Two days ago a client of mine contacted me regarding problems accessing Facebook.com. \u00a0Whenever the client attempted to access the site, he was met with the following error:<\/p>\n
Invalid URL<\/strong><\/p>\n
The requested URL “\/”, is invalid.<\/p>\n
Reference #<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bizarrely, this\u00a0only\u00a0occurred when attempting to access Facebook.com, and never\u00a0on\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>other websites.<\/p>\n
Of course, the first thing I checked was his\u00a0hosts\u00a0<\/strong>file, which actually was completely empty\/default. \u00a0Next, I flushed his DNS resolver cache with\u00a0ipconfig \/flushdns<\/strong>. \u00a0This also failed to solve the problem.<\/p>\n
At this point, I began doing some research and found other users experiencing intermittent issues of the same sort across various internet forums. \u00a0The cause is unknown. \u00a0The solution, as it turns out, is easy: simply force the PC to resolve Facebook.com to the correct IP address and the problem is solved:<\/p>\n
\n
- Open the system’s\u00a0hosts\u00a0<\/strong>file. \u00a0Navigate to %windir%\\system32\\drivers\\etc<\/strong> and open the\u00a0hosts\u00a0<\/strong>file using Notepad when prompted.<\/li>\n
- Copy\/paste the following line into the hosts file where the addresses are located:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
69.171.228.74 https:\/\/www.facebook.com<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
That’s it–problem solved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two days ago a client of mine contacted me regarding problems accessing Facebook.com. \u00a0Whenever the client attempted to access the site, he was met with the following error: Invalid URL The requested URL “\/”, is invalid. Reference # Bizarrely, this\u00a0only\u00a0occurred … Continue reading