# Tiny URL Problem



## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

I'm not sure if this is a W7 problem or a PC problem, but I don't remember it happening before I upgraded to W7. If you use Twitter, you know they use something called Tiny URL which takes a long URL and shortens it. When I click on them, they will not work. I simply get an error message stating "Oops! Google Chrome (or IE or Firefox) could not find ow.ly". What can I do to make these work again?


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## oksteve (Sep 14, 2008)

tiny url makes life a little easier when it comes to typing them out but so often it is easy to miss a dot or a letter here and there. It is possible you copied down the url wrongly or the site produced them wrongly.Either way it is not a fault of W7 or you PC


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

I think you mis-read what I wrote. I am not typing them, or copying them, I am 'clicking' on them in Twitter. And it doesn't happen once in a while, it happens every time. But thanks for trying to help.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Try this one.
http://ow.ly/1WsYw


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## oksteve (Sep 14, 2008)

excuse me I did misread It may be down to the server being busy,if its a popular url


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

Oops! Google Chrome could not find ow.ly


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

I suspect a problem with a firewall, DNS settings, or your ISP.


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## Gulo Luseus (May 12, 2007)

My chrome works fine with the link supplied- but I have also found that tiny URLs can sometimes be lost. Does not seem to be a permanent thing, but they do sometimes just give cannot find or broken link, and going back through IE solves it.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

@DoubleHelix I don't think it's the ISP since I've had the same one for many years and it always worked before, but it could be the firewall or the DNS. Any clue what I should look for and where? Thanks for the help.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

@Gulo Luseus I've tried that several times but it didn't help.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

So that's it then? No one really has a clue?


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Try disabling the firewall. Change your DNS servers to OpenDNS servers.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

Disabled the firewall. It made no difference.


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## LordMero (Jun 23, 2010)

can you post a link ..as an example to what sites are those..i want to know if they will work on my computer


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

If it can't find the server by name, it's a DNS issue. Change DNS servers, as DH suggested in reply 12.


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## MysticPixie (May 5, 2009)

Try expanding the url using a website... i think it's longurl.org (but don't quote me, it's been a looooooong time).

See if you can load the expanded url. 


Also, does this happen with ANY short url service, or just ow.ly?


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

I have no problem posting. I have no problem with links like: http://tinyurl.com/summercake or http://4sq.com/8Z87MT. It's links like these that kill me: http://ow.ly/22LUA or http://fb.me/BxEHxbvo.


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

Try changing your DNS server to 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1 and see if you can get to the ow.ly or fb.me addresses.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

How do I change the DNS servers? I went in and had a look but just got very confused about what I was supposed to do. Anyone?


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## MysticPixie (May 5, 2009)

starman1695 said:


> How do I change the DNS servers? I went in and had a look but just got very confused about what I was supposed to do. Anyone?


 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-tcp-ip-settings


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

Okay, changed the DNS server to OpenDNS. Still doesn't work.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

Tried 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1. Did not work.


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## starman1695 (May 23, 2009)

Okay. I've solved the problem. Well, not me but help from CNET. Firefox and Chrome both have an add-on that changes the short url to a regular url. And it works! Here is the one for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9549/
And the one for Chrome can be found under Extensions/Explode. Explorer may have one as well but I didn't check.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

That certainly _works around_ the problem, but it doesn't solve it. I'm surprised changing DNS servers didn't do it. It certainly sounds like an ISP problem to me.


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