Windows 7: Firefox and IE won't load some pages

Hey everyone, does anyone have any idea why both my browsers are refusing to load fairly common websites like espn.com and my university's website?

First thing I would do is a virus scan
Then I would try to type cmd in search from an admistrative account.
In cmd I would type ipconfg /flushdns


Then report back

richc46-

What does the above directions do? My fiance just got a new Dell laptop (on Jan 1st) w/IE8 and Windows 7 and we are not able to properly load anything on IE8. Everything either times out or loads with errors. We tried compatibility mode and that didn't help. I know her network is fine as my iPhone and her work laptop worked just fine on it. Only thing we did to the comp was download a firewall (ZoneAlarm). Any suggestions? Will switching to Chrome help? Sorry for the questions but we are just looking for help here. Much thanks.

Beau

Sometimes a virus will prevent you from visiting various sites.

The other instruction is to clear any sites that may be blocked.

You may also want to try to temporarily disable your firewall and antivirus and see if that helps.

Zone Alarm Firewall has some issues with Windows 7 at the moment. Please use another firewall. I tried it once to test if it would work on Windows 7 but alas I had no Internet connection because of it. Why not use the built-in firewall instead?

Excuse me but I couldn't help notice that your OS is IE8?