New
#1
Can't make new connections to internet and programs can't update
I installed Window 7 on a new system a little less than a month ago. Thursday afternoon, my wife tried opening a new tab in Firefox and was unable to connect to any sites in the new tab. Interestingly, she was able to see updates in her gmail account in one of the other tabs which she already had open. Additionally, I was able to access her system through my laptop in our home network. And I was able to successfully ping external IP addresses. However, MalwareBytes and other applications are not able to get out to download updates.
While this began happening, Firefox and other applications began "Not Responding" frequently. When attempting to do almost anything, the application will freeze for at least a minute and then allow a few actions before freezing again.
Kinda smells of a malware, but MalwareBytes can't detect it and it got past my antivirus and firewall.
I'm using the free version of BitDefender as my antivirus and was using Comodo Firewall, but have since uninstalled it as I started having trouble getting my USB mouse to connect consistently after reboots right after I installed it (weeks ago). However, that probably has not resolved. I'll focus on this issue later as my most pressing issue is that there's an issue connecting to the internet and applications frequently "Not Responding."
Please help as the system is basically useless at the moment.