Resolved Problem with MS Safety Scan

I'm starting with slow webpage loading for both Win 7 machines and a Win XP machine on my wired Ethernet LAN.

I was hoping to troubleshoot a little using the Microsoft Safety Scanner, but when I download it to my 64 bit Win 7 machines, and try to run it, an error message comes up saying that msert is not a valid 32 bit application. Just to see what would happen, I tried the 32 bit version, and it said that another program was using the scanner. In other words... no MS Safety Scan.

I did notice that my Internet speed test gave me some very respectable, abeit changeable numbers, as it always has. I also notice that when I unplug my DishNetwork receiver from my LAN, there is a moderate improvement, but not good enough to call things fixed. With it connected, I can't access the MS website, but with it unplugged, I can get there, but moving around the site is not very good, and sooner or later it seems to bog down.

If anyone can point me in a direction, first to figure out why I can't use the Safety Scanner... and maybe why I suddenly have problems with page loading.

My emails come and go as usual... and my general computer performance is fine for video editing and other speed tasks. Things have worked pretty well until something like a week or two ago. I figured it was just a glitchy day or two with my Road Runner service... but I think it might be something else, now.

My wife says she can't access her Yahoo mail account, on top of everything else. I can access my Yahoo mail, but I really don't use it. My POP mail is good enough for my purposes, and it presently works fine.

 

Their should be a filter on your Dish Reciever. If there isn't, that is the problem. Everything that is connected to your phone line with the exception of your modem should have a filter on it.

 

I'm not quite understanding. When I attached the Cat 5e from the switch to the Dish Receiver, I disconnected the phone line from the receiver. The switch is connected to the router... and so on. There is no phone line connected to the receiver, anymore. What type of filter would that be?

I do notice some improvement when I disconnect the satellite LAN connection, but it's only slight to moderate. It still loads fairly slowly, and does worse as I drill down into a site, through its pages.

The inability to install the Safety Scanner makes me think there is another problem, as well. Wouldn't be the first time I've had simultaneous problems.
Thanks for the response

 

OK, You didn't say how or I didn't understand how you had the reciever hooked up. I never hook mine to anything and have had no problems. I know that they say to keep it hooked up but that is BS.

 

Well, I tried the bare WAN connection to a single computer... no difference. I tried booting the modem and router... that shut down the whole network for a while. After I came back from walking my dogs, it was back up and running, but I still had no access to the Microsoft website... and probably a few others... I just didn't take the time to test all websites.

I am still puzzled by the problem with the Safety Scanner... with the 32/64 bit confusion, and inability to launch the installation.

I've scanned with Malwarebytes and my Zonealarm scanner, but nothing shows. In the past, my wife had Koobface on her XP machine. I was able to get rid of it, but the other computers on the LAN were never bothered with it. Just seems funny that the whole network is bogged down with this problem... even the Mac Powerbook has similar problems. But then again... it seems to be in the WAN cable as well. If I didn't show such good numbers on my speed test, it might not be so confusing. I'm just at a loss.

 

Well, I did download the latest Malwarebytes... along with using the scanner from my purchased security suite.

I think I have found the problem, but strangeness still prevails.

I contacted Road Runner support, yesterday. The guy couldn't get my modem to initialize. Previous to that, I had tried to download and launch the MS Safety scan mentioned in the title of this thread. It would download, but when I tried to launch it, I got the warning that it wasn't a valid Win32 application.

I closed everything up, last night and let it all cool down over night. We have an appointment for a potential replacement of our 2004 model cable modem, today... Sunday, at about one o'clock. So just to see how things were going, I turned on my "daily-use" computer and everything was working perfectly. I went back and was able to access the MS website, download the safety scan, launch it and received the notification that all was well... there was no mention of an invalid win32 application.

When I run my Internet speed check, it's just like yesterday, but I can now go anywhere and do anything I wish online. Yesterday was excruciatingly slow, and any attempt to access Microsoft was met with a time out notification.

The cable connections on the side of my house look like my grandkids did them, with black bubblegum and electrical tape, so I'm thinking service rep might consider checking all of those, along with my modem, when he gets here. This condition has been happening off and on, and I thought it was something to do with Road Runner, but it would usually resolve and I figured it was a service outage or problem on the line, somewhere. Hopefully, the service rep will just go ahead and replace my seven... nearly eight year old modem and remove that from the area of potential problems.

As far as I know, I have never had a problem with a worm, Trojan, virus, or anything more than some spyware or adware, which were dispatched fairly quickly. My wife did have the "koobface ", and we were able to get rid of it, but that was on her computer... so far, we have never had a problem on all four computers on this network... which includes one Mac Powerbook.

My tripping point for calling the service provider was when I pulled a line directly from the modem to my computer, bypassing the router and switch in my setup. It did the same thing with the straight hookup as it did on the network, so I knew the main problem wasn't JUST me and my stuff. Well, not without a lot of really crazy coincidences being in place.

I'll post back after the service rep leaves. Hopefully, that will shed a bit more light on this situation. If my experiences with this can help someone else, I'll be glad I went through the stress.

 

I would still do as Arie asked. You said you did MBAM and your stuff that you purchased. We don't know what you purchased. Do this as it don't take long and will prove you are clean. Nothing to purchase here.

 

That was my whole point... I couldn't do all of that, before. I couldn't go to the websites to get the things to do these kinds of checks, because all of my Internet connected computers were unable to navigate the environment. I was barely able to update MBAM, for that reason. Fortunately, downloading isn't a problem, but page loading is. I already had MBAM on my computer.. and Zonealarm Extreme Security is resident on this machine, as well.

When someone suggests a particular product, I can always hear an opposing opinion to that product. People have allegiances to various products, and I don't like engaging in argumentative discussions about the various products out there.

One thing is for sure... if I have a 7 year old failing modem, it won't matter which scanner I use to check for errors. Obviously, something was happening, if the Microsoft download wasn't resulting in a usable product, once it was on my machine. But this morning it worked like a charm, and so do all of the machines on this network.

Years ago, I tried one of these "fix-all" scans, and it resulted in reloading my OS, so I find it difficult to jump right on any scanner. Seems the name of it was Spyware Doctor, which now has a pretty good reputation, but "once bitten, twice shy" is not just a popular Ian Hunter song for me.

 

I don't think you're quite getting the suggestion, or if you are you owe Broni an apology (he's went through extensive training which many others fail).

We are not asking you to use a fix all scanner (in fact you'll find the majority of us advise against such things). We're asking you to have an expert (an actual human being) to look at your system.

 

Evidently, I am not expressing myself properly. I know many of the tech related forums engage in a degree of sarcasm, and so when people read the posts, they tend toward hearing a sarcastic tone. I can assure you, I do not make sarcastic posts, or question any person's ability or claim to expertise. That's most especially when I have as little expertise in an area as I do when I post here.

Since I already had a hardware solution underway, and scheduled for one o'clock today, I thought it would be appropriate to see that through, before starting something else.

Suffice it to say, for the purposes of my own education and possible future solutions, I am hanging on to this thread and all the links within. The new cable modem may not be the end of this problem, but for now, it appears to have remedied the slow page loading and inability to access certain websites.
I will certainly know shortly.