evilgremlin

okay. got my dell win xp machine connected to the internet via cable modem through a router, which prm's computer is also connected to.

i was running a bunch of crap on my computer this morning, and in the midst of this accidentally stepped into a den of spyware/adware. tried killing all of that, things degenerated, and had to shut down my computer.

so i ran a bunch of norton utilities, adware killers, etc, cleaned everything up... finally restart for real, and my computer won't do s*** on the internet... the diagnostic tool that came with the insight broadband says "could not retrieve ip address." none of the help it's offering is helpful... the whole internet/LAN set-up is working fine. i'm on prm's computer right now, and it's working fine via the broadband/network thingy.

i connect my computer via 56k dialup, and when it is connected, i browse... same thing: nothing. both with the cable modem and the dialup modem, norton says it can't scan my emails because my network is not properly configured (i've gone through the whole network setup wizard, and everything appears fine), IE and outlook won't load anything...

so obviously, some setting on my computer is f***ed up. i've been running in circles and can't figure it out. any clues? i'm sorry if i'm not giving you enough info to figure this out, i'm reeeeeeeeally lost right now... anything would be helpful.

and now, i get to use this smiley:

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qwilliam

i know this sounds dumb, but have you tried going into internet explorer > tools > internet options > connections > lan settings to see if the "automatically detect settings" box is checked? i'm only asking because i was in the same predicament as you are (except it was my friend's computer that got infected), and out of the blue, i decided to check to see if that box was checked. lo and behold, it wasn't, and when i checked it back, the internet ran fine again.

if that doesn't work, try going into my computer > properties > hardware > device manager and see if you have any yellow exclamation marks next to anything. the drivers for your lan card might be corrupted. you can try updating the drivers or rolling it back.

after that, try checking your hosts file located in "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" (open the file in notepad). it should be empty, but if there are some things in there, delete them (unless you know that they're supposed to be there; then leave them alone).

that's all i can think of at the top of my head. if you aren't already, try using SpywareBlaster. it's a nifty little tool that PREVENTS the dl of most spyware/adware/malware and you can configure it to protect your IE homepage from being hijacked too. best of all, it's FREE. in my experience, it's been pretty good at stopping spyware from dling onto my comp. there's more info at the link.

hope this info was helpful to you and that you can get your internet up and running again.

evilgremlin

don't worry... no question is too dumb here thanks for trying to help!!

automatically detect settings is checked.

device manager says all is well.

found the hosts file, and there was a long "this is a demo file" message, followed by one line ... and it wouldn't let me edit the file.

(and i am using spywareblaster, spyware doctor, and adawareSE ... *sigh* i always manage to find stuff that gets around it ...)

okay... more clues...

when i go to control panel > LAN > support > and then click the "repair" button, i get the following message:

The following steps of the repair operation failed: Renewing the IP address. Please contact your network administrator or ISP.

now, i would contact the ISP if i thought it was their problem, but i'm pretty sure it's not... and i am the network administrator around here, more's the pity.

as i said, the other computer is surfing just dandy-fine... and when i try to print a doc from the good computer to the printer, which is hooked up to my bad computer, it won't print.

okay. obviously my computer has just taken itself the heck off the network, and i'm sure this is s simple, stupid matter, but i'll be buggered if i can figure out how to get it back on!!!!!

my eternal gratitude to anyone who can point me in the right direction...

eSDee

Use System Restore. Programs->Accessories->System Tools. Select a time before you screwed up your internet. That should do it.

And for cripes sake, stay away from the computer. You're only phree years old!

*edit* changed your age. Damn you're growing up so fast!

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qwilliam

ah, i see what the problem is. most likely, when you go to control panel > LAN > support, you'll see, next to "address type" the words "automatic IP address" or something along those lines. windows xp with sp2 may still show "assigned by DHCP", but the point is, something is wrong with your lan card (i'm assuming it's onboard?). same thing happened to my onboard lan, and the only way i fixed it was to reformat the whole OS. so, though i know the problem, i don't know how to solve it. i tried uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers for the onboard lan, but it never seemed to work. you can try disabling the onboard lan in the BIOS first, and then boot up in the OS, then restart and try enabling it again in the BIOS again and see if that works. i fixed the problem by buying a pci lan card and disabling my onboard one, but i don't know if you'd want to do that.

you can try googling "automatic ip address". i think there was a site that had some helpful tips, but i'm not sure what the address is. i'll post it here when i find it again.

sorry for not being able to help you with your problem. someone else out there will know the answer (and then, i might be able to use my onboard lan again).

mechmike0034

The adware/spyware removal may have corrupted your Winsock settings - try this:

http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
http://www.spychecker.com/program/lspfix.html

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gear02

not to thread crap, but I just have to say I'm very impressed that EG can do some complex computer stuff, especially at 3 years old

welfareloser

heh... i didn't realize that was the account logged in on this computer and he's turning five in a few weeks, actually, the mouthy lil bastid.

system restore failed, so i am following up some other leads ... tomorrow. goin to bed now.

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mechmike0034

Here's another good page on Winsock, including how to tell if that is the problem:
http://kb.resnet.purdue.edu/view_art...?articleid=477

gear02

at some point you might consider a full reinstall...it might be better...

smthayer

you should try to reregister your ip address with insight, remove the router and connect to the insight registration page and then restart and plug in your router and do the same thing, always replace your ip address with insight and never add otherwise you get charged

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DarkFury

One other suggestion... Try running your spyware killers and antivirus programs from "Safe Mode". Some sneaky spyware won't get deleted when they are active and running...

Also... you might have to manually delete some of your spyware files. Be sure to view the logs from your cleaners to find which programs it couldn't delete... and then go in and delete then. Also... scan your c: drive for all kinds of directories and programs that have loaded and you have no clue as to where they came from.

If all else fails... re-install WindowsXP and Ghost your clean install. Whatever works... to KILL Spyware.

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