doc function is not working anymore?

when i try to use the doc function to bring up help it just opens a blank window and doesn't load anything, it doesn't seem to matter if i am trying to access local documentation or trying to access the web version (i am logged into my mathworks account). Im using 2018b.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The most common cause of this is internal firewall issues. The documentation browser runs in a different process, and the desktop communicates with it through tcp. If you have blocked MATLAB from making "outgoing" TCP then you cannot reach the process.

[Amy Wolff]

why would this change all of a sudden? As far as i know i haven't changed anything and the doc function used to load the locally stored documentation?