Getting "This site can’t be reached" error when accessing a page on weibo.com

Question

I tried to connect weibo (a large commercial website so their server is working and I'm not web scraping it).

The url I tested is 'http://weibo.com/3099834425' (a random guy's personal profile page, so my browsers didn't memorise this address).

Here is what I tried:

1. Open this url in Chrome. It gives the error code "ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED", saying "This site can’t be reached, weibo.com refused to connect.".
2. Add 'www.' prefix manually, it'll work perfectly fine, displaying the right profile page.

3. Clear Chrome's Cookies and open this url again. It still fails.

4. Open this url in Safari. It also fails.

5. Paste the link in Safari's address bar. In some tabs it fails, showing "Safari Can't Connect to the Server"; in other tabs it succeeds, adding the 'www.' prefix automatically and showing the actual page.
6. Delete Weibo's Cookies on Safari. Open this link and still fails.

Is this a redirection problem or a address bar automatic completion problem? Is this problem on browser configuration's side or on weibo's side? How could I fix it?

Thanks a lot!!!

Answer 1

Finally I realized my system's host file has been changed.

Getting the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED code in Chrome means you haven't reached your target server. The system host file can make the browser bypasses DNS servers and uses the IP address provided by it directly.

In my case, the host file configuration is '127.0.0.1 weibo.com'. The browser sends a request URL as 'http://weibo.com/' and this domain name is resolved as '127.0.0.1'. Since I'm not running a local server, this IP address couldn't be reached.

Solution is deleting this line in the host file.