I am a first time poster, cross-posting this thread on thetechguys.com and daniweb.com. I appreciate your time and any help you may be able to provide.
BACKGROUD: I am running XP. Network contains a wireless Netgear router, its firewall is disabled. ISP is SBC in San Francisco. Browsers are IE and Firefox. Mcafee Internet Security suite 6.0.
ISSUE: I am unable to load certain websites. Some sites load incompletely. For instance, I can access google, bankofamerica.com, and daniweb.com. I cannot access mcafee.com or wellsfargo.com. Similarly, I am able to ping google, bankofamerica, and daniweb; pinging mcafee or wellsfargo times out. Attempts to load pages in browser and ping by command prompt by IP address (151.151.13.133 for wellsfargo.com and 216.49.88.12 for mcafee.com) have failed.
OTHER SYMPTOMS, (not necessarily unrelated) to main problem: (1) computer is generally slow; (2) there is intermittent churning in background, like the computer’s working hard on something, but nothing suspicious shows up on Task Manager; (3) on occasion, IE will suddenly begin rapidly opening iterations (sometimes as many as 70 open IE windows) of itself until machine crashes; (4) in IE: Internet options>Security>Restricted Sites there is a list of more than 100 restricted sites, for example: *..00hq.com; *..75tz.com. I did not add these to the restricted sites zone. When they are removed, click OK, and exit window, on reopening window they are all there again.
WHAT I’VE DONE: (1) disabled all firewalls; (2) deleted contents of windows/temp; (3) searched for and deleted all *.tmp files; (4) deleted user’s contents of cookies; (5) in IE cleared History, Cookies, Deleted files (including offline files); (6) ran Cleanmgr from command prompt, deleted everything; (7) deleted Prefetch; (8) Ran updated Spybot, AdAware, TrojanHunter, Ewido; (9) Scanned using Housecall and Bitdefender. I have not been able to update and run my Mcafee antivirus, as am unable to access the site for updates. Was unable to run CounterSpy for same reason; (10) uninstalled and reinstalled IE to deal with symptom no. 4 above, but could not wipe out the list of restricted sites. (But, I am still unable to access certain websites from Firefox; neither could I ping certain sites, so this list of restricted sites does not seem to be the cause.); (11) Googled “cannot load some websites and related terms; revealed my problem is shared, but could not find applicable solutions; (12) on advise from thetechguys.com (http://forums.thetechguys.com/showthread.php?p=89498#post89498), ran ipconfig /flush dns, and regsvr32 softpub.dll; finally, (13) HijackThis was run from its own folder with all browsers closed. The log is below.
Your time and help are very greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 2:25:37 PM, on 9/21/2005
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)
Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\csrss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Privacy Service\GUARDDOG.EXE
C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Privacy Service\GUARDDOG.EXE
C:\Program Files\ewido\security suite\ewidoctrl.exe
C:\Program Files\ewido\security suite\ewidoguard.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\SPAMKI~1\MskAgent.exe
C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Shared Components\Guardian\CMGrdian.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsshld.exe
c:\progra~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsescn.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\ezSP_Px.exe
c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsrte.exe
C:\Program Files\TrojanHunter 4.2\THGuard.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\PERSON~1\MPFSERVICE.exe
C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\bin\hpotdd01.exe
C:\Program Files\NETGEAR\WG511U Configuration Utility\wlancfgu.exe
C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\bin\hposol08.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\PERSON~1\MpfAgent.exe
C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\bin\hpoevm08.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\tcpsvcs.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcshield.exe
c:\program files\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe
C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Digital Imaging\Bin\hpoSTS08.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\alg.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE
C:\Program Files\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = about:blank
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = 127.0.0.1
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.ocx
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\SDHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar2.dll
O2 - BHO: McAfee Privacy Service - {cc4b2ee5-4803-11d7-8a38-00b0d0c6b814} - C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Privacy Service\GDIEHELP.DLL
O3 - Toolbar: McAfee VirusScan - {BA52B914-B692-46c4-B683-905236F6F655} - c:\progra~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsshl.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Google - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar2.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MCUpdateExe] c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\McUpdate.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MSKAGENTEXE] C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\SPAMKI~1\MskAgent.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VSOCheckTask] "c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcmnhdlr.exe" /checktask
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [McAfee Guardian] C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Shared Components\Guardian\CMGrdian.exe /SU
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MCAgentExe] c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\agent\mcagent.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VirusScan Online] c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsshld.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MSKDetectorExe] C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\SPAMKI~1\MSKDetct.exe /startup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MPFTray] C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\PERSON~1\MpfTray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ezShieldProtector for Px] C:\WINDOWS\System32\ezSP_Px.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [THGuard] "C:\Program Files\TrojanHunter 4.2\THGuard.exe"
O4 - Global Startup: hpoddt01.exe.lnk = ?
O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Office.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OSA.EXE
O4 - Global Startup: NETGEAR WG511U Smart Wizard.lnk = ?
O4 - Global Startup: officejet 6100.lnk = ?
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Google Search - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar2.dll/cmsearch.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Translate English Word - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar2.dll/cmwordtrans.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Backward Links - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar2.dll/cmbacklinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Cached Snapshot of Page - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar2.dll/cmcache.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O8 - Extra context menu item: Similar Pages - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar2.dll/cmsimilar.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Translate Page into English - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar2.dll/cmtrans.html
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {85d1f590-48f4-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66} - %windir%\bdoscandel.exe (file missing)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Uninstall BitDefender Online Scanner v8 - {85d1f590-48f4-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66} - %windir%\bdoscandel.exe (file missing)
O9 - Extra button: Privacy Bar - {cc4b2ee5-4803-11d7-8a38-00b0d0c6b814} - C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Privacy Service\GDIEHELP.DLL
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
O15 - Trusted Zone: www.gmail.com
O15 - Trusted Zone: www.wellsfargo.com
O16 - DPF: {04E214E5-63AF-4236-83C6-A7ADCBF9BD02} (HouseCall Control) - http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/housecall/xscan60.cab
O16 - DPF: {15E31F81-702C-48F8-97B1-75AE9155B5E3} (TSWebCtl.UCTSWeb) - https://remote.lw.com/TSWebCtl.CAB
O16 - DPF: {30439117-02CA-4FBA-ADAF-84C2D8E2004D} - https://remote.lw.com/spv3rdpchk.cab
O16 - DPF: {41F17733-B041-4099-A042-B518BB6A408C} - http://appldnld.m7z.net/content.info.apple.com/iTunes4/WW/win/019-0312.20050111.MmVrT/iTunesSetup.exe
O16 - DPF: {4C39376E-FA9D-4349-BACC-D305C1750EF3} (EPUImageControl Class) - http://tools.ebayimg.com/eps/wl/activex/EPUWALControl_v1-0-3-17.cab
O16 - DPF: {4ED9DDF0-7479-4BBE-9335-5A1EDB1D8A21} (McAfee.com Operating System Class) - http://download.mcafee.com/molbin/shared/mcinsctl/en-us/4,0,0,83/mcinsctl.cab
O16 - DPF: {54823A9D-6BAE-11D5-B519-0050BA2413EB} (ChkDVDCtl Class) - http://www.gocyberlink.com/winxp/CheckDVD.cab
O16 - DPF: {5D86DDB5-BDF9-441B-9E9E-D4730F4EE499} (BDSCANONLINE Control) - http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/oscan8.cab
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/V5Controls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1100638016416
O16 - DPF: {7584C670-2274-4EFB-B00B-D6AABA6D3850} (Microsoft RDP Client Control (redist)) - https://mail.bacanastyle.com/Remote/msrdp.cab
O16 - DPF: {BAC01377-73DD-4796-854D-2A8997E3D68A} (Yahoo! Photos Easy Upload Tool Class) - http://us.dl1.yimg.com/download.yahoo.com/dl/installs/ydropper/ydropper1_4us.cab
O16 - DPF: {BCC0FF27-31D9-4614-A68E-C18E1ADA4389} (DwnldGroupMgr Class) - http://download.mcafee.com/molbin/shared/mcgdmgr/en-us/1,0,0,20/mcgdmgr.cab
O23 - Service: ewido security suite control - ewido networks - C:\Program Files\ewido\security suite\ewidoctrl.exe
O23 - Service: ewido security suite guard - ewido networks - C:\Program Files\ewido\security suite\ewidoguard.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Privacy Service (GuardDogEXE) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfee Privacy Service\GUARDDOG.EXE" /SERVICE (file missing)
O23 - Service: iPod Service (iPodService) - Apple Computer, Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee.com McShield (McShield) - Unknown owner - c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcshield.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee SecurityCenter Update Manager (mcupdmgr.exe) - McAfee, Inc - C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\Agent\mcupdmgr.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee.com VirusScan Online Realtime Engine (MCVSRte) - Networks Associates Technology, Inc - c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcvsrte.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee Personal Firewall Service (MpfService) - McAfee Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee.com\PERSON~1\MPFSERVICE.exe
O23 - Service: McAfee SpamKiller Server (MskService) - Networks Associates Technology. Inc. - C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\SPAMKI~1\MSKSrvr.exe
O23 - Service: Pml Driver HPZ12 - HP - C:\WINDOWS\System32\HPZipm12.exe