Internet Connection Not Recognised

[small_dog]

Hi,

I'm running Windows Me on a Compaq Presario laptop PIII, 128Mb RAM. A bit of background info first...

Two days a go, I downloaded a series of security updates for Internet Explorer (about 15mb in all, which was a bit tedious over a dial up connection).

These were installed onto my computer yesterday. My Anti Virus software (AVG) subsequently picked up 3 trojan horses which it then deleted (not sure if it was connected to the downloading of the security patches, but I suspect it was and the irony isn't lost on me).

Now, whenever I connect to the internet, none of my programs recognise that I have an internet connection despite there being an actual internet connection present (the relevant icon pops up on my system tray as usual). I've tried mozilla, internet explorer and the "check for updates" on my AVG software but they all say "no internet connection found" (or words to that effect).

I've tried reinstalling my modem but that hasnt worked.

Unfortunately, my system restore options are only limited to the last two days, so that doesn't help (unless someone knows a way of being able to access further back than January 2005 on the system restore calendar)

I've tried uninstalling the most recent version of internet explorer on my system, but that has had no effect and I've tried removing the windows updates that I installed two days ago, but the option is "greyed out" and I can't do it.

I've run a full system scan for viruses using AVG and nothing has come up since the three trojan horse diallers. I've also run spywareblaster and deleted the DSO exploit entry that has come up (but that hasnt sorted the problem).

Any help on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated as I have exhausted my some what limited knowledge already!

Cheers

Small Dog

[Memetic]

A few questions.

Hi,

Sounds tricky.

The only thing I can suggest is that you have a look in the logs for AVG and see what it says has been removed / fixed.

That will give you something to go on either by posting the details here or searching google so we can figure out what damage may have been done by the nasties.

I would guess that the trojan diallers have damaged something like winsock.dll (Is that the right name on ME?)

Now an completely unhelpful question, but I have to ask, how did you become aware of the need for these patches and where did you get them from?

Let us know what AVG says.

Memetic.

P.S. if you want to try yet another blind reinstall to try and get you back online you could try unistalling then reinstalling the networking components of windows, however even if that gets things running again I'd check out the logs to find out what else the trojans may have done, you may need to think about whay may have been keylogged etc.

[small_dog]

Cheers for the ideas TCS & Memetic,
I'll run the AVG log tonight and have a go with the Winsock program and I'll let you know what happens.

Regarding the patches, I remember opening internet explorer and getting redirected to the Windows automatic update page. It then scanned my system and said that I needed to download these patches for IE. I'll admit, I didnt look particularly closely at the address bar during this, but it did look like the windows update page. I decided to download the patches as I'd heard that IE is prone to problems with rogue diallers (and I didnt want to be caught out ) . Next time, I'll look a lot more closely at the alerts flashed up by zone alarm!

If/when I get this problem fixed, I'm going to use a firefox browser!

Cheers

[TAF Oscar]

Unfortunately, my system restore options are only limited to the last two days, so that doesn't help (unless someone knows a way of being able to access further back than January 2005 on the system restore calendar)

At the top of the calendar next to the month there's a left arrow which you can use to go back. Mine goes back to November 2004.

[small_dog]

I downloaded the program in the second link provided by TCS and that sorted it straight away! Thanks for that, it's a great relief to get the old laptop sorted.

Just for informations sake, the AVG log said the following: (ignore the smily faces, it should be a comma followed by a back slash)

Trojan horse Dialer.17.H, sporder.dll, 8.27kb CWINDOWS\SYSTEM\sporder.dll

Trojan horse Dialer.17.M, newdotnet6_38.dll, 224kb
CProgram Files\NewDotNet\newdotnet6_38.dll

Trojan horse Dialer.17.M, NEWDOTNET6_38.dll, 224kb
CPROGRAM FILES\NEWDOTNET\NEWDOTNET6_38.dll

Regarding the system restore calender, the left arrow didnt work on my system for some reason, but thanks for the suggestion as a lot of the time, it can be sorted by something that straighforward.

Once again, thanks for the help and suggestions

[E-Liam]

Hi small_dog,

Could you post up a Hijack This log please.

Please download 'Hijack This!' from here, unzip, and place it in it’s own folder, (not in the temp folder, or on the desktop) doubleclick HijackThis.exe, check for updates by clicking on Config | Misc. Tools | Check for Updates and follow the prompts. Once updated click on Scan. When the scan is finished, click "Save Log", and copy and paste it in a reply.

This will give us a rundown of what’s going on in your PC. One of us here will be glad to analyse it for you. Don’t fix anything yourself yet, as a lot of the stuff on that list will be harmless or required.

NewDotNet is notorious for screwing up the Winsock layer, and I'd be happy to make sure it's clear.

If not done properly, you could have more problems in the future.

Cheers

Liam