Internet Connection lost

[Guest]

Hello,
I have a Win2000 machine that recently got infected with malware in a way that
browser windows were constantly opening and showing ads.

I installed Windows defender and may have had some successs in deleting these.
Although it constantly flags one item (Qoolong? sorry, don't have it in
front of me)and prompts me to reboot, which I've done several times.

ANYWAY, I suddenly can't connect to the internet anymore. I'm not sure why.
I go through the connection wizard but nothing happens. I have to go back
and check the hardware but at this point I'm baffled.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

It's possible that removing malware has disrupted the LSP stack.

Unfortunately, this is harder to recover from in Windows 2000 than it is in
XP SP2, where there's a simple command-line fix. It is easiest if you use a
third-party tool, although I can quote Microsoft KB's on how to fix this
manually, if you'd like. I used to have a good reference from Indiana.edu,
in Pennsylvania, but I'm not spotting that at the moment, so here's a
reputable reference for the process:

http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/security/spyware/lspfix/

I'm not completely certain, from your symptoms that this is the issue you
are seeing, but it is very likely, and this process shouldn't be disruptive.
Some software which installs in this chain may need to be reinstalled
afterwards--this might include a proprietary VPN client, or some firewall
Suite products.