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Firefox 11 - Problem loading www.google.com "The server at www.google.com is taking too long to respond" - Also seems to cause problems searching from within other websites as firefox attempts to connect to google.com. No problems with IE 8????

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  • Last reply by michael2310

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Firefox 11 - Problem loading www.google.com "The server at www.google.com is taking too long to respond" - Also seems to cause problems searching from within other websites as firefox attempts to connect to google.com. No problems with IE 8????

Firefox 11 - Problem loading www.google.com "The server at www.google.com is taking too long to respond" - Also seems to cause problems searching from within other websites as firefox attempts to connect to google.com. No problems with IE 8????

Chosen solution

My apologies. Neither IE 8 or Firefox 11 could load Google.com. I replaced the hosts file with a new one as per instructions on Microsoft KB article 972034. This seems to have resolved the issue.

Many thanks for your help.

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Hi,

Please check if this happens in a new profile. If the new profile is okay, you can later copy the needed personal data from the old profile. Firefox stores your personal data and settings in another location (profile folder) separate from its files/folder. A new profile would have the default Firefox settings (Tools (Alt + T) > Options, and about:config ), and usually would also be empty of any Extensions and themes (Appearance) in Tools > Add-ons) and their settings. Also, a new profile would have no previous stored website data/settings etc., (Tools > Clear Recent History).

Profiles Howto

Profile Folder & Files

about:config Entries

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Thanks Vivek. Unfortunately, the problem persists with a new profile. Hopefully the next update to Firefox 11 may resolve the issue.

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A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

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Chosen Solution

My apologies. Neither IE 8 or Firefox 11 could load Google.com. I replaced the hosts file with a new one as per instructions on Microsoft KB article 972034. This seems to have resolved the issue.

Many thanks for your help.

Modified by michael2310

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Did you check the content of the hosts file to see which sites were blocked?

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The suspect entries in the malfunctioning Hosts file were as follows:

87.229.126.50 www.google.com

87.229.126.51 www.bing.com

Modified by michael2310

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That is an IP in Hungary.

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Any suggestions as to how it got into my Hosts file?

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Possibly done by malware.

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

See also:

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Will do. Many thanks. I have been using Windows XP with AVG Anti-virus for years, and Malwarebytes more recently. Thankfully, this is the first time one of my computers seems to have been affected by something like this.