Google Captchas killing me

I don't know if this belongs here or in Malware or where? I keep getting this when I try to use google:

I reformatted my computer yesterday and started installing various software including Windows updates - sp3, Avira and a firewall, I'm now getting repeating requests from Google every time I try to do a search, that I enter a captcha code.

This only seems to happen when I use the small search window in the upper right hand corner of Firefox. It hasn't happened when I use the main search window.

I've read several things about this, one being that it is a bug in the auto-complete system Google uses, where it reviews previous searches for each letter you type in, thereby experiencing a "flooding" of the search engine. This then leads them to determine you are a bot rather than a human. Entering the captcha code does not help. Running various Malware Removal tools like Avira and MalwareBytes does not help.

I read further that this is an attempt on Google's part to put people's ip addresses together with their street information.

I wondered if this topic has already come up here or if it's new? Can anyone enlighten me on ways to get rid of this problem? I'm about to give up on Google.

thanks.

 

Love your FF joke! hahaha!

I've used Google and Yahoo together for years and am encountering this problem for the first time. I will see if it is affecting both IE and FF and I will check an older version of FF.

Google does listen to its customers, not by any direct communication, but by what people enter into their searches. When enough people put into the search engine that the google sidebar sucks, they do respond. It's just a slow and tedious communication mechanism.

I read in one entry at a malware help forum, that that persons host file had been hijacked. However, his MalwareBytes came up with a lot of malware as well, so I don't think that's my problem.

Do you know how I can (as the administrator) rename my hosts file? And how I can get into the folders that are lighted out like system volume information? Everytime I reformat I have to relearn all these things. I need to write my own little reformat manual.

 

I'm familiar with Spybot and can do that. I'm wondering if this captcha problem is just something with Firefox or if it affects the other browsers as well.

I'll see what else I can learn about it.

 

You can not access the System Volume Information folder even when it is visible.

To make hidden system files and folders visible, open Windows Explorer or My Computer, and from the menu bar, go to:
Tools > Folder Options > View tab
Under Advanced Settings Hidden files and folders, check Show hidden files and folders.

In Windows XP, the location of the Hosts file is:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Rather than just renaming the hosts file, you can download a new one (periodically), and then Immunize with Spybot.
Maybe about once a month you should check for Updates in Spybot and then Immunize again.

The one I have been using is here: (smaller than MVPS file)
SomeoneWhoCares.org

Here are a couple of others:
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

I don't use this (yet ):
HostsMan

I use Spybot with limited Immunize.
You should be aware that selecting All of the Immunize options for Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc., will significantly increase the size of the Registry.
Many people say that is Not An Issue.

 

I've done a lot of reading and searching in the internet and this problem with Google forcing multiple/multiple Captchas on its users started around 2009 and it seems to hit blocks of IP addresses. It is not being caused by a virus, but apparently by Google itself. If one person in a network (like a business or a home network) is hit by this, it spreads out into the whole network. It effectively blocks any further reasonable use of Google as a search engine. There is no response for filling out their form and sending them your IP address.

I'm a single user with a newly reformatted harddrive. Nothing in my use of Google has changed since the reformat. I've been through my computer with Avira, Malwarebytes, and at your suggestion also Spybot. I immunized with Spybot. I've got Spyware Blaster. I've used CCleaner until I think I've rubbed the harddrive raw. I checked the Host file and it looks exactly like it is supposed to. I've tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling my browser including deleting all the settings and profile. I've tried a different browser. I've read that it affects both a MAC and a PC running through the same connection.

As a final step, I will still try the TDSS fix, but all the reading I've done shows that the problem originates with an automated process at Google which cannot distinguish a normal search pattern from an automated one. It seems to affect whole groups of people at a single Internet Service Provider.

Someone suggested the fix of going into your google account and using the following url:

http://www.google.com/accounts/unlockcaptcha

Unfortunately, this doesn't take you to the page it is supposed to take you to where you can perform this, but simply offers that if you find this application in the next ten minutes, you can reset it. The application is not showing up anywhere obvious.

The one thing that does seem to help is to switch from Google to Bing or to StartPage.com. Since I've been a Google search engine fan since the beginning, I feel blastedly awful and the usual rage of helplessness, but hey! if Google is H***-bent on losing customers, what do you do, but give up and move on. Such a rotten problem.

I'll let you know if the TDSS fix does anything but I'm not hopeful.

Frustrating!

 

Alternate search engines if you grow tired of the capchas at google:
1. https://startpage.com/ (uses google)
2. http://duckduckgo.com/ (not sure what it bases results on)
https://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html
3. http://www.dogpile.com/ (grabs google results as well as several others)
4. http://www.mamma.com/
5. http://www.bing.com/
6. http://search.yahoo.com/

 

thanks plodr,

I went to Bing. I tried Startpage. It works fine. I like duckduckgo too. Still meaning to try the tdss fix, but my symptoms don't seem like those of a typical redirect.

 

Sorry for the double post. I want to add to my previous post, because I continue to look for others in the internet who've exprienced this problem to try and find out the cause.

After a week of searching, I've found one person who published a non-English article offering more specific information about his experience with the problem. He has the problem on different computers with different operating systems and different browsers:

PC 1: Windows 7 pro
Pc 2: Windows XP Pro
PC 3: Debian 6.0.x
VPC: Windows 8 Release Preview (in VirtualBox auf PC 1)
Tablet: Xoom mit Android 4.04
Smartphone mit Android 2.2.2

Browser: Firefox, Dolphin, Epiphany, Chrome, Internet Explorer​

Since it was affecting all his machines, all operating independently of each other, he spoke with his Internet Service Provider, who had never heard of the problem. I did the same thing with my ISP and got the same reaction, with a sympathetic recommendation to switch to SmartPage or Bing and to make sure my computers are free of browser hijackers since it seems to be acting like a redirect virus.

The man who wrote the article I refer to, suspected this might be caused by his WLAN connection of his router/modem but said these had been recently updated and newly configured. (I suspect this could be a problem.)

His experience with the Google Captcha page is the same as mine. After a few days Google begins to funktion normally again, so he decided to experiment. After several working searches, he entered the word "Sexshop" and immediately got the Google Captcha window. He then followed this up with different search words and found that there are those which are always blocked (hot, trigger and auto repair) and others which funktioned occasionally (pacemaker). From this he wondered if Google is trying out some type of filter which is in the testing stage.

The biggest annoyance about this problem is that filling in the Captcha window does not resolve the problem. You just get another and another and another, effectively denying you any effective use of the Google search engine.

Another thought expressed in the article is that everything he could find in the internet about this problem seems to be written by people using the same Internet Service Provider he's using. I can confirm that this is not true, because I have the same problem but a different internet service provider.

It has been hard getting help, because anyone who hasn't experienced the problem, doesn't have any experience to contribute, so it leaves the blind trying to help the blind.

I will ask the man who wrote about his experiences if he will confirm that his Blackberry was affected, since this should rule out IP addresses and WLAN configuration as the culprit.

To my way of thinking there are three possible solutions. One is that the problem will resolve itself with no one the wiser as to its cause. (However, there are entries in the internet which go back to 2009.) The second is that through an accumulation of entries into Google of the type "switching to Bing" and "Google Captcha problem", Google will become aware of the problem and try to resolve it. The third would be to figure out what is causing the problem so it can be corrected at the user end.

 

New Information:

I found another link on this that I would like to add:

http://www.southbourne.com/blog/2012/06/29/google-blocking-search-results/

This person's experience parallels my own. The problem seems to have started in 2009 and attaches itself to IP addresses and none of the solutions Google offers leads to a lasting solution. I get a few clean searches and then the captcha pages start.

The only realistic solution I've found has been to quit using Google.

 

Sorry to keep adding posts, but little by little, I keep finding new information. I ran across this link which has some different information than what I've found before:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25890407-HN7000S-Google-Search-Error-Have-to-enter-Captcha

I haven't yet tried the suggested solution to use: encrypted.google.com

I was also interested in the following post at that site:

Does CCleaner get rid of worms?

Also, I found the following interesting. It would indicate that there is an incompatibility between Google and the ISP:

This problem is obviously not restricted to an incompatibility between Hughes and Google since it's affecting users at other companies, but it might be related to the above if other ISPs are using the same caching (web acceleration) server protocol.


In another post in that topic (which went from 2009-2011), it mentions "Hughesnet nating users" and something about Yahoo nating users. I don't know anything about nating or what it might refer to.

Continuing frustration...

 

I was going to suggest changing from Hughes DNS servers to something else, like Open DNS but from reading this thread http://community.myhughesnet.com/hughesnet/topics/hughes_dns_problems
I'm not sure it will stick.

 

This article does not refer to Google search but since it is related to captchas, I want to pass it along.

How Browser Extensions Can Mess Up A Captcha & What To Do About It

 

Hi mjnc and pldr

Thanks for the articles. I read both. I continue to narrow down things by crossing them off my list. I've tried different browsers and browser versions. I've done a complete reformat/reinstall. I ran FIXBOOT and FIXMBR. I then reformatted and reinstalled again. And I have a browser without any addons or extensions.

The one thing which seems consistent, is that it affects all computers in my household even though the computers are not networked.

This leads me to some different conclusions:

One is that I'm on an IP list somewhere, maintained by Google. I used the contact form on Google's Error page to contact them but did not ever get a response. (Fortunately, I did not attach my self-worth to getting an answer from them.)

Another is that there is a conflict between the software being used by my ISP and Google's software which is making it appear I am doing accelerated searches when I'm not. This seems unlikely, because it's a major ISP and if this were the problem, a lot of people would be reporting it.

Third is that I type too fast and Google measures the rate at which a normal person could type in a search.

Fourth is that Google doesn't like searches like "switching to Bing" or "don't like google's new sidebar" and I've been thrown out.

Fifth is that someone has access to my modem/router (can't be through wireless since that is either shut off or protected) and is using the internet connection as a means of running all kinds of searches. There must actually be something that could test this idea?

Any thoughts on that last one? I use ccleaner after I close the browser. I don't know if that could reset something. The computer is protected and scanned regularly. I don't have any new software that I didn't have before the problem came up.

I'll keep poking away at the problem. I actually expected it to go away of its own accord after using Bing for awhile, but it didn't.

 

It is your ISP 151 posts in this thread from 2011
http://productforums.google.com/for...bsearch/unexpected-search-results/_p6DX6sQ4i8

Source: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25890407-HN7000S-Google-Search-Error-Have-to-enter-Captcha

 

Are you using tor or any proxy type setup? i see this with tor all the time.