Unable to connect to google.com

Bev478 · 15-07-2011, 23:58

Hi all. Tonight I tried to access my emails, as usual, & as I have been doing happily for months/years!

I have bookmarked the log in pages for yahoo mail, google mail & virgin & just open these with one click into tabs.

Yahoo loaded as normal, but both virgin & google threw up an "unable to connect" message.

I have tried: deleting cookies, deleting browser history, run spybot, ccleaner, done a scan with AVG. I tried uninstalling Firefox & reinstalling (3.6.19 - I didn't like 4) but this problem is also with IE. I also tried disabling av & firewall temporarily with no joy.

I've restarted the pc, the modem & the router, did flushdns & kicked it the pc, but still no luck. I can walk across the room & access them both from the laptop. Nothing unusual happened last night - I checked emails, browsed the internet & shut down as normal, without any changes being made to the system (by me).

I would greatly appreciate any ideas. Running XP SP3 on a fairly newly built pc.

Bev

DaiNasty · 16-07-2011, 07:22

It sounds like you've tried about everything, including the obligatory kick.

If the problem still exists I'd try the following:

1: ping test. open a CMD window and do 'ping google.com' (without the quotes)
If that resolves and pings successfully then your DNS is working ok.

If that is successful another possibility is a hijack/infection of some sort that has blocked access. So..

2: Run a scan with Malwarebytes Anti-malware.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Good luck.

Nopanic · 16-07-2011, 11:34

Completely agree with DaiNasty, sounds like an infection ..

Have a look at the DNS setting on you PC ..

Some time programs set this ..

Here a step by step for XP, pretty much the same for all M$ OS's

http://portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm

Bev478 · 16-07-2011, 19:38

Thank you both for replying.

Now I am really p****d off with computers. I spent a whole evening trying different ways of accessing my email accounts, uninstalling/reinstalling programs, virus checking, researching on the internet..............booted up this evening all ready to install a drive image I had taken just after building the computer, to find everything working perfectly

I very nearly kicked it again

I'm not really complaining, but would love to know why it wouldn't connect to those 2 email sites - although I think Virgin mail is now a form of google mail???? It must be linked in some way.

Mind you - at least I found this forum as a result of this, so it's not all bad

Thanks again.

Bev

DaiNasty · 16-07-2011, 21:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bev478

I'm not really complaining, but would love to know why it wouldn't connect to those 2 email sites - although I think Virgin mail is now a form of google mail???? It must be linked in some way.

You're right. Google provides the Virgin email service now so I'd guess it was a temporary error at their end.

Glad to hear it's working now. And welcome to the forums Bev.

jamiefrost · 16-07-2011, 22:26

Someone at work had this same problem.

For future reference
I eventually found that something had changed the host file,blocking access to gail and virgin mail.

Anyway glad it's all fixed

J

Bev478 · 16-07-2011, 23:46

Thanks guys.

I didn't think it was a problem at their end as I could access my accounts from my laptop, & access anywhere else on the internet on my pc, just not those 2 sites. I kinda wish I had been able to resolve it myself in case it happens again!

DaiNasty · 17-07-2011, 07:30

It may be worth spending some time comparing settings on the two machines. Any difference in email or TCP/IP settings may give a clue.

Bev478 · 17-07-2011, 20:37

That seems sensible. I will make a note of what I think are the relevant settings & will hopefully notice if anything changes - if this ever happens again!

Although, stupidly, the one thing I didn't do on the evening in question, was compare the 2 machines

Bev478 · 26-07-2011, 18:55

It's happened again. Have been away for a couple of days, came home, booted up & can't check my Virgin or gmail accounts. Comes up with Connection Timed Out. Other sites are working ok (except for a couple of games on FB) so back to square one. I could just wait 'til tomorrow when it will probably be ok again

Would be nice to try & sort it tho'. Would someone please give me an idea of the most appropriate/likely settings to check & possibly where to find them!!

Just to reiterate: the troublesome one is running XP SP3 & the laptop is Windows 7.

Much appreciated