patently Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 OK, I need help. Mrs P's Win7 PC won't talk to the Internet and I can't make it. It's connecting OK to the router; I can log into the router and see it as a connected device. I can ping the router and get a decent response time, if not fantastic. The router is OK - every other device in the house has Internet access. Windows reports that the connection is fine and the "Network & Sharing Centre" shows a pretty map with her PC, the router, and the Internet all connected. Firefox just does nothing when you ask it connect. Chrome reports "Unable to connect to the proxy server" which is odd as we don't have one and I didn't configure it to use one. Going into the Internet options, the LAN settings have a tick against "use a proxy server" which she swears she didn't put there. De-select the proxy server and you get "This webpage is not available" instead (ERR_FAILED is the error code). Re-boot the PC and the proxy server is ticked again.... MacAfee scan says no problems. AVG2014 says no problems... but did flag up a warning to her earlier this evening about malware. She can't remember what it was and didn't tell me at the time, and I can't see any mention of it in AVG's reports so can't confirm what it was. I've looked at AVG's firewall option (to see if that's the problem), but it reports that "Your Internet connection is offline or blocked". Windows firewall is on, but is not set to "block all". Google Chrome is allowed through. So I'm stumped. All suggestions welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 All suggestions welcome I know where there'll be a superb iMac 27 for sale soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 Thank you soooo much for that. Would you like a glass of water? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 Touche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveP Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 open command prompt type ipconfig /all ping 8.8.8.8 ping news.bbc.co.uk That will at least give an idea what your network config is. Whether DNS works and whether IP works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 ipconfig looks normal-ish to my inexpert eyes Both pings get replies, so IP and DNS are both working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 Are you running Windows f/wall and AVG f/wall? I'd go with one or t'other. Turn the f/wall(s) off just to eliminate them but the proxy setting sounds the biggest suspect. If it's trying to put everything via a non-existent proxy server it won't like it. Can you not force it to have no proxy settings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 Just windows firewall, not AVG. I take the proxy off, but that doesn't help and - suspiciously- the proxy is back on after rebooting… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 Your fire-wall could have gone into 'paranoid' mode and blocked everything? Can you turn off the Windows Firewall jsut to check that. Does IE work at all? Run some anti-malware progs and see if they find anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewNiceMrMe Posted October 18, 2014 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 (edited) I think this is a browser related issue where they're sharing common settings and you need to change them running permissions that will go beyond browser level. The proxy server comment is the one that matters (in my opinion). The easiest way to find out is to try a sequence of things in Internet Explorer. Find the Internet Explorer icon and right click on it (don't open it). From the menu that appears, select "Run as Administrator". A box will open up to ask if you want this application to make changes to your computer. Select Yes. Internet Explorer will open and you need to select Tools from the main menu, then Internet Options. Select the Connections tab. Then LAN Settings. Now, this is where you should remove the tick from Use Proxy Server and also make sure you tick the box that says "Automatically detect settings". Click OK, and exit out of Internet Explorer. Reboot the machine. I suspect you might find you can now connect to the internet. Hopefully. Worth a shot, P.s. Try IE first after rebooting. If it works but FF and Chrome don't, do the same thing in them (Run as administrator) and reboot again. Edited October 18, 2014 by NewNiceMrMe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez Posted October 18, 2014 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 Bit of a long shot but Might be worth just checking your date and time are correct, I had a very similar problem recently after I moved the date back to get a piece of software to work and forgot to correct the date back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 Hmmm... ok, it's working again this morning. Logged in to run IE as supervisor and the "proxy" box wasn't checked any more. And the browser was working happily. Obviously that's all 100% down to my efforts, with the useful and able assistance of TSN... Or that's what Mrs P will be told, anyway 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted October 18, 2014 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 Good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 No, wait, I spoke too soon. After a reboot, the problem is back. It's weird; run IE as Admin, go to settings, tick autodetect and untick the proxy, click OK, go straight back into LAN settings, and the proxy is ticked again and autodetect is unticked I'm wondering if it is infected with something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 OK, so it now looks like the Admin user can access the web, but the Standard users can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Posted October 18, 2014 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 probably about now you should be ordering something shiny from Apple for the Mrs ..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted October 18, 2014 Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 What is the proxy pointing at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 Proxy for admin points at 127.0.0.1 port 13917, which is worrying me slightly. Non-admin user now has no proxy (??!) and can't access t'web. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 OK, Wikipedia has stuff on 127.0.0.1 proxies and mentioned something that Malware bytes can find So I've grabbed MWB, run it, and am working through the 143 things it has found… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 MWB has done its thing and quarantined it all. Reboot, and now Admin can't access the web but Standard User can… no proxy set unless you run IE as Admin. Am beginning to consider nuking the PC from orbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patently Posted October 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2014 OK, have gone in as Admin and manually removed all traces of the 127.0.0.1 proxy, saved, rebooted, and now all seems fine. All users can see teh web and carry on seeing it after logging out/in. Time to draw a cautious breath and let her back onto it albeit with warnings that I want to hear about any anomalous behaviour. Thanks to everyone that helped, much appreciated. Special thanks to Mac for asking the question as to where the proxy was pointing, which set me down what seems to have been the right track. Fingers are crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_Bangle Posted October 21, 2014 Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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