Date: 08/28/05 (Computer Help)    Keywords: security, virus, antivirus, yahoo, google

I cannot check Gmail. When I try to get to the Gmail.com page, Firefox says "The connection was refused while trying to contact www.google.com . But I can get onto Google just fine, I can't get to Gmail. And I can't log onto Google Talk, either.

I can get onto LJ just fine. I can get on AIM. I just can't check my Gmail.

I was online last night and it worked fine, then my sister got online [which is something I say a lot because it's always after she's on that something goes wrong] and she couldn't get to Yahoo Mail because Norton Internet Security launched the Parental Controls and blocked Yahoo, saying "Norton Antivirus blocked the page http://mail.yahoo.com" or something like that. So I went around and reset the accounts to allow Yahoo Mail and it was fine, so I thought. But when I got back on, I couldn't access Gmail. I cleared my cache, cookies, passwords, history, and rebooted. I ran MSCONFIG and set my startup to run all the programs it ran when I bought the computer, because I'd set it yesterday to not run anything it didn't need to. I thought that would make it better, but I didn't notice a change at all. I tried using IE, Mozilla, and Netscape after that. They all said "The connection was refused while trying to contact www.google.com" except for IE which pulled up a "This page could not be displayed" page.

When I got online this morning, my DSL box said that everything was connected and running, but Firefox would not load anything, AIM would not connect, and Google Talk still wasn't working. I restarted again and tried Firefox again and still no Gmail. LJ is fine, AIM is fine, GTalk is still not working.

Scratch that, GTalk just started working right now and told me I have 7 emails. I tried to check them through a link GTalk, but it said "The page you requested is invalid."

I'm completely stumped. I just bought this computer, a Compaq at Circuit City [I don't remember the model, but it was $374 which was all I had enough for] two weeks ago and have had problems with it since I bought it. I have an old eMachines that ran Win95 when I bought it, and even though it was on the fritz all the time, it is running better than this computer is, but it's not connected to the internet, so that might be what's making it go faster.

Does anyone have any idea what could be blocking me from using Gmail?

[Edit: It is now working, after trying for an hour. I've always had a problem on this computer with it not starting Gmail when I first connect. Is that a normal problem or is there any way to fix it?]

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computer_help/476561.html