Can’t open www.gmail.com

Description:

When you enter the URL www.gmail.com or http://www.gmail.com or gmail.com into Internet Explorer you get an error page and the URL changes.

You have no problem accessing www.gmail.com from another computer such as your office or a friends.

Symptoms:

www.gmail.com gone wrong?

• You enter www.gmail.com into your browser and you get the error The page cannot be displayed
• You enter www.gmail.com into your browser and the address changes to http:///?%20www.gmail.com or similar
• You have no problem accessing your www.gmail.com from another computer
• Trying to boot into Safe Mode results in a Blue Screen

Explanation:

The above is occurring due to an infection of your operating system.

A virus and/or spyware has infected key files within the OS and is causing the above symptoms.

Continue below for your solution.

Solution

Step 1 – Fix your HOSTS file

Spyware may have altered your hosts file and as a result www.gmail.com is not displaying as it should.

Follow these steps to put it right.

1. Click Start > Run
2. Type c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and click OK
3. In Windows Explorer, locate the hosts file and double click it

If the file doesn’t open directly you will be prompted to ‘Open With’.
Choose Notepad or WordPad and click OK

 

4. Edit this file and sure the contents of the file is identical to the screenshot below. The only active line should be 127.0.0.1 localhost
5. You can ignore the first 17 lines as these are commented out with a pound/hash symbol
6. Remove any other lines, Save & Close the file

Step 2 – Read Virus & Spyware Guide

If the step 1 above did not correct the problem then it’s likely that your browser has been hijacked by a virus or spyware threat.  Click Here for the Virus & Spyware guide.