Firewall screwed up XP network settings

[Guest]

Hi,

I recently uninstalled NIS 2005 and embarked on a quest for better AV and
Firewall software. On the AV front I found NOD32 and stuck with it.
With the firewall it was a bit more complicated - I tried Outpost Pro and I
think that either it or the complete uninstall of NIS screwed up some of my
network settings in XP. I have since uninstalled OP and have tried, with no
luck, to solve these problems firewall-free.

Here are the three problems I encountered:
1. Windows Update would not download updates -I found it to be a problem
with the Background Intelligent Transfer Service - only a repair install of
XP solved that problem.

2. Access to my Router User interface (through IE) has become quite slow,
with pages taking their time to load. I haven't found a solution yet.

3. I use a mail tagging program called MSGTAG – and since I uninstalled NIS
/ installed Outpost Firewall Pro I can't send any messages through it. I
tried a few methods to resolve this issue and interestingly, when I connect
directly to my DSL modem through a PPPoE connection - mail is sent through
MSGTAG without a problem. On the other hand, when I send a message through
MSGTAG from another computer on the network, connected to my router - it is
sent as well...so the problem is not within the router. Even with no firewall
installed - messages still aren't being sent.

It seems as though the install / uninstall has resulted in some changes to
my network settings or protocols. Nothing I checked "on the surface" seems to
be wrong - all tcpip, dhcp settings look OK.

Are there any hidden registry settings that I've missed?
Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated...

Much thanks in advance!

 

[Chuck]

Hi,

I recently uninstalled NIS 2005 and embarked on a quest for better AV and
Firewall software. On the AV front I found NOD32 and stuck with it.
With the firewall it was a bit more complicated - I tried Outpost Pro and I
think that either it or the complete uninstall of NIS screwed up some of my
network settings in XP. I have since uninstalled OP and have tried, with no
luck, to solve these problems firewall-free.

Here are the three problems I encountered:
1. Windows Update would not download updates -I found it to be a problem
with the Background Intelligent Transfer Service - only a repair install of
XP solved that problem.

2. Access to my Router User interface (through IE) has become quite slow,
with pages taking their time to load. I haven't found a solution yet.

3. I use a mail tagging program called MSGTAG – and since I uninstalled NIS
/ installed Outpost Firewall Pro I can't send any messages through it. I
tried a few methods to resolve this issue and interestingly, when I connect
directly to my DSL modem through a PPPoE connection - mail is sent through
MSGTAG without a problem. On the other hand, when I send a message through
MSGTAG from another computer on the network, connected to my router - it is
sent as well...so the problem is not within the router. Even with no firewall
installed - messages still aren't being sent.

It seems as though the install / uninstall has resulted in some changes to
my network settings or protocols. Nothing I checked "on the surface" seems to
be wrong - all tcpip, dhcp settings look OK.

Are there any hidden registry settings that I've missed?
Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated...

Much thanks in advance!

Symantec products are well known here for being quite painful to un install.
Did you follow all instructions from Symantec, which frequently involves getting
a special un install cleanup module from their website? The un install wizard
won't always produce complete results. And both NAV (AntiVirus portion of NIS)
and NPF (Firewall portion of NIS) make hooks into the network.

My hope is that you have a corrupt LSP / Winsock - at least, that's what this
sounds like.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/problems-with-lsp-winsock-layer-in.html>

You can try fixing LSP / Winsock first. If that doesn't do it, you will end up
un installing Outpost, then getting help from Symantec to do a clean install,
then repeating the LSP / Winsock cleanup. But start with the above article.

Just as an aside, I found the cleanest un install of Symantec is to Format C:.
I did that last year, then moved on to Avast and Windows Firewall.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing - it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Guest]

Chuck - thanks for the reply!
I tried using each and every tool on the website...nothing changed.
It's as if something is disturbing the transaction between my computer, the
router & the internet.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[Chuck]

Chuck - thanks for the reply!
I tried using each and every tool on the website...nothing changed.
It's as if something is disturbing the transaction between my computer, the
router & the internet.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks!

Please immediately start with a thorough malware check, including expert help,
as outlined here:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/dealing-with-malware-adware-spyware.html>.

Please post a link here to your malware forum posts, when you ask for help with
the HijackThis log.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing - it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Guest]

Thanks - but I ran just about every malware scan I know: AV, MS AntiSpyware,
Hijackthis and more - everything is squeaky clean.
I'm guessing it's one illusive registry key that's causing this, because
apart from the router interface slow-loading issue and MSGTAG not allowed
access - everything works great, including all other network/internet
connections.