Cannot Access Certain Websites and other random behaviour

[colin.j.brown]

Hi,

my girlfriends dads computer was behaving very oddly, doing all sorts
of weird stuff, and it basically had a virus, and was badly
compromised, so today I reinstalled a (kosher) version of Xp Pro, and
downloaded all updates, etc, but by the end of the day, although no
where near as bad as befrore the browser still would not connect to
certain websites, and would connect to some sometimes but not others,
while most others worked as expected.

Interestingly, I often could not load pages listed in google that had
the works "cannot connect to certain websites" in them, and I also
could not access google groups.

I ran a security check from Symantecs web site, and a virus check and
also installed Windows Defender with the latest definitions and scneed
for spyware -- all came back fine.

I have been trawling the lists for about an hour and nothing seems
definitive on this...

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

Hi,

my girlfriends dads computer was behaving very oddly, doing all sorts
of weird stuff, and it basically had a virus, and was badly
compromised, so today I reinstalled a (kosher) version of Xp Pro, and
downloaded all updates, etc, but by the end of the day, although no
where near as bad as befrore the browser still would not connect to
certain websites, and would connect to some sometimes but not others,
while most others worked as expected.

Interestingly, I often could not load pages listed in google that had
the works "cannot connect to certain websites" in them, and I also
could not access google groups.

I ran a security check from Symantecs web site, and a virus check and
also installed Windows Defender with the latest definitions and scneed
for spyware -- all came back fine.

I have been trawling the lists for about an hour and nothing seems
definitive on this...

Check C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc for a file named HOSTS with no
extension. (Not Hosts.sam)
Make sure Windows is set to show hidden files and folders and is NOT set to
hide extensions for known file types.
If HOSTS exists, rename it to HOSTS.OLD
Reboot an try again.

Or, In a Cmd window, enter
ipconfig /flushdns
then clear your TIF also, and re-boot.

 

[colin.j.brown]

Thanks for the reply. I've already tried all those things, and a whole
host of other things that I have tried is listed below. However, here
is the weird thing.

Today I have brought my laptop along, last night I tried to connect to
the sites in question form my house through my broadband connection and
I could access them no problem. However, today back at the girlfriends
dads house, if I try and access the same sites through the same
connection, I can't access them.

However, if I VPN in to work on my laptop, and therefore access the
internet via works proxy servers, I CAN access the sites, so it doesnt
seem to be PC related.

Here is what I have tried so far..

1. Reinstalled a kosher copy of XP.
2. Installed all windows updates.
3. Deleted cookies
4. ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /registerdns
5. checked the hosts file
6. Confirmed no ad blockers or IE tool bars are interfering
7. Added the sites to the trusted sites
8. Cleared SSL state
9. Checked IE settings allow SSL1, SSL2 and TLS1.
10. Confimed time and date setting are correct
11. Ran the Winsock fix tool
12. tried accessing without the firewall enabled
13. regsrv32 softpub.dll
14. SFC /SANNOW
15. Calculated optimum MTU and applied using DrTCP

 

[Jon Kennedy]

It seems to me, by what you are describing, and if I'm reading you
correctly, is that the problem lies solely at the GF dad's house and the
connection there. It's probably a problem with his ISP and any proxy
servers they are using. Contact them.