Very Strange Problem with the Internet Across all Browsers

[Appletax]

For some reason I can't get some web sites to load at all or I can only get part of a web site to load.
(SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM AFTER)


Some of the things I tried:
- Ran Kaspersky Rescue Disc 10 -> o infections
- Ran Avast A/V in Safe Mode after running rkill -> o
- Reset Internet Explorer
- Checked DNS/IP settings -> all set to automatic w/ ISP
- Checked the HOSTS file -> all good
- Ran Kaspersky TDSS rootkit remover -> 0
- Ran Sophos Antirootkit -> 0
- Checked for mal-processes w/ Task Manager -> nothing suspicous
- Looked for TDSS rootkit registry entries -> found none
- Ran Malwarebytes Antimalware -> 0

ALSO -> McAfee Total Protection was installed. Everytime I tried to access it all that popped up was a white window. I
tried uninstalling it and same thing popped up. I had to download McAfee's remover tool to uninstall it.
I uninstalled it because I figured it may need to be reinstalled to fix it's problem?



Here's what I see when I try to go to the home page: (says iGoogle Redirect on the tab).



--- I googled this and came up with that it could be a google redirector rootkit.
But I don't get redirected to anything so that's not the problem.



Facebook only partly loads:




Here's Youtube (Won't play any videos)




Can't access Windows Live Mail




Can't switch to Google Search




Technibble's search box is missing





System:

Acer 7740 laptop
Windows 7
2.13 GHz Core-i3
4GB RAM




Remove TDSS rootkit -> Description and removal instructions




UPDATE ->

I was wrong about the problem being across all browsers. I installed Google Chrome and had no problems with it at all.
The problem was only with Internet Explorer 8. I had been experiencing some issues with Google Chrome portable, but they went away.

My teacher installed Internet Explorer 9 beta and now the problem is gone. The owner was informed by me that
it's still in beta and she will need to installed the stable version once it is released.


--- All solutions given in this thread did not fix the problem with IE.
My teacher's guess is that some components of IE were either deleted or corrupted.
Since it's IE8 with Windows 7 it cannot be reinstalled; only disabled
= S.O.L.

 

[Xander]

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20405

Check your javascript and, in the status bar, what site(s) are being waited upon.

 

[maclaptech]

Do you have both 64bit and 32bit version of IE on that machine? If you do, they might be butting head.

 

[Appletax]

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20405

Check your javascript and, in the status bar, what site(s) are being waited upon.

I disabled javascript and it didn't work.

Facebook tells me javascript is disabled and is not very happy


.... does javascript have anything to do with java?


EDIT: found this:

Note: Let me clarify something first, Java and JavaScript *are not the same*, they are 2 completely different and independent programming languages.
The setting(s) for one does not affect the other period. While the two share part of their names in common, a
nd are often mentioned as if they were the same, they are really two completely different programming languages, and you should really consider them as such.

 

[Appletax]

Do you have both 64bit and 32bit version of IE on that machine? If you do, they might be butting head.

32 and 64 are both installed by default.
I've been using 32.


But the problems I experience in IE also occur in other browsers.

AND ->> This problem I'm having with this laptop just occured either today or yesterday. So, the system has been running just fine since it was bought around February.

 

[Elemdee]

What about doing a system restore to a couple of days ago?

 

[Appletax]

What about doing a system restore to a couple of days ago?

Didn't help :'(



..~~```--

 

[iptech]

Classic symptoms of a TDSS rootkit.

 

[Appletax]

Classic symptoms of a TDSS rootkit.

I ran the Kaspersky TDSS rootkit remover -> Infection: Not Found

Ran Sophos Antirootkit -> 0 infections

Hijackthis -> nothing suspicious




TDSS rootkit silently owns the Net

:S

 

[iptech]

I ran the Kaspersky TDSS rootkit remover -> Infection: Not Found

Ran Sophos Antirootkit -> 0 infections

Hijackthis -> nothing suspicious




TDSS rootkit silently owns the Net

:S

So what have you done to manually search for possible rootkit infection or are you looking for Technibble members to give you a definitive, one-click fix answer?

Thanks for the link, Google has always proven difficult for me.

 

[Appletax]

So what have you done to manually search for possible rootkit infection or are you looking for Technibble members to give you a definitive, one-click fix answer?

Thanks for the link, Google has always proven difficult for me.

I have no idea how to manually search for a rootkit.

And I can only imagine that it'd be a difficult task considering rootkits
are stealthy little devils that like to go unnoticed



EDIT: should I try doing it with this method?

How to Manually Remove a Rootkit Infection

 

[iptech]

I have no idea how to manually search for a rootkit.

And I can only imagine that it'd be a difficult task considering rootkits
are stealthy little devils that like to go unnoticed



EDIT: should I try doing it with this method?

How to Manually Remove a Rootkit Infection

Yes, it can be time consuming and require some persistence, use this as an opportunity to develop your skills base. There are many good resources on the Internet that will help you, Microsoft Sysinternals blogs would be a good place to start, but if you're looking for a definitive fix provided by others then your searching may forever be in vain.

Good luck with your computer repair business.

 

[Appletax]

Yes, it can be time consuming and require some persistence, use this as an opportunity to develop your skills base. There are many good resources on the Internet that will help you, Microsoft Sysinternals blogs would be a good place to start, but if you're looking for a definitive fix provided by others then your searching may forever be in vain.

Good luck with your computer repair business.

I will have to look into it.... I bet tho that no one at my college in the computer networking degree
even knows how to manually remove malware...
it's not something we're taught and it's not really discussed in class
(I'll bring it up in class tomorrow and see what the teacher has to say).


The computer I'm working on was brought to our department to be fixed and I took it home to see if I could fix it myself.
I will bring it back tomorrow and see what advice I might be able to get from other students/teacher/student helper....


Thanks for the help
+1

 

[Elemdee]

It sounds like your group will have some fun working this one out. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Appletax]

It sounds like your group will have some fun working this one out. Let us know how it goes.

I will





I went to this site:

-> Remove Rootkit.TDSS. Description and removal instructions


-- Didn't find any malicious processes running
nor any of the mal-registry entries listed




But here's the thing -> The symptoms of the TDSS rootkit don't match with the symptoms I'm having:


SYMPTOMS of TDSS:

- Google (Bing, Yahoo) search result links will be redirected to various misleading sites that promote rogue products or display bogus advertisements.
- Security related websites will be blocked.
- You won't be able to launch legitimate anti-malware or anti-virus applications.
- You may find that web pages load slower.

 

[Appletax]

UPDATE -> I'm using Google Chrome portable and I'm experiencing NONE of the problems I've been having.

Facebook, Youtube etc all work just fine



So it must be Internet Explorer? I reset it already and that didn't help. What else can I do? Is there a way to reinstall it?

 

[dannyd]

Have you tried safe mode with networking to see if the problem still exits?

 

[MobileTechie]

It doesn't sound like a rootkit or any other kind of malware to me.

At this I wouldn't recommend spending time manually searching for a TDSS rootkit when TDSS Killer hasn't found one.

I'd be looking at Javascript, IE security options and so forth. Try resetting everything in options back to default. Yes reinstalling it might be a good idea.

 

[B Trevathan]

If the problem is happening with all browsers and your not finding any malware, have you checked your system files? Sound more like some missing dll files. Run sfc /scannow or try running Process Monitor.

Also you may want to run Fix IE Utility it will re-register around 89 dll and ocx files.

 

[Appletax]

- I have ran the Fix IE utility, but no luck



UPDATE -> I had the student helper check it out and he couldn't figure it out.

My teacher thinks something may have happened to some of the components of Internet Explorer. He installed IE 9 beta and everything works fine now.

I told the owner that it's in beta and she will need to install the stable version once it comes out.