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Q.  I have recently been unable to view web pages with Internet Explorer 5 as every page reports that "The page cannot be displayed". I know these sites work as I can read them on Netscape browser.

By accessing these sites through Netscape Navigator you have proved that there is nothing wrong with the sites, your modem or your Internet connection. By elimination, the problem must be caused by a problem with Internet Explorer, or more specifically its settings.

When Internet Explorer reports that a page cannot be displayed it is saying that it found the site but was unable to download the page. This could be caused by the site being temporarily unavailable (we know that is not the case since you can access the site with Netscape) or IE being unable to communicate. One of the most common reasons why IE cannot communicate is because the proxy server settings are incorrect.

Many ISPs require their subscribers to use their proxy server since it improves performance and reduces the ISP's communications costs, since copies of popular web sites are stored on the ISP's proxy server rather than being retrieved from the Internet. To ensure that subscribers are using the proxy server, the ISP may block direct connections to the Internet. If this is the case, then you would receive the page cannot be displayed error since IE cannot communicate directly with the site to retrieve the page.

This problem is very easy to fix, particularly since Netscape works on your computer hence its settings must be correct. Check the proxy settings in Netscape by going Edit, Preferences, Advanced, Proxies. Write down the name or IP address of the proxy server and if it uses manual configuration the port numbers for the various proxy services.

Now go to IE and enter the same settings. Proxy settings can be found by going Tools, Internet Options, Connections and selecting the settings button. Make sure that "Use a proxy server" is ticked and you enter the address and where applicable the port of the proxy server. Click OK.

If you still cannot use IE there may have been a problem with the installation, in which case you need to completely remove IE and reinstall it from scratch.

Did you know…. that rather than downloading IE5 from the Internet you can load the latest version from your PC Authority magazine cover CD??? It is certainly much quicker than downloading files from the Net!

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