Weird computer problem... some sort of spyware!?

[WarNox]

Hi!

Here is my issue on a WinXP computer:

1. Computer connects to the network fine
2. Computer can ping other devices and vnc to them fine
3. Other devices cannot ping the computer or access it in any way (even in safe mode)
4. The computer cannot use a browser to go on the internet (ie, firefox or chrome) - but can ping websites

What I've done so far:

1. Spybot scan
2. malabytes scan
3. adaware scan
4. avg scan
5. I did a hijack this log but cannot understand much in it :) I can post it on later tonight
6. removed weird looking entries from the 'hosts' file so all that is in there now is '127.0.0.1 localhost'
7. LPC (or something like that, forgot the acronym) Repair

===

At first I thought it was something blocking port 80, but it seems as if its blocking more that just that. Adaware updated fine, spybot cannot update.

Anyway, I've run out of ideas here, anyone know what I can try next?

Thanks,



Gregor

[Speedy Gonzales]

Look in the browser's options. See if anyone (or a program) has put anything in under proxy

[Blam]

Yes, most probably incorrect browser configuration.

If you use IE try resetting the browser:

Tools>Internet Options>Advanced Tab>Reset

Blam

[Agent_24]

Maybe your firewall is misconfigured?

[Dannysw]

hmm, i get a weird problem like that with my wireless modem/router and just some ports would get blocked, give the router a quick reset and then everything is back to normal again.

[WarNox]

Ok finally got home. Thanks for the replies.

It is not the proxy settings, that was the first thing I checked :)

I will try uninstalling avg, maybe thats the culprit.

[Blam]

Have you tried reseting the browser yet?

[WarNox]

No, I never did try restarting the browser. Forgot I read that part heh

---

But I do think I fixed it, well at least the internet works and I can ping/vnc to the machine.

Turns out the other day ZoneAlarm tried updating itself but it sorta half did it and half uninstalled itself. So it was still semi-installed and blocking everything.

Therefore I had to manually uninstall it and that made stuff start working again. Well at least the internet worked, I still couldn't ping the machine.

Steps:
-untick the zonealarm process in 'msconfig' startup items -> this made the browsers start working but still couldn't ping/vnc to the machine
-delete all zone alarm files/registry items - still same problem
-install zone alarm again - now i can ping/vnc to the machine

I couldn't install zone alarm straight away as it was saying 'a newer version is installed'. After manually deleting all ZA files I was able to reinstall it.

Thanks for the help everyone.



Gregor