Fast Ethernet

[coatesville]

I am or should say my son wanted a computer that was cheap mostly for using the internet for E mails and downloading things such as music kids to use MSn for chats etc.
We had a CD Rom that was new and I had a hard drive from an old HP computer which was 6gb.
So I sugggested he buy this upgrade computer that was cheap and had all the things that were needed integrated.
But since buying it and using it have had some problems especially with the internet and using windows explorer.
I had it here for a week and all seemed to work fine I downloaded some things using the modem.
Gave it back on Friday and they connected to the fast internet and tried to download Kazaa for their kids to use and the ethernet card was deleted that is the drivers were deleted and also the Intenet explorer was not on the computer anymore he reinstalled the drivers for the ethernet card and that alone is a difficult job with this computer as it always says it can`t find them on the disk they are supposed to be on. Anyway that was done was able to get back on internet using Netscape . Than I told him to re download Internet Explorer .
My question is what could cause this to happen just a week ago both netscape and Internet explorer disappeared and couldn`t get on internet at all I re loaded netscape still couldnt but couldn`t do anything with Internet Explorer at all couldn`t repair or nothing.
The computer is a no name one but uses SIS 730S chipset
Bios MFG American Megatrends INC
SIS 900 Ethernet
SIS 7001 PCI USB
SIS 7018 Audio Accelerato
SIS SW Modem
SIS 86c201 AGP Controller
SIS 300 Integrated Video adapter
CPU is AMD Duron 893 MHZ Motherboard says name unknow but I have a number if needed but it is long.

[classicsoftware]

What flavor of Windoze?

How did you connect to internet? What ISP?

What ISP are they using?

Need more info

[coatesville]

It is windows 98 second edition.
The inteernet is connected by telus fast speed.
We checked with the internet that they are using and he was able to confirm that the internet connection was working fine. So it is either a windows problem or a computer problem . I am wondering if it may be the fast ethernet card that could be causing problem.
A few years ago I had a computer with a modem integrated on mother board and I could never do anything with windows explorer had it checked out by everyone finally someone came up with it might be the modem sure enough it was. So am just wondering if that could be the cause. I have updated all of windows 98 se.

[classicsoftware]

What is Telsus fast speed??

Cable?

DSL?

Dial-up modem??

ISDN????

T1????

[coatesville]

It is Velocity High Speed using ADSL which is Asynmetric Digital Subscriber Line.
Uses phone line but does not interfere with you use of phone and the speed is as fast as cable. Uses Ethernet card same as cable and you have your box that you buy or rent to get connected. I don`t have it and thats really all I know about it. I guess I could ask my son but presume he knows less than I do I just looked it up at the company.

[classicsoftware]

Now we are getting somewhere.

On the DSL modem there are three lights

Power Shows the modem is on

on-line or something similar shows the connection to DSL is on

Link shows the connection to the PC is good.

If he had to install software from the phone company to make this work, that is most likely the problem and the best solution is to ditch the software and use a router

[mjc]

IE disappears, Netscape disappears, drivers disappear.....

Downloaded Kazaa.....

Sounds very suspicious to me.

Had some sort of file sharing program been running on it?

Any kind of anti-virus? anti-trojan? firewall?

{PS moving this one to one of the Networking forums}

[Budfred]

If he was downloading Kazaa or using similar software, that could explain a lot. Kazaa tends to be riddled with spyware and often allows virus infections and/or trojans to hitch a ride. Who knows what kind of chaos you unleash in using it.

WinMX is reputed to be a safe file sharing alternative.

[coatesville]

You mentioned about having to install connection with phone company software to make his internet work he did have to. You mentioned not to do it this way how else would you do it.
Also mentioned was did he have firewall yes the first time he had zone alarm and also had av virus protector we got rid of both of those when I did a complete format to the computer.
This time when it happened I had installed Norton on it.I have all those on my computer and do not have a problem with anything I download.
Actually his computer has hardly anything on it as far as programs. Kids just wanted a music one I find that Kazaa worked better than the other one as it does have virus protector on it.
The first time it happened no one knows what they did or so they say but they weren`t downloading music.
Are you not supposed to have any virus protector on your computer at all?

[classicsoftware]

To browse the internet you need an IP address. The ISP leases these IP addresses and assigns them to users as needed. When you have a dial up connection, you must FIRST dial in to to your ISP, they assign you an IP address and then you can surf.

In order for this to work, your computer must act like it has a network card. The device used is the "dial-up adapter" It holds your IP address and works like a network card.

If you have cable, your connection to the internet is always on. You are in effect always on the network. The cable modem gets the IP address from your ISP and assigns it to your ethernet(network) card so the internet is a click away.

DSL is another breed of CAT. You get the speed of cable with the hassle of dial up. The DSL companies provide you with buggy crappy stinky rotten software that acts like a dial up and gets the IP address and assigns to your network card. If you discard the software and use a router, the router can be set to always login to the ISP and send the IP address to your network card.

What you need to determine is what went wrong with your system. Does it not function at all? Does it only not function in relation to the internet?

Can you operate other software? Can you print?

You could have gotten a virus from Kazaa or Kazaa itself can sorrupt the computer.

Please uninstall Kazaa and let us know how everything else is behaving.

[mjc]

Since when does KaZaa have a virus checker?

[Budfred]

YES, you do want a virus checker and also a firewall, especially if you are doing file sharing. However, as mjc suggests, I really find it hard to believe that Kazaa has a virus checker since it is such a piece of crap. It is likely to have some nasty program in it that claims to be a virus checker, but that may well be a virus itself. Kazaa is poison....

[mjc]

If it is that StopSign thing....it is verified spyware.

[coatesville]

I get it that Kazaa is not a reliable program to download but It probably is the stop and I agree that it sometimes does more damage than good but what I can`t figure out that it works on some computers and not others that is Kazaa I have downloaded it and it works fine with me I have both firewall and virus protector installed. You get a lot of popup and I delete them as fast as they pop up. So far I have had no problems all my grandchildren have used them this computer is the only one that has problems.
But if you say that is what is causing my problem and only that will accept it and not do the download for Kazaa.
Answer to other question once Kazaaa was deleted and explorer and the ethernet driver wasinstalled the computer is working fine.

[Budfred]

I am glad your system is working well now.

I don't want to bug you with this, but by way of warning: if you have Kazaa installed on other computers you probably have a host of problems waiting to happen. You probably have spyware running background, some of which may be trying to log passwords and credit card numbers. You may have trojans running that do a better job of covering their footsteps so you don't know they are there. You may have an open door for virus infection even with your antivirus. There are safe file sharing programs out there, like WinMX.

Also, even though you deleted Kazaa, there may still be other garbage lurking in the system. Make sure you run a deep virus, spyware and possibly trojan scan to be sure you are secure.

[coatesville]

I guess I said the computer was working fine now to soon but as it is not in my house and I am not there haven`t heard from my son thought it was but was wrong.
The internet and internet explorer are fine its just that when he turns off his computer all the drivers disappear and he has to reload everything that is sound, video ethernet modem guess thats it these are all integrated on the motherboard. Everytime he turns on the computer this has to be done. Any explanation for this all Kazaa has been deleted except one in the registry I think now would this be causing the problem/
He has very little on his computer I guess he told me that desktop themes also are uninstalled.

[Budfred]

If he doesn't have much on there it may be worthwhile to back up whatever he does want to save and wipe the hard drive, then start over with a clean install. With the drivers disappearing and Kazaa lurking, who knows what might be around the corner for the next problem.

[mjc]

It sounds like something nasty was installed, probably by way of Kazaa.

Could be just a bad/corrupt file he grabbed or it could be viral in nature.

A good virus scan...online if he doesn't have one resident (or better in addition to his resident scanner), a trojan scan and a spyware scan.

Links to all the mentioned scanners are in my sig.