moonbeam

I have an uneasy feeling I have had this same problem before but it disappeared. It has re-appeared. Mozilla Firefox is the browser I usually use. Now today when I click on the Firefox icon on the desktop up comes an alert stating;

SERVER NOT FOUND.

Firefox cannot find the server at en-us.start.mozilla.com (in a white box on a yellow background)

It was an old version anyway so I went to Control Panel, add and remove programmes and deleted the programme and downloaded the latest version of Mozilla. The same alert appears. I am getting very cross.

martt

Is everything OK when using IE? Is the 'Direct connection to the Internet' option selected in Firefox? Something to do with firewall permissions maybe.

moonbeam

I have no problems with internet explorer, but since downloading Firefox I don’t use I/E

When I go to Mozilla, Tools, Options, Network, Settings, under configure proxies to access the internet I see…… Direct connection to the internet enabled!

All I appear to be missing is the Mozilla start page. All my favourites are OK in Mozilla. Instead of a start page I get the alert I spoke about instead. Scary isn't it?

martt

Maybe it's just that the server is down, or maybe it's not diverting to the start page. You could choose to open Firefox with http://www.google.com.au/ - or type about:config into the Address Bar, then type 'homepage' into the filter field and look for browser.startup.homepage. Right-click on it and choose 'Reset'. See if that restores the default start page.

If you suspect something fishy is going on, perhaps scan your computer with your arsenal anti-malware programs.

Kalim

Your first step should be whats done on Mozillazine support forums.
To follow this carefully: Standard Diagnostics - Firefox

Next: Error Loading Websites

They should eliminate any problem.

moonbeam

I Thank all of you lovely people for your help. I did go to lots of forums, but couldn't find what I was looking for. I came back to this forum and took Matt's advice with;

or type about:config into the Address Bar, then type 'homepage' into the filter field and look for browser.startup.homepage. Right-click on it and choose 'Reset'. See if that restores the default start page.

If you suspect something fishy is going on, perhaps scan your computer with your arsenal anti-malware programs.

I did a scan with AVG and it found one Trojan.

Matt, I did what you wrote (see above) and I have got my Mozilla Firefox home page back. Cannot thank you enough. It was sending me potty! What clever people they have on this forum!

moonbeam

Marrt I do apologize I got your name wrong!

martt

Not to worry, it does look a bit like matt doesn't it? When I first joined this forum I messed up the registration somehow. When I tried again, it wouldn't let me call myself mart. I added an extra 't' to the end of my name and the registration went through. That's how I became martt

moonbeam

Martt,

I jumped the gun a bit. When returning to Mozilla Firefox homepage later I got the same error. I typed about:config typed homepage and right clicked on BROWSER.STARTUP.HOMEPAGE. The options shows RESET as greyed out. Is that what I should see? The error alert on the mozilla homepage says it cant find the server at ...en-us.start when I type that addy into the address bar I am taken to a site I have never seen before. I wonder if I have a nasty

martt

If you didn't ask for the homepage you now have then it seems that you could have a nasty. If you have a file in your Firefox Profiles folder called 'prefs.js', open it in Notepad and see if there's anything to do with the site you mention written in it. Also look in the 'hosts file' for anything not supposed to be in there. You could also create an additional Firefox Profile and see if you still get the problem while using that.

It might be best to go into the HijackThis Log Help forum and follow the advice given in the stickies at the top of the forum. Ask for help there if you need to.

Kalim

I suspected that even at first, if your homepage changed, then its probably an infection modifying your registry. You should follow martt's advice on this and post in the relevant section after reading the sticky there.

moonbeam

Thank you Kalim and Martt for your help. Now you are going to love this one. I had a previous problem with nasties which I found languishing in the registry, whose registry addresses were kindly given to me by Mr Adware, I think it was, and after doing a scan. I went searching for them intent on doing them a great deal of harm, a story of mine you can find in one of my earlier posts.

Being a computer virgin I got into the registry and modified the binary codes to those registry entries and my problems disappeared. initially deleting these registry entries made no difference, they replicated themselves. I had nothing to lose as I was about to delete the whole of my hard drive anyway.

Now I know very little about the darker corners of my Pee Cee like the registry, but I am prepared to have a go.

I downloaded Hijackthis, did a scan and found a number of suspect entries. Now they advise people, advice particularly aimed at people like me, not to delete stuff if one is not sure what they are doing. Show to it to folk who understand the data placed in front of them. Yeah! Yeah! Fools rush in where others fear to tread and all that

I read and re-read the data, and throwing care to the wind I decided that two of the entries prefixed as 017 looked decidedly iffy. I checked them on the Highjackthis scan and deleted them. I rebooted the Pee Cee and low and behold I have got my Firefox homepage back!!!!!!! so to Mr en-us.start.mozilla.com you can go and get "you know what'! Moonbeam (2) the Hackers (0) ...............

martt

Well done moonbeam. Glad that it all turned out well.

Kalim

Glad you've got it how it should be moonbeam. You're very welcome