Can't connect to one site.

Hello. I'm trying to help a friend get her laptop to connect with the bank website again. We don't know what has happened. All ping requests time out even in Safe Mode.
This is the URL www.santander.com.br that redirects to Akamai servers and responds fine on my own PCs. Both URLs time out on my friend's laptop running Win 7. My LAN uses OpenDNS servers.

So far, I have done this below. May I please have any help?
MSE and Malwarebytes complete scans;
Firewall reset and disabled;
Internet Options and browser extensions reset, all custom bars uninstalled - Bing, Ask etc;
WiFi adapter driver uninstalled and updated.

 

Check the HOSTS file to see if the URL had been added to the list by mistake, this file is normally located in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc. Make a copy of this file and place it elsewhere as backup. Then open the HOSTS file using Notepad, if you see something like "127.0.0.1 www.santander.com.br" then delete it from the entry and save the file.

 

Is the problem on her laptop limited to just this site or others? Are you sure the computer isn't infected already if so the protection won't work. Have you tried to use your own laptop and connect to the site to see what happens? At this time it's good to have a working laptop as control to see what is going on.

 

ping the actual ip address for that url. Also do a tracert to see how far it makes it. And follow the above suggestions as well.

 

Also try a wired connection from a different router from the one she has the issue with.

 

The OP should use another computer test the connections to isolate what is the root cause of the problem. Just saying there is a problem and not using another computer to test where the fault lies will not help with all the help we give here if the OP doesn't try these other diagnostic options.

 

I agree with stormjumper. Also what browser are you using to access bank? I have found that FF has problems with some banks so try IE.

 

Thanks for all replies and reps to PatchySan :thumbsup:! It was the HOSTS file indeed.

 

Now the question is how did the hosts file get edited in the first place? Mistake, joke, malware...

 

The entry blocking the site was commented with the name of the bank's own anti-phishing software known as gbplugin. I believe it was either malware or most probably the software itself which is also known to be crap.

 

It might help to make the file read only. I set it that way on my computers without problems.