# what's wrong with Google? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465 "2009-08-24T04:32:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/1 "2009-08-24T04:32:19Z")
I use Firefox and have Google as my home page. Starting 2 hours ago it won’t let me open to it. It keeps timing out. I’ve been forced to use Ask Jeeves as a search engine. Anyone know what the problem is? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/2 "2009-08-24T04:35:11Z")
Works fine for me, have you changed anything recently? Have you tried clearing your history/cookies/temp files to see if it fixes it? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/3 "2009-08-24T04:40:19Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Works fine for me, have you changed anything recently? Have you tried clearing your history/cookies/temp files to see if it fixes it? Did all of this. Didn’t work. It simply won’t load. I even searched for Google on Jeeves, then clicked on the result and it won’t open. I then used Internet Explorer rather than Firefox, and Google won’t open on there either. WTF?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/4 "2009-08-24T04:42:40Z")
Try this: [http://64.233.187.99/](http://64.233.187.99/) And tell me if it works. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/5 "2009-08-24T04:48:22Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Try this: > [http://64.233.187.99/](http://64.233.187.99/) > > And tell me if it works. It opens up to the Google home page, but doesn’t do anything when I attempt to use it. It won’t search for anything, the news bar doesn’t work, etc.. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/6 "2009-08-24T04:51:22Z")
Hmm… sounds like a DNS issue then. Assuming you’re in Windows - Go into the command prompt (in XP go to run and type cmd, in Vista or above you can just type cmd in the search part on the start menu). Type: ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /registerdns (\<-- this one probably isn’t necessary, but I like to do it anyway). If this doesn’t work I have one more idea. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/7 "2009-08-24T04:59:04Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Hmm… sounds like a DNS issue then. > > Assuming you’re in Windows - > > Go into the command prompt (in XP go to run and type cmd, in Vista or above you can just type cmd in the search part on the start menu). > > Type: > ipconfig /release > ipconfig /renew > ipconfig /flushdns > ipconfig /registerdns (\<– this one probably isn’t necessary, but I like to do it anyway). > > If this doesn’t work I have one more idea. What was that supposed to do? I got a message that said _“the requested operation requires elevation”._ ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/8 "2009-08-24T05:03:27Z")
I _think_ that means you don’t have admin privileges, or at least aren’t allowed to do that. Doing that should reset your DNS resolver cache, meaning fix the error that is causing “[http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com)” to go to the wrong/no ip. The release/renew probably wouldn’t do anything, but I always like to do it since sometimes it solves problems for no good reason. My only other idea, which may not work depending on where you are - Open c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc (note, that’s actually the directory, there is a folder called “etc” I’m not abbreviating that) And create a file called “localhost” (no file extension), open it with notepad and make the following entry ```auto 127.0.0.1 localhost ::1 localhost ``` But if you have no admin privs you may not be able to access that directory in which case I defer to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/9 "2009-08-24T05:05:23Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I _think_ that means you don’t have admin privileges, or at least aren’t allowed to do that. Any idea why/how did that happen? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/10 "2009-08-24T05:05:55Z")
Can you search using Yahoo, Bing, Ask Jeeves, etc., but not Google? If so, then the problem may not be you but Google. > [@pkbites](#): > > Any idea why/how did that happen? Why O/S and version are you using? If Windows, are you logged in as Administrator, or an account with admin privileges? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/11 "2009-08-24T05:12:38Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Any idea why/how did that happen? If you’re on Vista (or Windows 7) and logged in as an administrator try the following: Type cmd into the search bar as before, BUT instead of just pressing enter right click on the icon you see under “programs” that says “cmd.exe” and select “Run As Administrator” and try it. If you have physical access to the network it also wouldn’t hurt to do a standard hardware reset - 1. Unplug your modem and router 2. Plug in your modem 3. Wait for your modem to fully boot up 4. Plug in router Edit: It’s also possible you have malware installed that specifically blocks Google. Try downloading [Malware Bytes](http://www.malwarebytes.org/) and seeing if you can clean anything up and if it works afterwords if none of the other solutions work. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/12 "2009-08-24T05:20:39Z")
[quote=“Jragon, post:11, topic:507465”] If you’re on Vista (or Windows 7) and logged in as an administrator try the following: Type cmd into the search bar as before, BUT instead of just pressing enter right click on the icon you see under “programs” that says “cmd.exe” and select “Run As Administrator” and try it./QUOTE] And then what? A black/white command box pops up. What should I type in? > [@Jragon](#): > > Edit: It’s also possible you have malware installed that specifically blocks Google. Try downloading [Malware Bytes](http://www.malwarebytes.org/) and seeing if you can clean anything up and if it works afterwords if none of the other solutions work. I ran spy sweeper and it detected nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/13 "2009-08-24T05:21:43Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > And then what? A black/white command box pops up. What should I type in? Same thing I told you to type before in the command prompt. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/14 "2009-08-24T05:22:22Z")
Do you by any chance use Verizon for your internet? It’s what we use at my house and no computer has been able to access Google when using our router for about a month. However, jump onto any other network and Google pops right up. If you have a laptop and the other suggestions don’t work, you may want to test that. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/15 "2009-08-24T05:38:11Z")
I do know that DNS seervers in the Midwest have been having the hiccups the past couple of days – no information as to why. So **Jragon** ’s explanation makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-google/507465/16 "2009-08-24T06:01:39Z")
Don’t know what the deal is, but all of a sudden it started working again. Now why the heck would I problems with only Google? F.Y.I I have Road Runner cable internet.