x-cleaner clobbered my internet settings...
I recently installed a program, x-cleaner (downloaded from download.com), on my Win98SE box. The purpose of x-cleaner is to locate and remove "spyware" and "ad-ware." After running the program, my Internet Connection no longer works correctly. I can ping via IP number, but not by DNS name. I have double-checked all the network settings & DNS entries. I have also re-installed TCP/IP and the network card drivers. If I try a ping of a DNS name in an MS-DOS window, I get an "unknown host" error message. If I try to go to a website in IE or Netscape, I get a DNS error back. Everything seems to work fine other than this, and nothing is obviously missing.
ASKER
Rebooted MANY times. Brought in to work to have the office experts try at it as well. DNS server IS there, other users from my office access it from home, too.
Will try the suggested DNS servers anyway.
Will try the suggested DNS servers anyway.
Find and locate the file called HOSTS in your windows directory or its sub.
Back up the file.
Edit the HOSTS file and delete all contents. Replace it with the following lines:
# Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows 98
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the computer name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost
The above shows the default HOSTS file provided with Windows 98.
If this does not solve,try restoring your Registry to an earlier date.
Reboot your computer
Press and hold F8 at startup
choose "Command Prompt Only"
type "Scanreg /Restore"
choose any of the previous 5 backups and restore it.
This should help.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Sounds like spyware latched itself to your winsock file. New dot net is notorious for that. What ahppens is this spyware sets itself as a layer in your winsock file, when you forcefully rmeove the spyware the layer is never rmeoved but all dependancies ARE so the communication between the layer above and layer below never happens... hence, not web traffic. Follow this link:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
ASKER
Tried and success with war1's suggestion. Never saw PublicFatality's response until after war1's solved the problem. Will examine that one as well, but the problem is solved!
Glad your problem is fixed.
Happy computing, war1
Happy computing, war1
glad to hear it, war1... as a computer tech. I'm always looking for more efficent ways of doing a job, consider trying LSP-Fix next time before redoing all of TCP/IP; it's saved our shop much time.
Kris
Kris
could also be that you're not able to access the DNS server any more? (ie its no longer there?)
try putting these into the slot for DNS:
206.13.29.12
206.13.30.12