I have an older computer at work that I just experienced a problem with.
W98, AOL 6.0
The problem arose when we would go online. When we would click on, say....sports or news... (within the ISP's features) or type in a URL, all we would get is a white screen with "Action Canceled, IE was unable to link to the web page you requested, etc., etc. etc." You could access the Mail Center, Billing Info, etc., but no other sites.
After much research, I found a tidbit, on another forum, (don't hit me!
), advising to do a search for HOSTS files and then delete them and it would take care of the problem. 
Now, I am not one to delete just anything on the word of a stranger, without more assurances and proof.
I did a search though and sure enough there were several "hosts" files, Hosts, hosts.sam, lmhosts.sam, hosts.sbs (Spybot). At first I did delete these safely to the Recycle Bin where I could restore them. And viola, the problem was gone! Then I did a one-by-one restoration check and found the file that was the culprit:
It was the one titled HOST, with no extensions, located in the C:\WINDOWS directory.
I opened it with wordpad with the following result:
127.0.0.1 ie3.proxy.aol.com
I am limited in my knowledge of these type of files, but, in a nutshell, I assume that they are helpful in blocking pop-ups, hackers, etc. and are supposed to re-route certain sites back to the host machine to prevent access.
So I guess after all that..............my questions are:
Is the above mentioned file safe to delete? If not, what do I need to do the correct
the problem should I need to restore the file? and what do you think caused this?
We have Spybot S&D, Adaware, Norton Anti-Virus, etc., all updated.
The only thing we've done different is to install software to try a new ISP for a trial run.
Which didn't work out and the software was removed.
I await your advice! Thanks!
