I cannot get to www.google.com. All I get is "The page cannot be
displayed" I have another computer on the same network - That one
works fine. I can search on other search engins such as alta
vista...and foxnews.com If I type in web addresses I get there - but
not google.com. I can get to google images and google news and google
groups and search those sites, but not google.com. web search. VERY
FRUSTRATING! I have set my internet setting to accept all cookies and
lowered any settings to allow everything. Can't think of anything
else to check or change. PLEASE HELP. |
Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
05 Oct 2003 10:51 PDT
Hello Oldboarder ~
It sounds like you may either have picked up a virus (one of the
latest diverts you from getting to www.google.com, or some
spyware/scumware which does the same thing.
The first question to ask is: Is your antivirus program up to date? If
not, you should update it and run it.
If it's not a virus, it may be spyware/scumware. There are two
programs which you can download and run which will help get rid of
those.
The first is Ad-Aware - which you can download here:
- http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
The second is Spybot Search & Destroy - which you can download here:
- http://security.kolla.de/news.php?lang=en
Fred Langa, technology reporter for Information Week and the
Langalist, recommends running both. Sometimes something will be missed
from one or the other.
See if those help,
Serenata
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Request for Question Clarification by
feilong-ga
on
05 Oct 2003 10:54 PDT
Hi,
What Internet browser are you using?
-Feilong
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Request for Question Clarification by
taxmama-ga
on
05 Oct 2003 18:07 PDT
Dear oldboarder,
How interesting. You can't get to Google, but you can get to
Google Answers? Ah, you must be using the other computer.
OK, I was in exactly this situation a couple of weeks ago.
It went on so long that I finally went out to the news sites
to see if there was any news about Google going under.
Finally I mentioned it to a friend and she told me that I might
have the Swen bug. Turned out that she was right. I found the fix here:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.swen.a@mm.html
Though, even after I cleared it off, it took another day or so for
my caches to catch up. (No, I don't like to clear my cache. There
are things in it I like to find.)
And yes, I had another computer on the same network, too.
It found Google without a problem. (I did make sure not
to turn on the other computers while the infected computer
was one. And I did disinfect the Internet computer before
turning on the others in the network. Saves time, just in
case - since that virus likes to infect Networks.)
Please let me know if that works.
Best wishes,
Your TaxMama-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
06 Oct 2003 00:24 PDT
Hi again, Oldboarder ~
It could also be the Trojan.Qhosts which will block www.google.com,
and possibly others (it's a random trojan).
You can find more information about it on Symantec's site and how to
get rid of it if that is what you have:
- http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html
So, there are more possibilities, but you've got some areas to check.
Regards (again),
Serenata
|
Clarification of Question by
oldboarder-ga
on
06 Oct 2003 21:42 PDT
Running Windows ME with Internet Explorer 6.0 All Updates have been
installed.
Norton's Anti-Virus - Updated and found nothing.
cache and history files are cleaned out along with all cookies.
Symantec - Trojan.Qhosts removal tool ran and found nothing.
I had both Ad-Aware & Spybot, and have run them through several times.
Spybot found and got rid of something called "slawsearch"
Still cannot get to ://www.google.com. I have also noticed that I
cannot get to http://altavista.com, BUT I can load up and use
http://ca.altavista.com. Yahoo works, MSN Search works, Even the
search bar on Fox News works and that uses Google.
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Request for Question Clarification by
taxmama-ga
on
06 Oct 2003 22:46 PDT
Hi Oldboarder,
OK, you've done you're checks and cleaning.
Now, wait 24 hours and see what happens.
Don't ask me why, but it took that long for
my computer to be able to get back its ability
to see Google.
Incidentally, I got my help from Serenata-ga.
So, stay with her for guidance on this.
Best wishes,
Your TaxMama-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
06 Oct 2003 22:49 PDT
Hi Oldboarder ~
The 'slawsearch' reference is a help. What happens is AdAware and
Spybot are not getting rid of all of the hijackware/malware, and
everytime you start your computer, it reloads.
Here is some more information about it, and yes, it redirects your
google.com searches.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/cws/
You might try running AdAware in safemode, a techie associate of mine
did that this morning to rid a computer of the malware.
Serenata
|
Clarification of Question by
oldboarder-ga
on
08 Oct 2003 21:37 PDT
Ok Serenata I think I've got it. I ran Ad-Aware in safe-mode – No
Help. I downloaded and ran CWShredder – No Help. Your link to
spywareinfo.com/articles/cws/ had a reference to a fix tool called
“HighJackThis”. I downloaded and ran this and found that a whole
bunch of web addresses had been redirected to 270.44.220.30. That was
it. The fix took care of it. I rebooted a couple of times to make
sure the bug didn’t rewrite again at start up.
Serenata, how much of a techie are you? The log files that
“HighJachThis” generates are quite interesting. There are more items
listed that might need attention. I only fixed the ones that referred
to the web addresses because I strongly suspected that this was my
problem. Would you be interested in seeing these before and after
files?
Do you have to file an official “answer” in order to get paid for this
advice? Do so if you need to, the link was worth the $12. I learned
a lot dealing with this bug, Thanks
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