can't connect to internet

Hi, everybody -

I was just sent over here from the Malware Removal Forum.

I had gotten a bad malware infection. (Anyone who is interested can read about it at the thread "malware infection" at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=295557.) Anyway, that appears to now be resolved.

However, it left me with a disconnected (wireless) broadband connection. When I try to connect via Windows 7's Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center, I keep getting Windows error 651.

So Kestrel13!, who was helping me at the malware forum, suggested I ask for help here.

So if anyone CAN help me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

 

I notice you did try Tweaking.com Windows Repair without any success.
Is this a mobile USB modem?

 

No, it's a fiber optic modem intergrated into a single unit with a wireless router from FiOS.

 

Unfortunately, I've got to run out for a couple hours right now, just in case you reply immediately.

 

Hi, Kestrel13! - Is this something that you or the other helpers here at this website have personal experience with? Can you recommend it?

 

Here's the download on MajorGeeks.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/complete_internet_repair.html

Have a look at the comments.

 

OK, I downloaded it and copied it to the formerly infected computer and started to run it. But there are 11 options for repair. Should I select them all?

 

Here are the options given, if that helps. The spelling and gramatical errors are not mine; I am quoting the program verbatim.

• Reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
This option rewrites important registry keys that are used by
the Inernet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack. This has the same result
as removing and reinstalling the protocol.

• Repair Winsock (Reset Catalog)
This can be used to recover from Winsock corruption result in lost
of network connectivity. This option should be used with care
becuase any pre-installed LSPs will need to be reinstalled.

• Renew Internet Connections
Release and renew all Interent (TCP/IP) connections.

• Flush DNS Resolver Cache
Flush DNS Resolver Cache, refresh all DHCP leases and
re-register DNS names.

• Repair Internet Explorer 11.0.9600
Re-registers all the concerned dll and ocx files required for
the smooth operation of Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.

• Clear Windows Update History
This option will clear the Windows Update History.
It will do this by emptying the
[C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore]
[C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download] directories.

• Repair Windows / Automatic Update
This option will try and fix Repair Windows / Automatic Updates.
Try this when you are unable to download or install updates.

• Repair SSL / HTTPS / Cryptography
If you are having trouble connecting to SSL / Secured websites
(Ex. Banking) then this option could help.

• Reset Windows Firewall Configuation
Reset Windows Firewall Configuation to its default state.

• Restore the default hosts file
Reset the Windows host file to its default state.

• Repair Workgroup Computers view
Select this option if you cannot view other
workgroup computers on the network.

 

It's still not working, BUT in trying to troubleshoot the problem, I keep getting a message saying that my ethernet cable must be unplugged. I never HAD a connection via ethernet cable; I had a wireless connection.

Here are the network connections available to the affected computer:

Broadband Connection
Disconnected
WAN Miniport (PPPOE)

Local Area Connection
Network cable unplugged
Marvell Yukon 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

VirtualBox Host-Only Network
Unidentified network
VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

Trying to create a network connection via the Broadband Connection is what yields a Windows error 651.

(I never knew what the VirtualBox was.)

So I think the computer's just no longer seeing the wireless router for some reason.

Any thoughts on this?

 

What is missing from your ipconfig is not the router, it's the computer's wireless adapter. That's just not present at all, not even in a 'media disconnected' state. What does device manager have to say about your network adapters?

 

Marvell Yukon 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
This device is working properly.

Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
This device cannot start. (Code 10)

VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
This device is working properly.

 

The system is not detecting any functioning wireless adapter. What type of adapter is it - USB dongle or internal?

 

Internal.

 

Unless the malware has somehow managed to hide the adapter from the system I can only assume it has failed. There isn't anything you can do if it has failed other than using a cable connection or plugging in a USB wireless dongle.

 

I'm going to have to sign out now but if you have the ability either to restore to factory, or to perform a clean Win 7 install I think you should consider it. You would need to back up any important personal stuff first. If the adapter has indeed failed then restoring wifi is easy with a dongle, but it's possible the adapter may just reappear if you perform a clean install or a recovery.

 

I thought doing a restore didn't blow away personal data. Not so?

 

Sometimes a coincidence happens and things die at the same time you are doing something else.
I had a power supply decide to die just after I upgraded RAM. The computer worked briefly with the new RAM and then nothing! I had no idea what was going on (or in this case not going on).

What is the brand and exact model of the computer? I need to know that to track down hardware and grab you a driver for the motherboard. If the wifi is internal, it is on the motherboard.

 

Lenovo ThinkCentre
machine type: 5042
model number: A7U
ACPI x64-based PC with 4 AMD Athlon II X4 640 Processors

 

With the recent "upgrade" to the appearance of this website, half of this thread has disappeared.

I had been advised in this thread to get a wireless network adapter dongle.

I want to make sure that the one I get is compatible with my computer, so I want to know if a USB 2.0 is OK, or if it must be a "regular" USB dongle.

But going into Device Manager, the only USB categories I see are Universal Serial Bus Controllers and USB Virtualization.

The only entry I see for ports are COM & LPT.

The computer in question in a Lenovo ThinkCentre M75e 5042A7U.

I'm guessing the USB 2.0 is backwardly-compatible with the "regular" USB, and that this computer may predate the USB 2.0. So I think I should be safe with a regular USB dongle, but I just want to know as much about this as possible.

So can anyone please tell me how I can determine what kind of USB port I have?

Thanks.

 

According to http://www.slashgear.com/lenovo-thinkcentre-m75e-review-25110096/ it has two USB 2.0 on the front and four USB 3.0 on the back, so USB 2.0 should be fine.

Still finding out how to use the new format here so you may have to copy the URL into your address bar.

 

I'm just getting a blank page at that link. If you're not, maybe it's related to a problem I'm having with this computer. (See my new thread in this forum, 'Need to "clean house". What do I do?'.) But anyway, do all Lenovo ThinkCentre M75e's have the same USB ports, regardless of machine type / model number / productID?

 

I can only repeat what that review says in relation to the model number you have given us. Count the ports, front and back, and see if they tally. Also look at the colour of the rear ports as USB 3.0 ports are usually, though not always, blue. USB 2.0 ports are black.

The link works for me, obviously. Try it in a different browser.

 

There are two USB ports on the front and four USB ports on the back. All six are black. So assuming backwards-compatibility, I guess all six should be fine for a USB or USB 2.0 dongle, no?

Sorry, the computer in question is my oldest one, and Internet Explorer 8 is the only browser on it. And the more modern computer that was the subject of my "malware infection" thread is offline until I get the dongle. And my other computers are dedicated to other offline tasks.

A couple of other points:

• When this website went to its "new look", all the posts made to this thread by a few different people between MY posts of Friday, November 13 at 9:42 PM and Tuesday, November 17 at 3:23 PM disappeared.

I notice that the remaining posts are numbered sequentially, as if the missing posts never existed.

Is there any chance that all those missing posts will be found and restored to this thread?

• Incidentally, since the "new look" for this website was introduced, the field where you enter your password is entirely invisible, at least in Internet Explorer 8. I "stumbled around in the dark" until I found it, so it's not a problem for me personally anymore, but this may be preventing other people from making posts. How does it look in newer browsers, and can't this field just be made easier to see?

 

Yes, though USB 2.0 would be best.

What's gone is gone I'm afraid, and we were unfortunate in that it seems the active threads like this one were most adversely affected.

 

What shortcomings will a USB dongle have compared to a USB 2.0 one? I ask because I ordered this one:

Ultra-Mini USB Wireless Lan 802.11N Adapter - 1T1R (150Mbps)
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=8072&gclid=CPO829KwlskCFdgQgQodqF8H1g

That 150Mbps speed is fine for my residential connection speed.

 

That adapter should be just fine. The 150Mbps is determined by the 802.11n wireless standard, not by the USB version, but that adapter has to be at least USB 2.0 as USB 1.0 is limited to 12Mbps. USB 2.0 is limited to 480Mbps.

 

OK, great, thanks...

 

I haven't been able to install the driver for my new wireless network adapter dongle.

I got a USB dongle wireless network adapter called an "Ultra-Mini USB Wireless Lan 802.11N Adapter - 1T1R (150Mbps) (Product # 8072)" from Monoprice here:

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=8072&gclid=CPO829KwlskCFdgQgQodqF8H1g

It turns out this dongle is really a Realtek. It's b/g/n compatible. It's for USB 2.0. System requirements are Pertium 1 GHz or higher running Windows 2000/XP/Visata/7, MAC OS or Linux.

The computer in question is a Lenovo ThinkCentre M75e 5042A7U. It has four AMD Athlon II X4 640 2.99 GHz processors (64-bit) and 4 GB of RAM:and runs Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1. It's two USB ports on the front of the machine are purportedly USB 2.0, and the four USB ports on the rear of the machine are purportedly USB 3.0.

My FiOS wireless router is an Actiontech Generation 3 revision i. It's b/g/n compatible.

As you can see if you peruse the above webpage, a CD is shipped with the dongle.

Too bad they don't tell you it's a 3 1/8" CD, not one of the older, larger ones. I don't have a drive for such a CD.

So I downloaded the zip file containing the driver, utilities and manual, etc. for this dongle, making sure to get the one appropriate for the computer in question. I then extracted the contained files from the zip file to a newly created folder on my desktop.

The manual said not to plug the dongle into the USB port until after the driver had been installed, so I tried to install the driver without the dongle being plugged in.

But I then got a message saying to plug in the dongle, so I plugged it in. (And in fact I went through this whole process trying USB ports on both the front and the rear of the machine.)

Nothing happened. And I couldn't connect to the internet.

I tried again to install the driver, this time with the dongle plugged in. This time installation appeared to proceed normally and, as advertised, I was asked if I wanted to reboot to complete installation. I clicked "yes", and the machine rebooted. The "Realtek 11n USB Wireless LAN Utility" icon appeared on the desktop. No error message appeared.

Clicking on the Realtek desktop icon only produces a splash screen with a little blurb on it about Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

But I still couldn't connect to the internet.

Device Manager sees the dongle as 802.11n WLAN NIC, but as an "other"device, not as a network adapter.

Properties for this device says that no driver is installed. It wants me select the driver.

I don't know which of the files in the newly created folder on my desktop is the driver.

And in fact, from what I see online, drivers are always accompanied by several other files during installation, but I don't know anything about those other files.

In this folder, there is a file named Install.bat, but it appears to contain nothing.

Also in this folder, there is another folder named RTWLANU_Driver.

And in THAT folder, there is another folder named Win7X64, which sounds right for the computer in question, which as I stated above, is a 64-bit machine running Windows 7.

But in THAT folder, there are only these three files: netrtwlanu.cat, netrtwlanu.inf and rtwlanu.sys. I have no idea what these files are.

So could someone please tell me what I should do?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

 

Install the drivers from Device Manager. You'll have to navigate to that Win7X64 folder.

 

OK, I tried that, but I got a message saying "Windows could not find driver software for your device."

 

Did the installation create the following file: c:\setup.log
If it did, could you copy the log to your desktop and then attach it to your reply.
As far as I can tell, the driver should be rtwlanu.sys and it should have been copied to %WINDIR%/System32/Drivers

 

You can use the 3" CD. The drive will recognise the type of disc and read it normally.

 

Yes, it did, and I've attached it herewith, but to my layman's eye, it's got very little to say.

When I searched for rtwlanu.sys, I got the message "No items matched your search."

When I searched for %WINDIR%/System32/Drivers, I found two folders: "drivers" and "DriverStore".

Since this is a 64 bit machine, I tried searching for folder %WINDIR%/System64/Drivers , but apparently it doesn't exist, although there is a sysWOW64 which contains folders drivers & DriverStore. Those folders don't contain file rtwlanu.sys, either.

I can't find rtwlanu.sys anywhere among the files downloaded from the Montotype website.

As for trying to use the 3 1/8" CD: as far as I can determine so far, it appears to have utterly vanished from this house. I suspect the cleaning lady has again been overzealous, but I'll cross-examine her when she gets here later today.

But are you saying that I can just throw the 3 1/8" CD in the 4 3/4" CD drive, and it will work? Because this desktop PC is a "tower" type, so the CD drive is mounted tilted 90° up "on its side". Will the CD "stay put" in the center of the drive, so that it's readable?

 

Yes

 

You posted "Also in this folder, there is another folder named RTWLANU_Driver.

And in THAT folder, there is another folder named Win7X64, which sounds right for the computer in question, which as I stated above, is a 64-bit machine running Windows 7.

But in THAT folder, there are only these three files: netrtwlanu.cat, netrtwlanu.inf and rtwlanu.sys. I have no idea what these files are."

And now you can't find the driver?
In Device Manager you must open the Properties of that 'other device' and click the Driver tab. Then click Update Driver..., click Browse my computer for driver software, click the Browse... button and find that folder named Win7X64. All 3 those files are needed.

As for the smaller CD (if you find it), it will work in a regular CD drive.

 

Yes, that is precisely what I did. It allowed me to select the Win7X64 folder, but not the individual files within it, so presumably it knew what it was doing, but it didn't recognize these three files as appropriate.

It better turn up, or heads will roll...

 

I sure hope the CD turns up.
Keep us posted.

 

Sure enough, it's gone. And ONE head will roll, I've had it. SO - is there any OTHER way this can be done without me having to buy the dongle again and wait 3 days for it to arrive?

 

All is not lost.
Unplug the dongle, 0pen Device Manager and Uninstall the 'other device'.
Restart your PC.
You posted you downloaded a ZIP file and extracted the contents. Is the size of the ZIP file 29.2 MB?
Open the folder to which you extracted the contents of the ZIP file. There are 5 files named Setup - Application (391 KB) is the 1 you want.
Double-click it and follow the onscreen instructions word for word.
If you are not 100% sure about the instructions, reply back before you proceed.

 

But when I unplug the dongle, it disappears in Device Manager, so I can't even select it then.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "uninstall" the dongle. Technically, doesn't "installation" refer to the software, in this case the dongle's driver? Because installation of the driver was precisely what I was never able to accomplish.

 

My apologies. With the dongle plugged in, in Device Manager, double-click it and check if there are anything in Driver Details. If there are, click the Uninstall button, unplug the dongle and restart the PC. Install the drivers as explained.
If there aren't, unplug the dongle and install the drivers as explained.

Edit:
Don't leave the dongle in while installing the drivers - I downloaded the manual and the drivers. You click the Setup file as explained.

 

No effect. A command window appears, but nothing happens, and no changes are effected to the system.

But this is what I already did before, and when I did it again right now, there was, not surprisingly, no different effect.

 

Ignore my previous post.

You could try the latest Realtek drivers from http://www.realtek.com/downloads/do...274&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true
Scroll down to RTL8188CUS - Utility and Driver Auto Installation Program (Support XP/Vista/Win7/Win8)(Install Shield v1.00.0199) - version: 1021.3.0912.2012 - 2012/11/8 - 34455k
Click on 'Global' to download.

If you decide to try this, run the Uninstall.bat (Run as administrator) first, then reboot.

 

♫And yea, there was much rejoicing...♪

I found the CD (in the trash outside! but don't get me started...), and after a long installation and configuration process that resembled not so much what was advertised in the user manual as an out-and-out slugfest, the formerly malware-infected computer is finally back online.

Halle-friggin'-lujah... What an ordeal, all told...

But thanks yet again to all of you for your help, especially Kestrel13! Rest assured that I'll be back to bedevil you with my computer problems in the future...

 

Good for you!
And Kestrel13! will stay with you until the problem has been fixed.

 

Well, as far as I can tell so far, the problem's COMPLETELY fixed, I haven't seen any ongoing sign of malware, and my connectivity issue is resolved. That was by far the worst malware infection I've ever personally had. I really can't thank you guys enough, especially Kestrel13!, for getting me out of that mess. And I've learned my lesson, I'll never again let my guard down and download from an unknown source. I was trying to download Microsoft Outlook, which I wanted because it supposedly had OCR functionality. Well, today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S., so a good holiday to all.