For the past week or so I have been having problems with accessing the internet and my email on my home PC. In fact while I have been able to connect to eircom.net, I/Explorer and Outlook Express seem to have disappeared! So I re-loaded the eircom.net disc to download I/E 6 and O/Express. Get through but then I get a blank screen. Does nothing and keeps doing nothing. So…..anybody have any ideas? Have I a firewall problem? If so, how do I correct it? Luckily I have internet access thru’ work hence this post! Any and all help appreciated! Thanks
You will need to post more details than that for people to make any sort of educated suggestions. What version (and service pack level) of Windows/IE/OE etc. Was anything installed prior to IE/OE "disappearing"? Have you installed or reconfigured any new hardware/software? What firewall have you installed? Etc. etc...
Have you at least scanned your PC for ? Have you tried any browser other than IE?
Sorry Clubman and others. Will check machine tonight for version numbers etc. I run Norton Antivirus and, of course cannot now get an update because I have no browser. In the interim, without a I/E browser how could I get another? The firewall question I cannot answer - how do I find out about this? Once again apologies for the vagueness!
I run Norton Antivirus and, of course cannot now get an update because I have no browser.
Hopefully it had been updating regularly in which case scanning using the existing virus data file should be OK. You may also be able to download the latest update on another PC connected to the internet and then install it offline on your home PC. I know that you can do this with [broken link removed].
In the interim, without a I/E browser how could I get another?
Again you'd have to download it somewhere else and install it offline on your home PC. I would recommend Mozilla FireFox for testing and for permanent use as a replacement for IE due to the latter's vulnerability to attack/infection.
The firewall question I cannot answer - how do I find out about this?
If you are running XP then it has a built-in firewall which may be enabled. I presume that there's a Control Panel utility that allows you to check this. Otherwise there may be a third party firewall installed in which case it should be listed in the Add/Remove ProgramsControl Panel utility. I just assumed that you had some firewall installed since you asked if your problems could be related to one.
Thanks Clubman. I know I promised but I am still only partially answering your first questions! (You know how it is: the only time I get to work on a computer at weekends is to actually go to work - otherwise (according to she-in-charge) I'm wasting valuable house-chore time!!) With my luck maybe I am! First off I loaded AVG and Mozilla (having downloaded it on my office machine. Ran AVG and got a clear bill of health. Loaded and ran Mozilla, connected to the internet but failed to get any further. I also tried Netscape and failed. Opened DOS and pinged a known working IP address which timed out four times. I have not messed with the firewall properties (yet) but noted in your last post that that a third party firewall might be in play. Norton is the only one I can blame and so tonight's escape from house-chores is to take a look at the properties. Slowly but surely....... Thanks
You should also run something like Ad-aware and/or Spybot mentioned in the earlier topic to check for various sorts of parasites including dial-up/modem hijackers.
At the moment it doesn't look like a browser specific problem so the next thing to check is your actual dial-up settings (phone number, proxy configuration etc.). It would also make sense to get to the bottom of the firewall issues if you actually have one installed/running!
You still haven't said what version of Windows you are running.
OK - as I mentioned before has a which is disabled by default as far as I recall. You should check what service pack level you're at and consider installing if you don't already have it.
Do you mean that once you disabled the Norton firewall everything is working OK again? Just to be clear on this it might be prudent to run some firewall to protect your PC particularly if you're on broadband. See the earlier topic about keeping your PC clean of nasties. The usual advice for doing this is fourfold:
<!--EZCODE LIST START--><ol><li>Install, configure and keep updated an anti-virus scanner</li><li>Install, configure and keep updated an ad-ware/parasite/etc. scanner (or two!)</li><li>Install, configure and keep updated a firewall (particularly for broadband users but perhaps even for dial-up users)</li><li>Keep your system and applications updated with latest service packs/patches etc. [broken link removed] is useful in this respect for example.</li></ol><!--EZCODE LIST END-->
<!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END-->I run Norton Antivirus and, of course cannot now get an update because I have no browser.<!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END--><!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END-->
Hopefully it had been updating regularly in which case scanning using the existing virus data file should be OK. You may also be able to download the latest update on another PC connected to the internet and then install it offline on your home PC. I know that you can do this with AVG.<!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END--><!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END-->In the interim, without a I/E browser how could I get another?<!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END--><!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END-->Again you'd have to download it somewhere else and install it offline on your home PC. I would recommend Mozilla FireFox for testing and for permanent use as a replacement for IE due to the latter's vulnerability to attack/infection.
<!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END-->
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is all very unnecessary and patently incorrect. NAV does not require a browser. Execute LUALL.EXE (usually found in C:\Program Files\Symantec\LiveUpdate\
Clubman. I took your advice. Mozilla is my new browser. I never could find I/E or O/E. (don't know where they are gone - but I do share the machine with a 9-year old!!). The Norton firewall was blocking Mozilla as well until I removed it. I re-activated XP firewall and all is now running well. I will be heeding your advice re Ad-aware and SpyBot. Thanks.
