Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and IE all fail to connect to any website

A friend with a Lenovo i7 P50 Thinkpad with Win 10 factory installed. Creators Update installed via Windows Update a few weeks ago. Called me last week reporting that he could no longer view web pages using Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or IE. I checked event viewer and saw one of his music creation programs was using a proxy server that was failing. I uninstalled the program and he was able to access web sites for a week, then yesterday the problem came back but no related errors in event viewer. Opening up a CMND window I could ping and tracert any web site without problems. His e-mail works. team viewer works. The web browsers will not connect, hang sometimes, and when closed and exited can still be seen running under task manager or process explorer. I get an error message saying the program can not be terminated when I try to kill it with process explorer or task manager. I ran a half dozen or more antivirus / malware programs which only come up with PUP's and one or two malware not related to this problem. NO proxy settings seen in the browser / internet settings. Running ipconfig /flushdns /release /renew doesn't help either. Suggestions appreciated. - Steve

" I ran a half dozen or more antivirus / malware programs which only come up with PUP's and one or two malware not related to this problem."


The malware must be fixed.

Run Malwarebytes and report the results.

What other malware have you found that you have not been able to fix?

In administrative command prompt run:
sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Are all of the files backed up?

If you cannot eradicate all of the malware and PUP's with antivirus software then you may want to stop troubleshooting and perform a clean install deleting partitions, formatting the drive, making an unallocated drive and then reinstalling windows 10 version 1703 using a bootable windows 10 iso.

RolandJS said:

Just a wild guess, is that computer by chance using any kind of proxy service or HideMyID service provided by an installed AV or Internet Service package by any number of free or pay-for products?

Not that I am aware of. He is running Sophos. I'm not familiar with its features. I will check. Thanks, Steve

RolandJS said:

Just a wild guess, is that computer by chance using any kind of proxy service or HideMyID service provided by an installed AV or Internet Service package by any number of free or pay-for products?

Looks like he is running Malwarebytes Trial Premium edition 3.1.2 .
Disabling Web Protection allows web browser access to the internet.
Interesting.

"Run Malwarebytes and report the results."

No hits. Previously I've run a combination of Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, Rogue Killer to wipe out PUPs and malware.

"What other malware have you found that you have not been able to fix?"

None.

In administrative command prompt run:
sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Are all of the files backed up?

Yes, with Acronis 2017

If you cannot eradicate all of the malware and PUP's with antivirus software then you may want to stop troubleshooting and perform a clean install deleting partitions, formatting the drive, making an unallocated drive and then reinstalling windows 10 version 1703 using a bootable windows 10 iso.

Were you able to run both sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth?

Report the results for each in the forum if they were not able to complete, completed successfully, found integrity violations, were not able to repair etc

Run the Microsoft easy fixes for all of the problems that you are experiencing or run them from the on board computer troubleshooter.:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-fix-solutions

Internet explorer, wireless and network adapters, security and privacy with IE, hardware and devices, incoming connections, internet connections, etc
Open control panel > troubleshooting > left pane view all >

For each troubleshooter used choose advanced settings and run as administrator.

For all troubleshooters click on detailed information to expand the menu and then for any items fixed use the snipping tool and copy and paste into the forum.

Let us know which problems were fixed and which ones were not fixed after using the troubleshooters