Sorry about the delay in replying. Just shortly after posting my last comment, I haven't been able to access this site for the rest of the day.

The only thing I can see under DNS is blank and has a box ticked under "automatic from ISP".

A couple of the pages I have been getting like that frequently today are BBC News and dailymail.co.uk (picked them as examples as they are both quite heavy in picture content).

Best thing is to set your PC to use other DNS servers to see if that fixes it.

What operating system - XP? 7?

7.

Some additional information. A friend of mine today suggested I do a tracert www.bbc.co.uk when I couldn't access their site.

This is the information I got. He seems to think it's a problem with Orange...but I have no idea.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Mews>tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.2.1
2 9 ms 9 ms 22 ms 217.47.211.122
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 23 ms 23 ms 24 ms 213.1.79.14
6 23 ms 23 ms 80 ms 87.237.20.244
7 27 ms 35 ms 35 ms bundle-ether1.lontr1.London.opentransit.net [193
.251.255.101]
8 23 ms 23 ms 24 ms telia-1.GW.opentransit.net [193.251.251.38]
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms ldn-b3-link.telia.net [80.91.251.237]
11 24 ms 24 ms 23 ms siemens-ic-119241-ldn-b2.c.telia.net [213.248.10
4.70]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 24 ms 24 ms 25 ms virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.241.131]


Trace complete.

C:\Users\Mews>

1. Click the Start Orb, then select Control Panel.
2. Click on Network and Sharing Center.
3. Click on Local Area Connection under 'View Your Active Networks' on the RH.
4. Click the Properties button.
5. Highlight 'Internet Protocol Version 4' and click Properties.
6. Click the radio button 'Use the following DNS server addresses:' and type in 8.8.8.8 in the Preferred DNS server and 8.8.4.4 in the Alternate DNS server fields.
7. Click OK button, then the Close button, then Close again. Finally, close the Network and Sharing Center window.

See the pictures here https://store.opendns.com/setup/operatingsystem/wind...

To undo the changes, repeat the above but in 6. select 'Obtain DNS server address automatically'

Edited by deleted (Sun 20-Nov-11 00:11:45)

Ok tried that thanks. Is it best to re-boot before I try to get into anything else now?

No, it will just work (or not)

It seemed to accept it ok. But 2 sites I still can't get into since are BBC news and goodreads.com.

Open a command prompt and enter: nslookup bbc.co.uk

What does it say for Server: Address: ?

Nothing wrong with that tracert.

Use OpenDNS in your router by unticking "automatic from ISP" and entering 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220 in the boxes. Or use Google DNSs as given elsewhere. See if that improves matters. ISPs own DNSs are sometimes prone to faults.