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Firefox stopped loading google.com and icloud.com website saying can't find the server

  • 6 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Yesterday Firefox 48.0.2 on Windows 8.1 laptop stopped allowing google.com and icloud.com pages to load, saying could not find server.

Most other websites (eg bbc, google.co.uk, amazon) loaded okay but a couple of others (e.g. discogs.com, which seems to load some google.com stuff) did not. Unfortunately most of my website activity is on those two websites (mail, calendar, notes etc).

Pinging google.com in a windows command prompt was fine. Accessing on the same local network with another pc running Firefox was fine. Accessing everything on an iphone on the same wireless network was fine. Same on a macbook pro. Switching off Norton firewall did not help.

Tried everything I could think of including a Firefox refresh to fix this and searched for other suggestions about website permissions and such but without success.

I installed google chrome to see if this would have the same problem and at first everything seemed to worked fine, but after a while chrome also seemed to hit the 'can't load' those same websites problem.

In despair today I rolled back to a drive image that (luckily) I had made earlier yesterday. Things are back to normal.

Any suggestions about what might have caused this?

Yesterday Firefox 48.0.2 on Windows 8.1 laptop stopped allowing google.com and icloud.com pages to load, saying could not find server. Most other websites (eg bbc, google.co.uk, amazon) loaded okay but a couple of others (e.g. discogs.com, which seems to load some google.com stuff) did not. Unfortunately most of my website activity is on those two websites (mail, calendar, notes etc). Pinging google.com in a windows command prompt was fine. Accessing on the same local network with another pc running Firefox was fine. Accessing everything on an iphone on the same wireless network was fine. Same on a macbook pro. Switching off Norton firewall did not help. Tried everything I could think of including a Firefox refresh to fix this and searched for other suggestions about website permissions and such but without success. I installed google chrome to see if this would have the same problem and at first everything seemed to worked fine, but after a while chrome also seemed to hit the 'can't load' those same websites problem. In despair today I rolled back to a drive image that (luckily) I had made earlier yesterday. Things are back to normal. Any suggestions about what might have caused this?

All Replies (6)

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Chosen Solution

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Thanks. The security software is MalwareBytes (anti-exploit and anti-malware) and Norton Internet Security.

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Unfortunately this has happened again. Rolling back has just delayed the problem, the same websites are unable to connect - the Mozilla website is fine. Chrome browser is working for the time being! I will work through those links. Would uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling help?

Modified by urstuff

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Also the time / date / time zone settings all appear to be fine.

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I have found the culprit and you were correct, FredMcD, it was a security software problem. Thanks for that.

This problem was caused by ​an automatic update of the IBM Security Trusteer Rapport on 9 Sep 2016 (version 3.5.1609.98), software which I'd installed several years ago (at the strong suggestion of my online bank) and forgotten even existed until now it, was so much in the background.

I was, paradoxically, locked out of all six 'Trusted Websites' that I had manually added to be protected.

After removing all six using the Rapport console I can now access them all.

I've submitted a ticket to their support site.

Thanks again FredMcD :)

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Glad to help. Safe Surfing.