Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

[jkust]

Hi all, my wife's windows XP pc won't display any webpages. She got a virus on it and I was able to remove it by running a scan with her virus software which is interesting that it was infected in the first place. The virsus software log looks like it fought off the first few attacks and succumbed to the final 4 or so. In any event, now that it is up and running, the pc shows it is indeed connected wirelessly and via wire if I plug direcly into the router. The problem is that no matter what I try, Internet Explorer will not show any web pages. You get the standard browser message that states can not display the web page. When I drill down into the error logs it says the pc's wireless adapter is not turned on but in reality it is turned on and receiving both the wireless signal and/or the wired signal. The hardware list shows no problem devices and that everything is turned on and is working without and conflicts or driver errors. The other two laptops in the house conneced just fine to the wireless internet so I know that it up and running. I thought I'd try a system restore and for some reason each restore attempt fails.

Does anybody have any suggestions. I haven't ever encountered this persistant issue before.

Thanks,

-JKUST

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

Here's a couple step to make sure everything is removed.

1st to get to the internet. Get a 2nd computer.

Download Hijackthis
http://www.trendmicro.com/ftp/products/hijackthis/HijackThis.exe

Then close all browsers and run the scan.. (30 seconds)
Save the log file to a flash drive.

Then go to:
Paste the contents of the log file here:
http://hjt.networktechs.com/
Click the parse button.

Once it looks at the contents it will tell you questionable and bad entries that you need to remove. You'll select those entries in Hijackthis and clean them out..

If you need to get on the internet, Download the installer of Firefox or Google chrome via usb drive, then you can put it on the infected computer.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

Whoa, HJT auto analyze now? that's sweet. You used to have to manually figured it out or wait for someone to do it for you, which can take awhile. What's the status of your LAN in network connections? If everything is good, try uninstall and reinstall IE.

 

[jkust]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

Here's a couple step to make sure everything is removed.

1st to get to the internet. Get a 2nd computer.

Download Hijackthis
http://www.trendmicro.com/ftp/products/hijackthis/HijackThis.exe

Then close all browsers and run the scan.. (30 seconds)
Save the log file to a flash drive.

Then go to:
Paste the contents of the log file here:
http://hjt.networktechs.com/
Click the parse button.

Once it looks at the contents it will tell you questionable and bad entries that you need to remove. You'll select those entries in Hijackthis and clean them out..

If you need to get on the internet, Download the installer of Firefox or Google chrome via usb drive, then you can put it on the infected computer.

That sounds helpful. The funny thing about the virus is that you couldn't open anything with an EXE file. Anything you tried to open, the error message would say for instance Excel.exe is infected. Then it would open a browser window and send you to a Phishing website to suposidly download an antivirus product. The way I was even able to remove the virus and run the antivirus program in the first place was to bring the pc to work and as soon as the PC couldn't detect and get onto the internet, everything worked allowing me to remove the virus. Then when I brought it home, the problems above were there. Makes me wonder what good are the antivirus programs. I have completely lost two pc's to date to viruses that both had state of the art anti virus software. It is a good thing I have a back up hard drive.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

If you can here's what I have done for years of cleaning infections of computer that come in to my place.

Tools needed.

Malwarebytes Antimalware
cCleaner
Spybot Search and destroy
hijackthis
Combofix (only if needed)
Clamwin (portable antivirus)
Firefox or Google Chrome

1st thing I do is run ccleaner. Clean out all temp files.
hijackthis (instructions above)
Then run, install and update malwarebytes. Full scan, (Can take up to 3 hours)
(dont reboot if asked)
Run spybot, update and scan, (Can take up to 2 hours)
ccleaner again
Clamwin scan.
Reboot to normal mode and let the programs clean up.
Reboot to safe mode, and re run the scans on the programs again. (now takes less time) Clean any infections.

Reboot to normal mode and run all programs on quick scans.
Should be all fixed.
IF they come back again after reboot, Then use the combofix. (Do not download from combofix.com website.. Download from Bleepingcomputer.com Here is a tutorial on how to use that program. Here

 

[Daley]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

I haven't seen this posted, so I'll throw in my two cents. Oftentimes (especially with the phishing sites you mentioned), malware will change your proxy settings in IE so that you can't get anywhere. In IE, Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections tab -> Lan Settings button... There shouldn't be anything in the address and port boxes (unless you know for sure there should be - like in an enterprise environment).

Another thing to try is to see if you can get to the outside world *without* using a browser. Click Start -> Run and type CMD and hit enter, bringing you to a command-prompt. Ping google.com and see if you get replies. If you do, the computer itself is fine, so you've narrowed it down to the browser. If you can't, you're either going to get a message stating it couldn't resolve or that the requests timed-out. Each one means a different thing, so if you're at this point and haven't been able to resolve it yet, report back with what happened and we'll get ya back on track.

Given the fact that this is the boss' computer, we need to get this thing going so you can get back on the water!

 

[j_martin]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

I think Daley nailed it. Other items could be hijacked also, such as the gateway parameter in ip routing, or a rogue listing in the hosts file in windows\system32\drivers\etc I think localhost 127.0.0.1 should be the only listing.

Usually I clear the hosts file (I think Hijackthis will find a rogue there also) and then use a utility called Bart's PE (preinstall environment) to get at the disk and its files, and then manually restore the 5 registry files from a known good backup hidden by Windoze on the c drive.

good luck on the CP's computer.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

Just cleaned up my dad's computer with the same issue.
Malwarebytes took care of it.

Here's the instructions:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-antivirus-soft

Pay attention to the Internet Explorer configuration setting to turn off the proxy server that the darn ransomware installs on the computer. It is re-directing the internet traffic.

 

[mike243]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

my wife was looking for hotels for a short vacation back in feb,got a virus that was for a anti virus protection every time the computer would start loading up on startup it would take over when all of the command promps would download.i ended up getting control long enuff to clear the hard drive & reformat the whole computer.took 3-4 days but got rid of mcaffee & firefox.i had been useing firefox & went to norton as comcast was recommending change any way ,norton will not work with firefox so im stuck with this but so far so good,mike243

 

[Beefer]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

Just a side note. McAfee, Norton, and the likes (IMHO) suck. A good free AV is AVG, but we use Kaspersky on our server at our store. McAfee had let in a bunch of crap that a good AV program shouldn't, and I've never been happy with Norton.

Also, using a less popular browser can help, as most viruses are written for the masses. I use Google Chrome, my wife likes Opera, and we both occasionally use Firefox. Since changing the virus program and the browsers, we haven't had even a minor glitch.

 

[Baytown.boy]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

hi all, my wife's windows xp pc won't display any webpages. She got a virus on it and i was able to remove it by running a scan with her virus software which is interesting that it was infected in the first place. The virsus software log looks like it fought off the first few attacks and succumbed to the final 4 or so. In any event, now that it is up and running, the pc shows it is indeed connected wirelessly and via wire if i plug direcly into the router. The problem is that no matter what i try, internet explorer will not show any web pages. You get the standard browser message that states can not display the web page. When i drill down into the error logs it says the pc's wireless adapter is not turned on but in reality it is turned on and receiving both the wireless signal and/or the wired signal. The hardware list shows no problem devices and that everything is turned on and is working without and conflicts or driver errors. The other two laptops in the house conneced just fine to the wireless internet so i know that it up and running. I thought i'd try a system restore and for some reason each restore attempt fails.

Does anybody have any suggestions. I haven't ever encountered this persistant issue before.

Thanks,

-jkust

yes i do have a suggestion, go to firefox and get away from i.e.

 

[jkust]

Re: Removed a virus but browser won't display webpages

I haven't seen this posted, so I'll throw in my two cents. Oftentimes (especially with the phishing sites you mentioned), malware will change your proxy settings in IE so that you can't get anywhere. In IE, Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections tab -> Lan Settings button... There shouldn't be anything in the address and port boxes (unless you know for sure there should be - like in an enterprise environment).

Ok it has taken me this long to deal with this situation. My wife has been using my son's laptop to run her consulting business and I have been hearing about how hokey it is.
Thanks Daley. The suggestion above fixed the connection problem. I am in the process of trying some of the other suggestions to ensure the viruses were removed completely.