Struggling with a crippling issue over the past four weeks. Have stopped short of re-imaging my laptop. Would sincerely appreciate any help/guidance. The problem is described in points (1)-(3) below; additional context in points (4)-(10). Apologies for the detail, but wanted to give a complete summary of the situation.
A few details about the system… Relatively new (2yrs old) Win 7 laptop equipped with ZoneAlarm Extreme Security. Preferred browser is Chrome, but problem also occurs with IE. Problem occurs when connected to home ISP (Comcast). My email is viewed on Outlook client, and delivered via GoogleApps Sync for Outlook (GASMO).
The problem
1. During the past four weeks Google sites have been inaccessible (Google search, Admin Dashboard, Analytics, etc.). Google pages timeout with a message indicating "This webpage is not available". Using IE yields the same result. In addition, any site that has (or calls on) embedded Google links is not loading successfully either (e.g. Ookola SpeedTest, TeamViewer). These pages seem to load endlessly (with a white screen), until you kill the loading, at which point the partially loaded page appears. However, all other sites and search engines load normally (as long as I don't try to load them through the Google toolbar).
2. As a result of using GASMO, Google email account in Outlook fails to sync successfully. Upon launching Outlook, a Google Apps Sync pop-up box appears requesting "Sign-in with your Google Account". I have never received this message before. Upon clicking 'continue', it attempts to open a GASMO website, where I am supposed to grant access. Upon doing this, in theory, Google email in Outlook should sync, but doesn't. (On a side note, I have no problems reading Yahoo mail in the same Outlook client).
3. On random occasion (maybe once or twice a day), and for an unpredictably short period (few minutes), the issue described in (1) and (2) does not occur. All Google sites are accessible and GASMO syncs correctly, but only after going through the Google AppsSync pop-window. This, however, is extremely seldom and I have not been able to identify a pattern.
Some additional context
4. Booting in SafeMode with Networking makes no difference. Problem still occurs.
5. Turning off ZoneAlarm does not change behavior. Problem still occurs.
6. Four other devices (all Apple) on the same home network (same ISP) do not have any such issue.
7. My laptop (the one plagued with the above issues), works perfectly fine when connected to another network (public or other private network). All Google sites and GASMO email loads perfectly normally.
8. After extensive debugging with Google Apps support, they suspect that a Windows update has triggered this problem.
9. After extensive debugging with the ISP, I have flushed the DNS on my PC and changed laptop DNS settings from ISP (Comcast) to Google Public DNS…still no success.
10. ZoneAlarm virus scan checks out okay.
At the point of giving up, I've ordered a new PC, but still want to get this one back in order. I'm unclear on the consequence of re-imaging my PC, so haven't done so. Please HELP!!! Thank you.
