Help!! Computer is slow and can't get online!!

My Aunt is having trouble with her computer(dell). It runs extremely sluggishly and you cannot connect to the internet (she has 56kbs dial up). She talked to her ISP tech and they told her that she was connected but some sort of spyware is preventing her browser from displaying pages (all she can get is "page cannot be displayed"). I came over to see what I could do about fixing it but to no avail.

This is what I did so far:

Ran several scans: (AVG , spysubtract, stinger, spybot). I turned off system restore and booted in safe mode while running these. I found several exploits and trojan downloaders which I managed to get rid of (ie: trojan.alchemic. , bargain buddy, wild tangent, a few others).

I tried getting online with firefox browser but that didn't work either. I deleted all the temp. internet files (including offline content).

**I couldn't update the above applications before using them because of her connection problem. When I tried to update AVG it said "could not find connection." I had to bring the .exe's over on disc as she had no protection besides norton on her comp.

I also ran the cwshredder which didn't detect any cool web hijacks.

I'm kind of at a loss here. Her computer boots up and runs very very slowly. I've never heard of a hijack that entirely prevents connection to the internet, usually they take you to their page. I'm wondering if anyone here could give me some advice on how to proceed further. I would really like to help them fix this as they are very frustrated atm. Thanks in advance!!

John

 

Hi John, and welcome to the forum.

Is this an XP computer? Removal of some spyware can break the LSP chain and cause loss of internet connection.

To fix that, please go to this sticky thread: General Cleaning Instructions and download the Winsock XP fix.

There is also instructions further down the page for reinstalling the TCP/IP protocol.

Let us know if the above works.

Regards,

snap

 

Thank you snapdragin! She has XP, it's a newer model dell comp. I'll be back over there this weekend to try and fix it again. I'll do as you suggested and try the Winsock. I'll post the results probably on Sunday, hopefully that will take care of the problem. I appreciate the help, Thank you!!