My br0wz0r is 0wnz0r3d

February 21, 2002 2:41 AM

My br0wz0r is 0wnz0r3d. I can access Metafilter & Metatalk but nothing else. No yahoo, no google, etc. etc. etc., none of the links.
posted by EngineBeak to MetaFilter-Related at 2:41 AM (21 comments total)

And this situation has persisted (in both NN & IE) over a few reboots. Aside from all the mefi-solipsism cleverness that can be drawn from this, I'd really like to know what the hell might be going on with my computer. & whether this has happened to anyone else, & what might be done to alleviate the symptom.
posted by EngineBeak at 2:59 AM on February 21, 2002

Wish I could help, but I have no idea. Can you ping other sites?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:19 AM on February 21, 2002

Eh, not sure.... I should add that I'm on dialup, & also that a.wholelottanothing.org is not accessible.
posted by EngineBeak at 3:31 AM on February 21, 2002

You've died. Welcome to hell.
posted by crunchland at 4:06 AM on February 21, 2002

If you're using IE 5+:

Tools->Internet Options->Delete Files

Reboot, then re-launch your browser. That will blow out your cached pages, and hopefully let you see the root of the problem.
posted by Optamystic at 4:25 AM on February 21, 2002

You've died. Welcome to hell.

No, if he was in hell, he would only be able to read, not post.
posted by ColdChef at 5:11 AM on February 21, 2002

It's possible that your upstream DNS has failed, and you are getting metafilter.com because it's in an upstream cache (or possibly your PC's) for the time being.
posted by costas at 5:43 AM on February 21, 2002

What costas said is exactly what the problem is when this happens to me (the last time it happened I could see google but none of the sites google found). Supposedly sometimes something like this happens with DSL providers when various TCP parameters get hosed too, though I don't understand how that would be relevant. (Meta: This doesn't seem like a MeTa question to me--MeTa isn't general tech support.)
posted by rodii at 5:47 AM on February 21, 2002

0wnz0r3d

What exactly does this mean?
posted by iceberg273 at 5:52 AM on February 21, 2002

iceberg:
Hacker speak (which originates initially from making better passwords by substituting numbers and changing spellings). eg. Hacker -> hax0r

Ownz0r3d?
English: "I attacked you with my superb computer hacking skills, and rendered you powerless and entirely subject to my whims"
->
Slang: "I owned you"
->
Hacker: "0wnz0r3d!"
posted by malphigian at 6:01 AM on February 21, 2002

See also : fuxx0r3d
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:07 AM on February 21, 2002

this megatokyo strip might give you some insight on l33t sp34k.
posted by lotsofno at 7:10 AM on February 21, 2002

Yeah, it does sound like some bizarro DNS issue. Have you tried connecting to things using the IP addresses? Try pointing your browser to 216.239.35.100 or 216.115.109.6.
posted by crunchland at 7:57 AM on February 21, 2002

Slang: "I owned you"

Thanks. I understand all of this hacker speak, but the use of "owned" as slang in context of "My browser is owned" was tripping me up. Ah well.
posted by iceberg273 at 8:24 AM on February 21, 2002

Five hours later, & everything is back to normal. Don't quite understand the cache thing, since I was able to see new posts & comments as they came up, and post this myself.

> MeTa isn't general tech support.

I know, & I had reservations about posting this, but I think it's far more worthy than much that's been posted recently. (Tu quoque, I know, but still....) And of course, when I asked the question, I did not know that the answer would be so generally techsupportive.

I also might have added, this went the same by proxy & direct access. Blah blah blah.

I hereby sentence myself to write 10 intelligent and apt comments on Metafilter proper for my straying into the grey areas of Metatalk usage.
posted by EngineBeak at 8:34 AM on February 21, 2002

Yesterday afternoon I couldn't access google, yahoo, or av/raging. Pacific and Euro sites were accessible. It fixed itself a few hours later.
posted by holloway at 11:07 AM on February 21, 2002

You've died. Welcome to hell. Here's your dvd box-set of the Bette Midler Show. With out-takes!
posted by signal at 11:49 AM on February 21, 2002

(EngineBeak--sorry for (seemingly) singling you out. I was trying to clarify my idea of good and bad reasons to post to MeTa, not drag you to the principal's office.)
posted by rodii at 3:06 PM on February 21, 2002

This doesn't seem like a MeTa question to me--MeTa isn't general tech support.)

Given the nature of the problem, surely MeTa was the only possible place to get support?

My browser doesn't work! I can only visit abc.com!
You can find everything you need to solve your problem at xyz.com.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:01 PM on February 21, 2002

Given the nature of the problem, surely MeTa was the only possible place to get support?

Heh. OK, but surely he could have worked a wacky news link in somehow.
posted by rodii at 4:26 PM on February 21, 2002

I agree. A 1337 5p34< translation tool at the very least :)
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:15 PM on February 21, 2002