facebook.com redirecting to google.com

Whenever I try to go to www.facebook.com or some other derivative, I get redirected to www.google.com. I am using a linksys router, WRT160N V3, and I did some searching around and found that this is a common problem with the router. Unfortunately, I am relatively inexperienced with computers so did not understand the fixes I found. The thread I found discussing this problem was at http://forums.linksysbycisco.com/linksys/board/message?board.id=Wireless_Routers&message.id=154543 . I have multiple computers on the network, 3-4 at any given time; I have roomates who use the internet through the router. Thank you for your time.

 

...lol I suppose I should have asked for help in the previous post. Therefore I will do it now. Can anyone help me with this issue? Explain it as if you were explaining to a child please, I find this kind of stuff has a steep learning curve for me.

 

First of all what is your Operating System i:e XP, XP Pro, Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 ?
What browser are you using ?
Have you checked your host file ?
Your host file should look like this !

 

This is fairly simple to resolve. First what you need to do is to get in contact with your internet service provider (ISP), preferably by phone, and ask them for the following. Make sure you write the numbers down somewhere if you phone up.

You need to ask for:

Primary DNS Server IP address
Secondary DNS Server IP address

These will come in the format of up to three digits, then a period, then another up to three digits, then a period, then another up to three digits, then another period, then a final up to three digits: 000.000.000.000 Note they cannot all be 0 and there should always be at least one digit in between each pair of periods. I am telling you this so the ISP cannot give you an incorrect number.

Then when you have this information you need to do the following on ALL computers that use the router:

1. Click on Start --> (settings in XP classic -->) Control Panel

2. In Windows XP, double click on "Network Connections", in Vista and Windows 7 double click on "Network and sharing Center, then on "Change adapter properties" on the bar that runs down the left side of the screen.

3. Now you should be able to see some icons that look like a pair of monitors with a cable next to or joining them. If you cannot see this, stop and post back.

4. In this group, there should be a connection labelled "Local Area Connection". This might be the only connection. Again, if you cannot see this stop and post back.

5. Right-click on the "Local Area Connection" icon and choose "Properties" from the list. In Vista and Windows 7 provide the administrator password if needed.

6. This should open up a small window. In this window there is a scrollable list in the centre. Scroll through this list until you see "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" Select this by clicking on it once, and then click on the "Properties" button just below the scrollable area.

7. This should open up another window in which are four options, and some greyed out boxes. Towards the bottom of the window there should be a pair of options called "Obtain DNS server address automatically" and "Use the following DNS server address:" You need to click in the little circle next to the second (bottom in the window) option.

8. Clicking the little circle above will un-grey the bottom boxes. You now need to type the IP addresses you got from the ISP into these boxes. The Primary DNS server address goes into the top box, and the secondary DNS server address goes into the bottom box. There is no need to change any other settings on this page.

9. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 make sure the box entitled "Validate Settings Upon Exit" is not checked, and press OK until you get back to the network connections window. Then close this window.

10. Test it out. If it doesn't work, then open up all the windows again and click the top little button "Obtain DNS server addresses automatically" Then OK out of all the windows. This will put your connection back to the way it was before we started. If it doesn't work, do this and post back.

A quick explanation of what we are doing here:
We are bypassing the table in the router that tells it what web page to ask for. When your computer asks for a web page, the router looks in it's table and says: "Right. www.google.com is at this address: http://216.239.59.99/" What is happening in your router is that the table is in some way getting mixed up. What we are doing here is to get you computer to ask the ISP's servers for the correct web address rather than your router.

Linksys are aware of this issue and have decided to do nothing about it at the moment.

 

I am using Windows Vista Home Premium. My browser is Firefox, though the same problem occured with Internet Explorer 7. How do I look up my host file? Also the fix that you posted, would I have to do that with every computer on the network? I have 3 roomates each of them with their own computers that I don't have access to. Today www.facebook.com loaded properly. Hopefully the problem resolved itself.

 

To find your hosts file :
click start orb bottom left corner
In the part where it says ( start search ) type into there C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc then click enter, it will then show you a window with your hosts file, double click on the hosts file.
Then check it to see if it looks like the copied image i sent you in my last post, if there's anything different in there let us know !

 

Forgot to tell you after you do that click on this link http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html then click on where it says Authors Site "Piriform" and download ccleaner install and run it, whaen installing make sure you uncheck the " add yahoo toolbar " option, this will clean out all your cookies from your browsers !

Rusty !

 

Lol thanks; I already have CCleaner and use it regularly. I don't have the time to do a fix right now; facebook is working fine. I will give your advice a shot when I can. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I am having this same problem. I checked my host file, and there is something different at the bottom of the list:
# ::1 localhost


what do I do now? do I have a virus?

 

TThor, Welcome to Majorgeeks. If this is your ONLY symptom, please start your own thread and detail your computer and your issue exactly. We still might send you to the link below

If you have other issues that make you suspect a virus, please go to the malware forum, read and follow the guide
READ & RUN ME FIRST Malware Removal Guide (incl. spyware, virus, trojan, hijacker)