For a few weeks now I have been unable to use search engines like Google, MSN, or Yahoo!
When I go to Google I get a
404 Error Page Not Found screen, that indicates:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">A message from Server Admin: Some people have reported arriving at our error page after typing in or clicking a link to a major search engine. After extensive research into the issue we have found that one of our server I.P. addresses has been targeted by a virus which you may have on your computer called "QHosts". This virus was made several months before we were allocated the server I.P. addresses we have now, and therefore we have no control over it (much to our dismay as it causes disruption to our servers on a regular basis, however it is gradually diminishing.) The Microsoft cumulative patch for this vulnerability is available here.
We have provided our links page below which contains, amongst other things, hyperlinks to some major engines, routed thru our own server which is not affected by the virus, so they work Ok. You are welcome to use these links, if you want to, until your own computer is working properly.</font>
I have performed a Symantec diagnostic test for
QHosts and it returns a result that my system is free of the virus.
With Yahoo!, I can bring up the actual page, but once I do a search, I get an
HTTP 404 Not Found result page.
I am only having problems with using search engines. Is there something wrong with my system, or is there an easy fix to this? I have run all of the Microsoft updates and searches for the
QHost issue, but to no avail.
If anyone has
any thoughts on how to resolve this, I would be grateful.
Thanks in advance.