Can't get to real Twitter website
July 17, 2010 6:47 PM   Subscribe

When I type in the twitter.com website URL, someone's personal blogger web page comes up but it still says twitter.com in the URL. This has been happening for about a week or so--what's going on here? Help please.
posted by sandra194 to Computers & Internet (25 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Just out of curiosity, try copying and pasting this into the URL instead:

http://twitter.com

It could be that you accidentally mistyped the address a week ago, and now, when you start typing it, your browser is filling in the mistyped version instead.
posted by 2oh1 at 6:50 PM on July 17, 2010


Response by poster: nope...still got someone's "about me" blogger page
posted by sandra194 at 6:52 PM on July 17, 2010


If you go to google (or yahoo, or any other search engine) and type in "twitter," and then click on the twitter link, do you still go to the wrong page?
posted by scody at 6:53 PM on July 17, 2010


What link are you being sent to? Where do you eventually end up? That could be a very useful piece of information here.
posted by 2oh1 at 6:58 PM on July 17, 2010


Googling around, I see a lot of references to ridirect and frame viruses related to twitter. If you are running Windows, you might have been hacked.
posted by DU at 7:00 PM on July 17, 2010


That happened to me a while back -- I kept getting some guy's MySpace page! The same sort of thing happened when I tried to get to Facebook, although some other wrong page came up. Rebooting helped, but only for a while. Turned out the problem was with my new Linksys router! I don't know enough to understand or explain what happened, but I had terrible customer service from Linksys ("We are aware of the problem and you'll just have to be patient!") so I returned the router and bought a Netgear router -- problem solved! Good luck.
posted by wisekaren at 7:16 PM on July 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: the router! oh no! my router isn't new--had it for year or so

I am being sent to someone's 2007 blogger website--a personal page with their pictures and blog posts. but it says "Blogger page not found" on the top of their page.
posted by sandra194 at 7:29 PM on July 17, 2010


Response by poster: I have also tried typing twitter into a search engine and click on the link from the results--still goes to that old blogger page
posted by sandra194 at 7:30 PM on July 17, 2010


Try a different web browser.
posted by empath at 7:32 PM on July 17, 2010


Response by poster: yep tried firefox and IE --same thing happened
posted by sandra194 at 7:37 PM on July 17, 2010


What is the contents of: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts ?

And yes, try a different browser.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 7:43 PM on July 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, so this is gonna be process of elimination.

Try all of the following:

Disconnect your router and connect it directly to the modem.

Try a different computer.

Try changing the DNS server on your computer to 8.8.8.8 (google's DNS)

Try clearing the history on your browser.

Try rebooting your modem, router and computer in that order.
posted by empath at 7:46 PM on July 17, 2010


Can you access Twitter using the direct IP?

http://128.242.240.20/
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:49 PM on July 17, 2010


Response by poster: nope, tried using the direct IP didn't work.

I will try disconnecting and rebooting router, modem and computer
posted by sandra194 at 7:57 PM on July 17, 2010


Is it windows?

    Start -> run -> cmd

At the c:\...> prompt, enter:

    ipconfig /flushdns

Restart any open webbrowsers and try again.
posted by jeffamaphone at 8:29 PM on July 17, 2010


Can you tell us what the name of the site is you keep getting redirected to? At least that might shed some light as to whether it is a hijack or something.
posted by Elminster24 at 8:43 PM on July 17, 2010


People asking for the name of the site should re-read the part of the question that says that the URL shown in the browser still shows twitter.com for a site that manifestly isn't twitter.com.
posted by flabdablet at 4:39 AM on July 18, 2010


And if using the IP address directly didn't work, this is unlikely to be a DNS issue. It's most likely a redirection being done by malware.

Try restarting your computer, then repeatedly tapping the F8 key as it comes up, until you see the advanced startup options menu from which you should select Safe Mode with Networking. Your screen may end up looking coarser than usual (wrong resolution) - that's normal. Try browsing to twitter.com again.

If Twitter is still being redirected even in Safe Mode with Networking, malware has messed up Windows' inbuilt networking system. You can fix that by opening a CMD window (Start->Run->cmd, or Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt) and entering

netsh winsock reset

and pressing Enter; then restart your computer and go back into Safe Mode with Networking.

If you now get to Twitter, but you still can't do that after booting Windows normally, then you're being actively redirected by malware that starts like a normal Windows program. Doing a malware scan in Safe Mode with Networking should fix it (Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a pretty good tool for this).
posted by flabdablet at 4:50 AM on July 18, 2010 [1 favorite]


@flabdablet
People asking people to reread that part of the question should reread what said people actually wrote.

I wasn't asking for the URL--it was very clear he was only seeing Twitter.com. I very specifically asked for the NAME of the site. All the OP says is "someone's personal blogger web page." If he can tell us the name of the blog, a quick Google search should turn it up allowing us to tie a URL to it and more importantly, see if there are any signs of shady activity on it for those of us who know how to investigate such things.
posted by Elminster24 at 8:07 AM on July 18, 2010


Response by poster: ok, so I rebooted my computer and the router, now this is what I get when I try to go to twitter.com

Invalid URL
The requested URL "/", is invalid.

Reference #9.d7ea8acf.1279470425.44eabd6
posted by sandra194 at 9:28 AM on July 18, 2010


PSA: Since this is looking more involved, you may get faster and more targeted help here.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:19 AM on July 18, 2010


Can you download hijackthis and run it and paste the results here?
posted by empath at 10:21 AM on July 18, 2010


OP: You still havent posted in regards to which site you were being redirected. It really would help to diagnose the problem.
posted by Justinian at 2:55 PM on July 18, 2010


Elminster24: thanks for that clarification and yes, that's a good idea. For your information, though, I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who thinks of the URL as the site's name and the page title as its page title.
posted by flabdablet at 5:09 PM on July 18, 2010


Seconding wisekaren: if you're connecting through a Linksys/Cisco WRT160N router, you may be experiencing this problem. I had this problem and eventually fixed it by installing DD-WRT.
posted by The Tensor at 12:04 AM on July 21, 2010


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