Hi!

Does this occur with just Firefox or does this occur with other browsers as well?

Thanks!

Hi there, thanks for replying ,,,All browsers.

By the way, if I seem to have gone away...I'm just rebooting and trying to regain web access....I'll be here as long as someone is willing to talk to me.

Also by the way, I use Mozilla exclusively. I only know that once I've lost access with Mozilla going to another browser doesn't work either.

is it only happening for certain websites or does it happen intermittently for all sorts of sites?

Sometimes I can reach a few sites....but eventually it becomes all sites.

Sometimes I can not reach any sites from the get go.

Occasionally I can go days without it happening...the norm though is about ten minutes.

It seems, just a sense, no real empirical data to prove it, that after a restart I get access to one or two sites and then it goes bad.

Thanks again for any help.

can you try setting a different dns server, like the one google provides, and see if the issue is continuing?: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/

Sorry it took me so long to reply...it happened again. I'm so desperate I'll try anything. I've opened that page it looks like it will take a while since I don't know what I'm doing I'll have to read through it all....I'll be back.

It says only folks who are proficient with configuring operating system settings should attempt this.....uh, that's not me. Is there a troubleshooting way around doing this. Sorry, but I'm in over my head.

OK, it happened again thus the delayed response. I'm desperate enough I went ahead and tried what you asked. I did everything it asked....

   Go the Control Panel.
   Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, and click Change adapter settings.
   Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
       To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
       To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
   Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and then click Properties.
   Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
   Click OK.
   Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
   Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers:
       For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
       For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844
   Restart the connection you selected in step 3.
   Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
   Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.

...when I went to test your new settings I couldn't get any web page and couldn't ping any page. I don't know if I messed something up because at first when I changed the IP settings it told me I needed to add a subnet mask??? but when I went back it had populated this info for me so that's what I used. Appreciate all you are doing.

hey again, leave the settings for obtaining an ip address on automatic and just change the dns servers - here's an instruction with pictures: http://sohonetwork.blogspot.co.at/2011/04/how-to-setup-google-dns-on-windows-7.html

While I was waiting I reread the directions and discovered the mistake you are referencing and did it properly, doh, and it worked fine....I got to both google and the MIT page through both domain name and ip address using the google dns.

I don't know if we are but I feel like we're making progress.

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites#DNS

You can try to reset (power off/on) the router or check the DNS setting in that router.

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender: Home Page:
  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

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

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Cor-el,

Verizon Fios tech support conned me into paying for "elevated" tech support to try and resolve this problem. They have checked it twice with a tool kit they downloaded onto the computer that supposedly used a suite of malware/virus detectors. It came up clean both times. They kept trying to resolve the problem and then did not call me back as they said they would.

I'm also running Webroot Secure Anywhere that I've had running daily since before the problems.

I know this doesn't ensure that I don't have a virus, just makes it more difficult to get one.

I'll check it again with some of those that were provided.

In lieu of doing that right now is there any thing else we can check? Should I leave those settings to the google dns to see if I eventually end up having the same problem?

You can still try the above posted scanners to check your computer.

There are also online scanners:

• http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ (HouseCall - Trend Micro USA)
• http://vms.drweb.com/online/?lng=en (Dr.Web)
• http://www.eset.com/home/products/online-scanner (ESET)
• http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner (Kaspersky)