Google unavailable on my pc

[Mike O'sullivan]

I use Windows 2000 pro. Till recently I've normally used Google for
searching. However, for the past week I haven't been able to load it. On the
rare occasions I've been able to load the home page, searching only brings
up the "page unavailable" message. I should mention that all other search
engines work fine, Yahoo, Altavista, Dogpile etc, but not Google. I'm aware
that this problem is not universal, and that other usedrs find Google works,
but not me. What can it possibly be about my pc which stops me being able to
use Google?

 

[Ray at]

Your HOSTS file was probably hijacked by a virus/worm type thing. Open a
command prompt (cmd.exe) and enter this:

type %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

If you see something that doesn't look like this:

<begin>
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
</end>

Like, if you see entries other than just localhost (ignore the lines that
start with #) that don't look like they should be there, i.e. one that says
google.com, you have a hijacked HOSTS. Enter this at the command prompt to
fix the issue:

echo 127.0.0.1>%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts


That will overwrite your exists messed-up file with new contents.

Ray at work

 

[Mike O'sullivan]

Thanks a lot Ray. I'll assimilate that and try it tomorrow. Will report
back.

 

[Zak Nemo]

Both,

I've had problems similar to Mike's with Google. Sometimes it works, other
times I get v slow response or timed out on text and image searches. I've
checked the HOSTS file details as Ray recommends but mine looks exactly as
it should - no references to anything other than localhost. Any more ideas,
other than changing to Yahoo permanently instead of Google?

Zak

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Try deleting cookies and offline files in your browser. That is often
the cause of frequently visited pages not opening, too.

Steve