My computer has a terrible habit of suddenly not letting me access specific web sites for undetermined amounts of time. First, it was Sonic Stadium. I wasn't able to visit it for like three months, and then suddenly it started working again. Then it happened with Camp Sonic, and that lasted about a month. Both of these sites work fine. But now my computer is shutting out GMail. I haven't been able to check my e-mail in over a week, and I'm getting fucking sick of it. I figured I'd finally see if I could find some help. And it's just hilarious, because my school e-mail (which is run through GMail for some reason), is accessible. But my personal one (the one that's linked to my Retro account) isn't. I sign in, and I just get a white screen. The loading bar flashes green maybe every ten seconds, and eventually it gives me an error message. And I know GMail isn't fucking broken. It's my fucking computer. I've got Cookies enabled, all my Java shit's on, I've gone through all my settings and fucked with everything that I thought might fix it. But no luck. Actually, come to think of it, 4Chan bitches at me for trying to post now, telling me that my posts look like spam because I don't have Cookies or Java enabled. Which. I. Do. It's driving me fucking nuts. And this happens in all three of my browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera). I kinda need to check my e-mail. Yeah, I don't need it to know when someone sends me shit on MySpace, but I'm expecting things (like, a fucking art job for MACY'S), and I kinda need it. Doesn't anybody have any advice? Please? I tried saying something when Camp Sonic wasn't working and nobody could tell me shit. Unfortunately, this matter is a little more important to me than not being able to visit a Sonic fan site.
I'm not formatting this thing again. Everytime I do, it's a fucking nightmare, because both my OS and driver CDs mysteriously vanished like two years ago. I'm pretty sure my roommate's mom took them when she came down to look for computer software. While my GMail's important to me, I'm not going to bother sending everything I own to my external, and then back, and then reinstalling every fucking program and application on my computer. I'm not trying to bitch at you man, I'm just in a shitty mood. My apologies. By the way, I just downloaded Thunderbird. I don't know if it's just because I'm still impatient as fuck, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to sign in with my account info. EDIT: Alright, I figured it out. Time to sift through this mess.
If you can't access certain sites randomly, it's your DNS server, plain and simple. Google "open DNS" If that doesn't fix it, try resetting TCP/IP using netsh http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299357 I have other ideas as well, let me know. I used to do this for a living (wish I still did )
Ditto on DNS being the likely cause. If nothing above helps, for some diagnosis, type this at the command line: nslookup gmail.google.com or whatever other sites you're having trouble accessing. Post some of the results here.
Have you installed AVG8? If so turn off their "link scanner" as it'll stop you going to any site thats actually any good, is picky as hell, and likes to prick you about.
You have the internet! Download a copy of Windows, who gives a shit about what copyright law says? You've already paid for a copy and the pirated ones tend to work better than the legal copies anyway. As for drivers get 'em from the hardware manufacturers website, they'll be up to date and your computer will be happier for it. I'd also recommend keeping the computer idiots away from your stuff in the future. Speaking of idiots; Today someone told me they paid $2,000 extra for a TV just because they wanted one that will do 1080p. That was all well and good until he told me that 1080p means his TV is displaying 1080 frames per second. He then proceeded to argue with me for 5 minutes after I corrected him. Reminds me of the guy that told me an Xbox had better graphics because "the hard drive is bigger than the one in the PS2".
Yet my $70 CRT from 2003 does 1600x1200 ("1200p") just fine. Back to the main issue: This does sound like a DNS problem, but without knowing the full configuration of your system, it's not possible to pin down what the actual problem is.
Use OpenDNS, flush DNS Cache, clear HOSTS file, do a quick virus scan and do a disk cleanup. If for some reason you can't get to OpenDNS's site, the servers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. And Amy Rose, my brother STILL thinks its illegal to install Linux on the PS3, despite it having a "Install guest OS" option.
If I recall there is a kernel patch that does get it partially working. I've just been lazy to look into it much.
It's idiotic because they sold me the hardware and it's mine, what I do with it after purchase is no ones business but my own. It's silly that we spend so much time figuring out how to talk to hardware that we "own". As for piracy...well if you can't make money in the market then figure out how. I'm not pirating games, I'm making them. That's all well and good but if I don't have support out of the box it's useless to me. I'm thinking about my install base too, why develop for a device that only a handful of people have access to? This is why we're developing things for the 360 in my neck of the woods atm. We have all the access to the hardware that we need, a good IDE, and we can distribute our stuff directly to our end users through xbox live.
See, I agree with that except people WILL find a way to pirate through this hole. At least this way there's a platform for legit homebrew, even if it could be more powerful. =/