No Updates, Can't Log into Microsoft???

Hi,
A friend of mine has a problem!! He is no longer getting any automatic
updates, he can't log into Microsoft and his Outlook Express has stopped
receiving and sending mail. He is able to log onto other sites as normal, but
anything to do with Microsoft will not work - microsoft. com will not load
but all his other favourites will. Another friend has suggested a corrupt
"host" file might be the problem. I don't know what that is or what it does.
Can anybody out there point me in the right direction please?
Regards
Ron.

I had a similar problem - except it was Outlook - not Outlook Express. It
then got worse and I could not open any SSL web pages. I tried restoring my
system back to a time when I know it was working but that did not help. I got
so frustrated I ended up rebuilding all my software and going through all the
updates!!!


"harbour2929" wrote:

> Hi,
> A friend of mine has a problem!! He is no longer getting any automatic
> updates, he can't log into Microsoft and his Outlook Express has stopped
> receiving and sending mail. He is able to log onto other sites as normal, but
> anything to do with Microsoft will not work - microsoft. com will not load
> but all his other favourites will. Another friend has suggested a corrupt
> "host" file might be the problem. I don't know what that is or what it does.
> Can anybody out there point me in the right direction please?
> Regards
> Ron.