Google 404 nginx Redirection Issue
OS: Windows XP
I know that this issue has been around for awhile, and I have read a number of "solutions". However it is brand new for me, as it just started within the last several days.
My symptoms are similar to many of those that I have reviewed, but there are also differences. Perhaps there is a new variant of this problem that has recently started to circulate.
When attempting to go to Google, the browsers return a page stating a 404 has ocurred with the nginx verbiage directly under it. This seems to be one of the classic behaviors.
I have run "PowerEraser" and I have checked for entries in the HOSTS file without finding anything out of the ordinary. "PowerEraser" did not find any threats and the HOST file did not have any extraneous entries.
Google.com resolves to 50.31.75.56 (ping from the CMD environment) when it should resolve to something like 74.125.224.70. Clearly something (other than an entry in the HOSTS file) is modifying the IP address.
Here are a few other interesting facts about the problem that may or may not be useful:
1. Using "nslookup" from within the CMD environment does, as would be expected, return IP addresses for URLs. However, when www.google.com or google.com are attempted, the lookup simply times out. It appears that something is blocking the lookup or the response.
2. After an attempted access via a browser, the DNS cache contains a bogus address (50.31.75.56) that does NOT match up with any of the known addresses for www.google.com or google.com.
3. If the HOSTS file is modified and entries for www.google.com and google.com are added, pointing to valid addresses for Google (74.125.224.70), the problem disappears. As expected, the DNS cache then contains the CORRECT IP addresses when they are present in the HOSTS file, after accessing the URL via the browser.
4. Changing the "http://" to "https://" when entering the Google URL into the browser will allow the page to load normally even without the URL to IP address entry for Google in the HOSTS file.
Clearly, adding the HOSTS file entries merely treats the symptom, but does not address the root cause of the problem.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.