Help, sporadic internet access

I apologize in advance for the length of this post...
I've been battling spyware & hijackers. I cleared lots of
spyware from my home computer (Home XP) over the weekend
using spybot & semantec. Thereafter, I could access the
internet, the other users (really angry daughters) would
get "file not found" when using both IE and Netscape.

So, I did a system restore to last Friday. We all had
internet access, but all the bad stuff was back on the
machine. So, I undid the system restore and then no one
had internet access. All I would see was file not
found.

So, I spent an hour on the phone with our DSL tech
support. They had me enter a static IP address, which got
me internet access, but still file not found for all other
users. I downloaded ad aware and hyjack this and ran them
both. But, same problem.

So, tech support recommended a reinstall of the OS. I
reinstalled last night and... same problem: no internet
access for anyone. When I entered the static IP address,
I had internet, but no other users do.

Any suggestions?? My daughters are threatening my life if
they don't get internet access soon!

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 09:36:29 -0700, "Lost in XP"
wrote:

I apologize in advance for the length of this post...
I've been battling spyware & hijackers. I cleared lots of
spyware from my home computer (Home XP) over the weekend
using spybot & semantec. Thereafter, I could access the
internet, the other users (really angry daughters) would
get "file not found" when using both IE and Netscape.

So, I did a system restore to last Friday. We all had
internet access, but all the bad stuff was back on the
machine. So, I undid the system restore and then no one
had internet access. All I would see was file not
found.

So, I spent an hour on the phone with our DSL tech
support. They had me enter a static IP address, which got
me internet access, but still file not found for all other
users. I downloaded ad aware and hyjack this and ran them
both. But, same problem.

So, tech support recommended a reinstall of the OS. I
reinstalled last night and... same problem: no internet
access for anyone. When I entered the static IP address,
I had internet, but no other users do.

Any suggestions?? My daughters are threatening my life if
they don't get internet access soon!

How does the other users internet access relate to this computer? Are you
running ICS or a proxy server?

Please provide ipconfig information for each computer.
Start - Run - "ipconfig /all c:\ipconfig.txt" - Open c:\ipconfig.txt in
Notepad, copy and paste into your next post.

Now, download LSP-Fix from http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm, and a couple
similar products listed on that page also which you may want to try. All free.

Start by restoring the system so you can access the internet from all computers.

Then, download and run CWShredder from
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html. Have it fix all variants.

Now check for, and remove, spyware. Get HijackThis
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3155 and Spybot S&D
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?l...&page=download. Both free.
1) Install and run Spybot. First update it ("Search for updates"), then run a
scan ("Check for problems"). Trust Spybot, and make all recommended deletions.
2) Install and run HijackThis. Do NOT make any changes immediately. Save the
HJT Log.
3) Have your HJT log interpreted by experts at one or more of the following
forums (and post it here):
http://forums.net-integration.net/
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/

If removal of any spyware affects your ability to access the internet (some
spyware builds itself into the network software, and its removal may damage your
network), run LSP-Fix and the similar products.

Harden your browser. There are various websites which will check for
vulnerabilities, here are three which I use.
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/
http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/
https://testzone.secunia.com/browser_checker/

Harden your operating system. Check at least monthly for security updates.
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

Block possibly dangerous websites with a Hosts file. Three Hosts file sources I
use:
http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/get_hosts.html
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
(The third is included, and updated, with Spybot (see above)).

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.