Can't Browse Facebook, Google, or Amazon.com; ISP Refuses to Help Me

[Sledge456]

Yo!

Basically what's been going on with our family computer is that you can use the internet just fine if you're downloading, but browsing is 50/50. I can surf to hotmail.com with no problems at all, but if I tried to surf to facebook.com it would just hang until it timed out. We have the same results with amazon.com, google (home page loads fine but cant load the search results page,) yahoo.com and a thousand other smaller websites.

I've been dealing with my ISP more-or-less daily for the last three weeks. They've sent two technicians out to the house. The first one told me that he could see no problem with the signal, modem or any of the connections, but he couldn't fix the problem and left. The second said he dropped my connection speed down from 3Mbps to 2. After that the fallen websites worked great . . . but only for about three days. Then we were back in the same situation.


-I've run many virus scans, ad-removals and defrags.
-I've deleted all the cookies and browsing history many times.
-I don't have a router or firewall of any kind.
-I have tried a new modem and all new cables.
-I have tried using Firefox and have the same problem.
-I have made sure that the security settings in IE were in tune.
-I tried putting these websites into the Trusted Sites window.


So far I've spent all of my summer holidays dealing with tech support and service technicians. And I just got off the phone with my ISP again and they told me that they have added a note to my file stating that if I call again about this issue they are directed not to help me. Apparently they're policy is to only offer support up to the point of insuring that a good signal is entering the house. Can you dig that?

Any-hoo! What do you guys think?

[af3]

Do you have a wireless router? Put a password on it, as neighbors may be using your internet.

[sobeit]

Originally Posted by Sledge456

And I just got off the phone with my ISP again and they told me that they have added a note to my file stating that if I call again about this issue they are directed not to help me. Apparently they're policy is to only offer support up to the point of insuring that a good signal is entering the house. Can you dig that?

Any-hoo! What do you guys think?

actually you are lucky, some isps like phone companies will drop you if you called tech support too many times. Sounds like the problem you are having is beyond what the isps are responsible for.

If you are on a router, try bypassing it and plug straight into the modem and see if it helps. Also disable your firewall and see if you can access those sites.

Also try going into safemode with network and see if you can access those sites.

You said this is the families computer, are you the owner? Do each user have their own account? If so any other accounts having problems?

[Sledge456]

Thanks a bunch for the quick responses . . .

sobeit, I never would have thought that a company could drop you or refuse service because you're having problems with their product. That sounds to me like a restaurant refusing to serve you because you once got food poisoning there.

Anyway, I don't have a wireless router, or any router for that matter. And no firewall other that McAffee's Personal Firewall which is always disabled.

I'll try safemode w/network now.

[Sledge456]

More clues . . . All of a sudden it works fast and fine. This happens all the time too. It will probably work great like this for two or three days, but then I'll be back in the same boat I was in when I wrote message #1. I haven't done anything with the computer since yesterday, so why would it work so good today but not yesterday, and chances are, not tomorrow.

I checked my online billing with my ISP, cause I was thinking that maybe it has something to do with starting a new billing period, but that's not it. The last billing period started on the 12th.



Oh yeah and I forgot to address the seperate login profile sobeit asked about. It is a family computer but everyone uses the same profile. The computer's set to automatically login and go right to the desktop on startup. No user interface required.

. . . _ _ _ . . .

[crjensen4]

What security suite are you using? I had the very same issues - and as I uninstalled it - everything worked perfectly.

[Sledge456]

McAffee. But I've been using the same version for like a year and a half with no problems until now. Maybe an update it downloaded that my PC don't like or something like that?

[Sledge456]

Well still no change guys. I uninstalled a load of stuff today, including a lot of stuff that I would have prefered to leave installed, and freed up a lot more space on my hard drive. Did a registry clean, virus scan, ad-scan and defrag. I still can't open Facebook, Hotmail, Googles search results page, Yahoo or Amazon.

Every other page I try loads fine. I've had all the lines tested in and outside of the house and everything is reading in the "cool" range.

It's really strange how everything worked fine for a space of about three days last week, but then reverted back to the same state.

I don't know, I'm in over my head and lost in my ignorance. No email, no Facebook, no search engine. What use is having the internet.

[af3]

Wait, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Amazon use JavaScript. Are your Internet Explorer security settings on high?



Try setting Security to medium if it is not already set this way.

[Sledge456]

That's one of the things my ISP had me check on more than one occasion. My security level is Medium, actually I think I set it to Low and got the same results. And I tried putting Facebook's URL in the Trusted Sites.

Here's some new developments though. The other night I started up my PC just as I normally would and on XP's welcome screen I got a message . . .

userinit.exe - Application Error The application failed to initialize properly. Click OK to terminate Applicaton.

After I did this it would load to my desktop but would only load the background image. No icons, start bar or anything else. After about an hour of panic, I found out that by bringing up the Task Manager I could run a new task. So I told it to run C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe. It loaded my desktop complete with the start bar and all my programs. It did however bring up another message. . .

rundll32.exe - Application Error
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005). Click on OK to terminate the application.

So now everything runs great. The web pages I couldn't load before load faster than ever. All of my programs load and run really quickly.

My new problem is that when I reboot I have to go through this same process or else the computer just hangs at the Welcome screen with the userinit.exe error. AND I can't load windows explorer or else I get the rundll32.exe error and it kicks me back to the desktop.

I realize that I probably need to just reinstall XP and all my apps. But before I do I thought I'd pose this new info to you guys and see if it bore any fruit.

[af3]

Try doing a START > RUN > SFC /SCANNOW > OK
It may ask for your Windows CD.

[Sledge456]

Hey all. I just wanted to drop in and let everybody know that I got it fixed. For good this time. It ended up being the Vundo trojan. McAfee wouldn't pick it up at all, so I uninstalled that and tried AVG which found around 150 instances of the virus, but even after I cleaned it there was no change. Finally I happened on Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware which actually did the trick, sort of, I had to quarantine everything, then restore it all, then do it all over again. Finally it got everything. 40 more instances of the Vundo trojan that AVG couldn't find.

Everything is working great now and I wanted to say thanks to everybody who helped me out in this forum over the past month or so. You guys were great with all your suggestions and advice.

And for anyone else who is having trouble with this Vundo bull, try Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. It worked great for me on the advice of another guy with the exact same problem.

You guys Rock!

Later!

[Go The Power]

vundo is a very diffcult trojan to remove i would reccomand you do this asap


I would recommend that you go here; read and follow the instructions very carefully; then, post all the requested logs and information; as instructed, to here. (Just click on the coloured links.)

Once done, please be patient, as the Security Team Analysts are usually very busy; one of them will answer your request as soon as they can.


Good luck

Please also remember DO NOT post your logs in this thread, please start a new thread here. (Just click on the coloured link.) and post the logs.