Michael said:
I've got a customers computer that is giving me some problems. When I first
recived it, it wouldn't connect to the ISP through a dial-up connection
(fixed that). Now, it will connect but it wont access any pages. It will just
show "Page Cannot be Found". The weird thing is, it is able to ping them just
fine. I've tried the netsh reset command, running the networking wizard,
creating a new dial-up connection, WinsockXPFix, LSPFix, and I've tryed
ipconfig /dnsflush. Nothing seems to work. Please post any suggestions you
may have. Thanks
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From what you describe, I suspect the system is infested with spyware.
You fix the Winsock keys in the Registry and then the spyware immediately
damages them again. You need to eliminate or at least disable the spyware
first.
1. Boot to Safe Mode and log on as the most often used Computer Administrator type account -
(If only choice is between Administrator and Owner, choose Owner)
A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=315222
If the F8 key does not produce the Advanced Options menu so that you can choose
Safe Mode, then you can use the BOOT.INI tab in System Configuration Utility
{MSCONFIG} but the /SAFEBOOT check box will have to be cleared again in order
to be able to boot back to Normal mode.
2. Once in Safe Mode do all of the following:
Open System Configuration Utility (START > RUN > msconfig) and verify that it is
set to "Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services"
If it is already in "Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services" then just click
"Cancel" at the bottom. If not, then set it to "Normal Startup - load all device drivers
and services" and then click on "Apply" and then "Close" and then "Exit Without Restart"
Open Control Panel | Internet Options | General tab -
Delete all cookies
Delete all temporary Internet files
(include all offline content)
Remove all Downloaded Program Files that are not identifiable with your Anti Virus
Program. To do that, you click on that "settings" button and then click on the "View
Objects" button and then right click and choose remove/delete for all of them, if any,
one at a time.
(Some of them may not remove. Don't worry about that.)
Close the Downloaded Program Files window,
Click OK to the Settings window.
Click on the Clear History button and click Yes to doing so
Now click on the "Advanced" tab at the top of Internet Options.
In the Browsing section, uncheck the box for
"Enable third-party browser extensions (requires restart)"
Click "Apply" and then "OK" at the bottom of Internet Options
Close out of Control Panel
Open Windows Explorer by right clicking on My Computer and then clicking on
Explore -
Navigate to and rename C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts to oldhosts
(This is done by right clicking on hosts and choosing Rename and then typing in
oldhosts and then pressing Enter)
Close Windows Explorer
3. Open System Configuration Utility (START > RUN > msconfig) and click on the Services
tab and then put a check in "Hide all Microsoft Services" and then you will be looking at
just the non Microsoft Services - uncheck any of these that you are not clear as to what
they are such as "Win Tools for IE" (known spyware). Then click on the Startup tab and
click on the Disable all button (this will uncheck all of them).
By the way, you could try investigating what you find in the Startup list at this site:
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php?type=text
Click on apply and then close at the bottom of System Configuration Utility and then
click on Restart. When you get back to the desktop, you will get a message from
System Configuration Utility - click OK and then Cancel it at the bottom.
Now run your WinsockXPFix again and restart and open and cancel MSCONFIG again.
Test to see if you can now browse the Internet. If so, download Ad-Aware SE and update
it but do not run the scan immediately.
Ad-aware 6.0 build 181
http://www.lavasoft.de/ms/index.htm
After it is updated, restart back to Safe Mode and then put MSCONFIG back to Normal
Startup and then Exit Without Restart. Then run a full system scan with Ad-Aware and
remove any New Critical Objects (spywares) that are found.
If it turns out that spyware is not the issue, then I would suspect that some third-party
Firewall program has gone haywire and should be uninstalled. Note that before you uninstall
any program, you should have MSCONFIG in Normal Startup.
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