[Xanex]

Windows firewall? is that active, if so turn it off.

are there any other sites you cant get access too , or are they all microsoft ones.

if you are using a hardware router, check your MTU size, if not then use DRTCP to check your MTU and RWIN size, ideally on a 512 broadband connection the RWIN is 13900 and the MTU is 1430

as for the hosts file, try creating one, a blank notepad file with no extention, you may need to remove the extention via enabling the hide known file types option.

this is what the blank hosts file should contain: minus -start- -end-

-start-

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

-end-

edit your internet explorer settings under connection, LAN settings check the box that says auto detect settings, and under the connection you use , same thing in its properties, auto detect