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cant access search engines anymore. it always comes up with: bad request, invalid hostname

  • 3 replies
  • 36 have this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by helen21

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for some reasen my laptop started to connect to the internet via my univerisities proxy server. today, however, web sites didnt load at all, instead it said: cant connect to proxy server. so i changed the network/proxy settings by deselecting 'use a proxy server for your lan'. consequently i was able to acces most web sites, apart from search engines. if i try to do so, it always comes up with: bad request, invalid hostname. what can i do?

for some reasen my laptop started to connect to the internet via my univerisities proxy server. today, however, web sites didnt load at all, instead it said: cant connect to proxy server. so i changed the network/proxy settings by deselecting 'use a proxy server for your lan'. consequently i was able to acces most web sites, apart from search engines. if i try to do so, it always comes up with: bad request, invalid hostname. what can i do?

Chosen solution

You can find the connection settings in Tools > Options > Advanced : Network : Connection

If you do not need to use a proxy to connect to internet then select "No Proxy" if the default "Use the system proxy settings" setting doesn't work.

See "Firefox connection settings":


Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache.

  • Press and hold Shift and left-click the Reload button.
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Cmd + Shift + R" (MAC)
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btw i have windows 7 :)

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Chosen Solution

You can find the connection settings in Tools > Options > Advanced : Network : Connection

If you do not need to use a proxy to connect to internet then select "No Proxy" if the default "Use the system proxy settings" setting doesn't work.

See "Firefox connection settings":


Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache.

  • Press and hold Shift and left-click the Reload button.
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Cmd + Shift + R" (MAC)
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thank you so much, it finally works again!