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Browsing Problems

woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Browsing Problems

I'm having problems browsing the internet. It does not matter whether I use Chrome, IE, Safari or Edge the same problem occurs which is that only about 80% of the hyperlinks work. Its most peculiar and is happening on more than one device (tablet/PC/Laptop) with different operating systems.

 

For example I may search for something in Google and only a few of the resulting links work (the others will result in a 404 page not found error). However its not just a problem with Google, today I tried to buy something through Ebay and when I pressed the payment button I just got a 404 page not found message.

I expect if I rebooted my PC Ebay would work but something else would not. I have rebooted the router and hub which has made no difference. I've checked the devices for malware (nothing) and they are running McAfee Security Centre.

Has anyone any idea what this could be  - its driving me nuts and has been going on for about a month.

18 REPLIES 18
Mustrum
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,554
Thanks: 1,055
Fixes: 76
Registered: ‎13-08-2015

Re: Browsing Problems

How are you connected - wired or Wi-Fi?

spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Browsing Problems

Have you tried with McAfee disabled?

David
woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

 

My main PC is connected via an Ethernet cable, but I'm having the same problem with laptops connected wirelessly.

woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

I've tried disabling McAfee and of course I was able to get to the Ebay payment page (when I tried before disabling McAfee I got the page not found message). However, I then rebooted my PC to ensure that McAfee had started up again and went back to Ebay and could get onto the payment page without any problems!

This issue is so intermittent that I think its going to be quite hard to find the source and fix it. The only clue I have is that it is definitely happening to 3 different Windows based devices running McAfee. I have just switched on an old vista laptop that I have not used for about 6 months which is running Vista with the free AVG anti virus to see what that did. When I started IE (the only browser running on that laptop) it brought up all my home pages except for Google. No matter what I tried I could not get onto Google and just got the "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" message. I checked the hosts file on that PC to see whether anything nasty had got in there but it looks fine. A reboot and still the same issue. I can't get onto Google at all on the Vista laptop (not even if I search for Google using Bing). I don't know whether these issues are related or not?

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Do you have an ipad/phone that can go to the same pages to see if that still works?

404 is typically sent from the webserver as the page requests isn't found but could indicate some malware or hijacking of the connection to put additional bits in the URL to try and track whats going on, would be interesting if you can paste any of the URLs when you get the 404 too.

The other one where Ive seen some issues is with ad-blockers, i.e. you click on a link on google and its one of their ad-links, the adblocker blocks the next page which is just a ad-tracker before redirecting into ebay, the blocker would stop you getting to the site you want.

 

e.g I go to google.com search for cisco, click on the first Ad link and it actually goes to a URL of http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?XXXXXXXXXXXXX (truncated the full url as its long!!)

 

If it was malware intercepting pages and trying to proxy you through another server if they have been taken down you might get 404s from that server that's had its code removed.

woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

The problem appears to be with Windows only (tablets I think are OK, but I don't use them as much).

 

I've just tried my test with purchasing something from Ebay and when pressing the "Buy Now" button I get the page cannot be displayed message. The url is https://pay.ebay.co.uk/xo?action=create&rypsvc=true&pagename=ryp&TransactionId=-1&xoversion=ds3&pum=...

 

An example from Google which may be more helpful is:-

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/313383533;141144439;y;u=ds&sv1=15228972218&sv2=20161208172&sv3=29...

I Googled "broadband packages". The first link to Uswitch worked OK, but the next one to Go Compare did not. Perhaps it is something to do with add blockers, but I'm not sure that explains the Ebay problem.

 

Its all so intermittent and very frustrating.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Hi

This is another link via google, can you confirm if it works?

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwig3-75wOfQAhXNve0KHWbJDp4YABAA&ohost=www...

Do you have any adblocker software installed / what antivirus are you using?

Are you signed up to plusnet safeguard?

Couple of other things to try too, can send them later depending on what the above does working or not!
Thx
Ms
woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Thanks for taking time to look at this issue.

The link you sent did not work.

I've managed to get the old Vista laptop to get onto the Google website by resetting IE back to the default values (so that issue is not related to the browsing problems on the other newer PC/laptops).

I am running McAfee anti virus and I have not switched on Plusnet safeguard.

 

 

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Hi

Pretty sure you are running ad-block software somewhere then, i was hoping that link would fail!

Ebay checkout has some embedded metadata to show offers so often gets ad-blocked too, as do the first links on google that are sponsored links.

 

What browser are you using and are you aware you are running any adblock software?

 

Can you also do a ping command from a command prompt (windows + r buttono) and type cmd

then ping www.googleadservices.com 

and then

nslookup www.googleadservices.com

woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

I'm using IE mainly but have tried on Chrome and Edge too with similar results.

The output from the commands were as follows:-


>ping www.googleadservices.com

Pinging pagead.l.doubleclick.net [216.58.212.98] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.58.212.98: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.212.98: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.212.98: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.212.98: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 216.58.212.98:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 17ms, Average = 15ms

>nslookup www.googleadservices.com
Server:  dsldevice.lan
Address:  192.168.1.254

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    pagead.l.doubleclick.net
Address:  216.58.212.66
Aliases:  www.googleadservices.com

 

I am not deliberately running any ad blocker software (only if its part of McAfee and I cannot see any options to switch it of or on).

 

Thanks

 

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

So all the tests are looking good, in that dns is working too.

Can you fire up chrome and run it in private mode, that should stop and extensions or adblockers etc

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464 If you don't know how to use private mode.

Once in that the Ui will look a bit different but try the links above that didn't work and see how it goes!

If it fails can you take a screenshot and upload that? If it works we can work on fixing properly etc. !

Thanks
Ms
woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Hi,

 

Thanks for your help.

The link that you sent that did not work when I tried it yesterday is now working in all browsers! This is so annoying because the problem seems to come and go and is not consistent.

 

My machines did Windows updates yesterday evening when I switched them off, but I can't believe that this would have fixed the issue. I'll try the link during the day and see if I can get it to fail again and then try in Chrome in private mode and let you have the results.

 

Best Wishes

 

Anita

woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Just a quick update.

I've tried the link a few times and so far it has only failed once using IE - I then tried Chrome in Private mode and it worked, "normal" Chrome worked too and then I tired IE again and it went to Meraki.

Nothing consistent to allow diagnosis I'm afraid.

woodhamvillage
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Browsing Problems

Currently My PC will not go the Meraki site (via Google Ad services) when using IE, Edge or Chrome - Chrome in Incognito mode works OK.

Does this help resolve what the problem might be?