Cannot access secure sites

[Sam]

My wife's computer's MSIE has all of a sudden started doing strange things.
When she accesses a secure site with a login, no login box appears. There
are other sites she can't access at all. We just tried Windows update and
it won't let her do the update, even though we can see some items that need
to be done.

This is what we've done so far. Checked for viruses (full disk scan).
Checked for adware using both AdAware and SpyBot. Checked to be sure that
the security settings within Internet Explorer were set to Medium and that
the security settings were set correctly in Tools/Advanced/Security. We've
emptied the Internet Explorer Temporary Internet Files. Finally when none
of this helped, we did a repair installation of Windows. Still no luck.

What are we missing here?

Thanks.

Sam

 

[wojo]

My wife's computer's MSIE has all of a sudden started doing strange
things.
When she accesses a secure site with a login, no login box appears. There
are other sites she can't access at all. We just tried Windows update and
it won't let her do the update, even though we can see some items that
need
to be done.

This is what we've done so far. Checked for viruses (full disk scan).
Checked for adware using both AdAware and SpyBot. Checked to be sure that
the security settings within Internet Explorer were set to Medium and that
the security settings were set correctly in Tools/Advanced/Security. We've
emptied the Internet Explorer Temporary Internet Files. Finally when none
of this helped, we did a repair installation of Windows. Still no luck.

What are we missing here?

Thanks.

Sam

This may sound stupid but are you running a pop-up stopper?
Sometimes some pop-up stoppers will stop the security dialog box from coming
up.

--
kwoyach[SPAM]@yahoo[SPAM].com
TO Email: Remove [SPAM]
If I can help you I will.
If you can help me thanks.

--

**Useful Links**
AdAware:
www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
Spybot S & D:
www.safer-networking.org/
Check for Parasites/Worms:
www.gemal.dk/browserspy/parasites.html
Blaster Security Patch:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/blast.asp
TweakUI and other PowerToys:
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Sam,

HOW TO: Troubleshoot Situations Where You Cannot Complete MSN Sign-up pr
Connect to SSL Secured (128-Bit) Web Sites by Using Internet Explorer in
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813444

See if the steps there help.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Sam]

Sometime on, or about Sun, 28 Mar 2004 18:27:48 -0500, Rick "Nutcase"
Rogers scribbled:

Hi Sam,

HOW TO: Troubleshoot Situations Where You Cannot Complete MSN Sign-up pr
Connect to SSL Secured (128-Bit) Web Sites by Using Internet Explorer in
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813444

See if the steps there help.

We tried all that... still no joy. More oddities... we tried logging in as
another user (just in case her profile was corrupted), all we get is a site
not found error message.

We've tried using sfc /scannow and it continuously asks for the Windows CD,
even though the CD was already in the drive (we checked the installation
path in the registry and it was correct).

So, now my thought is that her install is totally hosed, and she needs a
fresh re-install of Windows. <sigh>

Sam

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Sam,

Reinstall just Internet Explorer. Go to the Control Panel/Folder
Options/View tab, set it to "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck
"Hide protected operating system files [recommended]". Also uncheck "Hide
extensions for known file types".

Then, open Windows Explorer from Start/All Programs and go to the
C:\Windows\Inf folder. Locate the ie.inf file, right-click it and choose
install.

You may need to either insert your WinXP CD or know where your I386 folder
is located on the hard drive. You may also need to know where the
\ServicePackFiles folder is (usually under the Windows directory).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Sam]

Sometime on, or about Sun, 28 Mar 2004 19:38:15 -0500, Rick "Nutcase"
Rogers scribbled:

Hi Sam,

Reinstall just Internet Explorer. Go to the Control Panel/Folder
Options/View tab, set it to "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck
"Hide protected operating system files [recommended]". Also uncheck "Hide
extensions for known file types".

Then, open Windows Explorer from Start/All Programs and go to the
C:\Windows\Inf folder. Locate the ie.inf file, right-click it and choose
install.

You may need to either insert your WinXP CD or know where your I386 folder
is located on the hard drive. You may also need to know where the
\ServicePackFiles folder is (usually under the Windows directory).

Thanks for the response. I'd forgotten to mention that we'd already tried
that. We've spent a lot of time "Googling" and that was one of the
suggestions. It's really frustrating, especially since we can't figure out
why this would have happened.

Sam

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Sam,

Have you checked the HOSTS file under C:\WIndows\system32\drivers\etc? Open
it in notepad and check for any mention of the inaccessible sites by name or
IP. Remove any you find.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

Sometime on, or about Sun, 28 Mar 2004 19:38:15 -0500, Rick "Nutcase"
Rogers scribbled:

Hi Sam,

Reinstall just Internet Explorer. Go to the Control Panel/Folder
Options/View tab, set it to "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck
"Hide protected operating system files [recommended]". Also uncheck "Hide
extensions for known file types".

Then, open Windows Explorer from Start/All Programs and go to the
C:\Windows\Inf folder. Locate the ie.inf file, right-click it and choose
install.

You may need to either insert your WinXP CD or know where your I386
folder
is located on the hard drive. You may also need to know where the
\ServicePackFiles folder is (usually under the Windows directory).

Thanks for the response. I'd forgotten to mention that we'd already tried
that. We've spent a lot of time "Googling" and that was one of the
suggestions. It's really frustrating, especially since we can't figure out
why this would have happened.

Sam

 

[Sam]

Sometime on, or about Mon, 29 Mar 2004 06:10:39 -0500, Rick "Nutcase"
Rogers scribbled:

Hi Sam,

Have you checked the HOSTS file under C:\WIndows\system32\drivers\etc? Open
it in notepad and check for any mention of the inaccessible sites by name or
IP. Remove any you find.

Tried that... no difference. <sigh>

Sam

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Sam,

As I don't have any further ideas, I would suggest you take this to one of
the many IE groups. There are some IE experts there that may think of
something I am missing. Sorry,

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Sam]

Sometime on, or about Mon, 29 Mar 2004 17:18:56 -0500, Rick "Nutcase"
Rogers scribbled:

Hi Sam,

As I don't have any further ideas, I would suggest you take this to one of
the many IE groups. There are some IE experts there that may think of
something I am missing. Sorry,

I've just done that. Thanks for your help.

Sam

 

[Sam]

Sometime on, or about Sun, 28 Mar 2004 14:16:48 -0800, Sam scribbled:

My wife's computer's MSIE has all of a sudden started doing strange things.
When she accesses a secure site with a login, no login box appears. There
are other sites she can't access at all. We just tried Windows update and
it won't let her do the update, even though we can see some items that need
to be done.

This is what we've done so far. Checked for viruses (full disk scan).
Checked for adware using both AdAware and SpyBot. Checked to be sure that
the security settings within Internet Explorer were set to Medium and that
the security settings were set correctly in Tools/Advanced/Security. We've
emptied the Internet Explorer Temporary Internet Files. Finally when none
of this helped, we did a repair installation of Windows. Still no luck.

What are we missing here?

Thanks.

Sam

We finally gave up and totally re-installed Windows... it now works
perfectly. I find that I usually have to do that about once a year on my
machine... after 12 months of installing and uninstalling software, adding
patches and everything else, Windows just starts to get real weird.

I don't think it has to do with "viruses"... we both run the latest
iteration of Norton AntiVirus (updated constantly), we're behind a router
with NAT, and we run Norton Personal Firewall as well. Neither of us use
Outlook or Outlook Express for email and we know better than to open
executable attachments.

I personally think that a lot of software is written poorly. They also have
un-installer programs that do not clean up after themselves very well. I
use a registry scanner to find all the bits and pieces they leave behind.
<sigh>

Sam