PC problems begin - help required

[m0ds]

PC 1 is suffering some minor problems that I wondered if anyone could help with.

To dial up to the internet, I have a shortcut on my desktop for the dial up connection box, (which you then click DIAL etc and it dials up). This is the standard one that can be found under Programs > Accesories > and then either Internet Connections or Communications. Then, the dial up networking thing, and you can create new ones etc.

The problem is this, it won't load. So that leaves me with absolutley no way to connect. Every other program loads and works fine, just not the internet connection.

It worked fine last night.

Also, in NOTEPAD, when I work on a website offline, if the HTML file i am using is in say, C:\HELLO\MYWEBSITE\wootywoot.htm, Notepad will display the filename as "wootywoot.htm". But now it's making all the file names; "C__HELLO__MYWEBSITE__wootywoot[1].htm" and seems to be storing all the files in a temporary internet settings folder which it never has done before. I've tried fiddling with IE options etc and notepad options but it's not working.

I've run SpyBot search & destroy to try and kill any nasty things that may be causing these two problems, and I'm going to run AdAware in a moment.

Without a solution, I don't see any way in which to uninstall the default Windows internet connection box, and there's not a chance in hell that I'm able to format and re-install Windows, there's simply far too much on that PC and it's too old to back-up efficiently.

Any ideas?

I'll check this thread but I'll be generally offline now until the bugger is fixed.

Ta!

[TheDude]

I'm not sure about the Notepad problem, but it sounds like something a virus might do. Make sure you try AVG - http://www.grisoft.com, or Avast - http://www.avast.com as well as those spyware progs.

One way you might be able to get online is through IE:
Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab

Here you can add a new dial-up connection, maybe that would work? You'll need to know the phone number your modem dials.

Hopefully you can get it fixed soon!

[dasjoe]

make sure your modem is installed correctly.

[m0ds]

Wooty woot, I fixed the connection problem. It was a bunch of nasty little EXE's doing something nasty to my system. Something else I've noticed is that Macromedia Flash seems to download hundreds upon hundreds of < 100kb exe's onto my system, which is really annoying me.

The HTML thing is still up the creek, I don't know why it's storing all the files in the temporary files folder rather than just opening them up from their location.

m0ds

[dasjoe]

have you changed your browser recently?
imho microsoft ie stores every page visited in the "temporary internet files" folder.
mozilla firefox does not..
i load the htm-files manually into wordpad, by right-clicking on the file > send to > wordpad.

you can do that by placing a shortcut to your favourite text editor in the sendto folder (start > run > "sendto")

[TheDude]

Go here http://www.siena.edu/antivirus/Spyware/hijackthis.htm

Scan IE with it and delete the flash plugin, maybe that'll stop it.