XP Home - IE - AOL - Security settings

[HOIB]

Hello group.

Here's a situation I've never run into. Computer (practically brand new)
running XP Home, user has AOL as his ISP (I know, I know...) Anyway, a
problem has developed with surfing the web. Say he wants to go to Yahoo.com
or Hotmail.com. It goes there fine opens the page no problem. But when he
attempts to feed in his Username/password on these or ANY website requiring
these, he gets "Page cannot be displayed" - instantly by the way. This
occurs in either AOLs interface or if we launch IE 6.0 and try it that way.

I just know this is a security setting of some kind but I just can't figure
out which one: Is it in Internet Explorer? I've looked all over
Tools/Internet Options/General and Advanced. Is it a setting in XP Home
itself? He is the sole user and has Admin rights. Again, he can surf to
and through any site, it's the Uname/password thing that's got us stumped.

How 'bout some clues? Thanks.

Hoib

 

[HOIB]

I thought this (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238550) might be the answer
here but he CAN surf to any site. It's just when he tries a
username/password entry that it responds with "page cannot be displayed".
There was a time not too long ago when this was not the behavior. Very
mysterious. BTW, we have scanned with the latest AdAware and SpyBot S&D,
NAV 2004. This system does not have XP SP2 applied.

Again, just looking for any type of clue...

Hoib.

 

[HOIB]

Here's a synopsis of what we've done so far today. I don't live in the same
town as the user. As soon as you try something "secure", like a log in to
Hotmail, purchasing something, this error says "Page cannot be displayed" -
at the bottom it says "Cannot find server or DNS error". The error page
replaces the page from which we invoke the secure session. You can jump
"back" to the source page. It appears reliably/instantly - no waiting. I
don't think that the server on the other end is isn't even touched. Because
I've even tried a completely false username and password (Hotmail for
example) and the response is the same every time with the same speed -
instantaneous!

Checked for an bogus or erroneous proxy server setup - none found.

Tools - Internet Options - checked SSL 2 & 3 - were turned on, left them on.

Tools - Internet Opt - cleared cookies, temp internet files.

Help - About - Encryption set at 128 bit

Tools - Internet Opt - Content - Clear SSL state

Tools - Internet Opt - Content - Autocomplete - Hit 2 buttons - Clear
Forms/Passwords - No checks for any autocomplete functions.

Tools - Internet Opt - Security - All zone set to default vals.

Firewall - not installed, not activated in XP Home

Brought up a command prompt and ran regsvc32 (xxxx) where "xxxx" is
substituted for several .DLLs including softpub, cryptdlg, initpki and a
half dozen I can't remember.

Ran sfc /scannow - found zero.

Rescanned with AdAware SE & SpuBot S&D - fresh ref files all around.

Norton AV - this sys was working fine with Norton AV fully config'd until
about 2 weeks ago when "something" happened. Updated pattern file installed
today - rescanned with no virii found.

I'm very sure this user uses this comp very simply. Doesn't install any
shareware/freeware. Does no CD or DV burning, no multimedia work (though he
could if he knew how). Basically does some routine menial AOL e-mail and a
few Word documents. Not a heavy duty power user.

I'm sure this is just some security setting somewhere. But where is the
question. Is it in IE 6.0? Is it in WinXP Home? Did search through the MS
KB but everything that comes up seems to be for issues not related to this
one oddball thing that kicked up.

Thanks for any advice.

H

 

[Bill]

In HOIB <WHFTHERB@(anti-spam)HOTMAIL.COM> typed:

A suggestion if I may? Have your friend copy and paste everything below my
reply into the *internal* AOL newsgroup;

aol.newsgroups.help

If he's not reading along here ... Email this post to him. He should
already be subscribed to the 'help' group by default. There are (or at least
there were) some pretty smart folks that hang around in there. WAY better
than any of the AOL phone-techs. Oh, and make sure he adds an appropriate
subject line. Then if need be, have him email you any replies he might get.
This seems more like an AOL issue than anything to do with XP. To me,
anyway.

I've taken the liberty of removing the >'s, the derogatory reference to
AOL, and I put it in the "first person" to make it easier for you.

You must be pulling your hair out trying to fix a problem on a computer
you're a town or two away from. I feel for ya.

It's worth a shot since you don't seem to be getting anywhere, anyway, no?

Good luck,
Bill
----------------------------------------


Hello group.

Here's my situation. Computer (practically brand
new) running XP Home.

Anyway, a problem has developed with surfing the web. Say I want
to go to Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com. It goes there fine opens the
pages no problem. But when I attempt to feed in my
Username/password on these or ANY website requiring these, I get
"Page cannot be displayed" - instantly by the way. This occurs in
either AOLs interface or if I launch IE 6.0 and try it that way.
I just know this is a security setting of some kind but I just can't
figure out which one: Is it in Internet Explorer? I've looked all
over Tools/Internet Options/General and Advanced. Is it a setting
in XP Home itself? I am the sole user and have Admin rights.
Again, I can surf to and through any site, it's the Uname/password
thing that's got me stumped.

Thank You for any help.

 

[HOIB]

Bill thanks for the reply. AOL has already washed their corporate hands of
this and turned it all over to Dell as it appears to be a Windows/Dell
problem and not strictly endemic to AOL or their interface. For example,
once he signs on, we go launch a copy of IE 6.0 and try to surf with that.
The results are exactly the same either way. As an aside, I quickly thought
yesterday maybe AOL's parental control got turned on and was setting that as
a systemwide parm. But no, it's off.

I've got queries pending on 2 other NGs - no one's come up with an answer
there either.

Should I find an answer, I'll surely post it back here. Meanwhile if you or
any of the other fine folks here can think of something else to try, please
post.

 

[Bill]

In

Bill thanks for the reply. AOL has already washed their corporate
hands of this and turned it all over to Dell as it appears to be a
Windows/Dell problem and not strictly endemic to AOL or their
interface. For example, once he signs on, we go launch a copy of IE
6.0 and try to surf with that. The results are exactly the same
either way. As an aside, I quickly thought yesterday maybe AOL's
parental control got turned on and was setting that as a systemwide
parm. But no, it's off.

I think you misunderstood me. The *internal* newsgroup, aol.newsgroups.help
is not staffed by anyone officially involved with, or employed by, AOL.
It's inhabitants are just members helping other members. The more
intelligent ones laugh at "Corporate AOL" and the lunk-headed techs they
hire, as much as the rest of the world.

As far as launching a seperate copy of IE and getting the same results? I
could be wrong, but I don't think that really changes anything as it applies
to his connection. He's still (I think) going through AOL's wacky proxy
servers, which are well known for doing some strange stuff at times.

As far as it being a Window/Dell problem? I know three people who own Dells
(with XP-Home installed) in conjunction with either AOL 8.0 or 9.0, and none
of them have experienced this type of problem. I know because I asked them
in a sorta behind-the-scene effort to help you.

I really wish you'd at least try my suggestion. You may find it difficult
to believe, but there are some highly sophisticated technical-types that
hang around in there. I'm not kidding. Anyway, like I said ... What have
you got to lose? You just might be (happily) surprised at what you find
learn.

I've got queries pending on 2 other NGs - no one's come up with an
answer there either.

Should I find an answer, I'll surely post it back here. Meanwhile if
you or any of the other fine folks here can think of something else
to try, please post.

Try installing a different browser. Netscape or whatever, and see what
happens

 

[Bill]

Sorry about following-up my own post, but I just thought of something else;

Unless it's been manually removed, your friend should have a fully
functional version of "MSN Explorer" on his machine. You could see what
happens with that, before downloading anything else for testing purposes.
Especially since it appears he's on a dial-up.

Admittedly I'm a little beyond my scope here, but different browsers *do*
handle things in different ways.

Good luck,
Bill

 

[HOIB]

OK, 'nuff said - I'm sold. Consider your suggestion done. And, we'll wait
and see what pops up.
More tussling with Dell today. Unfortunately, now they're not calling back
with "the solution" when they say they will. Very sympathetic, apologetic
but the latest from them is the same stuff we did four days ago - with
them - on the phone - with the same problem tracking number. Boy, is this
getting absurd. Right now, at 10 PM my time, they're going to do more
research and - of course - call back.

But I'm going to take your advice and run over and post on the AOL group.

And, yes, I'll come back with any news.

Take care and thanks again.

Hoib.

 

[Bill]

In

OK, 'nuff said - I'm sold. Consider your suggestion done. And,
we'll wait and see what pops up.
More tussling with Dell today. Unfortunately, now they're not
calling back with "the solution" when they say they will. Very
sympathetic, apologetic but the latest from them is the same stuff we
did four days ago - with them - on the phone - with the same problem
tracking number. Boy, is this getting absurd. Right now, at 10 PM
my time, they're going to do more research and - of course - call
back.

I can only speak from my own experience, but I've always been happy with
Dell's support. Though sometimes you have to be forceful and *demand* that
your "ticket" get's "escalated" before you'll get a call from somone more
knowledgeable than yourself.

Having said that?

I still don't think it's a Dell/Windows issue. I think it's got something
to do with the AOL (proxy) connection. Did you ever try another browser as
I suggested?

But I'm going to take your advice and run over and post on the AOL
group.

Unless by "run" you mean you're driving to your friend's house, or you've
recently become an AOL member? *You* can't. An *internal* newsgroup is
just that. It's *only* available to AOL members.

And, yes, I'll come back with any news.

Please do. I'd really love to know how this resolves, as I have more than a
few friends who use AOL.

Take care and thanks again.

Quite welcome.

Best of Luck,
Bill

 

[HOIB]

In

I can only speak from my own experience, but I've always been happy with
Dell's support. Though sometimes you have to be forceful and *demand* that
your "ticket" get's "escalated" before you'll get a call from somone more
knowledgeable than yourself.

Having said that?

I still don't think it's a Dell/Windows issue. I think it's got something
to do with the AOL (proxy) connection. Did you ever try another browser as
I suggested?

Unless by "run" you mean you're driving to your friend's house, or you've
recently become an AOL member? *You* can't. An *internal* newsgroup is
just that. It's *only* available to AOL members.


Please do. I'd really love to know how this resolves, as I have more than a
few friends who use AOL.


Quite welcome.

Best of Luck,
Bill

Bill - Ooops! I think I made a sizeable mistake and did not follow your
advice carefully. I posted in -aol.newsgroups.help alright but it is off of
my ISP (via giganews), not AOL's. I completely missed what you were saying.
They have the same naming convention apparently which I thought was a no-no.
As you've correctly pointed out, I personally cannot post to the *internal*
group as I am not an AOL subscriber. I can of course post to the one I did
but to be honest with you, it looks to be a pretty lame group. I should've
suspected that when I went over there and saw what I saw (lots of spam/get
rich/enlarge this or that type stuff intermingled with questions and not
many answers I must say). Anyway, I figured it was OK because the name
matched up perfectly. Right pew, wrong church.

No we haven't tried another browser. I am going over there again tomorrow
to try a few more things. Going to try establishing a new user account.
Going to try to establish a free-bie NetZero account that we can toy with
for 10 hours a month without charge. (I think that's going to tell me
something). Also I found materials at uSoft referring to a "repair of IE"
involving some reg changing (one key) and a reinstall of IE. So I'll run
that if time permits. I also haven't disabled the Norton package which I'm
also going to try right off as it may have a secript blocking that blocks
certain site/data transmissions capable of virus infections. And, yes, we
ought to look at that infernal *internal* newsgroup that I totally missed
the ball on...

I've installed the Avant browser one time here and after a couple of day
took it off. It was lousy. I've never tried Mozilla. If AOL is setting a
wrong or bad proxy setting, wouldn't Mozilla or any alternative browser be
similarly affected? Just curious.

You hear more back on this tomorrow after I get home - right here on this
NG.

Hoib.

 

[HOIB]

Bill - here are results from this evening's unsuccessful trials:

Disabled all Norton and Symantec services and apps from starting.

Mounted and installed FireFox Mozilla. Ran it. After about 1 second,
message comes on: "The connection was refused when attempting to contact
hotmail.com", or "..yahoo.com" or ".... {his bank}.com". Got nowhere with
it. It's completely blocked. In order to get a connection, we have to use
AOL first.

Established myself with a user account with admin priv. Launched AOL, same
result.

Attempted a reinstall of IE. Located "IE.INF", right click, select install,
runs through OK, but no joy.

Attempting now to post to the internal newsgroup - no response at this
writing.

Any other suggestions? Anyone? I'll come back tomorrow with any further
data.

 

[Bill]

In

Bill - here are results from this evening's unsuccessful trials:

Disabled all Norton and Symantec services and apps from starting.

Mounted and installed FireFox Mozilla. Ran it. After about 1 second,
message comes on: "The connection was refused when attempting to
contact hotmail.com", or "..yahoo.com" or ".... {his bank}.com". Got
nowhere with it. It's completely blocked. In order to get a
connection, we have to use AOL first.

Huh? Of course you would. Unless you're trying to say he has alternate
means to the Internet? And if so? Why's he even bothering with AOL?

Established myself with a user account with admin priv. Launched
AOL, same result.

Attempted a reinstall of IE. Located "IE.INF", right click, select
install, runs through OK, but no joy.

Attempting now to post to the internal newsgroup - no response at this
writing.

Any other suggestions? Anyone? I'll come back tomorrow with any
further data.

Man oh man. You remind me of the singles-hitter who gets up to bat in the
bottom of the ninth with his team trailing by two runs. The one who promptly
proceeds to swing for the fences, when all he really needs to do is get on
base and wait for the "big bats" to come up. I'm afraid you may have buried
yourself so deep in the count with all your long fouls, that even if someone
grooves one down the middle for you? You've been swinging so hard for so
long, you're not gonna be able to make contact.

Not a baseball fan? Allow me to translate;

In your haste to resolve this issue, I'm afraid you might have gone a bit
beyond your capabilities with all the tweaking, and possibly screwed things
up royally. Instead of taking my suggestions from the beginning, you may
have now rendered the machine FUBAR to the point where even the knowlegable
folks in the internal AOL help group won't be able to make it right without
telling you to remove and re-install. Something they *hate* to do by the
way.

For your friend's sake? I hope I'm wrong.

As always. Best of luck,
Bill

 

[HOIB]

Well... Geepers! I don't know what I did to burn you up but let's
establish this. I did follow your suggestion to install another browser.
I did post to the internal NG at AOL. We've gotten no answer back - yet.
Those are the two you made. Did I miss a post somewhere?

I haven't been hasty at all. I've tried lots of things in series but not
all at one time. I was meticulously careful in putting all settings back
the way they were. I also create a restore point before each remedy is
tried. What's so "hasty" about that?

FUBAR? Not so. It boots fine, very responsive, all of the software works
flawlessly with the exception of this sole issue (a painful one, I know)
that isn't working.

What I think may have ticked you off here, is that I personally didn't know
there was this *internal* newsgoup within AOL. As I tried to explain, I
don't run AOL myself and in my newsgroup client there was, just as you
stated, an aol.newsgroup.help. I did not know there was a difference; now I
do. Was it a fatal error as you seem to indicate. I think not and I'm not
apologetic for it either.

Thanks for your efforts nonetheless. I'll keep searching for an answer.

H.



As far as the comment (Huh...) is concerned, maybe you misunderstand. We
don't have another way of connecting to the 'net other than AOL.

 

[Bill]

In

Well... Geepers! I don't know what I did to burn you up but let's
establish this. I did follow your suggestion to install another
browser.
I did post to the internal NG at AOL. We've gotten no answer back -
yet. Those are the two you made. Did I miss a post somewhere?

First of all? I'm sorry if that last reply sounded nasty. It was meant to
be more "tongue-in-cheek", but after rereading it, I can see how you may
have interpreted it that way. That's the problem with the written word.
You just can't convey voice inflection. All that not withstanding? I
sincerely apologize. It is not now, nor was it ever, my intention to be
rude.

I haven't been hasty at all. I've tried lots of things in series but
not all at one time. I was meticulously careful in putting all
settings back the way they were. I also create a restore point
before each remedy is tried. What's so "hasty" about that?

Nothing. But you never mentioned in any of your posts that you've been
"undoing" the things you've tried along the way that didn't work. So how
was I to know?

FUBAR? Not so. It boots fine, very responsive, all of the software
works flawlessly with the exception of this sole issue (a painful
one, I know) that isn't working.

I was referring to the AOL software possibly being FUBAR, but again? I was
not aware that you'd been so diligent.

What I think may have ticked you off here,

Again? I'm not "ticked off". Never have been. But you have to admit that
you've listed a lot of "steps" you've taken in an effort to correct this
problem along the way, and never *once* did you mention that you've
"backtracked" over them after finding out they didn't work.

is that I personally
didn't know there was this *internal* newsgoup within AOL. As I
tried to explain, I don't run AOL myself and in my newsgroup client
there was, just as you stated, an aol.newsgroup.help. I did not know
there was a difference; now I do. Was it a fatal error as you seem
to indicate. I think not and I'm not apologetic for it either.

Wasn't asking you to apologize. You've done nothing "wrong" other than omit
what I've described above.

Thanks for your efforts nonetheless. I'll keep searching for an
answer.

I truly hope you find it. And also hope that when you do? You'll post it
here.

Like I said in a previous message, I have more than a few friends who use
AOL. And though none of them have experienced the type of problem your
friend has run into? If they do, I'd sure like to know what to tell them.

Regards,
Bill

 

[HOIB]

Bill - apologize for getting a little hot under the collar...
I really do want to get this fixed and you have been patient.

Still nothing yet from that internal ng. Maybe something by tomorrow.

Hoib