Seeking IT help

[zhelas]

Challenge:

I was asked to look at someone's laptop since they could no longer access the internet and they believed they had a virus.

Platform: XP Home

Steps completed:
System Restore disabled
Ran Mcafee's Stinger and found a trojan and it was deleted.
Ran Malwarebytes and it removed any spyware they had.

They had IE6 installed on their laptop (At this moment in time Firefox is not a possibility since this isn't my laptop)

When trying to open IE 6 I couldn't access the internet. I can ping from a command prompt both through a name and ip address.

However I can't browse on the address bar from IE with IP address or fully qualified domain name.

I reinstalled IE on top of itself, deleted temp files, flushed dns, and uninstaled the nic and had it reinstalled itself. None of these have fixed the issue.

The owner of this laptop has Mcafee installed on it but they let the subscription drop. Can Mcafee block internet access? It is possible that port 80 maybe blocked? Is there a more upto date virus scan that i can run from a thumb drive?

Any suggestions besides dropping out the window will be helpful.

Thanks

[AnticorRifling]

Put firefox on, if it works that's your solution. I'd try that before dicking to much more with it. Give them the option of trying firefox to see if it will work or hand them back their paper weight.

[Cephalopod]

Check to see if there's a proxy server set: Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings (I think that's what it is in IE6)

Anticor's suggestion of FF will work, too, since it doesn't use IE's proxy server settings. Chrome does, though, so it'd be a bogus test.

Also check the C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file to see if it's been messed with.

[Sylvan Dreams]

If they are wireless, make sure that they are actually trying to connect to their router instead of the neighbor's.

[Asrial]

Check to see if there's a proxy server set: Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings (I think that's what it is in IE6).This.

[Geijon Khyree]

What's the word? The other point remains due to how it acts when you ping websites, etc that it's still infected with something you haven't found.

[Bobmuhthol]

I'm calling it now. You either haven't removed the virus affecting IE or you haven't reversed all of the damage it did. If you can hit a site in the command prompt then you can hit it with a browser too. Maybe an IE uninstall/reinstall will make it work again. I've had to do it a few times for miscellaneous shit.

[Sean of the Thread]

Firefox.

[zhelas]

Going to try the suggestions today.
-going to check the host file and the proxy settings.
-I am going to install firefox just to see if I can get out on the internet.
-I agree, that the fact that I can ping from a cmd prompt but can't do anything via IE means that the application seems to be messed up.

I don't have any homework this weekend so I will have plenty of time. To do this.

Thanks

[zhelas]

It was a couple of things. I had to fix the proxy settings and I reinstalled IE on top of itself again.

I appreciate the help.

Peace