Email accounts won't open

[IT_N8]

I'm trying to help my sister on her PC, b/c had viruses and ran slow. I installed Avast, service pack 2 and all available updates, now its working great except hotmail and gmail won't open.(didn't before either) I googled this for hours and tried everything from enabling cookies, clearing temp files, and using IE 7 and Mozilla. No luck, also w/ the SP2 the firewall wouldn't enable and was greyed out, so i found a solution of going into regedit and changing the enableFirewall DWORD to a (1) value to enable it. now the firewall is enabled, but still no luck w/ opening email. I've tried about everything I can find via google. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

Nate

[Mak213]

First suggestion is to use Osiris's Guide to spyware removal.

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f51/sp...osiris-165828/

Then post a hijack this log in the Analyze section of hte Virus area here:

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f70/

As for the email what application are you using to access the email. Hotmail is not able to be downloaded anymore unless you use the Windows Live Mail applicaiotn from teh Live.com site. GMail you have to set it up specifically for use with each applicaiton.

[IT_N8]

I'm using logmein to get to her PC, Avast seems to be deleting any spyware that comes up, and since I've been updating her PC i installed the newest version of IE and FF. It seemed to work yesterday for a while right when i got the firewall to enable. Now the firewall still enabled but back to no email.

[Trotter]

Definitely go through the spyware guide, as it can be more than an actual virus causing problems. If it turns out that she does have a lot of spyware, be sure she changes her passwords ASAP, as they have probably been compromised.

[IT_N8]

I'll try it and let you know, greatly appreciate the suggestions

Nate

[Mak213]

Yeah the firewall should be on by default. If it isnt and you can not turn it on. That is spyware/virus related. That is why i gave the info i did in my OP. She is still most likely infected.

[IT_N8]

There are a lot of steps to this guide I hope it works, Now furthermore I went back into the registry and changed BACK the enableFirewall DWORD to (0) to turn it off hoping that the updates would allow to interactively be able to turn the firewall on and off, no luck turned it OFF but still grayed out. hopefully this guide will fix that too.

AVAST just popped up and said that the Smitfraudfix program was a trojan horse malware???

[Mak213]

That application is not malware. We would not recommend something to be used that was known malware. Would defeat the purpose of the guide.

[IT_N8]

Okay it looks like I fixed the firewall issue. I just changed the name of the key in the registry to activateFirewall instead of enableFirewall then rebooted. Now its not greyed out and the radio buttons are active. However, the email issue still remains, I was thinking something about the javascript possibly.. I know its enabled on all browsers and I just to a java update yesterday but maybe something along those lines??

[Mak213]

What appliation is beuing used for the mail?? Does she use Outlook Express or something or do it thru the web pages?