All worked fine until the other day. Whe I type in a URL
(i.e
www.yahoo.com) I get a message saying it can't
display the page. If I type in the IP address for Yahoo I
get to the page. I ran a winsock2 recovery procedure in
case it was corrupted and also reset TCP/IP and no luck.
Does anyone have any other suggestion short of re-
installing XP?
Thanks
Darryl,
If repairing your LSP (Winsock) doesn't help, then you have a browser or dns
hijack.
1) Ping
www.yahoo.com.
2) Ping 66.94.230.33.
Report error messages.
Search your entire system drive, including hidden and system folders, for file
"hosts". There is one legit copy, in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\. The
others are possibly bogus, and part (but just part) of the problem. Examine the
contents of each copy found, using Notepad. (HINT: Scroll to the end of each
Hosts file, by hitting Ctrl-End, then back up to the top, page by page, before
deciding that the file is empty. Look out for blank lines at the beginning and
end of the file, after localhost, placed there by an exploit!)
How current is your virus protection? Try these free online virus scans:
<
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/license.php>
<
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm>
<
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/>
<
http://security.symantec.com/ssc/home.asp>
<
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp>
Now check for, and learn to defend against, additional carriers of infection.
Have you downloaded these programs before? Download them again, as many are
revised frequently, to keep up with the current level of malware being attempted
constantly - get the absolutely most current version of each product listed.
They're all free - and most pretty small, so they download quickly enough.
First, download CWShredder from <
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html>.
Next, close all Internet Explorer and Outlook windows, then run CWShredder.
Have it fix all variants.
Now check for, and remove, spyware. Get HijackThis
<
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3155> and Spybot S&D
<
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download>. Both free.
1) Install and run Spybot. First update it ("Search for updates"), then run a
scan ("Check for problems"). Trust Spybot, and make all recommended deletions.
2) Install and run HijackThis. Do NOT make any changes immediately. Save the
HJT Log.
3) Have your HJT log interpreted by experts at one or more of the following
forums (and post it, or a link to your forum post, here):
<
http://forums.net-integration.net/>
<
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/>
<
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/>
<
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/>
If removal of any spyware affects your ability to access the internet (some
spyware builds itself into the network software, and its removal may damage your
network), run LSP-Fix and / or WinsockXPFIx again.
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.