In Loving Memory of This Page Cannot Be Displayed!

02 Nov 2006 by ReviewSaurus

rest in peach With the release of Internet Explorer 7, many changes came in the Internet Explorer and the whole internet surfing experience. Microsoft, which has always had a big community against it but with the release of Internet Explorer 7 and various free softwares, I am sure that they’ll be making some hearts change :)

Anyway, coming back to the point. Internet Explorer 7 showed many changes from various new features to cosmetic changes. Most of the bloggers has bragged about the new security features, looks & RSS feed reader of Internet Explorer but no one has talked about one of the major change which has been with us for a very long time but not anymore :(

I’m talking about that page which we get when the sites are down or we’ve made a typing mistake in typing a URL and that infamous page is THIS PAGE CAN NOT BE DISPLAYED.

We’ve all seen this not once or twice but thousands of times in our early days of internet (do you remember dial-up age?) and then shown that angry expression after looking at that page!
It is sad to see that now that page has taken retirement and instead of that we’ve got a fresh new page which says that Internet Explorer can not display the webpage. If I remember correctly, this page is going on from Internet Explorer 4 onwards and has changed after such a long time!

Anyway, this is not a big deal though but personally I’ve been listening about that page almost everyday because of the nature of my job and may be that’s why, you can say that I’d built some attachment with that page :D Good bye! Page cannot be Displayed!

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63 Responses so far

K9 Joe May 1, 2007 4:14 pm

I have WIN VISTA and IE 7, i constantly get problems every other time i access the browser to view a webpage, and it just looks like my internet connection is down but it isn’t. I get “page can not be displayed” and it is really annoying as my connection is fine, and using a different machine with WIN XP it doesn’t happen. Do you have any ideas for this problem?
Thanks
Joe
reviewsaurus May 1, 2007 8:34 pm

Hey k9 Joe!

First of all thanks for the visit to my blog. Now coming back to the problem which you’ve shared with me.

There are many things which are involved in an internet connection and you’ll need to explain few things so that I can help you in fixing up the problem.

1. How do you connect to the internet i.e. which internet connection do you use…Broadband (most likely that’s what you use) or narrowband.

2. If broadband, then are you using a wireless router or are you using a wired router….or are you using a broadband modem

Well, once I’ll get the answer to these questions, I’ll be in a position to ask further questions and later give you steps to solve the problem :)
K9 Joe May 1, 2007 11:09 pm

HI there! Thanks for offering so kindly to help me with this.
Well i did a bit of research in forums online and it seems to be a very common problem with Vista when browsing. As to your questions…

Yes i am on Broadband and yes i am using a Wireless Router. This problem occurs completely intermittently and there is no way of predicting when it will happen next. For example, i am in the middle of helping with the launch of a new website with my colleagues at http://www.K9Obedience.co.uk and so i am logging into that site many times every day. But once in every 2 or 3 attempts to log in, the browser progress bar just sits there moving very slow until, after a minute or so, it says page cannot be displayed as if my connection is dead, but it isn’t as emails download normally and skype and other internet programs run perfectly.

If i go away from the PC for a while (20 minutes for example) and come back and hit F5 to refresh, it is the able to show me the page correctly. As you can imagine, when trying to launch and update a website many times each day, this is a VERY frustrating problem!

I have Windows Vista and IE7. I have a brand new Rock laptop (CTX PRO) and have contacted their support team about it, and they advised me it could be a winsock issue. (i don’t know what that means!). Their tech instructions were to go to command prompt and type in ipconfig/renew to see what happens. According to what they said, if it shows an error of some kind then i need to update the registry to do something so that the IP address renews correctly. Sorry i really don’t understand too much of this stuff.

The thing which really annoys me is that this is Windows brand new operating system, and supposed to be excellent, but clearly there is a common problem here, because i have seen many other people complaining about this problem in many forums online, but still have not seen a fix for it yet. I know it must be a problem which can be fixed, but i have no idea how.

If you need any more information please let me know and i will do my best to get you it. I can do the IPCONFIG command again if you like, and drop the results in here if that helps. It is such a pain all this as i can’t even access google.co.uk or ebay.co.uk a lot of the time. I also notice that it is also happening when i click a link in an email (OUTLOOK 2003). For example, another website which i sometimes work on doing design updates is at http://www.easilystopsmoking.com, if i visit that in my browser it usually displays the page fine, but if i access it via a link in an email, it doesn’t, i just get the page can’t be displayed message, and then i start to pull my hair out again!!

GREAT BLOG!! THANKS SO MUCH for offering some assistance with this problem, even if you can’t help me, i am very grateful for you trying. As usual i am left wishing i had stayed with the older version of windows.

:)

Thanks again
Joe
reviewsaurus May 2, 2007 12:36 pm

Thanks a lot Joe for explaining the problem in detail.

Now, Lets break down things and lets look at the possible steps which we can take from here on…

1. Your internet connection stays on, it works for other computer which is windows XP and so we are sure that no problems from the Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) side.

2. If the applications like the email client you are using and skype are working fine then it means that Windows has got correct IP address and thus there is no need to run IPCONFIG /RENEW and even if you’ll run it..it will try and get the IP address from your Router and not from your ISP. (So, what support people suggested you..unforutnately is incorrect). In short, we don’t need to run this thing at least.

3. I really doubt that it could be a WinSock issue (if you are interested in knowing what Winsock is then wikipedia’s entry is the best resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsock) as other internet applications are working fine.

So, basically if we see then the problem is not with vista (as other applications are working and it is able to take the internet connection normally.) The problem is not with ISP as other computer is also working fine. Now we are left with Internet Explorer here….
I’ll request you to please try these things….

a) Try another browser - I’ll suggest Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com).
b) Turn off phishing filter in Internet explorer and then try it.

Try these things and lets see what can be done about it hope this explains the scenario and clears up the picture :)

Thanks a lot for the appreciation :)
K9 Joe May 2, 2007 1:37 pm

HI, and thank you again, that is very kind of you to offer so much help.
Yes i can confirm i have already tried Firefox (i have it installed) and the same happens in that. In other words, when i get the problem BOTH browsers have the problem, so it is not IE i don’t think, seems more like a Vista problem.

Don’t know how to turn phishing filter off, can you advise please?
reviewsaurus May 3, 2007 7:14 pm

Alright, thanks for the input once again. If it is happening with both the browsers that means it is not a problem with phishing filters of IE.

But just for your info, you can switch the phishing filters on and off by going through these steps :

1. Open IE.
2. Click on TOOLS menu & then go to INTERNET OPTIONS.
3. Go to ADVANCED tab.
4. Under SECURITY section, you’ll find PHISHING FILTER

Over there you’ll get the option of disabling it.

But, as I said that it seems that problem…is doesnt seem to be related with phishing filters option and now has started to look like a bigger issue…

Now, may be restarting the DNS service will help….in order to do that….please follow these steps :

1. Click START & then RUN (in case you don’t see RUN then please refer to this article : http://www.reviewsaurus.com/2007/04/10/add-run-in-the-start-menu-of-windows-vista/ )
2. Type SERVICES.MSC
3. Locate DNS Client & single click on it.
4. On the left hand side..it will give you RESTART service option, Click on it.

I think that it may be the solution to the problem, in case it doesn’t work then could you please give the web address of those pages where you found that other people are also facing similar issues (as you mentioned that you found similar things in various forums).
K9 Joe May 3, 2007 10:50 pm

Excellent and very kind of you! I have not done the DNS restart yet, but will certainly do so and let you know if it fixes the problem. Funnily enough, i just had the same problem before visiting this blog. It happened when i tried to view a website called http://www.TalkingSpeaker.com which is a person who did some work for me a while ago. His site uses a lot of media and audio player type stuff, so i wondered if it was media on the page which causes it as it generally seems to happen more with those types of pages, but even when visiting this blog it did it, and i waited a few minutes and then did F5 and it let me in eventually. Very strange, but yes i will find out the other forums talking about this issue and will let you know.
Trying the DNS restart again shortly, and THANK YOU AGAIN for all your help, you are extremely kind.
:)
K9 Joe May 7, 2007 1:30 pm

AHA! I found the phishing filter. It was set to NOT check websites, but the PHISHING filter was ON!
I have disabled this and will know within a few hours is that has prevented this problem from happening again.
Very grateful for all your help with this.
Here goes…..

:):)
K9 Joe May 7, 2007 1:31 pm

By the way, so far so good as i just visited a website which usually has a problem when i try to view. Fingers crossed
:)
reviewsaurus May 7, 2007 2:37 pm

I’m glad Joe that it seems to be working for you now. Just in case it fails to work, do inform me about it and we’ll try and resolve it together. :)
Brent May 15, 2007 1:46 am

Well I have been dealing with this issue for TWO MONTHS, and it was NOT Vista nor IE7. It was Norton’s Symantec Network Proxy inside of Norton Internet Security 2007. I followed all the steps above and still had the problems. Then went to Microsoft’s site and followed all of their troubleshooting tips. Still had the problem. THEN, by a MIRACLE I was googling and found that ccproxy cause MANY problems. After researching where it was, I found another site that told me how to disable it.

1. Go to Start>Run>msconfig
2. Choose Services
3. Then UNCHECK Symantec Network Proxy and restart.

Problem SOLVED!!!!

Question is, WHAT does this service do and did I just unprotect my PC???
reviewsaurus May 15, 2007 4:11 am

Hello Brent,

Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing the information with everyone. Here’s the answer to your question :

CCproxy is a proxy server (which is part of Norton internet security, as you mentioned yourself) which shares the internet connection information. It’s main task is to apply parental controls.

So, if your intention is to use parental controls then you’ll need to enable it and if your intention is not to use any parental control feature then you can leave it as it is.

As far as security point of view is concerned then that’s not the case, it is safe from security point of view :)
Lizaard June 18, 2007 11:53 am

Hiya!!

I was hoping you could help me?

I have 2 pc’s one is connected wired to the router and th other is connected wireless.

The wired connection runs perfectly ut the wireless has problems…. When connected to go online through the router it says the page cannot be displayed but when set up as a dail-up connection it works but unbelievbly slow.

It is a brand new pc and new windows xp prof sp2 and detects the network perfectly and can ping the wired pc and visa vursa.

If you now what the problem is it would be gr8full!

Thanks!
reviewsaurus June 18, 2007 5:33 pm

Hello Lizaard,

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving the comment.
As far as the problem which you are facing is concerned, it looks more like Firewall problem. Just for testing purposes, Make sure that you disable each and every firewall..the xp sp2 one and if you have installed any other..then that too.

Try to refresh the Tcp/Ip too…by following these instructions :

1. Click on Start
2. Type CMD & press Ok.
3. Type CD \ & press enter
4. Type netsh int ip reset c:\reset.txt & press enter.
5 Type Exit and press enter.

Restart the computer once.

Try it after that and see if it works or not…Apart from that if you could tell me, what is the IP address you are getting on both the computers and what else you’ve tried then it will be a great help :)
Phoebe June 26, 2007 6:10 pm

Hello reviewsaurus!

Thank you very much for your blog doctor regarding this Wireless problem.. :)

This few days I’d been wandering around in search engine tried to found a solution for my laptop problem.

I just installed ADSL with Wireless capability. no problem with my PC, means no problem with the internet connection. when I connected wirelessly from laptop through the ADSL router, my IE could access some webpage and others displayed “THE PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED”. From other forum suggested to checked the firewall both the lapotop (windows XP SP2 Home Edition, IE ver.6.0) and the router. I also tried other web browser (Opera and Firefox) and updated my wireless card driver, but all gave the same result with IE.

many thanks with your above suggestion to refresh the TCP/IP:
——————————————————————
Try to refresh the Tcp/Ip too�by following these instructions :

1. Click on Start
2. Type CMD & press Ok.
3. Type CD \ & press enter
4. Type netsh int ip reset c:\reset.txt & press enter.
5 Type Exit and press enter.

Restart the computer once.
—————————————————————

it REALLY WORKS and SOLVE my problem!

thanks for your great blog and kindess to help us step by step.

regards,
Phoebe
reviewsaurus June 26, 2007 7:26 pm

I’m glad that the suggestion worked for you :)
In case you face any problem you can always email me (web@reviewsaurus.com) and I’ll try to help you in fixing up the problem!
Steve June 28, 2007 3:11 pm

Great site, had this problem where one of my 2 laptops wireless connections would just stop for no reason, the other worked well, after many reboots of hardware router and so on I looked here and found the part on DNS restart and low and behold it worked a treat, so many thanks
Vicky June 29, 2007 5:35 am

Hi all, not sure who can help me.. i’m facing the same problem after i had reformat my pc. My pc is installing Windows XP SP3, IE7 and using dial up line to connect to internet. My problem is whenever i click to login to all my mail account, it shows the page cannot display, my msn messenger also showing connection problem. But i’m able to connect to any website except login to email. Can anyone help me please??

Thanks,
Vicky
reviewsaurus July 2, 2007 4:19 am

@ Steve : Thanks a lot for the appreciation. I’m glad that my suggestions helped you in fixing up the problem.

@ Vicky : Try reseting internet explorer (only possible in IE 7) -

1. Click Tools & Open Internet Options.
2. Go to Advanced Tab (the last one).
3. Click on the REST button. (just to alert you that it removes each and every setting. It bring IE to the factory setting.)

If that doesn’t help, try to disable firewall & see if that works.

My apologies for replying late on this..but I hope that this solution helps you.
andrew July 2, 2007 8:11 pm

Hi reviewsaurus, in need of a bit of help. When I open IE, it comes up “Page cannot be displayed”. I asked a PC whiz about this and he said you can just click on My Computer, type a web address in the browser and walah, there is IE. Well, that worked for me and I’d be happy to continue using this shortcut each time I needed to use the internet (sarcasm) but I use another program called SciFinder which enables me direct access to online articles through IE, which will not open through SciFinder. It just says “Page cannot be displayed” again.

Any help you might provide about getting IE back would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew
reviewsaurus July 2, 2007 8:31 pm

@ Andrew : So, you mean to say that when you use IE (open through shortcut of IE), it doesn’t work but when you open it up using My Computer and then use that address bar, then it displays the pages ?

Well, Andrew try all those things which I’ve mentioned in the above comments and I’m sure one of the thing will solve the problem. Try doing them one by one…and see if that helps or not.

If you can provide me more information, like which version of IE are you using, which OS you use and if you use a firewall or not…if you can provide all these information..then we can come to a solution much faster…
andrew July 3, 2007 3:35 pm

Thanks for your help!
Amy August 31, 2007 1:10 pm

i have this problem and im wonderin if you can help me when i try to log into something like myspace or something it jus refreshes the page iv been tryin to delte cookies and everything, it has been working before but its not now. can you help me?
Thanks
ReviewSaurus August 31, 2007 2:00 pm

@ Amy : May I know the version of Internet Explorer which you are using. Is it just with myspace or with other websites too ?

I’ll suggest you to try and reset internet explorer, it’s a great feature in IE 7. Follow these steps mentioned in this comment : http://www.reviewsaurus.com/aol-google-microsoft/in-loving-memory-of-this-page-cannot-be-displayed/#comment-12815

In case it doesn’t work, then please let me know the exact situation and don’t forget to mention the Version of Windows and Internet Explorer.
Mark September 2, 2007 11:17 pm

Hello to you, great forum and some freat advice however I have this problem. I have joined an unlimited hosting package and host websites for people through it but an awlfull lot of the time I cannot view the pages on my home internet connection but others can on theirs. The main site for the hosting is http://www.bobbiesbits.com and always works but the other sites do not, like http://www.bio-pcs.co.uk, http://www.propar.co.uk http://www.3writers.co.uk. I have 2 pcs and two laptops set up on a router at home and if one can’t see the sites none of them can. three of them are XP (one pro, one home and the other media centre) and one laptop vista (home premuim). phinishing is disabled and I use kaspersky internet security. When I connect my laptop to another persons network it works fine so I doubt it is to do with the internet security, I wondered if it is something to do with my ISP but when I asked them they just gave me basic instructions which I have tried before. Also since I have changed ISP’s and the same happens. Also have moved from a belkin router to a netgear router one pc hardwire the others wireless, I just dont know what to try any more. Its so annoying and you seem to know your stuff lol please help. :)

Mark
ReviewSaurus September 3, 2007 5:48 pm

@ Mark : Well, when did you shift the host ? I think that it could be because of DNS propagation. If you’ve shifted the host like yesterday or so, then just wait for couple of days and see if the problems gets resolved or not.

It seems that your internet connection is ok and no problems on that side, but even if you face a problem, do let me know and we’ll look into it.
Nicky September 3, 2007 6:52 pm

I am having a problem evey time I try to open a website the needs a user name and password I get the can not be displayed page. I can surf the web just fine it s\just won’t open those different browsers. sometimes it won’t open browsers that i have to open from antoher website. Please help. remember I can’t get in \to my email if you send one, until i get to another computer
ReviewSaurus September 3, 2007 7:22 pm

@ Nicky : It seems that the problem you are facing is of security pages. There are few things which you can try to make it work :

1. Please check the cipher strength -
- Open IE.
- Go to Help and then About Internet Explorer.
- It shows you Cipher strength.
Check if its’ lower than 128 bit then you’ll need to reinstall IE and if at all you are using lower version then update the IE to version 7. Download the IE from here : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9ae91ebe-3385-447c-8a30-081805b2f90b&displaylang=en

2. Try to disable firewall and see if that helps you in fixing it - if at all it works then you’ll need to check the settings which are not allowing you to browse secure websites.

Try these things and see if works or not.
Mark September 3, 2007 8:25 pm

Thanks for your reply :) much appreciated I moved hosting services about a month ago to an apache v1.3 server, the domains where registered by a different company to the one i host with and have changed the named servers around the same time
PAT36A September 9, 2007 9:51 pm

Hi,

I have been directed to this page from a help forum.

My wife’s PC (less than 6 months old, used less than 2 hours per week, WinXP, IE7, wired to a netgear router, ISP Virgin) will no longer open web pages - “Internet Explorer can not display the webpage”. Email works fine, Kaspersky security seems to update OK and two other PC’s wired through the same router are working fine. Tried the remedy sugested for K9 Joe - no cure! DNS Client was disabled (abled on this PC), so I enabled it and did the reset.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in anticipation!
SAR September 14, 2007 11:03 am

I have virgin broadband at my place. I am using belkin router for wireless connectivity.
It was working fine till 2 daqys back. Now suddenly I am not able to open webpagew through IE. It says page cannot be displayed. But when i put my cursor on wireless network logon, it says belkin is connect, Speed - 54 MBPs and connectivity - Excellent. Still then I am not able to connect IE. I thought IE has some problem. SO i have tried with Mozilla. Still it is not able to open any webpage.
Surprisingly I am able to connect wireless as well as LAN at my office.

Can you please help me with this issue as I am not able to work from home for last 3 days.
ReviewSaurus September 15, 2007 11:25 pm

@ Mark : The problem you are facing is so unique that any of my logic won’t work at this time. The only thing which you may try is disabling the antivirus, firewall or any other security software for testing purpose.

@ PAT36A : Try disabling kaspersky and see if that works ?

@ SAR : Well, this means that the connection between router and computer is good, but the connection between router and ISP is not good. Try this…

Switch off the router for 1 min. and then switch it back on, see if works or not, if it doesn’t then get in touch with ISP because then they’ll be able to tell you if it’s a problem on their side or sometimes, authentication issues do create problem. But mostly rebooting the router by switching off and on works.
PAT36A September 16, 2007 3:54 pm

Thanks for the reply to my post.

Yes, since posting I have discovered that disabling K cures the problem - strange! The pc has been working fine with K previously (as do the other 2 pc’s we use at home). What might have changed?
Chrisy boy September 17, 2007 8:41 pm

hello i have a problem.When i try to download any file through my netgear on vista.A message saying ‘internet explorer cannot download the connection the server was reset’ is dispalyed. Can not understand why it wont download also i can no longer watch you tube videos because they load for 5 seconds then stop using my new netgear dg834g router and netgear wg111v2 adapter.
ReviewSaurus September 18, 2007 4:42 am

@ PAT36A : Well, there are various services which are required for internet connection. It could be the case that by mistake you are someone else (who uses the computer) may have denied the internet access to that service (you get those pop ups which seek your permission to allow access of internet connection - from firewall) and that’s why the internet connection stopped working for you.

What you can do for this is that uninstall kaspersky completely and then reinstall it. Then before allowing any service or application (the ones you are not sure of), just copy their name and search about it on Google and you’ll see various results which will tell you if they are safe services or not.

@ Chris boy : Try to reset the internet explorer and the steps are mentioned here : http://www.reviewsaurus.com/aol-google-microsoft/in-loving-memory-of-this-page-cannot-be-displayed/#comment-12815

Try to check if the same happens on other browser or not …you may try Firefox.

Are you able to browse everything Ok? if yes, then there should be no problem from router’s side. Else, just reboot the router once by keeping it off for 1 min and then switching it back on.
PAT36A September 20, 2007 5:09 pm

Thanks for the advice.

A reinstallation of Kaspersky cured my probs - no need to visit the Doctor!
Dan Phillips October 28, 2007 11:09 am

hello reviewsaurus,

I’m running windows xp with i.e 7.0, i’ve got the same problem as Amy mentioned above, i had a pop up that continued to come up, did a mcafree search on it and deleted the problem, this is when troubled started. every website that requires a login (e.g. hotmail, facebook, myspace etc) just refreshes once i enter my details and press enter. Also on MSN Messenger, my details i had previously saved (Username and Password) are no longer there. But I can still log on there once I have re-entered my details on MSN Messenger. I tried using Spybot to see if i had a virus, but could not find anything so started researching websites trying to find information on resolving this issue, but as of yet, no luck!

I tried checking in Internet Options to ensre SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 are checked - No Joy…. Tried clearing cache history and cookie history…. no joy. Tried installing Mozilla Firefox as an alternative to I.E 7…. stilll no joy. Tried reseting I.E 7 under Internet Options…. guess what, no luck!

I get the feeling that a file is missing or a registry key value has changed or something, just because it has affected MSN Messenger slightly. Possibly somewhere where user details are kept?? Please help cheers.
ReviewSaurus October 29, 2007 1:51 am

@ Dan : First of all, I want to thank you for sharing your problem with us and doubly thanks for explaining it in detail.

This really helps a lot as now I don’t have to give you small small suggestion. Perfect way of posting a problem :)

Now, this looks really strange but at this point of time, if it is not working with FireFox too then there has to be some third party thing which is creating the problem.

What you are thinking could be the problem too but before that I’ll suggest that try disabling Mcaffee completly and then see if it helps you or not.

If it doesn’t work then I think we’ll need to make use of CrossLoop (http://www.crossloop.com) if at all you’ll be comfortable in giving your system’s control to me.
Dan Phillips October 29, 2007 10:49 am

Na still no joy disabling McAfee, ive installed cross loop on my system now, so we’ll give it a go with you and see what you can find?
deedee December 21, 2007 10:03 pm

hi, i have a similiar problem to most, there is only one website i cannot access, it says ‘ internet explorer cannot display the webpage’.. i have tried everything mentioned. still no luck, i can access the site on my work pc so it is not the website.
i have a broadband wireless router, ie 7, norton internet security, and firefox
any ideas on how to fix it?
completly lost December 30, 2007 6:23 am

hi ReviewSaurus
iv tried everythink iv seen here i have a simiar problem to most people on here i get the
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

message when i click on any video link from sites it its on the current page it will play of if it downloads it will play but if it loads a new page the message is displayed this is on my new windows vista home premium laptop i have an older pc the run xp and all of the sites work on there iv tried running my laptop wireless and using the network cable and now i am totaly lost i would realy apreciate some help
thanks for reading rob
K9 Joe January 9, 2008 8:29 pm

Hi again, sorry i have been missing so long!
Just to let you know, same problem, never went away after all. I don’t use Norton so it isn’t that, i use Panda I.S. but i really have a strong feeling that i know what the problem is….

WINDOWS VISTA IS CRAP!!

The only thing i like is the media centre, because i can set a series to record (for the wife!) and forget about it from then on. Therefore i am saving up for Windows MCE which i think was still based on standard XP platform, and i am throwing Vista where it belongs, in the BIN. :)
Jeff Greenleaf January 10, 2008 9:50 pm

We have 3 laptops at home which access the internet via wireless links to a Linksys ADSL Router. Until mid-December 2007, all 3 provided good internet access, however my wife’s laptop, an IBM T60 ThinkPad running Windows XP Pro with SP2, can now no longer view web pages, either with Internet Explorer or with Firefox. IE7 gives the message ‘Internet Explorer cannot display the web page’. Firefox gives the message ‘Server not found. Firefox cannot find the server at xxx’. As suggested in the articles listed below, I have tried accessing many sites through my browsers without success (including http://www.microsoft.com, http://www.msn.com, http://www.hotmail.com ). Yet, if I run Network Diagnostics for Windows XP, it reports that ‘Windows did not detect any problems with your internet connection’. The log shows successful HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP connectivity. Other internet services are available on this laptop, for example I can use Skype, I can access the iTunes store, Microsoft Update fixes and Kaspersky fixes download successfully.

Internet access on my 2 other laptops continues successfully.

Kaspersky scan does not detect any virus present

I have tried many of the obvious fixes without success. I have disabled Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0, I have disabled the Windows Firewall. I have deleted the cache on IE and reduced its size to 100MB; I have renamed the HOSTS file, I have run ‘netsh winsock reset’ to correct any problems with the Layered Service Provider. I have tried turning off all laptops and the router for several minutes, then restarting. I have been through all the steps in the Microsoft KnowledgeBase articles 926431, 936211, and 936213, and Sandi Hardmeier’s article on the Microsoft database, ‘It’s not always malware: How to fix the top 10 Internet Explorer issues’.

I then turned to a wider search on the internet, and found your valuable site in which several people report encountering a similar problem. I then systematically tried each of the suggested solutions (disabling the phishing filter, restarting DNS, refreshed TCP/IP, resetting IE). The suggestion that finally fixed the problem was to uninstall Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0. (Clearly disabling KIS was not sufficient). Immediately, I have fully operational IE and Firefox browsers again.

From my searches on the internet, this is clearly becoming an increasingly common problem. It would be useful to have a more structured process for diagnosis.

Many thanks for the valuable help provided on this forum.
ReviewSaurus January 11, 2008 6:36 am

@ K9 Joe : Ah! well, I tried my level best but I think Vista is really giving some problems to you. I personally use XP and it works like a charm. I still think that Vista can work, may be both of us are just not able to find out the real problem.

@ Jeff : I’m glad that this post came of some help to you! We’ve launched a forum where we’ll provide free technical support. http://www.reviewsaurus.com/tech-support/

In future if at all you face any problem, do let us know and we’ll fix it together :)
George February 7, 2008 2:18 am

Hello there,

First I would like to express my surprise to find such a personal approach
to people’s technical problems . Its quite rare on the internet . Thanks

I am writting to raise my problem with the ” this page cannot be displayed” error.

I have window vista ultimate and IE 7. The ISP slects an IP address every time I log on. No fixed IP address.

I have tried all remedies you have recomended above with no results.

I have removed antivirus

Disabled fire walls

Dissabled phishing

Refreshed TCP/IP

Reset IE settings

Downloded and tried firefox

The problem still remains. my homepage is MSN.co.uk . It requires to refresh 3 to 5 times before it will dowload and even then some frames are still with a red cross on the corner. However some pages like Google respond much better.

I am seriously thinking of downgrating to XP.

Unless you have another ace in your sleve for my problem
can you please advise me how to change to XP from Vista?

Thank you in advance,

George
ReviewSaurus February 7, 2008 11:52 pm

@ George : I feel good the more I help people. I mean what’s the use of the knowledge if it can’t help others…right ?

Thanks to you for explaining the problem is this much detail, now we can at least go beyond these steps.

Few things I would still like to know :

1. Are you using a router ?
2. If yes, then are you on wireless.

Well, with what you’ve just explained to me I can make out these things :

1. You are getting connected, as you are getting a dynamic IP (good sign)
2. You are getting webpage too but slow, so it’s kind of a slow connection problem (at least that’s what I can see at this time and as Google is not bloated with images, so it loads fast, but with MSN that’s not the case…so you get to see the Red X which means that images are not getting loaded properly.)

Now, to confirm this the best we can do this and if you can provide the results then it will make good sense to me :

1. Go to Start -> go to run and type cmd and press enter
2. on command prompt type “tracert http://www.msn.com” (sans quotes).
3. send the result to me at this email address : web @ reviewsaurus.com
Martin Popham February 8, 2008 1:42 am

Hi again, thanks for all your help with this problem which is still occurring. Just wanted to update you …..

I AM NOW GETTING A MAC!!!!!!!

Don’t take the mickey either, its a new leaf for me :) :) :)
THANKS for all your help, really was appreciated, but my PC will now become my secondary machine and i am looking forward to the delights of crash free, virus free, and 50% cheaper computing with an Apple Imac 24 inch BEAUTY :) :)

Thanks a lot for your hard work on this, it seems Vista just beat us all! What a pile of junk it is!
Martin
Brenda February 8, 2008 11:52 am

I’ve been having similar problems with my Dell Inspiron laptop. Random “cannot display webpage” messages, red x’s on graphics one time but not the next, and certain pages that I visit frequently sometimes appear formatted in strange way.

I have the same problem with Firefox. Have flushed DNS cache, have connected toboth wired and wireless. The others computers on the same router do not have the problem (but are not running Vista). Have disabled virus and security software. Had same problem when booting in safe mode with networking. Turned off windows autotuning. Used system restore to restore to a day where it was working fine. No luck. Ran sfc /scannow and it stopped at 98% indicating it could not repair the file netmon.ini.

Figuring I just had a corrupted OS I just finished restoring back to the original factory install of Vista and much to my surprise, have the exact same problem. I never had any problems until 2 days ago and was successfully browsing the web for 6 months prior.

The only thing that happened 2 days ago was that I rebooted my router - Dlink di524. Is there any correlation? But all my other computers are just fine (on xp).

I’m stumped. And to hear that so many others are having similar issues. Any other suggestions out there? I’ll be talking to Dell tomorrow.
ReviewSaurus February 8, 2008 8:56 pm

@ Martin : I’m glad that you bought an Apple. Well, even I’m planning to buy an apple but can’t say for sure…I’m just thinking at this time. Hope that you won’t face further problems with your new apple.

@ Brenda : Well, that’s quite strange that all this is happening even though you’ve tried almost everything I can think of.

Well, it certainly can’t be a problem with the router’s reboot, as others are working fine, so it shouldn’t be a problem for sure.

I can however suggest you to please do one thing : REboot it once again, by rebooting I just mean, that you switch it off and then wait for 1 min. and then switch it back on.

Well, to be honest I’m also stumped…it’s certainly not internet service provider as other connections are working fine, it’s not router too, it’s not browser problem either as you are facing problem on firefox and ie both…it’s not slow.

Well, even I’ve got no idea unfortunately that why is this happening, until and unless we can try to remotely share the screens and I can run certain tests. If you are comfortable then we can try and do that, but before that I’ll suggest you to contact Dell’s support once.

Let’s see what exactly they have to say if at all nothing works, we’ll try and sit together and will do the remote screen sharing.
George February 11, 2008 3:08 am

Hello again,

I have sent the results of the “tracert” but I had no response yet.
I wonder if my email came through. Can you please confirm?

Thanks
Brenda February 11, 2008 10:21 am

I have an update for you that may interest others as well.

I discovered that my router needed to have a firmware update in order to support the Windows Vista computer. This only showed to be a problem, however, when I reset the router with a new configuration. Prior to the reset, the problem didn’t show.

After updating the firmware, it worked like a charm!

I was in disbelief but relieved that something so simple took care of it.
Windows Vista can’t connect to Internet but XP can! | ReviewSaurus - The Techie Dino! February 19, 2008 1:11 am

[…] lot of things which you can try when the internet connection isn’t working and I’m sure this old post of mine will be able to give you few steps before you start saying negatives about Windows Share and […]
JJ February 27, 2008 12:28 am

I was also having problems (”Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”) connecting to any website using both Internet Explorer and Firefox with my friend’s brand new HP Pavilion notebook running on Windows Vista Home Premium. I use a 2Wire router and DSL modem to connect to the Internet. I have 2 desktop computers running Windows 2000 (one connected by Ethernet and the other by wireless), one old computer running Windows 98SE connected by wireless and one laptop running Window XP Professional also connected wireless and all four computers can connect to any webpage successfully. The only one computer that would not connect to any webpages was the HP Pavilion notebook. I knew that this computer could connect to the Internet because I was able to use Windows Update to update Vista, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Works without any problems (I’m assuming that Windows Update bypasses Internet Explorer to connect to the update website). In order to try to fix the problem on the HP Pavilion laptop, I first tried all the suggestions listed in Microsoft’s Support Center publication, Article 926431, “You receive an error message in Internet Explorer 7: “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”, all to no avail. I was frustrated and about to give up when I run across your blog, In Loving Memory of This Page Cannot Be displayed! on ReviewSaurus when I did a Google. I tried many of the suggestions on this blog but was still having problems getting on to any of the web pages with either Internet Explorer of Firefox. I then noticed the entry by PAT36A where disabling Kaspersky Security cured the problem and also Brent’s entry about disabling Symantec’s Network Proxy to get Internet Explorer to work. I looked at the HP Pavilion notebook that I was working on and it did have an icon for Symantec’s Internet Security 2007 but when I double clicked on the Icon a small window would open up indicating that an error occurred and that I should contact Synmanted about this issue. Since Internet Security 2007 was not working properly anyway, I uninstalled it and this cured the “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” with both Internet Explorer and Firefox. After this uninstall I am able to connect to any website or webpage. I’m assuming that Symantec’s Internet Security 2007 was corrupted in some way or was not properly installed on the laptop. I have warned my friend that the computer is vulnerable because it is not protected by an antivirus software and that he should try to install Symantec’s Insternet Security 2007 or some other antivirus software asap.

Thanks for setting up this blog and helping me solve this problem. I think this is one of the most helpful and valuable websites that I’ve used.
PAT36A February 27, 2008 1:56 am

Just a return visit to say that since my earlier post (Sept 07) the same problem occured for a second time late January and again reinstalling Kaspersky fixed things.

………………..and then last week, the same happened to my wifes PC - a very clean problem free machine, that does very little web surfing - reinstalling Kaspersky again cured the problem.

Sure would like to know the cause of this problem.
ReviewSaurus February 27, 2008 2:12 am

@ JJ : I’m glad that this nice discussion has helped you in fixing up the problem. I’m glad that k9joe started the conversation on this lame post where I talked about my feelings and nothing else & now this post has turned into problem solver and a great resource :]

@ PAT36A : Thanks a lot for providing that solution, it has certainly helped lots of people. I promise that I’ll look further in it, that why exactly this is happening and will let everyone know about it.
Cal March 1, 2008 1:46 am

Hi
I’ve been having problems when trying to sign into the site bebo as well as proceding to the checkout on barrington sports, however i am able to visit various other website and sign into such ones as facebook and ebuddy. Also my msn has been failing to sign in (error code 80072efd) which is suposably linked to firewall.

I use Ie 7, running on windows xp, i connect to the internet with broadband, which is through i wired modem (sagem).
Ive tried to acess the pages using Firefox but the same problem occurs ‘Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage’.
I have also tried turning off phishing filter still no improvement.
I have also restarted the DNS client again no improvement.
Hope you have some suggestions

Reading through the site i have followed some advice offered to other people but none have worked.
ReviewSaurus March 1, 2008 6:29 am

@ Cal : Well, the only possibility which I see here in your case is that you are not able to login to those sites which are secured. I tried logging into bebo and at a point, it goes into the secure mode and then goes back to the normal mode. Same is the case with hotmail, which is always in the secure mode only.

Checkouts are secure too…

I get a feeling that you are using Norton, I remember there was a setting in Norton which didn’t allow users to access secure sites (i’ve no idea why they even thought of giving such a setting), It may be because of that.

It may be any other security program, well, whichever it is, I’ll request you to please check it after disabling that security program and if still it doesn’t work, please let me know.
Cal March 1, 2008 3:10 pm

Hey thanks a lot problem solved found that security setting on Norton and diabled it everything working fine.
Thanks again great sight !
G4tech March 13, 2008 7:59 pm

Great site…but unfortunatly none of the above fixes has helped my problem. I have a 1 year old HP pavillion laptop that came with Norton. Subscription ran out and i changed over to the Panda Internet security 2008 (had 1 computer left from previous subscription on other computers). My PC is a Compaq X-gamer running XP pro and IE 7.0, connecting to internet never a problem running the Panda 2008. Ever since i installed the panda on my laptop i have been unable to get internet. I am connected via wireless router and am showing connection good along with a internet connection but keep getting page can not be displayed. I notice when i click IE shortcut it goes to an IP address of 270 somthing instead of http://rcn.net, i can not get on with fire fox either. I can access and send emails though. I disable the Panda still no good…i Uninstall and have immediate access. I reinstall Panda and before it finishes installing i notice my windows messenger drops off line and then can not reconnect. I have done the 2 things that panda suggests of reseting WIFI on the panda control and also to verify IE has inbound and outbound permissions… no good. Any thoughts??? It definatly appears to be Panda doing somthing during install to shut down my internet thinking it is a intruder or somthing but they say it should give a worning message that i could deny or grant communication with which inever have gotten…
MrT March 15, 2008 10:52 am

I’m having the same issue… all of a sudden one of the three XP machines on my home network began experiencing intermittant “Cannot display page” messages. Network connectivity is fine…. I will find an answer to this problem…!!!!
MrT March 15, 2008 12:03 pm

Ok, well I fixed it… but I don’t know that I have enough details at this point to pin point the exact problem. My symptoms were this… I have three XP SP2 machines on my network, all of a sudden about a month ago one of them started having intermittant “Cannot load page issues with IE7″ probably 30-40% of page loads would fail, really frustrating. I finally got around to trying to troubleshoot it. It’s not the network connection, Firefox has the same symptoms… looked at all of the security tools, phishing settings, MTU settings, DNS reliability … everything looks ok.

So out of desparation I upgraded the firmware on my Linksys Wireless router… bang… no more failed page loads. Now, this router has been running fine with this exact machine for around two years. The only thing I can think of is that there was an XP hotfix that changed some of the networking behavior of the machine and my router didnt’ like it. I looked at the patches and there were some TCP/IP related XP hotfixes just about around the time I started seeing the problems.

I haven’t nailed down which hotfixed caused the issue … or why… but this is my story and how I fixed my issue :)
G4tech March 19, 2008 5:09 pm

Ok as mentioned above i also got it to work, playing around i am not sure what fixed it but i also updated my firmware on my wireless router ( a netgear rangemax). I then uninstalled my panda software, did a min install instead of typical (this leaves the firewall and WIFI portion out). The install went smoothly and then i used the windows firewall after being prompted my computer had no firewall installed. I now get on the IE 7.0 and firefox. I tried pushing it further…i clicked on the panda home screen and it showed the firewall and WIFI protection not installed. I clicked on the install located next to each statment telling me not installed…it did a reboot and bamm…i still have IE 7.0 and firefox on Vista OP sytem via a wireless router to my laptop with all the protection of Panda Internet security 2008. Last week i would have sworn it is impossible to do…oh what a feeling. I hope this helps others that might have run into the same problems.
zclayton April 24, 2008 8:47 pm

At least m$ is being honest about the nature of the problem. If it displays fine in FF or Opera, or even Safari, Then the problem is not that the page can not be displayed, it is that IE can’t cut the mustard.