Posted: 10/7/2008 7:44:48 PM EDT
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My computer just had an incident. It is the same thing that happened to my parents computer a month or two ago. I was posting on ARFCOM and links to youtube and other sites started to have trouble loading. I closed the browser and reopened it. The internet would not work. It kept going to a "Page can not be displayed" screen. Email didn't work either. I restarted the computer, restarted the modem, ran Malware Bytes and Spybot, attempted a system restore, and continued to try to connect after troubleshooting in that order. No internet page would load except Google and occasionally the homepage. If I googled, let's say Brownells, it would not connect me to the page. If I typed www.brownells.com in the browser address bar manually it also would go to "Page can not be displayed" or straight to a Google page with results for a Brownells google search. Ironically enough it just started back working for no reason. My parents computer did the same thing for a week and had to eventually be restored to factory settings to start back working normally and it ran fine. Absolutely no changes were made to any firewall or security settings on either computer. This did not come from porn or downloading music or movies. That is a 100% certainty. Is there some kind of new Google glitch causing this kind of problem? |
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Sounds like maybe DNS updating? Edit: Quick Google search: Link And yeah, it could just be your ISP crapping out. It happens frequently with Charter here in MO. It'll just die for a few hours every few months. Also, do you have any cables underground or exposed outside? Was it raining? |
What does that mean and why would it cause my parents computer to lock up for a week straight and open nothing but Google? We even contacted the internet provider and they verified their modem was getting a signal and was working normally. |
I edited, see above. I'll Google a bit more and post if I find anything interesting. If you have other hardware, it would help to test that out too, e.g. get a different modem and laptop and hook those up. There's just so much it could be that you just gotta throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Link |
I contacted the ISP at my parents house and they verified it wasn't the modem. I took their computer to my BIL who is an IT guy. He was stumped. We had to return it to factory settings and reload all the software for my parents computer to start working again. That was last month and now my computer did it about 4 hours ago. Then magically it started back working. The modem was fine and linked Google right up. |
IE, XP home, no router, just a desktop computer and modem. I don't have laptops, wireless, any attachments other than a printer, or anything else out of the ordinary. My parents were using DSL and I am using cable. We are both fairly fast. |
| Your ISP was crapping out - either packet loss, or DNS server availability. They do maintenance, and have outages.... and often lie, or dont know about them when you call. MY FIOS does the same thing every once in a while. Generally - give it 5 minutes and it's fine. |
Why would it always be able to load Google and why would typing any normally valid www address in the address bar take me to a Google search results page of the website I typed in? Also, why would my parents computer be down for a week and then magically work the instant we restored it to factory preset conditions? |
ISP caching, or your local DNS cache keeping that IP, or routing issues where google happened to work.
Theirs was likely a PC side issue then.... and not related to your issue. |
My parents and I do not use the same ISP. I was typing in www.anywebsite.com and it was always going to Google. When I clicked on the Google links to www.anywebsite.com or a sub category of the website it could not be displayed. |
This. Seeing certain pages - particuarly start-up pages - does not indicate any connectivity whatsoever, especially with browsers set up for heavy caching, like Opera can be. Always check connectivity through pinging. Attempt pings to major known URLs - if the hostname cannot be resolved at all, then it is either a complete lack of activity OR a DNS availability issue. If the hostname is resolved, but there are no replies, this may indicate a broken connection. However, this depends on who you're pinging, as many will block ping requests and not reply. You can get a more conclusive answer if the hostname for one URL is resolved, but another is not - this would immediately indicate a DNS availability issue. Since it sounds like you have a basic setup, you're probably running DHCP. If it is a DNS issue, you may be able to resolve it by rebooting your OS and performing a hard reset on the router or modem. If the distributing DHCP server isn't keeping up with current DNS listings, then this won't fix anything; but if it is (they usually do), you should be able to acquire the new DNS addresses after restarting your equipment. Of course, if you're set up on your own behind a router, you can just modify the DNS addresses manually. If you're really lucky, you still have a DNS listing for one of the websites out there that actually lists the "best" DNS addresses for your local ISP at that time. |
try removing the google toolbar and google desktop search. i bet it will start working consistantly again. other problems i've seen the google cause is extremely slow page transitions and slow loading IE, and virusscan updates not downloading. the problems will appear and disappear without any reason, but all caused by the damn google add-ons. |
I actually did remove a Google toolbar from theirs and reset the desktop search to livesearch or something similar and Google was still in control. I have never had a Google toolbar on my computer. |
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fdisk - the great PC problem solver. Is it plugged in? Is everything plugged in? Is the power on at your house? just kidding. I use Qwest DSL and it sometimes drops out for a while. But from what you say I don't think that's it. If it's a problem that is getting progressively worse, it's more than likely something on the PC itself. If a system restore fixed it at your parent's place, that's an indication of a PC problem, not a connectivity issue. Look for common use patterns between you and parents. I bet there's something there that's causing the issue. Disclaimer: This post certified virus, spyware, and malware free. No other guarantees are made or implied. |
ehhh maybe. OP to rule out DNS try this next time it only goes to google. In the address bar (where you would normally type www.google.com) type the following numbers up to the "-" mark: 69.95.2.67 - (AR15 / Jobrelated stuff's IP) Does the jobrelated stuff (ar15.com) load? 66.28.209.219 - (Drudge report's page) Does drudge's page load? Ping is a tool that in short, finds out if your PC can see another place/pc. Remember the Submarine movies the captains would send a 'ping' to echo locate the other sub? Similar idea. Your PC sends out a signal that asks the other computer/site "Are you alive?" Try this as 'ping' test - Click Start > Run > type "cmd" No quotes and click ok. - A little black window will open up - Inside that black window type : - "ping drudgereport.com" Again, no quotes. You should see something like: >ping drudgereport.com Pinging drudgereport.com [66.28.209.219] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 66.28.209.219: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=45 Reply from 66.28.209.219: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=45 Reply from 66.28.209.219: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=45 Reply from 66.28.209.219: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=45 Ping statistics for 66.28.209.219: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 90ms, Maximum = 95ms, |
sorta- if you can ping a website, you are connected to the internet, but the page isn't loading (for whatever reason-DNS/ISP/WTFE), if you can't ping- you aren't connected. type ping www.google.com from a command line or 'DOS' screen to test. it's either a 'reply'  or 'request timed out'  |
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DNS flush.............................I would change the host file and have Gayporn come up every time my roomate would try to go to, his fav porn site. the host file tells what IP # = XXXXX.com so when you type in XXXXX.com, instead of the dns finding the ip # it would use the one I told it to be. The good old days, he stop watch porn on my PC
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