Death of Google not exaggerated?

December 26, 2008 5:25 AM

Sitting in a hotel room using the hotel internet connection and cannot access any Google sites. Any other site seems to come up fine. Doubt it's a problem with the hotel network or router as I'm using OpenDNS.

If I try to ping google.com, I get a normal IP address response and a normal time response - when I try www.google.com (or mail.... or analytics...) the DOS prompt returns an IP address of 0.0.0.1 and a time out.

Sorry of this has been asked before, but for the obvious reasons, I cannot search previous questions.

posted by Expat to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Response by poster: Should have added: running XP SP2 and that if I reboot, Google does come up - for a few brief moments, so I suspect the problem is on my machine (semi-locked down company laptop.)
posted by Expat at 5:31 AM on December 26, 2008

Check your hosts file. It should be in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc. Just open it with a text editor; it doesn't have an extension and you shouldn't give it one.

If google is listed there, delete the entry. If that's the problem, changing that file and restarting your browser should do the trick. But because google will appear even briefly, I suspect the real issue may lie elsewhere.

Still worth a shot though.
posted by valkyryn at 5:33 AM on December 26, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks valkyryn, should also have added that I've already checked the hosts file - nada. Only entries are the defaults Windows puts in.
posted by Expat at 5:36 AM on December 26, 2008

What response do you get when you go to www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com?
posted by seymour.skinner at 5:49 AM on December 26, 2008

Can you reach it through the IP: http://74.125.95.99/?
posted by seymour.skinner at 5:57 AM on December 26, 2008

Response by poster: Seymour, Down for Everyone says it's just me. Using the IP address brings up the Google search page, but if I type a search query, I just get "waiting for www.google.com" in Firefox. Same result in IE too, so it doesn't appear to be a FF problem.
posted by Expat at 6:04 AM on December 26, 2008

Am guessing you have malware, something that's going to prevent you from researching it by cutting off your search engine access.

Can you get to security software sites, like Symantec or McAfee?

Can you download and run HijackThis? http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html
posted by chengjih at 6:17 AM on December 26, 2008

Have you tried flushing your DNS cache? Type ipconfig /flushdns at the command prompt.
posted by COD at 6:20 AM on December 26, 2008

Try not using OpenDNS.
posted by Nelson at 8:00 AM on December 26, 2008

Best answer: Check it out: it seems that OpenDNS hijacks Google. Try using a DNS service that doesn't hijack your connection; 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 are two open nameservers that ought to work and won't do weird redirects.
posted by kdar at 9:08 AM on December 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

Expat: "Sorry of this has been asked before, but for the obvious reasons, I cannot search previous questions."

I'm a bit Google-dependent too, but there are other search engines out there. Yahoo, for instance, uses the same site search operator Google does, so if you want to search previous AskMe posts just use site:ask.metafilter.com connect google sites. You can also use Mefi's tagging system -- here's the page for Google-related questions.

seymour.skinner: "What response do you get when you go to www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com?"

That site is crap. I've tried it before, and it gives out false positives, false negatives, and that incredibly irritating "Huh? doesn't look like a site on the interwho" message regularly. Almost randomly. I wouldn't trust it at all.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:14 AM on December 26, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks all for the comments and help. Seems it isn't malware, but something OpenDNS is doing. Funny, I haven't seen this at home in Germany.
posted by Expat at 6:30 PM on December 26, 2008

I do not recommend OpenDNS. Their business model is to get in between you and your intended destination.
posted by gen at 6:38 PM on December 26, 2008

Funny, I haven't seen this at home in Germany.

OpenDNS probably isn't hijacking google.de. Seriously, as gen says, OpenDNS is not good technology. Stay away from it.
posted by Nelson at 8:19 AM on December 27, 2008

It's worth a direct link to the rationale that OpenDNS has for doing this. You may or may not agree with whether it's a good idea, and you may not believe that they're not doing anything malicious, but they do have a reasoned and open answer for why they do it.
posted by Caviar at 10:55 AM on December 28, 2008