[Aunt Sally]

Hi,
I hope you can help me! I have an XP machine and use a dialup connection. 9 times out of 10 Internet Explorer will not find the DNS server and says I am not connected to the internet even though I have connected just seconds before.

I did have some virus / spyware issues that a friend helped me to clean up, but now I have problems getting IE to connect. Usually, the first time I run IE after rebooting and then connecting to the internet it will work, but successive sessions of IE (using the same connection - i.e. I have not disconnected the dial-up session) will not find the DNS.

I thought upgrading from IE6 to IE7 would help, but I am still using a friend's PC to get a reliable internet connection!

My friend suggested to try turning off my firewall and connect, but that didn't work either.

Help! What do I do now?

Sally

Edited by Aunt Sally, 10 March 2008 - 05:04 PM.

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Hi Sally, welcome to G2G. This sounds like a corrupted TCP/IP problem, probably caused by some registry entries that were deleted during your malware cleanup efforts.

Click on Start then Run, type cmd and press Enter or click OK to open a command prompt.

To reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: Type netsh winsock reset catalog and press Enter.

To reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults: Type netsh int ip reset reset.log and press Enter.

If these don't resolve the problem, try Winsock XP Fix.

[Ztruker]

Hi Sally, welcome to G2G. This sounds like a corrupted TCP/IP problem, probably caused by some registry entries that were deleted during your malware cleanup efforts.

Click on Start then Run, type cmd and press Enter or click OK to open a command prompt.

To reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: Type netsh winsock reset catalog and press Enter.

To reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults: Type netsh int ip reset reset.log and press Enter.

If these don't resolve the problem, try Winsock XP Fix.

[Aunt Sally]

Ztruker,
Thanks for taking "my case", I really appreciate it.

Well, I tried both resetting the TCP/IP and the Winsock setting and then rebooting (as the response told me to) ... the problem persisted. So I downloaded the Winsock XP Fix and ran that, which rebooted the PC .... and the problem still persists!

So, now what? I hope I'm not the hopeless case ... (and I hope I have enough hair for this exercise!)

Sally.

[Ztruker]

Install a different browser, see if the problem occurs there as well. That will tell us if it's IE specific of a generic problem with XP.

Download and install FireFox. Use it for a bit and see if the problem occurs or not. Post back with results.

Edited by Ztruker, 11 March 2008 - 05:09 PM.

[Aunt Sally]

Ztruker,
Well, that was interesting! I downloaded the Firefox install file, transferred it to my PC and installed and ran it. The first two times the browser appeared OK, but on the third time the home page came up blank. I played around a few more times, but all Firefox showed was a blank page. I then ran IE7 to see if it was displaying the error "cannot find DNS" and yep, that was the case.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox while I still had my dial up connection going and the first time I re-ran Firefox, the blank page came up.

So now we know its with XP ... so ?? (does this make it better or worse?)

Sally

[Ztruker]

This is beginning to smell like some kind of malware infection. Go to the Malware Forum and run all the steps located in the START HERE. These self-help tools will help you clean up 70% of problems on your own. If you are still having problems after doing the steps, then please post a HiJackThis Log in THAT forum. If you are unable to run and/or post a HJT log, then post that in your initial post in the topic you create in that forum.

If you are still having problems after being given a clean bill of health from the malware expert, then please return to THIS thread and we will pursue other options to help you solve your current problem(s).