Cannot connect to www.google.com with Firefox

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 3rd, 2007, 1:47 pm

Within the past couple of weeks I can not load www.google.com with Firefox 2.0.0.6, but I can with Internet Explorer or if I use the address http://64.233.167.147/ in Firefox.

What happens if I put in the url www.google.com is I get a dialog box titled Opening, which says "You have choosen to open ig which is a: application/octect-stream from http://www.google.com. What should Firefox do with this file?" The choices are "Open with" or "Save to Disk" and neither allows me to connect to Google. If I try for Google images I get the same message in the dialog box except instead of "ig" it says "imghp" and "from http://images.google.com.

I am running Windows XP on a Dell laptop. I have several add-ons for Firefox; Adblock Plus, AWE, Answers, Clipmarks, Coolris Preview, Fasterfox, Firefox Showcase, Forecastfox, FoxmarksBookmark Synchronizer, Google Gears, Google Notebook, Google Reader Notifier, Google Toolbar for Firefox, GTDInbox, JAJAH, NoScript, Pronto, SlimSearch, StumbleUpon, Wizz RSS News Reader.

I tried Firefox in safe mode and the problem persisted. I tried running my anti-virus and anti-spyware software to clean out my system. I tried clearing the cache; In Firefox 2: "Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network / Cache -> Clear Now". Nothing has worked. I've looked through the forum and now I am stuck.

Post by **DanRaisch** » September 3rd, 2007, 1:57 pm

Try clearing any cookies relating to Google.

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 3rd, 2007, 2:02 pm

Thanks for the reply. I had also tried "Tools > Clear Private Data" including cookies. Still did not work. Or is there another way to clear cookies that I should try?

Post by **DanRaisch** » September 3rd, 2007, 2:14 pm

You can check to see that there are no cookies NOW on the system relating to Google. Tools->Options->Privacy tab->Show cookies button.

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 3rd, 2007, 2:30 pm

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it and removed the www.google.com cookies. Then Firefox did bring up www.google.com, but not images, video, news. Is this a problem for Google? Should I contact them to see if they have a solution?

Post by **DanRaisch** » September 3rd, 2007, 2:36 pm

Before doing that, you might review this article -- http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=288184

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 3rd, 2007, 2:43 pm

I reviewed the article, but I don't have any problems seeing any of the images. Why did you suggest I review that article?

Post by **DanRaisch** » September 3rd, 2007, 5:21 pm

Ahhh, well, you said "Then Firefox did bring up www.google.com, but not <b>images</b>, video, news." That seemed to have some relationship with images.?.

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 4th, 2007, 3:02 am

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I should have explicitly said "Firefox did bring up www.google.com, but not most of the other google sites, such as images.google.com, video.google.com, news.google.com."

Post by **DanRaisch** » September 4th, 2007, 3:56 am

Then you may still have cookies on the system for those sites as well. Check to see if you can delete those and with what result.

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 4th, 2007, 4:45 am

No, it did not help. Now I am seeing even stranger stuff. Now the page loads as nonsense. Here is the first several lines of what I am seeing when I go to images.google.com:

ie>Finance</a></div><div><a>Groups</a></div><div><a>Labs</a></div><div><a>Orkut</a></div><div><a>Patents</a></div><div><a>Photos</a></div><div><a>Products</a></div><div><a>Reader</a></div><div><a>Scholar</a></div></nobr></div><div></div><div><nobr><b>username@gmail.com</b> | <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount">My Account</a> | <a href="http://www.google.com/accounts/Logout?continue=http://images.google.com/imghp%3Ftab%3Dwi%26hl%3Den">Sign out</a></nobr></div><center><br><img alt="Google" src="/intl/en_ALL/images/images_hp.gif"><br><br><form><table><tr><td> </td><td><input><input> <input></td><td><font>  <a>Advanced Image Search</a><br>  <a>Preferences</a></font></td></tr></table><input><script><function>
</script></form><p><font><b>The most comprehensive image search on the web.</b></font><br><br><div><font>Want to help improve Google Image Search? Try <a>Google Image Labeler</a>.</font></div><br><font><a href="/intl/en/ads/">Advertising Programs</a> - <a href="/services/">Business Solutions</a> - <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/about.html">About Google</a></font><p><font>©2007 Google</font></p></center></body></html>HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-TR: 1
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Encoding: gzip
Server: GWS/2.1
Content-Length: 2796
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:43:29 GMT

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Post by **DanRaisch** » September 4th, 2007, 4:59 am

Try creating a new profile and accessing the Google sites through that -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

J-Mac · Post by **J-Mac** » September 5th, 2007, 1:47 pm

Please check the URL you are using to try to reach Google. In your first post you mentioned that you are getting an error related to "ig" not being an extension that Windows recognizes. "ig" is part of the URL which indicates an iGoogle personalized home page. "ig" should immediately follow a forward slash, as in, " http://www.google.com/ig ". That is usually followed by some more of the URL that will tell Firefox to bring up your personalized Google home page, not the standard Google search page.

Since Windows obviously thinks you are trying to download or open a file with the extension "ig", your URL is apparently wrong, or you have a cookie, cached page, or script that is feeding Firefox a bad URL. You need to clean out your cookies and clear your cache. Don't just use the Firefox Options method, but navigate to the temp folder where they are located and clear them there.

Also clear your cookies and cache in Internet Explorer, Opera, and any other browser you have installed.

Then try to navigate to http://www.google.com by carefully typing that into the address bar -- don't use a bookmark for now.

You may also have to look at your bookmarks and make sure the underlying URLs are correct.

Finally, don't rule out a malware that is trying to get you to a spoofed page and log in to Google or other sites. Scan using online A-V's and Anti-spyware applications.

Jim

iPhysicist · Post by **iPhysicist** » September 5th, 2007, 2:58 pm

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I tried creating a new profile and had the same strange problem as listed above (loading non-readable text rather than the Webpage). I manually deleted all cookies from my laptop and the problem persisted. I typed in the URLs correctly and the problem persisted. I downloaded and ran A-V's and Anti-spyware applications and the problem persisted.

I wrote to Google Help desk and got a "standard" list of things to try. I tried them all, but still the problem persisted.

I really do appreciate everyones suggestions. Very strange.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » September 5th, 2007, 3:47 pm

tools--options-- advanced--languages --> choose

What language setting is it set?