Can’t access Gmail, USC Email, Facebook, and other sites requiring a login

Today my friend Tiff had a problem with her Internet connection. She uses Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6. The web browser was unable to access any websites requiring a login, including Gmail (mail.google.com), USC Email (email.usc.edu), Facebook (facebook.com), Yahoo! Mail (mail.yahoo.com), Blackboard (blackboard.usc.edu) and so on.

But the strange part was that all other websites worked. We could use Google search no problem. We could browse nature.com and other websites. No trouble whatsoever. Just certain sites could not be accessed.

Now that I think about it, maybe it’s because those are secure sites (https), which are treated differently by the firewall.

Anyway, I did a thorough audit of all IE’s settings, all the networking settings, and any active firewalls– including Windows Firewall, which, oddly enough, was active.

I looked in the tray for suspicious firewall software, such as Symantec Client Security which has caused so many problems in the past. It looked like no extra firewall software was running, although an expired version of S

I didn’t find anything wrong, and still the web pages wouldn’t load. She didn’t do anything before this happened that might’ve caused it. So I decided to try a reboot.

Bam! It worked. Note to self: restarting the computer is one of the first things to try. But I’m actually glad I didn’t, because I got a better idea of her setup and how her computer is configured. It’s XP with old browser versions on a Dell Inspiron 700m.

So often I’ve wondered to myself, “Who uses old browsers like IE 6 and Firefox 1.0 Preview Release?”

Today, I got my answer. It’s not a bad thing– computers should learn to be more user-friendly. But there’s still a long way to go. And for those who think everyone uses Firefox: you’re wrong. IE still owns the web, unfortunately.

28 Responses to “Can’t access Gmail, USC Email, Facebook, and other sites requiring a login”

  1. Sam Park says:

    Only cool people use Firefox. And not everyone in the world is cool. ;)

  2. S Modeski says:

    A friend of mine had the same issue — or should I say, still has — and all the reboot did was cause some extra time out of diagnostics. But, thanks for the idea anyway. I happen to have an iMac and I’ve never had any issues (not like with my old Dell laptop for sure).

  3. Jay says:

    Does anyone know another way(s) of sorting this problem out apart from rebooting. I tried rebooting and it does not solve a thing. I have this exact problem and it’s become really frustrating. I expect there may be some serious computer experts who use this site. Please someone I’m in serious need of a problem solver! HELP!

  4. Jay says:

    Please can some help me! Rebooting did not solve this problem for me and I’m becoming really frsutrated. Is there another to solve this problem because if their is, I’m begging you! HELP ME!

  5. Lydia says:

    Anyone know why my roommate and I, who both have Macbookpro laptops, are randomly encountering “Services for this domain have been discontinued” notices? Not always!! Only most of the time. It’s not our router or our internet provider, all of the setting are open to cookies, no firewalls – I usually can’t get into Gmail, Facebook, sometimes google!! This sucks ass. I was on the phone with TWC forever eliminatng them and my computer settings as the problem. It’s a MAC issue. How do I resolve it?!

  6. Mayooresan says:

    Havng the same problem in my computer!!! good part is I can’t search in google too.

    I can’t access forums, blogger blogs, facebook etc. Seems I need to go for an format!

    :(

  7. Gman says:

    I have the same problem. can someone help me???

  8. Alex says:

    Download firefox, opera or safari. Internet Explorer is just a.. “problem”!

  9. bladezored says:

    this had only happen to me onces, i couldn’t log onto anything i even tryed updateding everything anything you can think of i had done e.g updates, scans the lot :P so the was only one thing left to do and that was to total re-boot the whole system by installing everything again which took me 3 hours. now i have a problem on this PC vista 64bit edition. hmm trying to think how to slove this cuz i can’t log on to AOL, myspace and facebook. they all look funny like java is not working in any of them. but i still can log on to yahoo and gmail.

  10. Alex says:

    Try un-installing Norton Anti Virus, that did the trick for me. You will have to run “Norton Removal Tool” which can be found on their website….

  11. saga says:

    i have the same problem.. plz help me if some one knows…

  12. saga says:

    except gmail.com, yahoo.com, orkut.com, facebook.com everything is working good..

  13. Tomas says:

    I have exactly the same issue. It occured after installing wifi router (MSI 60, firewall is off). On laptop – everthing is fine but on PC (XP and Firefox) can not access any login requiring pages (orkut, facebook, gmail…)
    Would be really helpfull for your help

  14. Bill Tse says:

    Yes, I have the same problem, and I have to use a proxy site named http://freeonlineproxy.info to visit them, but proxy access is much slower than direct access. It really sucks. :(

  15. Sal says:

    Here’s a solution that worked for me. Make sure your router’s firewall is set correctly, primarily the rules for port 443 which are used for accessing https:// sites (secured sites). If you have added a service to your router, for example when you have a server attached to your router, make sure that you confire your router firewall to allow port 443 to always be allowed for outbound and to always block for inbound. this worked for me.

  16. Huy Pham says:

    Same problem with fire fox 3.5 and IE 8.0
    I cant understand why does it happen. If anyone know the reason, please tell me. Thanks a lot.

    [email protected]

  17. Huy Pham says:

    Hmm. I set my auto update let I choose which packet to download and install.
    I let my comp download 1 update, and I didnt turn it off for a long time. When I install that update and turn on my comp everything is ok.
    This happen to me 2 times, so hope this help

  18. Rennel says:

    Hey, I Already resolved that problem, I used a proxy server to access those websites … I used http://www.kproxy.com

  19. Dan says:

    I don’t think it’s the problem of browsers. I tried to browse Facebook using Chrome and IE after my Firefox facing this issue but hey, it really doesn’t work at all. I’ve been facing this problem for several times already. Somebody please help us to answer why is this happening??

  20. Teddy says:

    I can browse sites using google search, can access yahoomail but I cannot acess gmail and facebook. Can somebody help me on this.

  21. Mary Grace B. Cruz says:

    I have the same problem, but it occurred just lately. I was able to log-in in yahoomail and gmail and even facebook and my other online accounts before but now no more. I’m using Windows XP. Can anyone help me this. thanks.

  22. neha says:

    Try the following. It worked for me.

    Under the option of “Tools”, go to the “Security” section and check(tick) on Use SSL 3.0 and Use TLS 1.0.

    That should do it.

  23. davod says:

    hi
    i can not access facebook and youtube with mozilla and google. i access just one time on a day. why pls help me.
    i already clean my cookies and cache…. tnks

  24. Harry says:

    I re-configured my router after that even i’m facing the same problem. not able to access yahoo mail, facebook etc……. Somebody Plz help… :(

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