Can't use any google related site and other search engines

I have a laptop that connects to the internet fine. However, google.com, gmail.com, bing.com and Yahoo search bar are inaccessible.

I have searched long and far and have found nothing related to this issue. I tried various antivirus/antimalware solutions and eventually settled on 'Norton Security Suite' (360) which was provided for free by my ISP. Norton did find 2 trojans and another small piece of malware and removed all 3 of them successfully.

I thought it might have been an issue with the Hosts file after having rid of the viruses and malware with the problem still there. There was no hosts file so I did a search (Dogpile) and found a sample Vista Hosts file and placed it in the appropriate folder.

Any ideas?

Download and try malwarebytes. It has solved a lot of problems.

Malwarebytes.org

In addition, download a FireFox Browser, see if the problems remains.

Report your results.

Hello Lucretius,
As usual, richc46 is spot on, Malwarebytes is by far the best.
If some nasties were found one your system, you may want to check your system files.
Follow this tutorial.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

If anything is found, run it again, as it will only repair one error at a time.
Also, try reseting IE to default. Go to Tools > Internet options > Advanced > Reset, you will get a confirmation box, follow on screen prompts,
Let us know how it goes, good luck.

hi jack, how R U

try hijackthis program and the other awesome advice from the prior GURU's