Help, 'cannot find the server'

[felicie]

While I'm very glad CM is good to go (Forum funkified), I'm hardly moving and even though I'm pretty sure there is no connection between my problem and yours, I'm hoping somebody can tell me wth is going on with my machine. I hope it is ok for me to post this here Bryan ?

It's one of those little Acer Aspires dual core pentium 4 GB and not very old. I use mozilla, either firefox or flock and generally have severed all ties with IE but thats how bad this is, IE is the only one that will bring me here. the other 2 wont even open this morning. my antivirus is up to date and says we're cool. yeah sure we are lol.

The error that keeps coming up is 'that link appears to be broken' or 'cannot find the server' and this is sort of hit and miss from minute to minute.

what I've done so far:
1. checked my settings and dsl which I piggyback on w/wireless netgear it says signal strength very good.
2. uninstalled and reinstalled browsers although right now both mozillas wont open or uninstall.
3. there have been 3 updates in last few days; flock, java and windows defender.
4. restored back to day prior to above updates
5. disabled toolbars in the IE 'tools' menu but why would that matter since I never use IE. except now since the others wont work.

Sound familiar to anyone? Thank you and if I don't get back here for too long it's only because I cannot.

 

[universal4]

I recommend you uninstall one of the browsers and then delete the folders they were in, reboot then try the reinstall.

It sounds like something is corrupted with them and reinstalling obviously doesn't look like it is fixing the problem.

This could also be a virus or trojan/malware that has attached itself to one of the plugins or add-ons to the browsers and only seems to be infecting those you mention since you weren't using IE when you go it....

If this problem persists and you would like more help on it, you may need to get help from a local tech or let me know and I can try and help you with the issue.

Is Casinomeister's the only place you have problems, or are you also seeing problems at other sites?

Rick

 

[felicie]

Thanks Rick. Last night CM is the only place I COULD get to. Anywhere else gave me the 'apparently that link is broken' or cannot find server. Right now I'm bouncing back and forth on google's chrome browser and IE8. I seem to be able to go some places on one and not the other. it's nuts I think. Plus it keeps wanting to diagnose my connection problems it says (it being windows)
I had a java update come in for the 2nd time so gave that the ok to download then it failed so I went to java website for help and they had me uninstall all my java and then I couldn't reinstall it. I didn't think anything would work well without java runtime. LOL

I have a friend next door on whose dsl I piggyback on with wireless who will help me but his back is out so I haven't wanted to bother him. yet. And if all else fails, I will do a clean install of Vista again from CDs I made when I bought it so thanks very much and I think you are right about deleting one of the browsers and its file as I am just complicating things by adding new stuff. I think I will also do a full virus scan right now thru my MacAfee because usually it only does a quick scan.
Ill let you know how it all turns out and really do appreciate your help.
felicie

 

[rouletteguy]

I had that problem when I down loaded the face book smiley application.
and again when I upgraded Mozilla without deleting the old version first. See if either one of those is the problem. Also occasionally with routers resetting fixes all.

 

[felicie]

Thank you too rouletteguy. you know, i've done so many different things to fix it, I can't remember what was new or different when it started acting stupid. I did find a little note to myself that said 'before you make a bunch of changes, make sure john isn't the source of the problem' and that is the router re-set guy.
Right now as I'm typing this pm, there is a white square at the top of this page that says 'this webpage is not available'. Never seen that before unless it's something CM is doing.
I'm giving up tonight and waiting for the big re-set hopefully tomorrow. the guy is out of pocket at the present time.
Really appreciate your suggestions too and we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

 

[universal4]

This sounds like a trojan or some form of malware had infected your system....

It could be that you have even gotten rid of the malware and yet it has messed up winsock or something else within windows, but I would perform some scans....

For malware, I suggest Malware Bytes, Adaware and or Spy Bot Search and Destroy. (#1 choice in Malware Bytes) All 3 of those are free and among the top rated anti spyware programs out there....

If you need help let me know as I am very familiar with fighting spyware etc.

Rick

 

[felicie]

This sounds like a trojan or some form of malware had infected your system....

It could be that you have even gotten rid of the malware and yet it has messed up winsock or something else within windows, but I would perform some scans....

For malware, I suggest Malware Bytes, Adaware and or Spy Bot Search and Destroy. (#1 choice in Malware Bytes) All 3 of those are free and among the top rated anti spyware programs out there....

If you need help let me know as I am very familiar with fighting spyware etc.

Rick

Hi again. I am going to try one of those right now. Thanks

 

[felicie]

I guess I can call this thread 'resolved' lol. Don't know what it was, how I fixed it or much of anything at all. Certainly makes it more difficult to prepare for the next time. I thank you all as I took a little advice and used it from all of you. Oh and the malwarebytes link said it isn't free anymore or not there even. So anyway, thanks for your help and see you next time.

 

[Mavin1]

This sounds like a trojan or some form of malware had infected your system....

It could be that you have even gotten rid of the malware and yet it has messed up winsock or something else within windows, but I would perform some scans....

For malware, I suggest Malware Bytes, Adaware and or Spy Bot Search and Destroy. (#1 choice in Malware Bytes) All 3 of those are free and among the top rated anti spyware programs out there....

If you need help let me know as I am very familiar with fighting spyware etc.

Rick

Absolutely, these are all I use, I have been using these 3 for a few years now and only had a couple problems that were easily fixed. I quit using an anti-virus and have not missed paying those high fees one bit.


Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware -

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Download the free version, it's the first tab. For personal pc's you don't need to purchase the full version .

Spybot - Search & Destroy -

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Ad-Aware SE Personal -

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These all have free versions.

 

[universal4]

I would never run without antivirus softweare, but to each his own.

I would never recommend to clients to run without protection.

There are plenty of free antivirus products on the market to use, and if you use the right ones they do NOT take too much overhead away like some of the commercial products do.

I prefer Avast myself, but AVG also has a very good free product.


Rick

 

[swampwitch]

I recently got rid of AVG and replaced it with the Panda Cloud. The only drawback is you can't set it to do an automatic scan. But where AVG ate up a lot of resources, Panda Cloud uses a fraction of what AVG used.

You know how every once in awhile something nasty will hijack the search engines and not allow you to run any scans or even do a system restore (aka Rootkit.Win32.TDSS)? I found this handy dandy little dealie that fixes that super fast...
Link Removed ( Old/Invalid)

 

[felicie]

Thanks guys (&gals) I've been running McAfee for 2 years now since I got this pc on a good win so think I shall keep it but am going to get one of the malware programs recommended here ty. I don't mind spending a little money on it if it works. it is worth it to me.
And Mavin I ran my last pc over a year without anti-virus thinking it was the program itself that caused problems and I guess the key words would be 'last pc' huh? I'm still not totally convinced it's not all just for mo'money but for now, I'll keep my anti-virus.
Have a good weekend what's left of it.

Hi swampwitch didn't see your post till i finished mine. Thanks for the info will check that out too. good to see you.