Frequent inability to change Security/Privacy settings

G

Guest

About half the time I am unable to change the privacy or security setting on
my IE6 (6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-00102) browser. It allows me to
change the slider to the desired settings, but when I click "apply" it just
hangs and I end up ending it, either thru Task Manager or by clicking on the
X on the top right of the Internet Options box and responding to the dialog
box sayinf it is not responding. Either way closes my browser and the
security/privacy changes do not take. They only recourse is to do a reboot
after which the 'apply' button for the security changes will work fine (for a
while). It might work fine for a few hours and then refuse to change again
the same day without shuting down the PC or even closing the browser. I
have not been able to discern any pattern to what causes it to change
behavior. I did all the things MS tells you - run my AdAware and delete any
spyware - disable unidentified browser "add-ons", run Norton on all files,
just today I downloaded and installed MS patches and ran the monthly
malicious code detector. None of this has made any difference. Last
possible piece of missing info is I'm running aZoneAlarm Pro firewall (v 5.5)
and have been for several years. Any suggestions?
 
G

Guest

I have the same challenge, IE becomes unresponsive. I have XP Home,
ZoneAlarm firewall. In addition, some web pages hang and will not display
with IE "Not Responding". I have to end the session and restart IE to
continue with other web pages but it seems that personalized pages won't
display.
finally, .NET update will not install dispite following all the emails sent
in response by microsoft. Not sure if these are related. Any suggestions?
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE

Pegasus said:
I have the same challenge, IE becomes unresponsive. I have XP Home,
ZoneAlarm firewall. In addition, some web pages hang and will not
display with IE "Not Responding". I have to end the session and
restart IE to continue with other web pages but it seems that
personalized pages won't display.
finally, .NET update will not install dispite following all the
emails sent in response by microsoft. Not sure if these are related.
Any suggestions?

First eliminate any spyware.
What You Should Know About Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/devioussoftware.mspx

CAUTION!!!!! Removing some spyware can damage the Winsock stack and you may
not be able to connect to the Internet. Before you try to remove spyware,
download a copy of LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2
stacks (all Windows versions)
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
Winsockfix for W95, W98, ME, NT, 2000, XP
http://www.tacktech.com/pub/winsockfix/WinsockFix.zip
Directions here: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=257
WinXP:
Get WinSockxpFix
http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html
How to Reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357
In WinXP SP2: You can fix Winsock by going to Start | Run and typing
CMD
In the command window type
netsh winsock reset

See
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
Help with Hijackware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/tshoot.htm
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 
G

Guest

Thanks very much Frank. I downloaded the WinSockFix application and ran it
yesterday and everything seemed fine for the rest of the day, but today the
old problem reocurred. Any further suggestions would be appreciated.
Possibly related issues, and hopefully some further food for thought: When
this problem (that I origionally described) occurrs, if I click on links in
Outlook e-mails (such as the one informing me that you had posted a reply to
my inquiry), there is a extremely long delay in opening the webpage, on the
order of several minutes. In addition, clicking on MS Access applications
that I have on the Office Shortcut Bar (Office XP 2002) also experience the
same type delay, although if I open Access directly from the Office Toolbar
and use the Access menu to open the same applications, they open immediately.
These delays don't always occur, only occassionally, and I suspect they are
related to the browser setting problem in some way.
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE

Bob T. said:
Thanks very much Frank. I downloaded the WinSockFix application and
ran it yesterday and everything seemed fine for the rest of the day,
but today the old problem reocurred. Any further suggestions would
be appreciated. Possibly related issues, and hopefully some further
food for thought: When this problem (that I origionally described)
occurrs, if I click on links in Outlook e-mails (such as the one
informing me that you had posted a reply to my inquiry), there is a
extremely long delay in opening the webpage, on the order of several
minutes. In addition, clicking on MS Access applications that I have
on the Office Shortcut Bar (Office XP 2002) also experience the same
type delay, although if I open Access directly from the Office
Toolbar and use the Access menu to open the same applications, they
open immediately. These delays don't always occur, only
occassionally, and I suspect they are related to the browser setting
problem in some way.

As my post said, the Winsock fix is for AFTER you remove the spyware.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 
G

Guest

Hi again Frank,
While I hadn't explicitly mentioned it in my last post, immediately before I
ran WinSockFix I had run my Ad-Aware SE (with the latest definitions) and
removed 35 Critical Items.
I just now installed the MS AntiSpyware (beta) and ran it. It detected 4
signatures of Comet which it removed. Don't know if it matters or not, but
when I was rebooting I got a dialog box that stated that "gcasServeAlert
failed to execute..." because windows was shutting down. After the reboot, I
ran my Ad-Aware SE and it detected 9 Critical Items that were not detected by
the MS app. They were all Tracking Cookies of the Data Miner variety. I
removed them and then reran WinSockFix again, so we'll see if this resolves
my issues (although based on my experience from the other day, I'm not
hopeful). I'll let you know either way. Thanks again.
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE

Bob T. said:
Hi again Frank,
While I hadn't explicitly mentioned it in my last post, immediately
before I ran WinSockFix I had run my Ad-Aware SE (with the latest
definitions) and removed 35 Critical Items.
I just now installed the MS AntiSpyware (beta) and ran it. It
detected 4 signatures of Comet which it removed. Don't know if it
matters or not, but when I was rebooting I got a dialog box that
stated that "gcasServeAlert failed to execute..." because windows was
shutting down. After the reboot, I ran my Ad-Aware SE and it
detected 9 Critical Items that were not detected by the MS app. They
were all Tracking Cookies of the Data Miner variety. I removed them
and then reran WinSockFix again, so we'll see if this resolves my
issues (although based on my experience from the other day, I'm not
hopeful). I'll let you know either way. Thanks again.

MSAS does not check Cookies, which are not executable and do not affect
operation. If the problem recurrs, run HijackThis and post your log to
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30 after registering.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top