Google search, youtube, facebook, and yahoo all giving 404 errors 9-9-13

Question

Today I was having issues with my internet. After calling my provider (Time Warner Cable) and doing the proper troubleshooting it has boiled down to it is a problem with Firefox.
Whenever I load Firefox, I have it set so the same tabs open each time. Google, Facebook, Youtube, and Yahoo. Normally they would load and I would start my business or what-have-you, but today all are giving 404 errors. I have refresh the page it does not resolve the issue or if I manually type in the page address in, it too, does not load. Facebook will load properly once I type in the website in the bar and load it that way. If I open a new tab and try these websites (Google, Youtube, Yahoo, and Facebook) they all give me the 404 error, but if I click on the Facebook logo in the left hand corner of the page, it will load my news feed. CNN, TWC, and Gmail all load fine and I am able to use the services. Another thing I tried was disconnecting manually from my internet and then reconnecting. I changed my SSI and reset the modem several times still to no avail. If I load Google using my phone, it comes up fine, same as all the other sites listed. I restarted my computer twice (each after both resets of my modem) and I still have this problem. Now the "funny" thing now is that if I load these pages in Internet Explorer, they all load without any 404 errors. I have not tried clearing my cache or history today, and I checked the Firefox website to make sure I have the current version (I normally ALWAYS update my Firefox when it is requested). I don't want to have to uninstall Firefox I JUST got all my bookmarks back from the last uninstall I had to do (accidentally loaded an unwanted toolbar, yuck!) and also this was working fine yesterday and early this morning (2-3am central time)
ANY information regarding this issue will be welcome! Thanks!

Answer 1

The 404 or Not Found error message is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server could not find what was requested. How To Fix the 404 Not Found Error
Retry the web page by pressing F5, clicking the refresh/reload button, or trying the URL from the address bar again.
The 404 Not Found error might appear for several reasons even though no real issue exists, so sometimes a simple refresh will often load the page you were looking for.
Check for errors in the URL. Often times the 404 Not Found error appears because the URL was typed wrong or the link that was clicked on points to the wrong URL.
Move up one directory level at a time in the URL until you find something.
For example, if www.web.com/a/b/c.htm gave you the 404 Not Found error, move up to www.web.com/a/b/. If you get nothing here (or an error), move up to www.web.com/a/. This should lead you toward what you're looking for or at least confirm that it's no longer available.
Tip: If you have moved all the way up to the website's homepage, try to run a search for the information you're looking for. If the site doesn't have a search function, try navigating to the page you want using category links to dig deeper into the site.
Search for the page at a popular search engine. It's possible that you simply have the entirely wrong URL in which case a quick Google or Bing search should get you where you want to go.
If you do find the page you were after, update your bookmark or favorite to avoid the HTTP 404 error in the future.
Clear your browser's cache if you have any indication that the 404 Not Found message might just be yours. For example, if you can reach the URL from your phone but not from your tablet, clearing the cache on your tablet's browser might help.
You might also consider clearing your browser's cookies, or at least the one(s) involved with the website in question, if clearing the cache didn't work.
Change the DNS servers used by your computer but usually only if an entire website is giving you a 404 error, especially if the website is available to those on other networks (e.g. your mobile phone network or a friend in another city).
404's on an entire website isn't particularly common unless your ISP or government filters/censors websites. No matter the reason, if it does happen, giving another set of DNS servers a try is a good step to take. See my Public DNS Servers List for some alternatives.
Finally, if all else fails, contact the website directly. If they've removed the page you're after then the 404 error is completely legitimate and they should be able to tell you that. If they've moved the page, and are generating 404's instead of redirecting visitors to the new page, they might be very happy to hear from you.
A WHOIS search, using the site's domain name (e.g. weather.com) as your search term, should give you some contact information.
If the WHOIS search isn't helpful, know that many sites can be reached via email at [email protected], replacing website.com with the real website name. Contacting a site via one of their social networking profiles is another good idea.