Is google after me!?

I must first defend myself here as there may be those who will think,"she must have been to a nasty site." I have NEVER been to one of 'those' sites. That said, here is what happened two nights ago[the day after the world was supposed to end-maybe it did and I am dreaming]. Anyway, I was researching various topics, as usual, and I goggled a person's name. Not the war secretary, just an average joe. Instead of a results page, a page came up purportedly from Google, saying that I had to type in the words in the 'captcha' I think they call it, in order to prove I wasn't a robot. It said that was because they had detected suspicious activity 'from my network'. I don't have a network, so I wonder if they meant my isp? The page also said it might have come up because I was sending requests too fast or using words that were too complicated. Hello, I am on a dial-up- how fast can it be? As for the complicated words, I do alot of medical information researching, and hardly think 'carcinoma' is too complicated for Google. In short, I had done nothing differently from what I always do, and I had never seen this page. Everytime I tried to google something, this page came up, and I typed in the letters from the captcha a few times but page just kept coming up. Finally had to disconnect. When I went back on net next day same thing happened. And after awhile I got a page saying only, "Service denied." So I switched my search engine to the dreaded Yahoo, and that stopped it and I was able to search. [Then I tried again to get Bing from Firefox, but that download still, after months, doesn't work, and I don't see a Bing download here.] I went back to Google, but the same things are still happening as of today. Any help, couched in terms the technically challenged can grasp, much appreciated.
Sheena

 

Hi Sheena,

That reads like you were hit with some kind of malware that redirects your searches. I think you need to ensure the machine has a full cleanup.

 

Hi Satrow.
I will just mention that malwarebytes antimalware had been saying all was well, then after this occurred I updated it and rescanned and it came back clean. Also, my friend said I have a 'read only' disc slot on my computer so I would have to back up with floppy disks, and I have alot of sensitive stuff on my computer, including legal docs. Is there somewhere on this site where I can learn what to do to back stuff up before running a clean up?
Also, just wondering what the point is for these people who redirect searches; what do they get out of it?
Thanks,
Sheena

 

Satrow,
In reading the 'clean up' proceedures I see a part meant for browser redirection problems. I thought to run just that, but you are saying a "full clean-up". So that would mean going thru the whole thing? As you know, I am not very technically astute, and frankly am not sure I can do this. Also, I have no private data area under the privacy option in Firefox.
Sheena

 

To continue, please type the characters below:

Please enable images

[there is a captcha here with letters ]


About this page

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop. In the meantime, solving the above CAPTCHA will let you continue to use our services.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may be asked to solve the CAPTCHA if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

IP address: 64.136.164.35
Time: 2011-05-25T17:16:37Z
URL: http://www.google.com/search?q=infl...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Satrow, The above is the message I get from google.
tried to paste this message I am getting when I use google into this. It all looks so legit and if I clic on [terms and conditions] it takes me to a page with google terms and conditions, ect.
Sheena

 

What happens when you set the FX home page to about:home and you then search for something?

 

satrow,
just ran several searches with about:home set as homepage. [forgot to write down my real homepage address so now have to find it]. I had been getting the 'captcha' page about every two to three searches. When I ran it with the about:home address ran about five searches, then again got the 'captcha' page.

Sheena

 

It could be that your ISP is routing all Google searches through 1 IP:

EDIT: looks like a lot of recent reporters are on Frontier in WA ...

 

So others are having this problem. Can I tell you who my isp is via a private message? Also, when I emailed my isp about all this they wrote back saying it had nothing to do with them and they were powerless to do anything. At any rate then, this captcha page seems legit to you and doing virus removal, ect. is no longer needed??I already deleted some java files, but they were years old and alot of stuff wouldn't delete, saying the source file couldn't be read. There was some very old myview stuff that wouldn't delete for same reason. Am alittle worried deleting some of that java may have caused me problems, none yet, but just did it short while ago.
Why would routing thru just one provider cause this problem?
Sheena

 

I've read that Hughes, Frontier, Cavalier and Comcast, at least, are affected by this 'bug', it could be that it's their 'accelerator' feature that's at fault.

Sheena, you can tell me anything by PM but nothing's claimed to be private about it, except the name given it by the software makers. I will, of course, respect your privacy.

From what I've read today, it's not a malware issue at all, just the ISP's messing about with their services.

 

Here is a long thread that has apparently been going on since March which seems odd since Google has been aware of it for so long. I believe satrow quoted from one of the more recent posts.

You could do the steps in the first answer to see if you are going through the Frontier server.

 

Satrow,
I have been having issues with their accelerator for a long time, and they only want me to change my settings, which are the same as they have always been. I am a long time customer, satisfied for the most part untill couple months ago. Not sure what you mean when you say nothing is private about it.
Messing about with their services? You mean not wanting to pay for more than one provider, or what? Given that I have had a run-in with a tech, could I be personally targeted? How can they legitimately run their service in such a way that I have to type in letters from a captcha page each time I type in something in the address bar? That is a huge problem for me. And it is happening about every time now, so if I make 20 searches an hour that is 20 times I have type in letters proving I am not a robot.
Sheena

 

sach2,
Can I give you a consulting fee! Thank you. The people at the thread you referred me to are having the exact problem I am having. I have printed out that page and am going to try to ascertain whether its Frontier, but I feel certain it is. Shouldn't I give my isp an earful? And what is up with Google taking so long.
Sheena

 

Satrow,
I am just going to go ahead and say who my isp is: it is Copper. They are a smaller national company out of Ohio I think. Their customer service is all American workers.Their service is very reasonably priced. I have been a satisfied customer until recently, really disappointed. Things seem to be getting worse and worse in our country; products and services get more shoddy, and their prices go up.
Sheena

 

It reads like it's not Google's fault, they're only safeguarding their network from being flooded; it reads like it's an error in the way the (several) ISP's are routing searches that makes it look to Google like they're being hit with hundreds of requests per minute from the same PC.

Using a different DNS service should bypass it but it may have the side-effect of losing the accelerator features.

 

Did you try google secure https://encrypted.google.com/ that satrow linked to?
If it works maybe temporarily putting a bookmark for that site might get you by for a while.

Giving a call to your ISP couldn't hurt. It appears to be a problem on their side and has nothing to do with your computer's settings.

 

Satrow, You suggested I get a different DNS as a fix for the Google search problem.
I know DNS means 'domain name server' and has something to do with naming protocol on the internet. But like many, I just use the internet, I don't know its inner workings, and have no idea of who my current dns is [is it my isp] much less how to get a different one. Would you be so kind as to give me a clue?
As well, I am confused as am hearing from various sources that the cause of the constant captcha page each time one tries to goggle something is the fault of: my isp;or Goggle;or frontier intercepting traffic meant for Goggle [what do they gain by that?]. So does anyone know who is really to blame, and what the solution is, aside from temporary personal fixes such as getting another DNS, however that is done. Many people are being affected by this; we are paying our isps for services we are not getting. Is this something one can ask a government agency to look into?
Sheena

 

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Hi sach2,
Haven't tried it yet. I did call and email the isp, as mentioned. They wrote me back that they "had nothing to do with it and could do nothing about it." Basically they are taking my money for service I am not getting. What can one do about that: in the non-virtual world that could even be actionable, I think.
Sheena

 

Let's figure out who is getting you to google :

 

Satrow,
I just went to ""How stuff works"" for a quick primer on how domain servers [DNS] work. It seems the only way I could change mine was to pay a company that offers different domain names to get me one. From what I was able to learn, each domain has names unique to it, and won't recognise any other names. Is this right, or did you mean something else?
:confused Sheena

 

Sach2, I will do this a little later as I have to go out now.

Thank you so much for your time in taking me thru this step by step.

Sheena