Ethernet problem question

[awdrifter]

My friend ask me to fix his comp the other day, it turns out he got some spyware and viruses on his comp, so I did some virus and spyware scan, now the virus and spywares are gone, but I can't get his ethernet (LAN) to work. It says it's connected but PeerGuardian and BitComet both gave me some UDP error. I can't connect go onto any websites either. I tried re-installing the ethernet drivers, but that didn't help. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Here's his comp's spec
Intel Q6600
ECS K4M900T-M
OCZ DDR2 800mhz 2GB
Biostar 7600GT
Onboard LAN

Here are the errors

[matt2000]

does the PC have a firewall?

[awdrifter]

No, even the windows firewall is turned off.

[chaos386]

IP/gateway settings are all correct?

[73GMCSprint]

You'll probably have to run a winsock repair utility. It's pretty common for malware to go after network related settings and pretty much screw them up beyond manual repair.

I also recommend running some sort of firewall. Even crappy windows firewall is better than nothing. And make sure that computer has anti-whatever software installed and teach your friend how to use it, otherwise it'll just happen again.

[awdrifter]

He uses eMule and BT regularly, so running a firewall will probably slow that down to a crawl. I will try this Winsock program, thanks for the info.

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

He uses eMule and BT regularly, so running a firewall will probably slow that down to a crawl. I will try this Winsock program, thanks for the info.

A firewall won't slow down those programs unless you're blocking their respective ports. No wonder this guy had crap on his computer - disabling a firewall because he's too retarded to set it up properly is insane.

[awdrifter]

Well, I just tried running Winsock on his comp, but the network still won't actually connect. It says connected in the LAN, but I can't go on to any website or anything. He has a lot of stuff on his comp, but I think he needs a reformat. I'm going to talk to him see if he wants me to do it.

[jensked]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

I'm going to talk to him see if he wants me to do it.

Formatting/reinstalling someone's computer is a bitch

They will be asking you to recover this and reinstall that because you'll forget half of the things...good luck

[awdrifter]

Yea, but I built that comp for him, so it is kinda up to me to fix it when he messes it up. But the good thing is I know and have most of the programs he uses, so I can install them back, it'll just take time. Oh well, if that's what I have to do, he'll have to wait till next weekend until I have free time to do it.

[Final Daihatsu]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

He uses eMule and BT regularly, so running a firewall will probably slow that down to a crawl. I will try this Winsock program, thanks for the info.

I have the windows firewall permanently on (no settings changed whatsoever, I hate changing settings), and I get 300KB/s from BT easily

[awdrifter]

What BT client are you using? He uses BitComet, and it doesn't work well with Windows firewall on.

[jensked]

^ uTorrent. I have a Norton firewall and a router and I get 2000kb/s from BT, and I didn't do anything except portforwarding.

[Kip_6666]

Originally Posted by chaos386

IP/gateway settings are all correct?

My guess too.

Open a dos box, (cmd) and type "ipconfig /all"

It might not be getting a proper IP, or the malware inserted a non working IP (which would be very weird)

[awdrifter]

Originally Posted by jensked

^ uTorrent. I have a Norton firewall and a router and I get 2000kb/s from BT, and I didn't do anything except portforwarding.

I do not trust uTorrent, so I don't feel comfortable recommanding to him, since he downloads a lot of "stuff".

Originally Posted by Kip_6666

My guess too.

Open a dos box, (cmd) and type "ipconfig /all"

It might not be getting a proper IP, or the malware inserted a non working IP (which would be very weird)

I'm going to give that a try tonight. Thanks for the info.

[Paco]

Originally Posted by awdrifter

Yea, but I built that comp for him, so it is kinda up to me to fix it when he messes it up.

Bullshit. Unless he's paying you money for the support you are in no way obligated to fix his problems. I know you're just being nice, but as someone with computer knowledge it pisses me off to no end when everybody expects you to fix their computers just because you can.

As for your friends problem, there is a good chance he has a trojan or other malware that borked his ip settings. He needs to stop using emule. PG2 isn't going to do diddly squat with that program running, and he's just going to get another virus right after you fix it. That is if one of the myriad of acronymed agencies doesn't catch him in a honeypot first.

As much as reformatting sucks, there are lots of malware that are either easier with, or simply require a reformat.
I suggest reformatting, reinstall avast and PG2 (both good calls), use Azureus instead of bitComet, go get him adaware &/or spybot s&d, and tell him that if it's his problem if he installs emule again. Otherwise he's going to be coming back to you and asking for more free tech support.

[awdrifter]

Yea, it does kinda piss me off sometimes that everyone expects me to fix their computers too, but he's a long time friend and helped me out before, so in this case I don't mind. He's currently using Super Antispyware, is that any good? But yea, I'm leaning towards a reformat. Thanks for the info.

[m4v1s]

I usually put AVG antivirus on all the machines i work on. its at free.grisoft.com. Talk to him about creating a seperate admin account then making his account a limited user account. That way, even if he downloads bad stuff it cant do much harm. He will just have to understand that to install stuff he'll have to do a run as or log on as the admin user.

[awdrifter]

That's a good idea, thanks.

[awdrifter]

Just an update, I just finished reformatting his comp and installed some of the programs back. It works fine now. I guess I'll tell him to use FireFox with noscript from now on. Thanks for the replies.