ie7 broke but can still get e-mail & vista updates.

[Budman]

I have a problem here. A friend has an HP laptop & for some unknown reason everytime we open up IE7 we get the "IE can't display the webpage". Now she can still get her E-Mail & log onto Live messenger but no IE7. I even installed Firefox & still no internet. I googled & tried a bunch of different things like clearing the DNS cach & even reset the IP stack. I reset IE7 tried the safe mode idea but no luck. I can do the IPCONFIG & ping google & get a response back. It will even download vista updates.
She has a ton of stuff on here so don't really want to reformat. I have also tried disabeling Avast but no luck either. I scanned it & it didn't find any virus. I've uninstalled her network cards & reinstalled them. Running Vista Home Prem 32 bit.
Any body have any other suggestions that I can try?

 

[bigdogchris]

Look at the hosts file in c:\windows\system32\etc ... open with notepad, there should be no entries except for the 2 demonstration ones and loopback.

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
::1             localhost

 

[Budman]

Look at the hosts file in c:\windows\system32\etc ... open with notepad, there should be no entries except for the 2 demonstration ones and loopback.

I checked & it look just like the pic you posted. It's got me stumped.

 

[Snowknight26]

Grab wireshark and see what destination its trying to reach when you go to any webpage. Also, check the proxy settings for any misconfigured options.

 

[bigdogchris]

OK the only other times I experienced something like this Budman was when the guy had some type of 'ghost surfer' program or whatever they are called, and someone else with some malware.

Try, start/search, type in msconfig and go to start up tab and uncheck everything, go to services tab, check "hide all Microsoft services" uncheck whats left remaining. Reboot.

Also, if she has a program, like a file sharing application, or iTunes, that have a browser in it, it should work. I think some program or application is blocking your internet browsers. I had this happen on a machine once that a friend had and you could browse the web with the Morpheus browser but not IE.