Question : DNS resolves some URLs to 127.0.0.1, help me I'm in Afghanistan.

No bullshit about Afghanistan http://briefcase.yahoo.com/rite2mee
PROBLEM:
I can not draw a few specific web pages with internet explorer via their URL, but can with their IP address.

SITUATION:
Win 2K Pro-SP3-Latest version of everything on Microsoft Update-On a small switched network.
Laptop was just moved from a domain to a workgroup environment.  Pure Win 2K PRO network.
The Network properties were all properly configured with the workgroup name, computer name, and tcp/ip settings.
It is only configured with tcp/ip protocol suite, static IP, no other settings were changed from their default.  

SYMPTOMS:
I can surf the web normally, but when I try to connect to www.yahoo.com or www.msn.com I see in the bottom left of internet explorer that I am immediately redirected to the default search engine.  I cleared the cache and all in IE and made sure that I could connect to several web pages, but never these two.  I scowered the Misrosoft KnowledgeBase with the very computer I am having this problem on.  I am not blocked at the gateway from accessing these pages, no other computers on the network have this problem and I administer the router.  When I ping www.yahoo.com or www.msn.com the IP is returned as the loopback 127.0.0.1  So this tells me that it is not an IE problem.  I uninstalled the TCP/IP protocol and reconfigured it trying different IPs, that didn't fix it.  I uninstalled the NIC and reinstalled with Win 2K native driver, didn't work.  I installed a PCMCIA NIC and configured it with different DNS and IP, the problem persisted.  I did an ipconfig/flushdns, command completed but didn't fix anything.  Did ipconfig/displaydns, this showed me a LONG list of web sites that were associated with the loopback address 127.0.0.1  Probably about 200 URLs in that list.....zdnet.com...msn.com....gator.com....cotse.com....blackplanet.com....anonymizer.com....safesurf.com...and so on, these are just a few I recall.  I see gator.com and cotse.com so I did a fresh virus scan, and adware scan.  Removed 12 components with Adaware and checked installed programs to see if something stupid had been installed, found nothing suspect except perhaps a divx codec pack.  I do a ping -a 127.0.0.1 and it gave me the computer name as it should.  When I uninstall the NIC and ping yahoo or any of the problem URLs I get a response from 127.0.0.1  Naturally no other web sites or IPs work then because I have no NIC installed, but the loopback address still replies.  I checked the system log and saw nothing blatantly suspicious, this problem only started once the laptop was moved off the domain and onto the workgroup.  But that can't be the source of the problem because I can surf the web normally as long as I don't try to go to one of the previously mentioned addresses.  NO other computer on the network has this problem and I setup another computer with the same IP as the problem computer, when problem computer was unplugged from the network, and it worked fine.  
  So its not the IP I statically gave it, its not the path to the internet because I can type yahoo's IP into IE and draw the yahoo.com page normally.  It can't be an IE problem because it effects DOS commands like ping and tracert, it can't be a NIC hardware/config problem because I tried 2 NICs and numerous settings.  But somehow about 200 URLs got associated with 127.0.0.1  I tried shutting down the DNS service in Administrative Tools.  This did not work.  I rebooted between every step of this process the second time I went through it, I spent hours trying to figure it out.  I know I could fix it with a reinstall or perhaps a Win 2K repair, but I want to know what caused this.    
 

Answer : DNS resolves some URLs to 127.0.0.1, help me I'm in Afghanistan.

Check in \winnt\system32\drivers\etc and look for a hosts file. Rename hosts. to hosts.txt
clear your dns cache: C:\>ipconfig /flushdns
Now try it again.