Member Avatar for Dillinger

Hey everyone, just joined this site and am after a bit of urgent help!
I'm running XP and have a DSL connection on my home PC, which connects fine, but I cannot visit any web pages, update my antivirus, sign in to any messenger services etc. I'm thinking there must be some little setting I have missed for these programs to recognize the connection but can't find any answers! I have tried doing system restore to a time when it did work but this hasn't helped.
Any advice would be great, thanks!

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Dani AI

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After the scans and drive swap reported by (and the scan suggestions from ), the most likely causes are still a corrupted Winsock/TCP‑IP stack or a proxy/hosts hijack left behind by the trojan — these leave the adapter “connected” but stop most applications (IE, messengers, AV updaters) from making normal TCP/IP calls. Trojans commonly change proxy settings or the hosts file to block or redirect traffic. (malwarebytes.com)

Practical next steps (in order of low impact → higher impact): run a Winsock reset, reset the TCP/IP stack, flush DNS, then reboot. Open a Command Prompt with admin rights and run:

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
ipconfig /flushdns

Restart the machine and test. The netsh commands rebuild the Winsock catalog and restore TCP/IP registry keys; they’re the standard Microsoft fixes for this class of problem. If netsh winsock reset isn’t present (very old XP installs without SP2), follow Microsoft’s manual Winsock/TCP‑IP repair guidance (backup the registry first). (learn.microsoft.com)

If problems persist, check for forced proxies and a poisoned hosts file: Inspect IE → Tools → Internet Options → Connections → LAN Settings and ensure no proxy or auto‑config is set; check HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings for ProxyEnable/ProxyServer/AutoConfigURL; and open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (remove suspicious entries or rename the file to test). Back up the registry and hosts file before edits. If a reset breaks an AV/firewall client, reinstall that client after the reset — that’s expected behavior. If all else fails, a repair install / clean install of XP is the last reliable option. (learn.microsoft.com)

These steps are what technicians usually run after malware removal when the network stack looks “up” but apps won’t talk to the Internet; they avoid a full wipe until the stack has been repaired or proven irrecoverable.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

You may have been hit with a trojan /virus or you may not .I would call my ISP provider and make sure there service is working ok ,and then run a few scans .
,,,,,,,,,,,
Run at least 2 of these !
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
http://www.kaspersky.com/scanforvirus.html


http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm[/

url]

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php

Member Avatar for Dillinger

I took the hard drive out and put it in another PC to run some up to date virus scans. It picked up a few trojans and some other bits and got rid of them but i'm still having the same problem. I also tried it on a different line with a different modem and still no joy. I'm thinking last resort time here and just wiping it and starting over, but would prefer not to! Any other ideas? Thanks really appreciate your help! :)

Member Avatar for Dillinger

Nice one i'l give that a try when i get back from work, thanks a lot! :)

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