IE11? blocking response to search of website. 'Can't display page' error

[#1]

That's your internal IP address and generally it's not a good idea to post one's IP address in public. You'll be on a dynamic IP address - to be on a fixed one you'd have had to have requested it - so you'd know
Easiest way to see your IP address is look at the bottom RH corner of your post. You can only see your own.
To Gateway hop, log into the modem/router and click Disconnect wait about 30 seconds and then click Connect. Your IP address and Gateway should have changed.

[#2]

Dear anotherone
Your comment on the IP has worried me, and I fear I might have compromised my security. I went through the process of getting a new Lan IP automatically. twice, but it hasn't changed.
What will gateway hopping do for me. Does it flush things and provide a clean sheet for the old problem?
Richard

[#3]

Richard,
Unless you've opted for a static IP address, each time a new PPP session is established between the router and PlusNet, the router will get a new IP address.
Addresses on your local network will always be something like 192.168.1.x and you have no need to worry about those being known.

[#4]

To be clear, your Internal IP address doesn't change when gateway hopping. Sorry, I could have made it clear it's your external IP address you'd see at the bottom of your own post.
Whilst posting ones external IP address does not pose a direct security threat, neither does posting your internal one.
A malicious individual can pick any (external) IP address where there will generally be a user on the end, and attempt some form of attack.
Some of those individuals will find it great "fun" to have a go trying to create further problems for those already having an issue of some sort and posting an internal IP address might assist in such a mean quest, but it's not a direct security threat.

[#5]

I haven't yet had the chance of plugging my Pc into someone else's router (I need it every day for research). But I had chap here who connected his imac to my router (by wifi). He got stuck first time, then he pressed refresh and got through. I tried the same and had no luck.
Anotherone asked if I have blocked anything. I set the relevant ehsni site as a allowed trusted site (I have the firewall set at moderate to high) but still no luck, and I have diabled almost all add-ons in IE11. I briefly disabled Norton, and no luck.
So apart from learning a lot from you people, and wasting your time, I am no nearer a solution.
But thanks

[#6]

Use Firefox then. 

[#7]

As I'm not using IE11, I wouldn't like to comment except that I've been using Firefox for a long time and consider recent versions to be bloatware so I'm not rushing to recommend it. I've been using Palemoon on another machine for a while and that seems to be better atm.
I'm doubting that this is a browser related issue if a similar problem was seen using an iMac, but the fact that a Refresh then worked is curious (also mentioned in the OP that other browsers were tried). Re-visiting some ideas may be worth trying.

Quote from: omeadhra

....Went through Control Panel and put in alternative DNS server IPs as suggested by PN somewhere. No difference. .....

Which alternate DNS IP addresses did you use? Did you remove the 192.168.1.254 address (the router) from the list when you put in the alternate ones - or at least moved it to the bottom of the "order of use" list? It might be worth re-booting the computer after making those changes and then just checking those settings to be certain it's been implemented. Try that again.

[#8]

Guys - what about putting the IP address(s) of the website in to the hosts file to take DNS out of the equation totally - worth a shot?

[#9]

Because of the way that site seems to be constructed, I couldn't succeed to get to the relevant bits using IP addresses

Quote from: Anotherone

The IP address of the site is 194.32.30.8  BUT although I can get to the site using the link (url) from your OP, I cannot get to it (or pages on it) using the IP address. There must be something weird about the way the site is set up and/or the DNS entries on the resolvers you are using that I don't understand.

[#10]

That will be because there could be multiple domains hosted on the same server and it needs the url to know which one to go to. Putting the entry in hosts means it uses that instead of doing a DNS lookup but it will still send the domain name in the GET.
Edit: There's 11 other domains on the same IP as www.ni-environment.gov.uk
Edit 2: And 4 domains hosted by the server running apps.ehsni.gov.uk
PS: The number of domains running on a single server is pretty much unlimited - there's 10's, if not hundred's of thousands domains hosted on 212.159.8.91

[#11]

212.159.8.91 being where Plusnet hosted sites are to be clear to the OP, nothing to do with the NI site - it's just an example that jelv was giving me.

[#12]

PS.

Quote from: omeadhra

So apart from learning a lot from you people, and wasting your time, I am no nearer a solution.

You aren't wasting our time
OK jelv, if I've understood you correctly I've done the following -
Added  <194.32.30.8     apps.ehsni.gov.uk #testing with no DNS>  to the hosts file without the <>
Removed DNS from the LAN (TCP/IP Protocol), cleared all the browser caches and turned off the browser DNS cache as well, rebooted the computer (precautionary) and then gone to http://apps.ehsni.gov.uk/ambit/Disclaimer.aspx
That seemed to work fine and as a further check I couldn't reach any other websites, so that seems to prove that works if I've tested correctly?

[#13]

You don't need to shouldn't remove the DNS - the entries in the hosts file stop it trying to use the DNS. For sites not in hosts it will use the DNS lookups as normal.
BTW:
192.168.1.254   TG582
is a useful entry to put in hosts as you can then access the router by name and it show up in tracerts:

Tracing route to ntp.plus.net [212.159.6.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  TG582 [192.168.1.254]
  2    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  lo0.14.central14.pcl-bng01.plus.net [195.166.130.142]
  3    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  irb.14.pcl-cr01.plus.net [84.93.249.145]
  4    10 ms    11 ms    10 ms  po2.pcl-gw01.plus.net [195.166.129.41]
  5    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  cdns02.plus.net [212.159.6.10]
Trace complete.

[#14]

I felt I couldn't prove that it worked successfully/correctly without disabling DNS - it was belt and braces. Nobody else need do it   Thanks for the other handy tip.

[#15]

I'm having similar trouble accessing a specific website when connected to plusnet broadband.  The website in question is https://www.travelex.co.uk.
I can access this site OK on my mobile phone when connected to the mobile phone network (o2).  But if I connect my phone to the wifi hotspot from my plusnet router I can't then connect to this site.  This behaviour is reproducible on demand.
I also have the same problem accessing this site from any of the other devices (iPad with Safari and PC with IE11) connected to my plusnet router.  I have rebooted my router but this made no difference.
Would appreciate it if someoe else (on plusnet) could try to access the https://www.travelex.co.uk website and let me know if it's just me?  Have already spoken to a friend using BT broadband, and he can access the site ok.