Arron said:
I have two PC's running XP Home, I have a USB Cable modem connect to
PC1. I am sharing this connection with Internet Connection Sharing for
PC2. On the host machine there is no problems, but on the client (PC2)
it works fine for all websites, except microsoft.com. MSN Messenger
also won't sign in but i assume thats because it can't contact
microsoft.com for authentication. It just times out whenever you try
to go to microsoft.com, i have checked through nslookup and it is
getting the right ip for it, i have tried typing the ip in and it
still don't work. has anyone got any idea's that may help!!!?!?!?!?!?
Arron
Check your Hosts files for compromise. It would be smart to also scan
for and remove malware with Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy (both
free). Make sure you update those programs first and scan in Safe Mode.
1. In XP's Search preferences, set the files and folders handling to
Advanced, and then check the box that will make Search look in hidden
files/folders.
2. Now enter the search term "hosts" without the quotes.
3. You will get several hosts and lmhosts files. Double-click each one
to open it. When you do this, you'll get a Windows dialog box saying
that Windows cannot open this file, do you want to use the web or
select from a list to find the proper program. Choose "select from a
list" and highlight Notepad. Make sure the box to always use this
program to open this type of file is not checked.
4. Now carefully examine the file. Lines that begin with a # are
comments and don't count. Leave them alone. Unless you know you use a
proxy server to get to the
Internet or you added entries yourself, the only uncommented entry that
should be there is:
127.0.0.1 localhost
If you see any other entries, delete them and Save the file. Make sure
you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the window if there is a
scrollbar. Do this for each file you found. Now you should be able to
get to antivirus and spyware-fighting websites. Continue your cleanup
by removing spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy from
www.safer-networking.org and Ad-aware from
www.lavasoftusa.com. Be sure
to update these programs before running them. These programs are free,
so run them both since they complement each other. You may also want to
run CWShredder and HijackThis from
http://aumha.org/freeware.htm.
Although CWShredder is no longer being updated, it will still clean
older variants of the CoolWebSearch malware. Always read the
instructions before running a spyware removal tool. It is best to run
antivirus and spyware removal tools in Safe Mode.
If the Hosts file is OK, then try adding the Microsoft site to your
Trusted Sites list and uncheck the box about the secure server.
Malke
