What now?

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I am trying to fix a machine that was badly infected with all sorts of bad stuff. It was XP SP1, is now SP2. I have used all the usual progams to do the cleaning up and now want to get on to the internet and complete the Microsoft Updates.

But I cannot for the life of me get Internet Explorer (or Firefox) to look out on to the internet. I can ping my router and can ping my ISP’s gateway etc, but neither browers do anyting but tell me that they cannot find the server.

I am sure that I have checked all the connection settings (TCP/IP etc). I have checked them against a machine that connects fine.

What am I missing? (aside from some sleep?)

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Do you have a proxy server configured in Internet Explorer? (Tools > Internet Options > Connections, then double click the connection you are using)

StuartR

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…have checked all the connection settings (TCP/IP etc)…against a machine that connects fine…

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[/indent]Assuming that the machines in question are on the same router, are you sure that the router’s DHCP settings allow more than one machine? The attached is from my Linksys router, only for example.

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And an additional check would be to open a CMD window and run ipconfig /all to make sure the machine’s DHCP is seeing the router and your ISP’s DNS server(s) properly. See attached.

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Thank you,

Yes I have checked these settings. That is part of what worries me. On the machine that will not show connection via a browser, I can do an ipconfig cmd and get appropriate ip addresses. I can ping the DNS server as well, but I cannot ping beyond that.

The recalciterant machine had Nortons 2003 on it that had expired and I started thinking that this was in some way confusing the issue. So I have unistalled it, and searched through the registry to remove all traces, restarted the machine and I still have the same problem. (I should also indicate that I have tried to enable the Windows firewall and that will not enable – either before the Nortons uninstall or after).

Now that I have unistalled Nortons, I think that I might try a Repair on Windows XP and see what I can do after that. There are obviously files that are still a worry after the infections.

I’ll post back if that makes any difference.

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> I can ping the DNS server as well, but I cannot ping beyond that.

That is a little odd. What error message do you get when you try? What happens if you try to ping a remote node by its IP address instead of its hostname?

Can you try Start > Run > NETSH DIAG GUI
this will bring up Network Diagnostics from the help and support centre
Click “set scanning options” and enable all the check boxes,
Then click “scan your system”
Let us know which tests pass and which fail, you should drill down on any failed tests to see exactly how they failed.

> I’ll post back if that makes any difference.

Please do, that way we will all learn from this experience, and may be able to help someone else next time.

StuartR

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Hi, Sorry about the delay in getting back here, but I have been laid low with a really bad cold and my partner would not let me use my laptop while in bed.

As far as I could see, here, the problem was with the firewalls. I uninstalled Nortons, but still had trouble with connecting and using IE. I installed Zone Alarm firewall, but that just wouldn’t co-operate at all. I tried uninstalling it and re-installing but still no go.

So, I backed up all the important data and reformatted the machine. Did the Windows updates (using Windows Firewall to protect me) then installed Zone Alarm again, and she’s a goer.

Thanks for all the suggestions. If I hadn’t got crook, I would have been a bit more patient with it and fixed it, but the owner wanted it back.

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I’ve seen this a number of times.

Makes one wonder why, with all the extraneous, unnecessary, misleading, redundant, and just plain naggy pop-ups that windows grows like wildflowers in June, no one wrote anything inito the security center that says
“Hey! you have two firewalls running! This cannot end well! Do youwant windows to solve this problem?”

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What have you seen a number of times? Recent versions of firewalls of which I am aware all communicate with the Security Center and shut down the Windows Firewall. Be aware that the Windows Firewall still runs during the boot process to protect your system during the time that the network is initialized but a thrid party firewall is not. Once the third party firewall initializes (not necessarily when the UI appears) the Windows Firewall is shutdown.

Joe

--Joe

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What have you seen a number of times

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Windows built-in firewall and a 3rd party firewall active and running at the same time, causing internet problems.

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I agree that would cause problems but all the firewalls that I know now communicate with the security center and windows firewall to prevent that from happening. If you are seeing it I’d think that it must be with an older firewall and that the firewall needs updating.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe,

Yes the first firewall was Nortons 2003, and should have been updated. But it would not connect to Nortons to do that. The Nortons firewall was corrupt, the Windows firewall would not start, and no unistalling of Nortons would allow the start of the Windows one , nor the installation of the latest version of Zone Alarm.

I hear what you are saying, but that malware attack did some real damage to the system.

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If the machine was compromised then the most important thing was to clean it first before trying to resolve other software issues. If the Norton software was informing Windows it was the firewall then the Windows firewall would not be used. It did not make any difference if the Norton firewall was corrupt if it was notifying XP that it was active. I guess it is just one of those mysteries of the PC world that you were able to get things resolved.

Joe

--Joe

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