cannot open google and related sites

Hi, I am using Internet Explorer 7.0, on Windows XP Home edition. My
browser's default search engine is Google.

However, IE on my computer has suddenly stopped opening Google
(http://www.google.com), iGoogle, Google Toolbar, and all related google
sites (such as images, maps, books, scholar etc.)

I can open any other website I want to (the usual - hotmail, facebook, msn,
yahoo etc.) but not google.

In addition, the search function on other search engines doesn't work. For
example, if I open www.yahoo7.com, or www.ninemsn.com.au I can click on any
of the links to pages and access those pages, but typing anything in the
search tool and hitting the return key or clicking search gives me an error
message 'Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage'.

So basically my IE works only by typing in specific URLs in the address bar,
and clicking on links. Search functions on search engines do not work, and
anything related to Google doesn't work.

My PC is protected by Symantec Norton 360 Ver. 2.5.0.5 and I have run
countless virus, spyware and malware scans to try and solve this issue. These
scans show up the odd threat or tracking cookies (though mostly no threat at
all) but no ammount of scanning or fixing of anything seems to solve the
problem.

Can someone help me? Or at least guide me as to the best way to find help?

It will be much appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

Amruta

"Amruta" <Amruta@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:756CDBDE-09AB-44D3-9429-5A8BEC4A8E16@microsoft.com...
> Hi, I am using Internet Explorer 7.0, on Windows XP Home edition. My
> browser's default search engine is Google.
>
> However, IE on my computer has suddenly stopped opening Google
> (http://www.google.com), iGoogle, Google Toolbar, and all related google
> sites (such as images, maps, books, scholar etc.)
>
> I can open any other website I want to (the usual - hotmail, facebook, msn,
> yahoo etc.) but not google.


Your DNS could be the problem.
Use telnet 80 to see how Google redirects to a different host
depending on your location. In my case it redirects here:

http://www.google.ca/

Now, imagining that in your case it might be redirecting here

http://www.google.au/

here's what my nslookup says about that host name

<nslookup>
can't find www.google.au: Non-existent domain
</nslookup>

So, if you were trying to use DNS addresses for a server
in a different location (such as mine), you would have an explanation
for your symptom.


>
> In addition, the search function on other search engines doesn't work. For
> example, if I open www.yahoo7.com, or www.ninemsn.com.au I can click on any
> of the links to pages and access those pages, but typing anything in the
> search tool and hitting the return key or clicking search gives me an error
> message 'Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage'.


Sounds like more possible DNS trouble but that is also symptomatic
of spyware. E.g. a hijacker's server may be down or overloaded.


>
> So basically my IE works only by typing in specific URLs in the address bar,
> and clicking on links. Search functions on search engines do not work, and
> anything related to Google doesn't work.
>
> My PC is protected by Symantec Norton 360 Ver. 2.5.0.5 and I have run
> countless virus, spyware and malware scans to try and solve this issue. These
> scans show up the odd threat or tracking cookies (though mostly no threat at
> all) but no ammount of scanning or fixing of anything seems to solve the
> problem.
>
> Can someone help me? Or at least guide me as to the best way to find help?



You could greatly improve your symptom description by tracing the requests
that you are generating, e.g. using Fiddler2 or a full packet trace and format.



>
> It will be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Amruta


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
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