[20yearsofinternet]

Thought some poor souls unable to login might find this useful.

[who knows what evil?]

I was able to get to FR by using the IP, but, like many others; could NOT log in. After following your instructions; here I am!

Thank you VERY much!

[LaybackLenny]

Got 'er dun! Modified Win10 and Linux Mint "hosts" files as prescribed.

Works like a charm.

THANKS!

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Why does anyone ever log off?

[jazusamo]

Thanks much for your step by step instructions, works fine now and would Not have been able to do it without your help.

[goodnesswins]

Thanks....worked!

[Iron Munro]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this.
I’ve been reluctant to try a fix but your step by step instructions made it simple.

I did exactly as you demonstrated and it worked first time.

Signed:

A Poor Soul

[20yearsofinternet]

To all the thank-you's, no problem, and you're all welcome. :)

I thought of one other thing since posting. If you have file extensions hidden (which is the default I believe), there will be two "hosts" files. Just make sure, per the screenshot, you open the one with the blank page icon, not the calendar icon.

Just putting that out there into the ether since people who opened the wrong file probably still can't post about their problems. :P

[patlin]

A HUGE THANK YOU!!! I have been fighting this on and off for days.

[kjam22]

Went through Facebook FR and found these instructions. Thanks much! I’m back in. BTW... my provider is COX and I was unable to access with MS EDGE or Google. These instructions fixed the problem. Thanks again!

[doorgunner69]

Glad I found this thread by hook and crook, it worked great as long as I remembered to add the WWW to Freerepublic.

[Dajjal]

It worked! Thanks!

[ConjunctionJunction]

Your step-by-step instructions worked great! Thank you very much!

[CaptainPhilFan]

Hooray for you!!!! AND I learned something useful!

If you ever flame me remind me I owe you. :)

Thanks so much for great instructions.

[eyeamok]

I figured it out early this morning, but thank you.

[IronJack]

Immensely helpful. You've won the FR Good Samaritan Medal.

By the way, I just tried 10 different free DNS servers and not one of them could translate www.freerepublic.com to its IP address.

This is NOT just a random occurrence. I can't fathom how NO DNS provider recognizes the FR URL.

[Iscool]

Perfect...This is my 2nd go at it...The first time after following other instructions I stuck in the # and used the spacebar instead of the tab button...

I now went back and corrected those errors and here I am...Thank you and all those who have contributed to solve this annoying problem...

[Abigail Adams]

Thanks!

[Intolerant in NJ]

Bump because just a half hour ago my Verizon supposedly-enhanced internet was claiming it “couldn’t find” Free Republic, even though one of the alternatives it offered to try instead was Free Republic - now all seems fine - maybe if I can understand this info it’ll help in the future should Verizon lose FR again....

[20yearsofinternet]

According to JimRob, the problem is fixed now.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3417748/posts

Sometimes DNS changes can take up to a day to propagate across the web, so I *personally*, from experience, wouldn’t say everyone is guaranteed to see it working just yet. But, the big boss has spoken and all should be right with the world soon, if not immediately.

Anyone just now finding this post (possibly from the FB page) might want to re-check the regular www.freerepublic.com link, and/or disregard this post and just wait for it to start working normally.