Firefox/IE "can't find server at..."

Scan Man

I've a major problem which is preventing me from accessing the internet on my laptop. Every time I open Firefox, type in an address and click return, it comes up that it "can't find the server at http://xxxx"

I've disabled all Firewalls and Anti-Virus including:

- Norton
- AVG
- Windows Defender & Firewall

I'm using the Vodafone broadband USB stick, and that claims to be connected fine with a "very good" signal. So that leads me to believe its a problem somewhere between the connection and the browser like a firewall or some sort of other block.

I ran AVG and Windows Defender and nothing harmful was found.

Please help, its very frustrating.

Snowbat

Can you get to sites by IP address? http://89.234.66.107/

What do you see when you open a command prompt and enter:

nslookup www.boards.ie

DublinWriter

Scan Man wrote: »

I ran AVG and Windows Defender and nothing harmful was found.

I've had several pieces of malware come in under the AVG radar that feck around with DNS lookups from a browser.

Try Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Worked a treat for me.

Scan Man

Snowbat wrote: »

Can you get to sites by IP address? http://89.234.66.107/

What do you see when you open a command prompt and enter:

nslookup www.boards.ie

Nothing much happened when I entered the IP into the address bar and hit return. It was like it refreshed but the "firefox can't find the server at http://xxx" bit didn't change.

DublinWriter wrote: »

I've had several pieces of malware come in under the AVG radar that feck around with DNS lookups from a browser.

Try Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Worked a treat for me.

I downloaded Malwarebytes on your advice and moved it from this computer to the other by a memory stick. Done a full scan and it found nothing sadly.

Gadgetman496

Scan Man wrote: »

I've disabled all Firewalls and Anti-Virus including:

- Norton
- AVG
- Windows Defender & Firewall

.

For starters you appear to have two antivirus programs installed & that a no no for the get go.

Bet if you uninstall "Norton" (not disable) you'll be able to connect.

-

Scan Man

gadgetman496 wrote: »

For starters you appear to have two antivirus programs installed & that a no no for the get go.

Bet if you uninstall "Norton" (not disable) you'll be able to connect.

-

Uninstalled Norton and no luck sadly.

I can't figure it out. It was working fine up until three days ago and then this happened. I've scanned it with three programs: AVG, MalwareBytes, and Windows Defender and nothing has come back.

I tried Mozilla in Safe Mode, but again the same thing. I'm not sure what to do next, the lap top is still under warranty but I'm not sure if they'd deal with this problem.

Gadgetman496

What OS are you using?

Could you try creating a new user account, connect the Vodafone broadband USB stick again (under the new user account & see if it will let you browse)?

DublinWriter

I think I remember seeing something like this before when a neighbour gave me a faulty notebook to look at - same problem as yourself, it wasn't resolving DNS enteries through the browser.

Check out a free app called winsockfix - use this at your own risk and make sure you have a full backup.

DublinWriter

Scan Man wrote: »

I downloaded Malwarebytes on your advice and moved it from this computer to the other by a memory stick. Done a full scan and it found nothing sadly.

Did you also download the latest definition file?

garry18

im having the same problem the last few days this is what i get


Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at ie.ign.com.

tman

DublinWriter wrote: »

Did you also download the latest definition file?

Yep - grab the latest definitions here - http://mbam.malwarebytes.org/database/mbam-rules.exe
Copy that file across and run it, then run another scan...

I had a similar problem on a friend's laptop where Norton had expired and totally banjaxed her system, might be worth getting the norton removal tool and running that as well
http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080710133834EN

Mr. Fancypants

Confirm if you have internet connectivity by trying to ping an ip address
Go to a command prompt (Start - Run - Type cmd - ok)
Type ping 8.8.8.8 and press enter
Let us know if you are getting Reply from 8.8.8.8 or timeouts

If you are getting replies it is most likely a dns issue as said above, a place that is commonly effected by malware is the hosts file. You can check this by browsing to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and right clicking on the file called hosts and selecting "open with" then notepad.

If there is any text below the examples given in the file copy them here please.