When I am on the internet I can't view certain web pages, as I get an error message that says 'unable to find server'. I used to be able to pay my BT bill online, but I am now unable to view the site, although BT tells me that it is up and running. I can't access a friend's web page either, although he can. The error message I receive suggests checking that I have 128bit Cipher Strength and checking the settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0 and PCT 1.0. They are all okay. How can I sort this out?
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It doesn't sound as if there is much wrong with your setup. However, if there is a problem on the route between you and the web server you are trying to contact, you will see an error message instead. Sometimes, just clicking Refresh can solve the problem by causing your browser to try again. If not, you may have better luck if you try at a less busy time; in other words, not during evenings or at weekends.
The Tracert (short for 'trace route') command can help you discover what is going on when you have problems connecting to a site. Open a command prompt window and type 'Tracert website address'. The program will list all the points on the route (somewhat similar to junctions on a road journey) together with the time taken to get to each one.
From this, you can see if the route is congested or whether you can reach the site at all. When we tried 'tracert www.bt.com', the attempt failed at hop 10 with the message 'Destination net unreachable'. So it would seem that BT is having some problems with its server.
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Introduction | Internet