Weird computer issue

1100011CS

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2007
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Marshalltown
My friend brought me his laptop because he thinks he has a virus. The only symptom is that his browsers won't connect to any website. Happens in Chrome and IE. I can ping google.com and his IM client and other apps connect fine. I've ran a couple virus scanners and malware scanners and they aren't coming up with anything. Any ideas?
 

iahawkhunter

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2010
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Huxley, IA
My friend brought me his laptop because he thinks he has a virus. The only symptom is that his browsers won't connect to any website. Happens in Chrome and IE. I can ping google.com and his IM client and other apps connect fine. I've ran a couple virus scanners and malware scanners and they aren't coming up with anything. Any ideas?

Wild shot here, but does he have something like Norton on it that could be applying an internet chastity belt? A friend of mine's first words of advice for internet connection issues is "turn off Norton.".
 

1100011CS

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Oct 5, 2007
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Wild shot here, but does he have something like Norton on it that could be applying an internet chastity belt? A friend of mine's first words of advice for internet connection issues is "turn off Norton.".

He had AVG installed but I removed it before I started running my scans.
 

cytech

Well-Known Member
Apr 10, 2006
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Hiawatha, Iowa
Did you check the DNS servers? Infections can set the DNS servers to something else to create the problem you are getting.
 

aweb84

Member
Apr 21, 2008
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St Louis Park, MN
Sounds like firewall settings on the machine.

Sounds like http might be turned off

would explain why you can ping and the IM clients are working.
 

TykeClone

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Oct 18, 2006
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Did you check the DNS servers? Infections can set the DNS servers to something else to create the problem you are getting.

He can ping google.com, so he is resolving DNS at the command line, but not at the browser.

I'm curious to know if he can point the browser to 208.85.225.99 (what I resolved google to) if he gets a web page.
 

cjb1978

Active Member
Apr 9, 2010
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Des Moines, IA
He can ping google.com, so he is resolving DNS at the command line, but not at the browser.

I'm curious to know if he can point the browser to 208.85.225.99 (what I resolved google to) if he gets a web page.

To fix this problem, I simply had to clear the Windows XP DNS cache.
To do this, go to Start->Run and type “ipconfig /flushdnsâ€￾ .
(That’s ipconfig-space-slash-flushdns)
Something will briefly flash on your screen, and the DNS cache will now be cleared.
 

TykeClone

Burgermeister!
Oct 18, 2006
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To fix this problem, I simply had to clear the Windows XP DNS cache.
To do this, go to Start->Run and type “ipconfig /flushdnsâ€￾ .
(That’s ipconfig-space-slash-flushdns)
Something will briefly flash on your screen, and the DNS cache will now be cleared.

I'm not sure that will do the trick :wink: He can resolve names from the command line but not (apparently) from the browser.
 

Boxerdaddy

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Oct 19, 2009
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Beaverdale, IA
He had AVG installed but I removed it before I started running my scans.

I had a friend who said that the newest AVG update had a virus in it. I don't use AVG so I didn't investigate but you might want to. Maybe you have but one thing that I found that usually works is combofix. Go to A guide and tutorial on using ComboFix and download it. (There's also a handy-dandy guide) Start your computer in safe mode for your best chance. (Restart your computer then hit f8 repeatedly til it asks how you want to start...i do SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING.)

You may know how to do that but wanted to lay it out for everyone else.
 

1100011CS

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2007
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Marshalltown
It's definitely not a DNS issue. I think AVG left some crap on when I uninstalled it. So, I reinstalled, disabled everything, then uninstalled again. Is now works but not Chrome. I'm not home now but going to try Firefox later. Thanks for all the suggestions.