Originally Posted by drez54

Hello,

I'm running Windows XP (SP3), and I'm having some problems... using either Firefox or Internet Explorer, I am incapable of opening certain websites or applications... though these sites and applications are very peculiar. Note that I'm currently posting from a different computer.

First and foremost, every anti-virus and anti-spyware program on my computer does not load... I have Spybot, Avast, Ad-Aware, and other programs such as Smitfraudfix, HijackThis!, Malwarebyes. Attempting to execute them does nothing; they just never load. This occurs in both normal and safe mode.

Similarly, accessing anti-virus, anti-spyware, and even tech support sites (including this one) yields "Cannot connect to server" errors. If I try to access avast.com or something similar, I get the same error. Someone suggested I check my hosts file (/windows/system32/drivers/etc), and noticed that many sites were redirecting to 127.0.0.1. They suggested I delete all redirections except for localhost, which I did, though I backed up my copy of hosts elsewhere.

Anyway... outside disallowing access to certain sites, the internet in general runs incredibly slowly for certain sites. If I try to access something like GameFAQs (gamefaqs.com), it takes long to load; if I try to access something like my school's website and other parts of the site (mcgill.ca), it runs normally.

The problem seems to only occur for the administrators on the computer; both myself and my brother have these problems, but my sisters do not, and upon making them admins, they get the same problems we do.

I can't post any HJT logs or anything of the sort since I can't really load HJT or anything of the sort... frustrating to be sure.

Any ideas?

NOTE: The computer is connected via an ethernet cable to my primary computer, which is directly connected to my modem.

Thanks,
-Anthony.