - you'll have to enter this value for each browser and it is normally specific to a protocol so if the site is https then that protocol must use the proxy.

However, getting tech support from an ISP may be slow, so to test the theory, you should be able to find one in TEXAS or somewhere by searching with Google. But don't leave this setting beyond the experiment - a distant proxy server can slow things down.

Kaled.

[Swift]

Thanks kaled, help much appreciated :)

[Swift]

ok i am pretty sure its the content advisor thats causing the problem but dont ask me why its only one site i cant access.

I have followed instructions to change the name of a file which was supposed to be causing the problem but it still doesnt work.

I think I shall just have to wait and be patient until it decides to return lol