How come my PC can't get to Gmail and google-groups??

Question

To all ! Over this weekend (since last Friday), my computer can't access  and also  ! No matter how I tried to access these two places, the browser will churn and churn, and then come back with an error. I can access  without any problem tho. I can also get into  and  with ease. At first I thought that it was gmail at fault. But today, when I return to my office, I can get into gmail without any problem. That means, it's my PC that is preventing me from accessing gmail. Went back home, did a "ping job" - ping  -f -l 1500 - (also on  and  ) and ping returns the ip of 127.0.0.1 !! 127.0.0.1 supposed to be the virtual loopback interface of a computer system, that means, something is terribly wrong with my PC. So I scan it for virus / trojan but found NOTHING. Dear all, Can you please tell me what has gone wrong with my PC?? Please help !! Thank you !! PS. I can access all other sites. Only  and  return error !

Ray Parrish · Accepted Answer

Yep, sounds like somethings been writing entries into your hosts file since those sites return 127.0.0.1 That's what they would return if they were set to be blocked in your hosts file.

Your hosts file can be edited with any text editor, so have a look in there and I'm sure you'll find entries for those two sites.

It is located in the c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc folder.

However, you also need to address the issue of how the sites got blocked in the first place. What wrote those entries to the hosts file?

The following is a sample hosts file from my system which has no sites blocked -

*start of file* # Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. # # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one # space. # # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. # # For example: # # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

*end of file*

Later, Ray Parrish

Penang wrote:

Brian Cryer · Answer

This is the normal location, but it can be changed. If your hosts file looks okay then look in the registry at:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DataBasePath

this gives the location of the hosts file, so if its pointing to anything other than %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc then either find and view the file in its new location or change the value in the registry back to what it should be.

buddy b · Answer

That why I like Spyware blaster to prevent the host file from being changed by anything. Some AV/trojan pgms protect the host file. Also can backup the system files.         Regards           buddy b

ASCII · Answer

If you run your keygens in a sandbox, they can't 'touch' your  hosts

How come my PC can't get to Gmail and google-groups??

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