CHV Lives On

I have a problem. So far no one has been able to solve it. I am now appealing to the collective genius of this board to think of some actual solutions.
Eeeverything is working fine on teh internet for me, with one exception. I can't see two of the sites I visit everyday, one belonging to me, one belonging to a friend. We both have our domains from the same people, www.thedotcomcompany.net , which may or may not be of any help. (For some reason I can reach *that* site, but not my own or my friend's. @_@)
Other people are able to see these pages (www.thenoodlebowl.com , [url=http://www.ass-no-ryu.com)]www.ass-no-ryu.com)[/url] but for some reason I am not.
IE gives me a "cannot find server" error and Firefox gives me "this document contains no data".
Suggestions please.

Can you ping either site?
I can't see why this would happen, but are either domains in your HOSTS file?
Both sites load up fine here.

fix ur site lol not allowed

Theres only three things I can think of, Jim already mentioned one, check your hosts file(s). The second thing is clear your cache, however to my knowledge cache doesn't store error files. Third thing is, do you use a proxy server when online, like does your ISP have a server cache of popular websites that you fetch instead of directly calling the website. I don't know the ins and outs of server proxies, but I remember once I couldn't access alot of personal websites, only major ones like yahoo and microsoft, and some parts weren't accessible.. and it was because only proxy cache was being accessed. Or something like that.
Ren

Right, both sites ping, I've checked that. I haven't a clue whether my ISP uses a proxy server or not, any idea how to find out? I've cleared my cache but it's not helped. The hosts file is something I got stuck on with the last piece of advice I was given. Where/how do I find my hosts file in Win98?
/fragmented response

it should be in your windows folder, there will probably be two actually. HOSTS and hosts, neither have an extention, so you have to be careful with these. Open notepad, find the file in your windows dir (put all as the filetype, and type in *host* and hit enter, and you should find the hosts files), then open it in notepad. Search for your and your friend's domains, and if they are, remove them.
Just so you know what the hosts file is exactly, its a good hijacking file sort of. It stores redirects of websites, and I use a huge hosts file in order to circumvent alot of banners and popups by setting the redirect to localhost. So any time a website tries to load a banner from www.eviljavascriptinstallation.com, it won't load but instead will show a "page not found" or whatever.
Ren

Right, it appears I only have a "sample" hosts file, "hosts.sam". Nothing else. @_@ This is the text it gives me:
# Copyright (c) 1998 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP stack for Windows98
#
# 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


Any idea on where to go from here?

You don't have just a HOSTS file without an extension? Make sure you are able to see hidden and system files in your Windows folder when checking.

And this may or may not have anything to do with your problem, but have you tried flushing your DNS cache (start >run > ipconfig /flushdns)?

My suggestion is to try pinging each site, if it doesn't ping then the DNS isn't working (ie. can't find the hosts IP address). This could be because of your ISP or any local proxy (are you using a router?)
Try the "ipconfig /flushdns" as Jim suggested, failing that set your internet to use a different DNS server, if you can't find an open one I can let you use mine.

Right, update on things I've tried that haven't worked:
Something's screwy about the HOSTS file in Win98, I'm not sure what it is, but it's not the same as later versions as far as I can see.
I've tried "ipconfig /flushdns" and it's not helped.
Both sites ping, but I still can't get them to load up in a browser.
Different DNS server, explain this one to me and I'll try it. ^_^
I hate being only half technically competant, it makes problems like this such a pain. >_