[Josh07039]

A couple of days ago, for no apparent reason I was unable to view certain pages, facebook, yahoo, and a variety of other pages. My homepage is the firefox google page and that shows up but when i try to make a search the page will not load. I have tried updating firefox, getting the new service pack for xp, doing spyware/virus scans with AVG and trendmicro and have tried to use internet explorer to see if it is merely a firefox problem, but nothing works. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[feh1325]

system restore?

 

[krmathis]

A fresh Firefox profile should do the trick...

 

[VeipaCray]

Google home page is probably cached. Did you accidentally enable a proxy server that doesn't exist? I'd agree with Krmathis...a fresh browser profle... see what happens.

Also... I'm sure you checked... but to be 100% certain... Is your internet connection still working? Do you have a valid IP address for your network / service providers network? Sometimes if you have a DHCP address and the lease expires, your OS/router may not have renewed a new address or a new lease. If you have a home router...reboot it (unless you know how to manually refresh the IP).

Ping and traceroute are your friend.

 

[Josh07039]

Uhm Im positive i have an internet connection because im on this site right now and am connected to aim. As for a new firefox profile, how do i do that?

 

[Josh07039]

I also tried unplugging my router and plugging it back in with no effect. And I tried uninstalling Firefox fully and reinstalling with no results as well. Additionally, I figured out how to create a new Firefox profile which also did nothing. Any other suggestions?

 

[tru\head]

it's most likely your connection. the only thing you can change on your end other than resetting your modem and router is your DNS servers which affect how fast websites resolve (the part when you enter a URL and it is "looking up" the website). sometimes the default DNS servers your ISP is using are sluggish which causes pages not to load even though your connection is valid (comcast for example).

Go to Control Panel>Network Connections and select your local network.
Click Properties, then select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
Click Properties.

You will see a window like the one below - this is the Internet Protocol window. Select "Use the following DNS server addresses" and enter the desired DNS server(s) in the space(s) provided. Try using "4.2.2.1" and "4.2.2.2" which are very reliable ones located in the western US. If you don't live in the US then forget it.

 

[Josh07039]

I tried that, and it made no difference. I just want to thank everyone for the suggestions so far and hope that the well hasn't yet run dry.

 

[Huckster]

There's some tricky viruses that mess with your DNS settings. It can reroute webpages, but usually doesn't block them. Just make sure you dont have a virus, do a deep scan.

 

[aaron313]

I just had my own vista issue. FFox kept not responding, and then Foobar did the same. I tried the ol' restart trick, but that failed, and the computer would not start. So I busted out System Restore. The computer would not start, and SR diagnosed the problem. Now everything is fine. I think the problem was tied into the Windows Update that had occurred shortly before the problems started. But honestly, who the Hell knows with this ****ing OS?