Firewall

I am having trouble with a couple of websites that sometimes I can connect to and sometimes I get time-outs. Brief investigations come up with check firewall and allow them.
Is that correct? If so how do I get to my firewall and what do I do when I get there? Remember we are talking about websites not programs!
Does a router come into play with this? I think they have some kind of built in firewall also.
Do you have any other ideas it could be besides the firewall?
EDIT: I should mention these websites worked perfect before so this is something new happening.

In my experience, a firewall will stop access completely unless you approve of it. They won't cause a "time-out." And what do you mean by "time-out?" Does access pause and start up? Does the website close and sent you back to desktop?

I you want to share or PM the websites, I can check them out.

It doesn't sound like the problem is on your end.

A router only blocks incoming traffic that was not requested. If you try to access a website, you are requesting it, so your router won't block it.

This doesn't sound like a firewall problem. If you'd inadvertently blocked the website in a software firewall, you'd never be able to access the website.

Since you "sometimes" get through and sometimes get time-outs, the website may simply be overwhelmed with requests.

Another possibility is that your data is being routed through a failing router owned by an ISP. Data does not always go through the same series of routers on its way from your router to and from a website. When your data is routed through a failing (or misconfigured) router, it times out and you don't get to the website. In the past, when I had this problem accessing a website, sometimes using TOR browser allowed me to get to the website because the data goes through a completely different series of routers.

Thanks for good info. Could it be that I switched browsers from IE to Firefox? By time out I mean you can tell its trying to access by a little circle going around or lines going back and forth until it quits.

If there were a problem with browser compatibility, you wouldn't "sometimes" be getting the websites and sometimes not.

I agree... sounds like the problem is on the other end to me.

Now the message is "This Account has been suspended". Mystery solved.

Interesting.

What exactly does that mean??

I think it means the owner of the website either didn't pay his bills or did something unethical.

Huh. Doesn't sound like websites I would want to be going to.