Killban’s Blog

For a while Gina has been asking me to sort her PC out. She has had problems accessing PayPal and eBay from her PC. It is ok from Hugh’s laptop on the same network, but not from her PC.

I asked her to install a bit of software called Teamviewer, which allows remote access to another PC without having to use Windows Remote Desktop. WRD is only available on Win XP Pro, and Vista Pro, so for most people it is not an option. I used it on my PC at the apartment, as I have XP Pro on that, however, I had to VPN to the network first. Teamviewer is a much better solution, plus it is free for non-commercial use. Once she had it installed, I got the details from her, and logged in to her machine. She showed me the issue, whilst speaking on Skype, so I could ask questions and she could answer. The error message that came up was a DNS error. I checked the LAN connection, and that was set to DHCP for the IP, and obtain the DNS servers automatically. As her router is a Virgin router, it is set up automatically. Therefore, the DNS should be correct. I then decided to check the hosts file. I had hit the motherload! There were lots of entries in the hosts file that should not have been there. There is only 1 that is needed, and that is 127.0.0.1, which is the loopback entry. There were many others for various websites. I deleted them all, and then talked Gina through re-enabling her LAN, as I needed to disable it to get the PC to re-read the hosts file. Once that was succesfully completed, we checked Ebay and Paypal, and both were working properly.

Gina thinks that she clicked on a link in an email, and that was when it stopped working properly. It is all working fine now, and with Teamviewer and Skype, I am now able to provide IT Support from anywhere in the world.

18 days to go until the fracture clinic appointment. But, I am not counting.