Downloading problems point to XP Firewall? or ...?

I’m not as familiar with XP as I’d like to be, since I’m still using 98; but that doesn’t stop my friends from calling for help.

Here’s the presenting problem: 1 GHz AMD, 256 mb SDRam, 8 gig HD machine with XP-Pro on it, booted up to a black screen with colored lines on it. Video driver no doubt.

When I got there, I booted up in safe mode to load the VGA drivers, used system restore to re-establish a working system from a couple months ago. Pretty good. Resolution was 600x800 and 32bit color depth, tried to change resolution and got the same black screen with colored horizontal lines. dropped the color depth but no matter which resolution I try, it always gives me a 600x800 result. I planned to see about identifying the video card and downloading an updated driver for it.

But first, I have to solve another problem before I can do that. Nothing can download. I re-established the DSL connection (IE 6.0) and then tried to download the TrendMicro activeX applet so I could run housecall since some odd little guard program indicated there "may be" some viral infection on the machine. It wouldn’t download. I tried other online scanners unsuccessfully, then tried to download other small programs, the atomic clock, webshots desktop. All had the same error message, that IE was not able to open the web site to download the selected items, please try again later…. or some such message.

Thought that maybe the firewall was keeping anything from coming in (although email works fine both directions). Went to GRC and ran Shields Up to see whether the firewall was performing. It was performing great, so it’s definitely enabled. When I tried to follow the steps for disabling the firewall, I discovered that I do not have the "advanced" tab where the instructions say that you can enable or disable the firewall under network settings. I thought that might be because I was logged on as the user, not the administrator. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to log on as an administrator.

However this may all be moot, because even if the firewall is enabled, I should still be able to download things from the internet, right? Is it a port problem? a firewall setting? or something other than firewall. And if it is the firewall, how do I access its settings?

Can anyone suggest something for me? I can’t even play with different options here at home, cause the XP critter lives at another home! And being a 98 user, I can’t seem to find anything in its usual place. I’m hoping I don’t have to set up camp over there for a week to get her computer fixed… TIA for any suggestions.

- maureen

 

IF the user is limited in any way, then it's possible you have the associated problems.
To log in as Adminstrator, start the computer, log off, hit CTRL+ALT+DEL (sometimes twice) and then you'll get the Administrator login.
To disable the firewall, right click My Network Places, select Properties, right click the connection, select Properties, Advanced tab. Uncheck the box. Restart.
I doubt if it's a DNS problem or network problem, because you managed to get to grc.com easily.
There's obviously some serious restrictions on that user account.

 

Reboot "“

thanks so much for saving me "hours" of looking around trying to find out how to log in as an administrator on XP. I think that will give me the access I need to take care of business.

I haven’t had the opportunity to sit in front of the XP machine yet -– probably will be a day or two yet -- but I’m taking your firewall instructions with me when I go. I’ll report back with the results when I’m done. Thanks!!

-maureen

 

Well, ilt's not the firewall. Now what?

Hi All. I visited the suspect computer today, logging on as an administrator, I followed Reboot’s direction for accessing the firewall. Disabling the firewall did not change the downloading problem, it still exists. There was no earlier system restore point than the point which we re-established the last time I was there. So I did a system file checker with - sfc /scannow. Everything was fine. So then I reinstalled XP on top of itself, and the download problem still exists.

here is the error message (which appears to be a generic default error message):

I say "generic default message," because there is no error number, and the language is not specific enough to do a good search either on the knowledge base or on google. this error language appears in the knowledge base for IE 5.5, 5.0, 4.x…….., not 6.0. I tried following the instructions offered for those versions anyway, and they did not solve the problem.

There is a third-party freeware program on the machine called We-Blocker http://www.we-blocker.com/ it seems to be a content filtering program, and I’m wondering if it might be interfering with a download. so I tried to look at the settings, but I do not have a password and neither does the owner. I tried an un-install from Add/Remove and from its own Uninstall.exe, but it will not un-install without a password. There is no email tech support on their site "“ all support, including password information, is for a fee. Could someone tell me if such a program could be interfering with downloading? or does it simply prevent loading of certain proscribed sites.

I installed an anti-virus, and scanned the computer. the log file shows no viruses exist so I don’t think it’s a virus, a trojan or worm. (of course, I cannot download an updated dat file, but the program itself is a pretty current download, burned onto a CD)

Meanwhile, I’m stumped on the downloading problem. I don’t know what else to do except format and re-install XP. I hate to lose some of her apps, I have no disks to re-install them for her. If I end up having to do a reformat, will MS allow a re-register from the original XP program disk?

ANY suggestions would be such a help at this point. I hate to resort to drastic remedies... Thanks.

- maureen

 

Hi maureen

All I can suggest is try using "Password Recovery Software ". Here are some google searches.Short list -- (or)-- Long list
I have no experience with this type software. Possible other posters could provide some suggestions. Most password recovery tools are written to extract passwords from pre-defined group of programs. Hopefully one can be found that will work for you.

 

Hey you guys, good suggestions!

Pete, I actually did go through the registry looking for the We-Blocker entries and only found one "“ it was for the uninstall program, so it’s clear that the program wrote itself into the registry under some other ID since it is still in there and quite fully-functioning. I also tried msconfig to see if I could disable it from loading when Windows starts, but it wasn’t listed in the lineup. Of course, this is XP , so it may be listed somewhere other than where a 98 user would expect; however, I’m sure the programmers anticipated all kinds of disabling attempts and hid the program really well. Good thought, though, about downloading from the site "“ if that works, then we’ve confirmed the source.

This Startup Monitor looks like a sweet little program. Identifies the program and its executable. Knowing the executable would also help in identifying the registry entries. I will try that when I get back to the computer late this week.

Dennis, password recovery is something I hadn’t thought of. Since my first foray into the list suggests that most of these programs come with a price, I’d rather spend a small amt with We-Blocker (like Pete suggested) and cut straight to the chase. We really don’t know for sure that We-Blocker is the problem here, but $10 is a small risk to talk with them to find out.

I will post back when I’ve had a chance to try out these new ideas. Thanks for your input!

 

Have you considered that it may be the "hosts" file?
Take a look (edit it in notepad ". It's located in (possibly) two places:
c:\windows
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\We-Blocker
You can safely rename it, edit it, or simply delete it.

 

Geez, Reboot. What is a "hosts" file?

I've never heard of it, at least I've never seen that in 98. Is this similar to a sys.ini or config.sys or autoexec.bat? I ask, because it seems that it has to be opened in notepad.

I take it that you mean it is under the Username directory and not under Owner or All Users? Unfortunately, I'm not sitting at the subject computer, so I am trying to be as specific as I can remember the tree setup in XP.

Thanks for the tip, I'm definitely going to check out that file and see what it's all about. Again, I'll post back after I've had a chance to try all suggestions...

ciao!!

maureen

 

maureen
I went to that website for We-Blocker, and it seems that the is an issue with XP and We-Blocker. It seems to do with permissions that XP is not allowing. It didn't mention anything about preventing downloads.
http://www.fame-inc.com/Projects/Weblocker/dev/breaking_news/xp_compatibility_issues.asp
http://www.fame-inc.com/Projects/Weblocker/dev/breaking_news/index.asp

A Hosts file is a file that can be used to direct or redirect a connection to a website. When your IE goes to a website, it first looks up it's IP address, then goes there. If there is a Hosts file it can get this info from the file and then go directly to the website without doing an IP lookup. Sort of speeds things up. The interesting thing is that it can be used to block access to a website. Your own computer has an IP, '127.0.0.1' . This number refers only to the computer, nothing on the internet. If you were to have the below lines in the Hosts file, it would go directly to the site. You'll see that the adrevolver.com is redirected to 127.0.0.1, your computer. Obviously, that site is not on your computer, so Nothing found, Nothing done. The whole thing is dropped. You get a 'This page cannot be displayed'.

216.239.35.100 google.com
64.246.42.33 www.windowsbbs.com
127.0.0.1 ad4.adrevolver.com
127.0.0.1 ad5.adrevolver.com
127.0.0.1 ad6.adrevolver.com

This file can easily be created in Notepad, and is stored in the windows folder. It must not have an extension for it to work, just the name 'Hosts'. Notepad does have problems saving new files with no extension. Just save it, open a dos window use the following command to rename it.
ren c:\windows\hosts.txt c:\windows\hosts
Once the extension is off of it, you shouldn't have any more problems saving it when edited at a later time.

 

Pretty good description of the "Hosts" file. Thanks
To be slightly more specific, if there is a line in the hosts file that says: 127.0.0.1 *.* then you're not surfing anything.
In a new Win98 setup, the hosts file is basically empty.
If you wish to block a certain site, you can add an entry like this:
127.0.0.1 www.blockedwebsitehere.ext
Some trojans write a hosts file that includes every site in your favourites. All of a sudden, you can't get to ANY favourites, but may be able to browse to other sites once, after which the trojan writes THAT site into the hosts file, so you can't go back, taking it's information from the temp internet folder.
The only other option is that the DNS settings are totally messed. If your computer cannot resolve the DNS server at your ISP, you won't go anywhere either, nor download anything.
Just more food for thought.

 

Hosts file location:

Exactly correct for 9X/ME systems. That's where it's gotta be to work. %systemroot%

But if you put it there on NT/2K/XP, it won't work. And if there is one that works, it ain't there.

%systemroot\system32\drivers\etc is the folder you want.

 

Reboot, Newt and Mark "“ hey you guys! quit talking over my head! Unfortunately I cannot visit the XP machine until next week now, but out of curiosity, I did a search on my own 98 machine for the hosts file (no extensions).

All I am finding is a hosts.smp (sample file) and lmhosts.smp -- no "hostsâ€. I went into the Windows directory and visually searched for it (with "show hidden files" enabled and "show file extensions" enabled) but was not able to locate it.

Since my internet access does not seem to be restricted in any way, it doesn’t look like this file is a critical system file. Does Windows automatically create this file? Is there a setting somewhere, perhaps internet options, which could prevent or enable the creation of this file? I’m curious to play with the file and test it out, but cannot find it! What gives?

Now I’m curious…
I realize this is just a rabbit trail going off the original question about we-blocker, but this will keep me busy for a while until I get back to that XP machine. I sure love this site - you never know what secret thing you're going to discover next.

P.S. Newt, thanks for the caution about the file location being different in 2K and XP.

-maureen

 

You can create one yourself. It is merely a text file after all. It is not a critical system file. Windows does not create one, you'll have to do it yourself, or go to the following link. There are several to choose from to examine. Good reading about it there, anyway.
http://www.smartin-designs.com/

 

maureen - I agree with markp62. If you are going to be working with network PCs (and these days you can't really escape them) you need to have at least a basic understanding of hosts files.

And you might want to browse thru the networking section for threads that have various pieces of the networking lark explained in more detail. Most of the information is not OS specific.