[christmasirwin]

hello,my brothers laptop wont open search engine sites like google,bing and yahoo.if i type the ip address on google the page loads and i can web search but if i type in the url(www.google.ie)it wont load.any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi christmasirwin,

Sorry for the delay. Could you please tell me what browsers and their versions are installed on the laptop? If more than just IE have you tried to access those search engines through one of the other browser? Are you having trouble accessing other sites at all or is it just the ones you mentioned?

Have you tried to clear out the browser(s) cache and cookies?

In the following link you will find directions on how to clear out the cache and cookies in the most commonly used browsers.

Clearing cache and cookies

Let me know if this helps either way.

If no success after clearing out the cache and cookies, please elaborate on just what you have tried to get access to those search engine sites. The more you tell me, the more we'll have to work with in finding you a solution.

Thank you,

[DonnaB]

Hi christmasirwin,

Sorry for the delay. Could you please tell me what browsers and their versions are installed on the laptop? If more than just IE have you tried to access those search engines through one of the other browser? Are you having trouble accessing other sites at all or is it just the ones you mentioned?

Have you tried to clear out the browser(s) cache and cookies?

In the following link you will find directions on how to clear out the cache and cookies in the most commonly used browsers.

Clearing cache and cookies

Let me know if this helps either way.

If no success after clearing out the cache and cookies, please elaborate on just what you have tried to get access to those search engine sites. The more you tell me, the more we'll have to work with in finding you a solution.

Thank you,

[christmasirwin]

Hi DonnaB thanks for the reply.Im using IE9 and Mozilla Firefox 5.I have cleared the cache and cookies on both browsers but its still the same.i have run malwarebytes and microsoft security essentials as i thought it might be a virus.i have checked my windows firewall but those sites are not blocked.When i type http://74.125.230.112/ google works fine but if i type www.google.ie the page wont load.

[DonnaB]

Can you access other sites?

What happens if you type in the IP for google and drag and drop the shortcut to the desktop? Can you access via the shortcut?

Are there any types of Parental Controls that could be blocking the sites?

Has he installed any new programs just before this occurred?

When did this first start happening, when the browsers were upgraded to IE9 and Firefox 5? Try reverting back to the last browsers that were accessing the sites.

You could even try a System Restore back to that time.

I still use Firefox 3.6.18 because there were issues with Firefox 4 and 5 on some systems. Just download Firefox 3.6.18 from here and it will over write version 5 and keep all your settings as is.

Same with IE9. I had issues with that too. But to revert back to IE8 you'll have to do the following:

Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features > Click on View installed updates in left pane under Tasks then search and right click to uninstall.

Now assuming the laptop is Vista or Win7 the above may work. If you have XP I personally wouldn't use IE9 at all.

Beings this is both browsers, sounds like it may be an OS issue and not a browser issue, but let me know if those ideas help at all and please let me know exactly what you tried from my suggestions above to eliminate possibilities and if they worked or not. Other members may have some ideas as well. Please stay tuned.

[christmasirwin]

hi.I got more info from him.He said he clicked on a link from google search and he said a virus popped up and microsoft security essentials took care of it.He also has malwarebytes running with a free trial for the full program and that may have blocked it.As for connecting to other sites yes i can connect to other sites with no problem except for yahoo,i can access the site and sign into emails but cant do a web search.He has no parental controls runnng.He had firefox 4 and IE8 i upgraded to firefox 5 and IE9 but have downgraded to the browsers you suggested.I cant do a system restore as it does not give me a date to before when all this happened.I put a shortcut on desktop of google.ie it did not connect and i put shortcut of http://74.125.230.112/ but it worked and searches fine.

Edited by christmasirwin, 01 August 2011 - 08:46 AM.

[christmasirwin]

hi.I got more info from him.He said he clicked on a link from google search and he said a virus popped up and microsoft security essentials took care of it.He also has malwarebytes running with a free trial for the full program and that may have blocked it.As for connecting to other sites yes i can connect to other sites with no problem except for yahoo,i can access the site and sign into emails but cant do a web search.He has no parental controls runnng.He had firefox 4 and IE8 i upgraded to firefox 5 and IE9 but have downgraded to the browsers you suggested.I cant do a system restore as it does not give me a date to before when all this happened.I put a shortcut of google.ie on desktop and did not connect and i put a shortcut of http://74.125.230.112/ and it worked fine and seaches with no problems.

[DonnaB]

Ok. We need to verify that we are working with a clean machine. I'd like for you to take the time and have the laptop looked at by one of our professionals in the removal forum.

Please read thoroughly and follow the instructions in the following link:

Malware and Spyware Cleaning Guide

Then start a new topic in our removal forum as pointed out in Step 3. that you will find in the link above. If you'd like to place a link to this thread, please do so.

Thank you,

Donna