"Limited or no connectivity" -- strange scenario, haven't seen on here

Hi, everyone. Forgive me for my elementary and narrative post. I don't know THAT much about computers. I'm just a gal who likes to use hers. But if anyone can help, I'd be most appreciative.

I had purchased my new HP Pavilion about a month ago. All service packs and patches were installed and updated from the beginning. My wireless internet has worked fine. I have used it at many public establishments and also here at home (my landlord provides wireless via his satellite dish network) for the past four weeks.

Three days ago I booted up and my SpyCatcher warned me that a malicious spyware was trying to run. It labeled it as "calling home" spyware and recommended removal. I chose quarantine instead. It then found several other threatening files, and I quarantined those as well. I shut down soon after booting up, as something had come up that required my attention.

The next day I received the "limited or no connectivity" error in my tray. I assumed it was my landlord's network, so I didn't think anything of it. But I had the same error at Starbucks, and again at Panera. I had a suspicion at that point that it obviously was my computer.

Before I did anything about it, my boyfriend had come home with a router for his place, so that I could use internet there via his cable modem. While he was installing it, I had my computer on (wireless card enabled) and was working in Excel offline. He called me over to show me that it wasn't installing properly. The router was unable to establish an internet connection. He disconnected everything and plugged in the ethernet to his computer to get back online the old way so he could go to the Linksys tech support site. Imagine my surprise when he couldn't get on that way either, and was receiving the very same "limited or no connectivity" error! We had two different computers, and were using two different ISPs.

This morning, back at my place again, I was still unable to get on the 'net. I had an excellent signal, but still the error. I saw that my SpyCatcher icon was blinking, and it was asking me what I wanted to do with my quarantined spyware, since it was trying to run again. I opened it up, and saw that this "calling home" spyware was actually labeled as a "wshhtcpip.dll" file. I know enough about computers to recognize that this may not be spyware and infact could be useful (is this a Windows file??). And, as I thought about it, all of my problems started after my spyware removal found this file and quarantined it.

So I clicked on "allow." I also allowed a couple of the other "threatening" files I had previously quarantined (which were also .dll files) and sure enough, all of my settings restored themselves and I was able to access the internet without any problems!

What is this file? Does anyone know what a .dll actually is? Any idea why my software would think it's a virus? IS it a virus? How can we get my boyfriend's computer and router working again, and were his errors related to mine?

THANK you for your help and for taking the time to read.

M. Hofbauer

 

It's quite likely it is a virus and your boyfriend's computer got infected with it, too.

Since you can get online, download Stinger. Once you have it saved to the harddrive, run it. It can find and eliminate numerous common viruses.

You can also put it on a CD and run it on your boyfriend's computer if it still cannot get online.

Once Stinger has cleaned up all it can, go to one (or more) of the free online virus scans and run it. Let it clean up all it finds. Your boyfriend's computer needs to do the same.

If you do not have an antivirus program installed, AVG is free and works well. Do not, however, attempt to install an antivirus program onto a system that is already infected. Viruses are usually written to attack commonly used antivirus programs and the resulting corrupted install can, and usually does, make things much, much worse. Get the computer cleaned up first, then install an antivirus program.

 

Sounds like good advice...

But I did quarantine those files with my current spyware software (SpyCatcher -- supposedly one of the best) and it prevented those files from running on my computer. I didn't actually have the software remove those files, but quarantining them prevents them from running.

What I don't get is why (if it is a virus or spyware) would I NOT have internet when those files are held and quarantined, but I DO have internet connections when I allow the computer to run them?

And my b/f and I have not shared any emails or other files in the past week. How could he have received the same virus if our computers shared absolutely nothing together?

My concern is, if these are legitimate files and I need them to run my wireless/Internet connections, shouldn't I do a little more investigating before just going ahead and actually removing them with virus/spyware software?

Thanks

 

Antispyware programs are only one part of PC security. You also need an antivirus program, as Miz suggested, and a firewall program. The best are free - see "links" in my sig. below (page down to security).

 

(sigh)

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the advice. I have the latest and greatest as far as anti-spyware AND anti-virus AND firewall protection. It's a brand new HP Pavilion purchased a month ago, with every add-on and extra, including two-years of Norton. Since posting m first message, I ran it and it did not find anything. Zero infections. Only my SpyCatcher found it, as the .dll file. Once again, is this file safe to remove? And that's not the end of the solution. Once I get rid of this, I can assume I'm not going to be able to connect to the internet since I got that error only after I quarantined it. If that file is completely gone, I assume the "limited or no connectivity" error will come back. So then what? I'll be back at square one. I need someone to REALLY read my message and tell me what's going on, not to just run anti-virus or check my firewall settings. Something's not right here, and my intincts tell me that's it's not just about running anti-virus. Anyone??????

Thanks in advance.

 

First, go to this page and download WinSockXPFix. Save it to the harddrive.

Then quarantine the files again. If you can't get online, run the file you downloaded.

Removing spyware can leave behind a corrupt winsock, which is what that file fixes.