Cannot Get ONline

[lucidity23]

Ok....my roommate is havin a problem. I thought I had fixed it, but it seems to have returned. He cannot get online, AT ALL. We go through the same router, and I can get online fine. It is definitly a problem on his PC.

He is running Windows 2000. It should be all up to date on the patches. I just ran S&D, Ad-Aware, and the new Windows Anti-Spyware Beta program. Nortons also came up with nothing. S&D keeps finding a DSO Exploit. I am not sure if this is a cause of the problem.

I cannot even access the router when in IE. I am going to put Mozilla FireFox on his sytem so he is not using IE all the time.


Can anyone suggest any other problems he might be having? What may be causing his inability to get online.

This happened a couple days ago. I found out he was not running any anti-spyware stuff. So I got him setup and it fixed the problem. It has returned though.


Could the DSO Exploit be causing the problem?

Thanks!


- carpe diem -

 

[aquias]

The DSO exploit shouldn't be causing this problem. It seems to be a pretty standard discovery for Spybot. By all accounts and sounds of it, he isn't acquiring an IP address from the router.

Go to the command prompt and type ipconfig \all.

See if he has a valid IP assigned to him by your router. If he doesn't, try to run an Ipconfig \release. Followed by an ipconfig \renew and see if he is able to obtain one in this manner.

 

[lucidity23]

I am not at home now

However when I typed just ipconfig in the command prompt, I got Nothing. All it did was say Windows IP Config utlity or something like that. No IP info at all. Was strange.

Even if he cannot get on the net, I should still be able to access the Router via the browser. I cannot even do that.


- carpe diem -

 

[aquias]

Not if you're not being assigned an IP address from the router. To connect to anything (unless you're going over a physical connection via a Null Modem or some such thing) you have to obtain an IP address.

If he is not obtaining an IP address there are a couple of possible explinations.

1. Cable problem, replace the cable with a known working cable.
2. IP stack problem...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299357

The link will show you how to reset the IP stack.
3. The winsock fix

http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html

4. A NIC problem.

Now, given that you removed spyware prior to the problem I would say that 2 or 3 should correct this problem.

 

[lucidity23]

Ok...had my roomie try the release and renew..no dice...

It says it could not detect the adapter. I am going to have to check the settings on the network adapter and see what is going on. This is strange because this was all working a few days ago, nothing has changed...

Oy...

These thigns drive me nuts!


What is strange is...he has to be running SOMETHING that is causing this. Because I am on the same router, DMZ hosted, same protection, and I have zero trouble...


- carpe diem -

 

[aquias]

Release/Renew was a bit of a long shot, but it is the easiest and quickest possible fix. I believe the winsock and netsh command should resolve this.

 

[lucidity23]

netsock and netsh commands? I ust run them in the command prompt?


- carpe diem -

 

[aquias]

The links in my above post reference these two things.

The netsh command is run from the command prompt and, using the correct switches, will reset the IP stack. Since, in Windows XP, you can no longer remove and re-install TCP/IP.

Winsock is a windows component, and there is a known issue with some spyware removal and corruption to winsock.exe. This will prevent you from getting out to the web.

Item 2. above has the link to all the netsh commands
Item 3. above links to a download site for the winsock fix.

 

[lucidity23]

Thanks a ton.

I will try this tonight when I am home.

Much appreciated!!


- carpe diem -

 

[aquias]

You're welcome and let us know how you make out

 

[2ffat]

Can you ping 127.0.0.1. If you cannot then your adapter's fried. :-(

James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{To determine how long it will take to write and debug a program, take your best estimate, multiply that by two, add one, and convert to the next higher units.}

 

[aquias]

Can you ping 127.0.0.1. If you cannot then your adapter's fried

This is not necessarily true, especially in the instance of dealing with malware of any kind. But you do bring up another avenue of possible fixes if the above recommendations do not work.

If you're unable to ping 127.0.0.1, then it is very possible that a piece of spyware that infected this system has made a change to the hosts file (note, not the LMhosts file).

If, after applying the winsock and running netsh, you still have problems take a look at your hosts file. It should be located in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc.

Check the file for any entries beyond a

127.0.0.1 Local Host

 

[JFBouchard]

Hi, perhaps simply the winsock layer is damaged somehow.

Have you tried the "winsock xp fix" as suggested by Aquias?
You can also try this equivalent tool:

http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Hope this helps. Please let know if this resolve your issue

Jeff

 

[lucidity23]

Well, the problem is solved.

It was freaky. The PC did not even have his NIC card recognized as installed. I tried to reinstall the NIC,then after a couple reboots, 2 NIC's appeared. I uninstalled the 2nd one. Rebooted again, and it was working. It was just very freaky.

I ran windows update on his computer, it was missing a bunch of critical updates. He should be all set now.

Just some crazy stuff.

Thanks guys.


- carpe diem -