Cannot connect to any website, but FTP, Email and Ping work

[canterbury.sales]

Hello everyone. I really hope someone here can help:

Computer info:

Win XP Pro SP2, AMD box 1 gig RAM 2 160 Drives 3 partition total: C, D,
E. Dual booth with another XPSP2 install on D for music and video
mastering.
C drive XP is a developer box with Apache, PHP, Mysql, Dreamweaver,
photoshop etc.

Problem:CANNOT CONNECT TO ANY WEBSITE -- INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL, BUT FTP
AND EMAIL WORK

Early this morning I was able to browse and check email without any
problems, as usual.
I restarted my computer and launched Dreamweaver 8 to check on some
work I am doing.
DW8 had problems accessing the "manage sites" screen and it hang up
twice.
Previously I had problems with it reverting to an older site directory
(see below).

At the same time I launched Maxthon browser (an IE tabbed built) and I
could not connect to any site on the web.
Dialog box said "Web site found" and showed a progress bar, but it
would stop halfway.
I tried using IE with the same result.

I did all the usual checks, including resetting my router and modem,
unplug everything and so on. No luck.
I tried connecting to the web with Firefox and Opera with the same
negative results and same behavior.
I launched DW8 again and tried to execute an FTP connection. It worked.

My email works as well without any problem (outlook 2003).
I also used CuteFTP to connect to various FTP servers: all good.

I tried to ping yahoo's ip address (they allow pinging) and I was able
to trace the packets in and outbound. Same with yahoo.com. Pinging of
IP and domains works.

I terminated the McAfee firewall, no luck, I also checked the windows
firewall to make sure it was off.
I cannot connect to my local router (192.168.0.1) or to
http://localhost (Apache)

In short, no web browser (ie,opera, firefox) can connect to any
address, local or remote. The only way to display anything is to load a
local html file.

I downloaded and run ispfix.exe (found on a forum post) without
success.
I eventually booted up with a second XP partition I have setup for
music and video recording and I was able to connect without a problem.
A macintosh I have on my network also works well.
My last test was to boot in safe mode and it seems to work just fine.
In fact I am posting to this group using my main XP boot in safe mode.

One other funny thing that is happening and that could be related is
that Dreamweaver is somehow reverting the websites directory even after
several attempts to change the directories from my E drive to my C
drive. This started happening after I installed the Apache server, PHP
and mysql and I changed the root folder for my local sites from the E
drive to a dir in the C drive. Reason for that is that I wanted to set
up Apache, php, mysql as a local testing server.
When I try to go to "Manage sites" DW8 hangs for a long time, but
eventually displays the proper window and some of the directories for
my websites have reverted to their old location. I entered the new
location a few times but it seems to go back again without any
discernible pattern. This could be because I still have DWmx (older
version) installed and the preferences my interfere with each other.
The reason I mention DW8 and its odd behavior is that it was the only
other application open at the time of the problem.

The only new software I installed is Apache (php, mysql) but that was 2
days ago and everything (except the site management in DW8) worked fine
until today.
Before I restarted this morning and I encountered the problem all I did
was to try to set up an email account on outlook. No other software was
installed. In outlook I changed an email account outgoing port from
3535 to 80. That's all.

Google searches for this problem did not produce any pertinent results.
Some similar ones, but nothing I could use.

I would really appreciate your help, in any shape or form, on this one.
TIA
Corrado

 

[canterbury.sales]

Hello, I resolved this issue and I wanted to post my resolution to help
others that may have had the same problem:

After contacting my provider's help line I was steered toward checking
my start up programs with msconfig. Msconfig is an application that,
among other things, allows to turn on and off start up programs. It is
invoked by going to start > run and typing msconfig into any windows
XP computer. (Win 2000 will have to download the application).

Once I launched MsConfig I started out by disactivating mt Mcafee
security center. I was lucky and upon restart my web services worked
fine. Eventually I narrowed my investigation to a service called
McVCEscn.exe. According to mcAfee this service scans emails for
viruses.

To rectify the problem I was told to update my McAfee subscription
manually, as the automated update would not work (it said I had the
latest update).
I could not manually update as the files I needed to replace in the
mcafee folder would not let me, and finally I proceeded to reinstall
the entire McAfee security center.

The cause of the problem was probably a bad automatic update, an event
that's quite normal, but McAfee would not confirm or deny that. I have
read recently that Symantec had a similar issue recently and they too
did not live up to it (but they did provide a fix).

In any case, my system works fine now.

Drewamweaver 8 issue. In my post I also mentioned an issue with DW8
that I tought was related to the other issue. I was wrong, it was not,
but I have found a cause and solution for that too.

I upgraded from DWmx a few days ago and I also istalled the Apache
server, mysql and php. When I did that I had to tranfer my web
directory to a new location, as Apache and php do not like directories
with a space in their name (My Documents).

When I went to manage sites in DW8 I encountered very slow response
time in opening the dialog box and I frequently crashed. I also found
that my directoried for my sites reverted to their old locations over
and over.

The cause of that was that I did not uninstall DWmx and DW8 obviously
tried to read the directory location from the MX version preferences.
Once I went to DWmx and I changed the location there too the problem
disappeared.

I still encounter the paramenter error I might have mentioned when I
try to check my local server with PHP, but at least I have the right
home location for my files.

Thank you and I hope this will help someone along the line.