Can't Access Bank Site Or Online Emails

[Samrc]

Found out that a coworker's home machine is giving him fits.

 

Suddenly he can surf the net but can not access his gmail email or do online banking.

Also his live update (Norton Antivirus) will not connect to update and he can not download files from the web.

 

Says he has not installed any software, no change to hardware.

I had him run AdAware SE (already had it on his machine) found nothing. Would not connect to get new updates.

 

Had him go into SAFE MODE and run AdAware again. nothing.

Had him go into SAFE MODE with networking and he was able to update AdAware, WAS able to get into gmail emails and was able to download updates for his antivirus. Display goofy (640...) but eveything works. First time in almost 2 weeks since he's been able to access it.

 

Sent him spybotsearchanddestroy in email. He installed it in NORMAL mode then ran it in SAFE MODE. nothing.

 

Returned to NORMAL mode and back to square one. Can't access or download. Now Norton says it is not updated again as though the files we updated in safe mode are not there.

 

Unchecked several items in his startup, checked his IE settings, nothing I could see would prevent his access to online emails and banking and downloading.

 

Any suggestions?? Is there a better place for me to post this kind of question.

[stevevan]

Strange. Does he have any other browser he can try (to rule out problems with IE)? I've got problems with some sites that are the opposite...the only work in IE.

[Madmanmcp]

Sounds like a lot of unrelated pieces are not working which is strange. 1st things I would check are the firewalls. Next I would check your disk space, updating nortons needs disk space as does downloading a file and possibly online banking. Also clear the cache in IE.

[Samrc]

As to browsers...his banking will not accept other than IE.

He reinstalled his IE browser, no change.

 

One of the first things we did was clear cache, history and even passwords.

 

He has a nearly empty harddrive, XP, SP2, firewall off or on makes no difference.

 

Sounds like a lot of unrelated pieces are not working which is strange

 

Yes. I agree. I have NEVER run into a problem like this.

 

VERY strange that he can download, update and log in while in Safe Mode with networking but once in normal mode it no longer works...Usually that means that something that loads on normal start is interferring... Maybe I should have him UNCHECK all startup items ... What do you think? Used to be able to do that with WIN98...how about XP?

 

Maybe with nothing set to load on start, he should try to access his email.

 

In the mean time, I told him to burn cd's of stored data (has no backup external drive) then prepare to restore the machine to original configuration if we can't come up with any other answer..

[TCH-Don]

Not sure if this is it,

but I have to have javascript enabled for my bank site.

[Madmanmcp]

In IE, click on Tools, Internet Options, Security tab,

Remember what zone you currently have selected.

Now select the "Internet" zone, click OK and see what happens.

 

Maybe I should have him UNCHECK all startup items

 

Click on START then RUN and type MSCONFIG and press ENTER.

Click on the STARTUP tab and the programs are listed there. Removing the checkmark will stop them from loading. Remember what you remove. And don't remove everything, somethings need to be in there.

[sdempsey]

This may sound like a very strange suggestion but try checking his computer's clock. Gmail, norton and many banking sites timestamp customer access for security & licensing reasons and if a computer's clock is out of synch it doesn't work. I saw a similiar problem with gmail a while back. Here's a link I found at the time which pointed me in the right direction.

http://www.gmailforums.com/lofiversion/index.php/t12011.html

Interestingly enough, Windows loses some time in every other mode except safe mode where it seems to synch better with the CMOS clock. Probably has something to do with windows internal code thread priorities. That's just a guess though, I used to write Windows services for a living. Anyway sometimes malware or just badly written applications interfere with the clock, mess up timestamps and time-based security tests. I hope this helps.

[Samrc]

FINAL RESULT:

 

All problems stemmed from NORTON INTERNET SECURITY SUITE.

Somehow its stored date information was corrupted. After hours on the phone with their support, several false starts and learning a foreign language (to understand tech), he replaced a few Norton files on the system, and all is running again.

 

Month and a half later, but at least the machine is functional again!

Thanks for input.

[stevevan]

Thanks for the followup Samantha. I guess I'll have to watch my wife's new computer as we have Norton Internet Suite installed on it.

 

(Or better still, I need to hurry up and get my Linux server installed and connected to my home network! )

[TCH-Bruce]

Another reason not to use Norton!

[TCH-Rob]

Wow, well at least you now know what the problem was. Glad you got it sorted out.

[Deverill]

Samantha, thanks for the update. It's good to know what the hangup was in case any of us see it again.

 

"All problems stemmed from NORTON INTERNET SECURITY SUITE." Wow, I've never heard that before... Remember, anyone into computers that long, how Norton was THE BOMB! and it was the best thing going? Norton Speed Disk was an indispensible tool and their other stuff was good to ... at first. I think it was even written in assembly to be as fast and powerful as it could be. Boy, times have changed.