Strange facebook issue.. Pinging 127.0.0.1

Guys, Geeks and techies!

Stuck with a strange problem! I'm running Win7 Ultimate edition on a PC and I'm stuck with one problem on this machine.

You try accessing Facebook, and the page loads for ever before reporting that "Page cannot be displayed". The problem is across any browser you try to use. When attempting to ping facebook.com, the computer pings 127.0.0.1 (and I know it is a loopback IP). Checked the hosts file and have no entry of any other IP address there. I'm just going nuts with this problem! :'(

For the time being, I have added an IP of Facebook.com in the hosts file to temporarily have access and below is the entry on hosts

# 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
69.171.224.12 facebook.com
69.171.224.12 Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More

****Please note that Facebook.com was not present there before****

Still the ping goes to 127.0.0.1 though Facebook works with limited functionality. This computer is not joined to any domain, just a ADSL router sitting next to it, and I have no issues accessing facebook on my phone or another laptop hooked up to the same modem. No firewalls and is protected by AVG. But when the issue started, there was just the standard Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials protecting the PC. Any help please? :)

Tried both Open DNS and Google DNS. Either of them doesn't work!

Did you see my edit above (flush dns)? I would think that if you ping the exact same entry you have in the HOSTS file it would ping the IP listed in the HOSTS file for that entry. If not, you may have a more serious problem than just facebook.

I guess yes, cos AFAIK, I couldn't figure out an issue... If I ping the hostname in hostfile, it still pings 127.0.0.1 and not the IP listed there. Also, restoring the hosts file to the default doesn't help either!

"Did you see my edit above (flush dns)?" Have you tried to flush the dns cache yet?

Yeah! Have tried flushdns and all possible techy things that can come to my mind...

Here's something to try: Type "http://69.171.224.12" in to your adderss bar and save the link as a favorite. If you use that number instead of the name, how does it work? (By doing that we are eliminating all DNS issues.)

that redirects to facebook.com and if the entry is not present in Hosts file, then the same old story of "Page Cannot be Displayed"

MuthukumarP said:

that redirects to facebook.com and if the entry is not present in Hosts file, then the same old story of "Page Cannot be Displayed"

1) Not sure what you meant before by "Facebook works with limited functionality". The idea was to see if Facebook works as it should if a numerical address is always used in the browser instead of "facebook.com" for each Facebook page you try.

2)The HOSTS file should not be involved when using numerical addresses in the browser or the ping command. So deleting (or putting # in front of) the extra entries vs. leaving them in the file should make no difference.