Google & Firefox

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 17 May 2009, 14:03

Is it just me ?
Every time I try to use Google.com I end on on the Mozilla Home Page telling me to download the latest version of Firefox. I don't use Firefox at the moment. I thought it might be a virus on my laptop but it looks more and more like the Domain Name Server is redirecting me to Mozilla.

Anybody else having this problem ?

Post by **myglaren** » 17 May 2009, 14:55

No but then I do use Firefox as the default browser.
Doesn't come up when I use other browsers though.

Welcome back by the way.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 17 May 2009, 15:26

I haven't been away Steve. I update the accounts in the Forum Fund thread pretty much every day.
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... hp?t=26053
http://bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9826

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 17 May 2009, 15:38

Talking of Firefox, as much as i like it i found it made my computer work overtime so tried Google Chrome, its much faster and easier to use IMHO.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 17 May 2009, 15:51

Gmail.com is now refusing connections.
Must give Google Chrome a try if it will run on Win2000

Post by **myglaren** » 17 May 2009, 16:36

ellevie wrote:I haven't been away Steve. I update the accounts in the Forum Fund thread pretty much every day.
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... hp?t=26053
http://bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9826

Hadn't seen you around for a while.

Post by **myglaren** » 17 May 2009, 16:43

XantiaMan583 wrote:Talking of Firefox, as much as i like it i found it made my computer work overtime so tried Google Chrome, its much faster and easier to use IMHO.

Firefox has been my default browser with both OSs since shortly after it was born.
I like it better than any of the others but more importantly it always works better than the rest.
Only problem with it was actually with Vista not allowing it to update and forcing a complete reinstall every time.

Reinstalling Vista fixed that plus many other niggles.

Chrome is OK-ish but has some negative traits.

Flock is better but hs its own set of irritations.
Kazahakase is probably the smoothest and fastest but very stripped down compared to Ff.

Homer · Post by **Homer** » 17 May 2009, 20:40

ellevie wrote:Is it just me ?
Every time I try to use Google.com I end on on the Mozilla Home Page telling me to download the latest version of Firefox. I don't use Firefox at the moment.

Seems rather dodgy.

what's in your hosts file?

Are you sure it's a legit Mozilla site?

It would be worth installing the genuine Firefox, Opera or Chrome and seeing if the same happens.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 18 May 2009, 01:36

Only one entry in the Win2000 host file:
127.0.0.1 localhost

The problem went away a few hours after I posted.
I noticed it was only google.com and not google.co.uk that redirected.

It looks like it could be a case of hackers deliberately inserting false entries in the Domain Name Server network which apparently is vulnerable to such attacks.

Homer · Post by **Homer** » 18 May 2009, 02:32

Google has had some issues lately.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 18 May 2009, 10:33

Thanks for the link. Yes it must be a bit of a worry for Google and others promoting cloud software.

This is the Firefox page I was redirected to,
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

Somebody I was speaking to experienced the same problem in Cork last Thursday.

Ross_K · Post by **Ross_K** » 18 May 2009, 12:14

I replaced my ISP's crap DNS with OpenDNS - www.opendns.com

The OpenDNS nameservers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Connect to your modem or router's config page and replace your ISP's server addresses (after making a note of them for future reference

) with the ones above.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 18 May 2009, 16:36

Thanks, that looks interesting.

I had a quick look at my Tiscali provided Siemens router and there is no obvious way to change the DNS settings. I also notice that the least significant octet of the DNS changes when I reconnect.

Still, useful to know for future reference.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 18 May 2009, 18:12

You can manually configure your PC's DNS servers to use openDNS, so bypass your router's DNS server (which then just forwards requests on to your ISP's DNS servers).

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 19 May 2009, 01:23

Thanks for that Xac, that's really useful.
I've just given that a go as per the instructions at,
https://www.opendns.com/start/
It will be interesting to see if I notice a speed improvement.

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