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Laptop connection problems


Bambi

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I recently uninstalled Mcafee anti virus off of my winXP laptop. It uninstalled without any problems, but now when I connect to my wi-fi or ethernet it says connection established but will not show any web pages. I get a message saying Connection Interrupted after the page try's to load for a few minutes.

 

I've looked on some sites and tried a winsock fix which did not work.

MSN Messenger connects but wont let me send or receive messages. Firefox still runs it's startup updater and finds updates but will always say no connection available when I try to install the updates.

 

Any ideas on what I messed up?

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It sounds like it may have had a built in firewall gone awry. I would double check for any remaining McAfee components in Add/Remove programs and take them out if you find any. If you don't see any remaining McAfee components there, you may want to try the McAfee Consumer Product Removal tool from this page:

 

http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507

 

This basically scans your computer for any trace of their products and removes anything that may have been left behind. If you have any other security products (another antivirus, anti-spyware, firewall, etc), you may want to remove them as well. If you're still having issues, the next step will be some basic network troubleshooting to see where the connection is getting cut off.

 

Generally, I don't recommend most security products like McAfee due to how invasive they can be. In recent years, Symantec has improved the quality of their Norton products and the standalone Norton Antivirus 2009 is a good solution. For added protection, you can also enable the built in Windows firewall.

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Norton? Really? I haven't heard anyone recommend Norton for anything in years. I used to use Norton Internet Security 2005, but after that version every version since slowed things down way too much, and then left tonnes of stuff behind after uninstall. I've been using ZoneAlarm since coz it doesn't leave a trace behind when you uninstall and it doesn't slow things down much, but I'm getting sick of it now coz unless you keep resetting the auto learn feature, you get a warning message every time a program tries to do something. It's like, warning, Internet Explorer is trying to access the internet. No shit. McAfee is the worst I've ever used though. You're well rid of that if you can get rid of all traces of it.

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It sounds like you where having some kind of DNS error. Ah well it's fixed now.

 

Norton and McAfee are both garbage, Use ESET Smart Security if you want an all in one firewall/antivirus. Very easy to get a free subscription if your interested PM me. (there are alternatives that may or may not be very slightly better or worse depending on how you look at it, but they are much harder to get for free ;) )

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Norton? Really? I haven't heard anyone recommend Norton for anything in years. I used to use Norton Internet Security 2005, but after that version every version since slowed things down way too much, and then left tonnes of stuff behind after uninstall. I've been using ZoneAlarm since coz it doesn't leave a trace behind when you uninstall and it doesn't slow things down much, but I'm getting sick of it now coz unless you keep resetting the auto learn feature, you get a warning message every time a program tries to do something. It's like, warning, Internet Explorer is trying to access the internet. No shit. McAfee is the worst I've ever used though. You're well rid of that if you can get rid of all traces of it.

They've actually improved their product greatly since 2007. I'm still not a fan of Norton Internet Security, but Norton Antivirus is minimally invasive, takes very little resources and is a generally quiet and self-maintaining application. Their definitions regularly rank among the best. If you haven't used it for a while, I would recommend trying their 15 day free trial. It also removes without a hitch, unlike previous versions.

 

I didn't get to choose Mcafee cause it came on the laptop when I got it sad.gif

 

I ran MCPR and it works great now! YAY!

Glad to hear everything is back up-and-running, it sounds like the uninstaller probably left the service component of the firewall behind.

 

Norton and McAfee are both garbage, Use ESET Smart Security if you want an all in one firewall/antivirus.

ESET usually ranks at the top in most detection bechmarks and it is very fast/non-intrusive. Personally though, I would only go with the antivirus product if I were to use it. I've found 3rd party firewalls to be very intrusive and generally not provide that much more security than a properly configured router.

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I don't recommend 3rd party firewalls, it's cause more problems then it's worth, I would stick with Routers and Windows firewalls. As for anti-virus, I recommended Kaspersky Anti-Virus, it's has a high detection rate and I find it the least annoying.

 

On new laptop I would recommend installing a fresh clean copy of Windows then install the necessary software and drivers, that way you get less problem with your laptop. I did exactly that with my new DELL, with a fresh copy of Windows 7 Professional that I legally got from the MSDNAA for free. ;)

 

My laptop also came with Mcafee it is so annoying!

Edited by Hexter
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I agree with the firewalls thing, I thought he originally had a firewall+antivirus combo from McAffee so I was recommending a Firewall+antivirus replacement.

 

Anyway I actually started using the firewall just to try it out, and never ended up uninstalling it. Once you have it configured right it works really well and stays out of the way. It's handy for blocking pirated stuff from accessing the net as well :P The only annoying thing is for some reason it boots people off my wireless if I don't add them as an exception. I'm not even sure how this is possible.

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I used to use Zone Alarm, it was ok except when it forgot its settings, or randomly decided to block sites for no reason.

 

But eventually the C drive crashed, and after replacing it and reinstalling, Zone Alarm would completely freeze the computer whenever I tried to torrent anything.

 

So, out it went, forever. I downloaded some free firewall and it works fine.

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