Problem with Win XP and Internet Connection

[carenath]

Hope someone can help me here...

I am currently running WinXP on a Celeron 2.2 gig system.

I recently upgraded to WIN XP service Pack 2. Since then I have been unable to keep my original home page. Everytime I change it, it resets to www.msn.com. In addition, under internet options/connections/settings (and /LAN) it keeps reverting to using a proxy server even tho I change it to use automatic settings. Any Ideas on how to fix this?

[SirDice]

Did you check your machine for ad- and spyware?
Have a look with HijackThis..

Or use any of the ad/spyware cleaners like hitman pro, ad-aware, spybot s&d, MS anti-spyware etc.

Edit: Have a look at the tutorial by foxyloxly here for some hints and tips..

[morganlefay]

are you admin of the machine..or have admin rights.

MLF

[carenath]

Originally posted here by SirDice
Did you check your machine for ad- and spyware?
Have a look with HijackThis..

Or use any of the ad/spyware cleaners like hitman pro, ad-aware, spybot s&d, MS anti-spyware etc.

Edit: Have a look at the tutorial by foxyloxly here for some hints and tips..

Already checked with adaware, avast, as well as spybot s&d. All ad/spyware removed... still same problem.

[carenath]

Originally posted here by morganlefay


are you admin of the machine..or have admin rights.

MLF

Yes and yes.

[moxnix]

I am going to make an assumption that you haven't tried any other browser except Internet Explorer (although in my opinion you would be a lot better off with Firefox).

A few things come to mind immediately.
1. You are using the Host file locking features of Spybot S&D or Tea Timer functions of the same.
2. You haven't reset the security parameters of I.E. since you have upgraded to SP2.
' A. Set the Internet zone of the Security section to the 'Default' setting.
' B. Set privacy to 'Medium'.
' C. Under the advanced tab, go through the list and set accordingly or at the very least restore the 'Default' settings
' D. Make sure under the Connections tab that there is not any proxie listed in the settings box.

I would suggest that you download another browser and check to see if you are having the same problems with it as you are with I.E. As I said earlier I personally would suggest Firefox by Mozzilla.

[Black Cluster]

Re-install the browser or just update it, if any is available.
before installing the new browser, do a full system scan {Safe mode scanning}, with recently updated AV and a ad/maleware scanner.

Cheers

[Nokia]

Have you gone to the windows update site after installing SP2? There are a few (well a lot) of issues similar to this that appeard when SP2 came out. MS have released a lot of updates to counter things like this!

[carenath]

Originally posted here by Nokia
Have you gone to the windows update site after installing SP2? There are a few (well a lot) of issues similar to this that appeard when SP2 came out. MS have released a lot of updates to counter things like this!

I'll check on that, but I am concerned since I cannot set my search page back to it's original default nor can I reset my home page to its original. Apparently, Microsoft has them "hijacked" to always set to a microsoft area.

Any ideas why? I am usind spyware blaster and spyware guard, and when SG tells me that my search page default is changing to MSN search, I tell it to discard the change. However, doing so causes the SG alert to come up again and again until I accept the new value!

[gore]

When you install some software from Microsoft, like Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger, and just about anything else, it has an option selected saying "Set default home page and search to MSN?" and it says "Recommended" next to it and is selected by default.

This could be from you installing something like I listed and having that option checked, and not un-checking it.

Maybe Ad-Aware should start finding MSN **** as a problem application and deleting it.