Some Browsers Died (but not all)

[Guest]

A friend’s computer runs XP/Media Center, and has Auto Update turned on. It
connects via DSL – no router, no other computers in the house.

He says communication to the internet (using IE6) had been slowing, and has
ground to a halt. Sure enough, it times out getting any page (home page at
his ISP, google, yahoo, etc). Interestingly, he also has an old copy of
Mozilla browser installed. It works perfectly.

Upgraded IE to 7. No luck (just like IE6). Downloaded and installed
current Firefox. No luck there either; no communication.

Clean boot (no startups, MSFT-only services): no change. Can’t find
anything unusual or different in Internet Options or Mozilla’s preferences.

The machine communicates fine, because the old Mozilla works fine. But
newer/more recently installed browsers (IE 6 & 7 and Firefox) can’t get
anything.

Any ideas for what to look at or for?

 

[Malke]

A friend’s computer runs XP/Media Center, and has Auto Update turned
on. It connects via DSL – no router, no other computers in the house.

He says communication to the internet (using IE6) had been slowing,
and has
ground to a halt. Sure enough, it times out getting any page (home
page at
his ISP, google, yahoo, etc). Interestingly, he also has an old copy
of
Mozilla browser installed. It works perfectly.

Upgraded IE to 7. No luck (just like IE6). Downloaded and installed
current Firefox. No luck there either; no communication.

Clean boot (no startups, MSFT-only services): no change. Can’t find
anything unusual or different in Internet Options or Mozilla’s
preferences.

The machine communicates fine, because the old Mozilla works fine.
But newer/more recently installed browsers (IE 6 & 7 and Firefox)
can’t get anything.

Any ideas for what to look at or for?

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time
things worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the
malware/virus status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what
programs (and versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Malke