Can't connect to internet

I know this may seem like a simple fix but I don't think so, I'm on my laptop now with it hooked up to my PC's modem. It all started when I noticed my outpost fire wall messing up, I even posted on here about it. It showed in device manager that the ports were inoperable (yellow triangles with exclamation marks) I called Comcast and they checked everything OK on their end and my modem checked OK as well.

I did a system restore and the aforementioned yellow triangles were gone. I was able to connect but my Avast anti virus was off and couldn't be turned on. I tried to uninstall it and reinstall it but it failed a few times before booting in safe mode and uninstalling it. I reinstalled it but it's still turned off. After that, the connection problem reappeared. I contacted Comcast again and everything checked OK because my laptop is able to connect. Nothing on my Device manager shows any problems. I'm dumbfounded. I would have thought if it were my ethernet card, it would have showed it. I've changed cables twice BTW. My OS is XP home.

I did manage to get my Avast to do a manual quick scan and found no viruses. Comcast thinks it may be a computer issue. My modem lights up like I'm on line and Comcast confirms that but it show a limited connection and won't pull up a web page. I've unplugged and powered down everything but still a no go. Comcast even walked me through a command prompt procedure that didn't help. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

For some reason System Restore and avast do not get along. That is a known issue. Do another System Restore and then uninstall avast. After you uninstall avast normally through add/remove programs. Use their uninstall utility to clean anything else up. Can you then connect?

http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

 

I'll give it a try. This may take a while as I have to go from one computer with my cable. Any ideas about not being able to connect?

 

I don't know what I was thinking, I don't have to swap cables to do the Avast thing.

 

I still can't connect and everything looks good on Device Manager. I haven't installed a firewall yet just running what I already had...Spyshelter and Avast. anyone got any ideas?

 

First open IE and then Tools>Options and select the Connections tab. Click the Lan settings button. Is Use a Proxy server checked? If it is, uncheck after writing down the settings. Then see if you can connect.

If proxy server is unchecked then temporarily uninstall avast and see if you can connect.

 

OK, I did what you said. It wasn't checked but the automatically detect settings wasn't either.

In the mean time, I found this tidbit. What do you think of it? Web page: http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-35257-connect-but-can-not-access-the-internet-help

Md Vasiullah Feb 6, 2009 8:28am GMT
Hi,

This is due to Virus and Spywares.
Follow these steps to solve it:
1. First of all download the WinsockFix Utility from the following link:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/WinSockFix.shtml

2. Run it and click fix.

3. restart the computer

4. go to Control Panel -> network connections -> right click the lan connection and click properties

5. In the general tab double click on "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list.

6. re-enter the details as necessary.

 

I was going to mention this if the proxy server and avast uninstall did not work.

For resetting Winsock. Try the Microsoft Fixit

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259

Restart and see if you can connect.

If that does not work reset your TCP/IP stack using the fixit here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

Restart and see if you can connect.

 

OK, this will take a while as you might know. I'll try and get it done as soon as possible.

 

BTW, how can you tell if you have the support tool installed? There's also a procedure if you don't have a setup CD. I hate messing with the XP CD, I can screw up a ball bearing.

 

Are you talking about the Fixit tool. You can download the MSI file to your desktop and then double click it. I think it may run Powershell which is used for the fixit.

 

Yes, I'm talking about the first one on the list. What do you ask for to be able to download the MSI file, the Microsoft support tool?

 

I read where you're not suppose to install one without removing the first one if you already have it installed.

 

I never heard of that. You can also reset Winsock and TCP/IP manually using the following commands at a command prompt in an admin account.

netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot

Then reset TCP/IP using this command.

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

Reboot

 

Hmmm, I typed the winsock prompt and it failed. It said unable to reset the winsock catalog and beneath that it said" A system call that should never fail has failed". BTW, I found a microsoft toolsdownload for sp2 but I have sp3. Does it matter?

 

It should work for SP3 also. But the message "A system call that should never fail has failed" suggests something more serious going on and I do not know what unfortunately. Hopefully somebody here can jump in. Did you go to the Malware Removal Forum and post your logs? If not, you might want to do that. Even though avast found nothing, there may be some deeper problem that the Malware Removal people can detect.

Edit: If you type the following, do you still get the error?

netsh winsock reset

Edit: you might want to also try the Tweak.com Windows Repair Utility and select Winsock Repair under the start repairs tab.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Tweaking.com_-_Windows_Repair_Portable_d7222.html

 

I used the second method on the same site and where it says you should see 10 entries after clicking on protocol... I don't have any which means my winsock is missing MUCH information. BTW, I get the same failed message when typing netsh winsock reset.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259

 

OK, I found out why it didn't reset winsock catalog the first time, I had to disable spyshelter. I should have remembered that as I've had to disable for other things. I'm rebooting and getting ready to try the second part.

 

Wow! I can't believe my computer is fixed. I want to thank you so much tgell for sticking with me on this. That last procedure worked. I'm a happy guy. Thanks again very very much.

 

Glad you got it sorted and thanks for the feedback. Just to make sure, you may want to post over in the Malware Removal Forum to make sure you are still not infected.

 

I might do that but I'm going to take a break first, I've been working on this for 3 solid days and am wore down big time.