Connected but cannot browse or ping

[renniefactor]

Hey there guys! Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. I am extremely frustrated with my ISP.

I just moved to a small town in Southeastern Minnesota, back close to my family.

I got setup with an ISP here. After the provisioned the modem via the MAC address on the modem, they plugged it in to my computer via the E-Net cable.

ISP says everything is good on their end, yet when I browse (both IE and FF) I get page cannot be displayed. When I ping an IP address it faills on all four packets.

I did "ipconfig/release" then "ipconfig/renew" still no go.

I did "ipconfig/flushdns", still nothing.

Windows firewall is disabled (I have no other Firewalls) and I have no viruses (my ISP was claiming it had to be a virus or a firewall).

Anything anyone could offer would be a great help. I am a fairly technical person and can understand most things so please don't hold anything back...thanks guys!

Sincerely,

Sean Rennie

[renniefactor]

UPDATE: I finally got a good tech on the phone at my ISP and we spent 90 minutes working on it. We did a winsock refresh and even tried the same modem on another computer. Still not working, but we determined that it was the modem.

Swapped it out and I will try the new modem when I get home tonight.

[renniefactor]

Replacing the modem fixed it. In case anyone cares.

[centralnytech]

This seems to be a consistent problem. There has to be an easier answer, a way to overcome whatever caused the problem. In my case it was apparently a Trojan. Installed BitDefender 2012, but had to go in through Linux to get rid of the virus. Then could not escape a winsock or related issue. Found several services had mysteriously been turned off (administrative toos.....Services).

I have done 2 microsoft fixes (20199 and 20203). I have run different versions of winsockfix. Now I am reinstalling XP-SP3 over the existing SP3. Iknow that is a dated solution, but I am hoping it simply places the right fixes in the right places, given that it is such a major update.

[PhilliePhan]

I have done 2 microsoft fixes (20199 and 20203). I have run different versions of winsockfix. Now I am reinstalling XP-SP3 over the existing SP3. Iknow that is a dated solution, but I am hoping it simply places the right fixes in the right places, given that it is such a major update.

Sounds like you got hit with one of the ZeroAccess rootkit variants. I've been helping another poster with a similar issue.

Reinstalling SP3 is not a good idea on an (especially rootkit - assuming that is what you have) infected computer. You may get connection back, but you'll still need to deal with the remaining malware before it puts you back into the same boat again.

If you find you need some assistance, please post a thread in the Spyware Forum.

Best Luck :)
PP

[centralnytech]

I did not get PhillliePhan's response before I reran SP3. I knew there was some risk in doing that, but I did not lay out all that had been done to lay the groundwork. In order to be most helpful to others, that could be useful.

Whatever malware or trojan or whatever it was that got on this laptop, it was ugly. While virus aficianados might commend the "artistry" of the virus maker, I was very frustrated by the time I got to that successful step of reloading SP3.

Once I was aware that there was malicious software present, I ran BitDefender IS 2012 from a Linux bootable cd (BitDefender will provide that either online or in their retail package). It found several malicious items. They were, of course, quarantined/deleted. However, I could not get the system to connect to the network or internet. The next step was to run the Internet Explorer diagnostic. It pointed to "winsock" issues. I searched for, found and used every winsock repair application and process I could find, to no avail. It turned out that the malware had disabled certain services, so I used a live working system side-by-side and compared services. Actually, I first just checked services and saw several disabled that I knew should not be disabled or set to manual. After re-engaging the services I reached the point where it would connect, either wired or wirelessly to the network. After going through more checks and techniques (and in exasperation) I reinstalled SP3. The good news for me is that it worked. (BTW, PP....roolkits were among the malicious software bitdefender removed in linux mode). Once I had connection to the internet, I reinstalled BitDefender. It is now functioning in the background. Its initial scan after all of this found 230 additional problems, but only JS.PDF.CW as a serious threat. So far, so good.

I am concerned that the bitdefender service has disabled a couple of times, but now seems to be operating with some stability. I would be interested in others thoughts and experiences with BitDefender. While I dislike doing so much support via email, I have recommended it to clients for a while.

Bottom line is that reinstalling XP SP3 did work, but as a final step after resolving the whole host of other issues.