IE problems

Ok here is one for you guys. I had a person call me about popups so I pointed her to Ad aware but she didn't use it correctly so I ended up going to her place and work on her computer. Ad-aware pulled about 200 objects off of her computer. Mainly hotbar, gator and a possible hijacking key (<---ad aware even said hijacking) anyways after all that was removed I tried to go to the internet thru her IE and got a DNS error page so I check the DNS settings with that all good I tried again and failed to navigate to a webpage. Her computer is a winME with IE5.5. So I reset to the default browser options, you know the one at the last tab of the internet options screen. Then I went into a command prompt and pinged a few different addresses (ex. yahoo.com and 66.122.X.X) and they all replied back. So I went back into IE and I still couldn't navigate to any webpages. I then uninstalled the last IE5.5 Sp1 and tried it again with the same results. When I say navigate to a webpage I tried it different ways (ex. http://www.yahoo.com, http://www.msn.com, http://www.google.com......) the thing that bothers me is it would start to download the page, if you watched the lower left hand corner of the window. Then it would just stop and go to the navigation error page the //c:\windows\system\shdoclc.dll/dnserror.html. I also went in to the internet options and change the security from medium to low still with the same results. Does anybody have any ideas on a fix.

P.S. I also disconnected the ethernet connection from the computer and put it into my laptop and the internet work fine on it. I hope this is enough info for you guys to help out but if you have any questions to help come up with an answer I'll be more than happy to answer them. Enjoy

I even went as far as downloading the IE6 download app and copied it to her computer but since it wouldn't navigate the IE6 install stopped just after a few seconds when it tried to access the internet for the 8.6Mb download.

I'm sure this is DNS problem. For example type in the internet browsers addres field not http://www.msn.com, but real IP addres of this site and you will see, it works. If the DNS settings are correct, then try to restore the registry from command prompt by typing scanreg/restore. If this action don't seolve your problem, then you need to try install a full internet explorer 6. Not that whitch requires ~8MB download from internet, but full. Or you may try to install opera. If the internet explorer6 or opera don't work I think the problem is in the windows system files. Sorry for my english.

I have to agree with the DNS thing. It's not resolving via IE's settings. Might be simple, check the Connections Tab in Tools and make sure the LAN setting is "automatic detect". It may have been changed by one of the spyware proggies to a proxy and when you nixed the program through Adaware, that setting may not have gotten changed back.

Well I have tried both suggestions and the persons computer I was fixing is going to go and buy the OEM version of XP and then I'm going to install it in the next day or two. I tried installing IE6 the full version from a CD-Rom and I also tried Opera. I tried 66.122.X.X I of course filled in the X's with the appropriate numbers. So it looks like just a messed up winME from a popup that was removed by Ad Aware. Thanks for your help guys.

Well the solution is not one I liked but it works. Installed a full version of WinXP over the WinMe and everthing works fine. I don't know if it was a hijacking of the browser and when ad aware removed that portion that it wouldn't resolve names correctly then. I don't know but I do know that it is working fine now under the WinXP. Once again thanks for all the help guys

yea it was pretty weird, and I ran into on another winME that ad aware removed another possible hi jacking and it screwed up the IE. I didn't have time to try and work on it before I flew out on the 18th.

actually, again, i too know its too late but for anyone else that might have the same problem, i come accross this on a regular basis. you all are correct in saying it is a dns issue. but where you may not have realized is that the host file may have been very well hijacked. i know bigweb is quite familiar with this file as i have talked to him about it before but in windows ME it is located in c:\windows\<hosts> and for windows xp users is it located in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\<hosts> (note there is no extension at the end of the file name that is the way it is supposed to be) if you open this file, (you will have to make sure you have view files of hidden type and system types enabled) you would have noticed a slew of redirect urls and ip addresses. the most recent and prominent hijacking floating around is the qhosts worm commonly called ghosts worm. i would be willing to bet money that is what was plagueing you all along. the solution is to clear EVERYTHING out of this file and simple add one line:
and nothing else and problem would have been solved. and the reason the upgrade worked is because it replaces the hosts file with a new clean version...

thank you for responding gadget guru, I'll remember for the next time I run accross this issue which will probably happen at least 2 to 20 times with in the next year

Have friend with similar problem. Also gets Host not found, socket error 11001 and Error number 0x800ccc0d on outlook express and can't ping anyone! Have checked, rechecked, uninstalled, reinstalled, upgraded... you name it (apart from fresh install of everything that is!!) Even isp techies are scratching their heads... but one of them tried google with page error path and here I am. Sounds like it might be worth trying <hosts> remedy to me... can you tell me if <hosts> is on W98SE as well? as that is what his OS is.

yes win98sec has a host file, it is usually in the C:\windows directory or you could just do a system search with the filename of host*.* and then just open the file in notepad. <host> <--- is a sam file file type you will see after the remarks section (the remark section is denoted with a # at the begining of the line) a line that reads --> 127.0.0.1 localhost

the OS I was talking about was winME, also for your problem check to make sure all your cables are good and that the connectors are fully seated into the NIC's (Network Interface Card). Enjoy

Thanks for that...... have checked it all out and no success.... am back to suspecting that is either virus or slight mishap at isp when they changed settings their end. Everything was working fine until that time. Am going to run through right up to date virus checker again and try setting up and logging on to 2 other isp accounts we have as next step! If all this works then we know it is definitely not in his OS and can go from there. Having wonderful time!!!

Hi, this may not be connected but my daughter had the same problem with her IE on a PC running Win98SE. IE had had been rendered useless, it just took forever or hung completely.
It turned out to be a folder, some kind of tracker or hijacker or something, called 'autopopup' in her C/Windows/Temp file. once it was deleted (it contained 1.3GB of junk) IE worked perfectly.

Each time she opens IE, dialled up or not, the folder is reproduced but is empty, presumably junk is added over time. I haven't worked out how to get rid of it entirely but at least we have found we can circumvent it by deleting it after each IE use, until we find a permanent solution.

I assume, if such a folder is on an XP machine, it would appear in Winnit/Temp folder.

Clearing cookies and temp internet files obviously does not deal with this. I found it by running Webroot's Window Washer, as Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D didn't find it. When Window Washer got to 1.2GB of temporary files scanned, I stopped it and went on search of the folder it was looking in and found it to be Temp.

Anyway. Possibly nothing to do with your problem but it sounded very similar.


If you do find it to be that and you find a way of stopping 'autopopup' folder being regenerated each time IE is opened, I'd be interested to know how to do that too.
C

Thank you for that suggestion... I will check it out and see if it does appear on my friend's computer too. We have ended up not being able to get IE & Express to work with any of the isp's/accounts we had at our disposal to try so decided to fdisk, reformat and reinstall!!! I was just on my way to let you all know the saga when I received your reply. Do you know even after reinstallation we could not get IE & Expresss to work with my frien'ds isp but could with the others we had to try!!!??? We contacted his isp techies again and they got us to ping....ping to them and google worked so we tried to open programs again and this time had no problems.... Disconnected and reconnected just to make sure all was ok and same thing happened... no luck until after we pinged!! Spoke to techie again and he remembered having a similar problem with his computer and had discovered it had something to do with all the networking stuff he had on...as my friend has a network card installed, although not currently in use, we decided to try disabling it through device manager . Of course I accidently removed it didn't I!!! So then we thought we better install it again so the windows didn't keep trying to look for drivers!! and what do you know... after reinstalling... connected up to isp (just in case something interesting had happened!!) and the whole thing began to work fine and no longer seems to have a problem!!!! Still don't understand!!! But.. it worked!!! Of course we had checked out all sorts on network stuff before to no avail...the only thing we hadn't done was completely uninstall and reinstall drivers through device manager!!! Everything was exactly as it had been when he was connected last year and had no problems!!!??? Techie thought it may possibly have had something to do with installation of AV program... but that doesn't explain why still played up after fresh install as we didn't use the same AV program then!!! Anyway we have now decided machine was overdue for fresh install so was probably a good thing in the long run!! Thank you very much for all the suggestions... will keep them stored away for future reference!!! Hope our experience may help someone else someday too!!

Interesting, hosts !!

For some reason i have a ton of " hosts" files in c:/ when i did a search
Where the heck did all them come from lol

I can see i'm gonna learn a ton of stuff here !