Can only access websites thru links/favourites?

[Fix The Stupid]

Hi,

Hoping someone can help with this..never seen it before.

I have an old laptop running XP...this thing was bulletproof, never had an issue.

So, I fire it up on the week-end to do some online browsing and the weirdest thing keeps happening...

My homepage is "google.ca" - when I click on any internet programs ( I have chrome, firefox and IE on this machine), it will not display the home page - get that stupid "cannot connect error"...

If I go to the address bar and type in any website - same error pops up...

But, if I click on a link in my 'favourites" folder, no problem - goes right to the website.

So, I logged onto DU to try their Google search engine - Same error pops up?

It's like my computer will not access any search engines and anything I type in the address bar will not work either?

WTF?

I tried it with the "www", without the "www"...I'm at a loss.

Thanks

[steve2470]

1. done a malware scan lately ? nt

[SecularMotion]

2. Have you tried clearing your browser history?

The home page and address bar will check your history before connecting to a website. There may be a previous connection error in your history that keeps coming up. Connecting through your bookmarks may bypass the browser history.

[JBoy]

3. Are you able to get to websites through another search engine?

If I'm reading your post right, you're having trouble getting to sites resulting from a google search. What about another search engine, like yahoo.com or bing.com?

[RC]

4. Clear your cache, too.

Tools > Options > Advanced Click on 'Clear Now'

[Fix The Stupid]

5. Thanx for the replies :)

I am going to to try the following per the advice given here:

1) Clear cache, cookies, history etc.
2) Full system malware/virus scan

I'll touch back tomorrow and let all know if we get lucky

Thanks again.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. Start > run...

...in the run dialog type "cmd" and the <OK> button.

This will display a DOS window.

In the DOS window type "ping google.ca"


You should see something like this:

Pinging google.ca [74.125.228.56] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 74.125.228.56: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.228.56: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.228.56: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.228.56: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 74.125.228.56:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 19ms, Average = 16ms

If you see:

Ping request could not find host google.ca. Please check the name and try again.

...then your pc probably doesn't have an internet connection.