Only FireFox (and a handful of other programs) can connect!

UsernameIssues said:

Re-installing the OS is probably best/faster... sometimes, the desire to know what is wrong (and/or learn stuff) makes people spend days/weeks/months trying lots of "fixes". It is up to you if you want to try more things.

The tools that VistaKing has had you use generate some info in files, but I cannot always tell what command and switches were used to generate the output file. The file that you attached to post #81 seems to indicate that the computer has a problem performing NSLOOKUP operations; but the author of that minitoolbox app states:

Code:

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.254

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.

That output quoted above appears to be from a failed NSLOOKUP query.

That same file from post #81 shows a successful ping to yahoo.com. I would interpret that to mean that DNS is working. The computer was able to ask a DNS server what the IP address is for yahoo.com. And you have manually pinged websites that showed DNS to be working.

You might try this tool:
I receive the message that my ESET installation ended prematurely - ESET Knowledgebase
It is meant to repair a long list of stuff that infections can damage.

And while I've read every post in this thread a few days back, I do not recall everything that you have tried. Have you tried surfing to websites using IE while in the safe mode with networking.

In your original post, I seem to recall that you said something like "running an sfc scan returned no results". Hopefully, the SFC scan did return results and those results were that there were no integrity violations found.

You might also want to make a new user profile and see if you can surf normally with IE from there.

And you might want to try a clean boot:
Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

Mind if I ask why you have National Instruments software on this computer? Is this computer on a university network? The 128 IP address mentioned in post 19 seems to be assigned to a university.

Thank you kindly for your input, UsernameIssues (lol!). I can't believe I hadn't booted into safe mode earlier, seems like an obvious first step. I did this just now, however, and there were no changes. Still couldn't connect using IE or Chrome while FireFox still worked.
I did another sfc scan just to be sure, and yes, there are no integrity violations. Pardon the mistake.
Trying to use ESET failed. I installed the software but the setup files cannot connect to the internet and therefore cannot install, much like java, flash and Steam cannot be updated.
National Instruments was installed for class purposes. I used the Circuit Design software for an electrical class. I haven't used it since.
Although I am not a careless user, I have come to believe that this is indeed an infection. Lately, websites like Facebook and YouTube have been showing ads that I've never seen before. I've been getting more pop-ups and many FireFox addons aren't working anymore.
I don't know how this could've gotten so bad under my constant use. I ran several virus scans and deleted or otherwise cleaned every threat.
I may have been doing some troubleshooting at school, which might be why post 19 has a 128 IP address. My home address is different (begins in 192).
I continue to be at a loss. I welcome and appreciate any further help
Thank you all =)

VinMahin said:

~~~
I may have been doing some troubleshooting at school, which might be why post 19 has a 128 IP address. My home address is different (begins in 192).
~~~

The 128 IP address was (is?) a proxy - which is typical of large networks like schools and large companies. All (or most) traffic to/from the internet passes thru those proxies (where things can be checked and rules enforced).

You could have a 192 IP address assigned to the computer while at school too. That has nothing to do with using a proxy. The proxy settings that you removed from the registry during earlier posts were fine (I would have removed then too just to be sure). Those proxy IP addresses just sit there until the next time that you need them. When you ask IE to use a proxy, it would have started to use that proxy IP address again.

As a side note - I learned something while I spent hours pouring over this thread a few days ago (well actually, I learned more than one thing). I learned that IE10 gives better info if it cannot connect that does IE9. If you tell IE10 to use a wrong proxy IP, it should tell you that the proxy is not responding. IE9 just tells you that it cannot connect - but not why.

The company that I work for is huge; it has lots of computers that act as proxies. We use a couple of URLs in out proxy settings. One URL will resolve to one of the many IP addresses of the many servers that act as our proxies. The other URL does the same, but connects us thru an older proxy system. I keep Firefox set to one proxy and IE set to another proxy. The proxies currently have different rule sets and websites that are blocked via one proxy system are sometimes accessible via the older proxy servers. (i.e. for some reason, the new proxy system blocked AutoIt's website - I've since gotten IT to unblock it.)

The reason why I bored you with that info about proxies is - nothing I could do would put Firefox into the state that your Firefox is in. I ran some of the same tools that VistaKing had you run (only I used a virtual machine) and I never could get Firefox to report its proxy settings like your report showed. I must not have tried every possible combo - or something is unusual about your Firefox setup.

I'm interested in sticking it out and finding the root for all these problems.
I've tried using another user profile after a clean boot, but no changes were found.
As for ESET and WDO, I cannot run those programs because they need the internet in order to be installed. For example, when installing WDO I get an error message which asks me to ensure I'm connected to the internet before trying again (error code 0002-80072EFD). I will try installing it onto my flash drive using another computer when I get home tonight.
Finally, I am hesitant to change/reset the Firefox settings as it is the only browser that works at the moment. If I lose it I will be in a worse situation than I am now, since I use this laptop for school nearly every day.
If you insist I try, I will, as long as we can be confident that Firefox will work again.
I've uninstalled quite a bit of software and I will continue to do so now.
I found the information about proxies in your workplace more interesting than boring, UsernameIssues. =)
Again, thank you all for your support in this matter =)

Sorry, I've been busy. I will try those suggestions out soon.
My continued thanks to you all =)

We understand about being busy --- silly real life

I am really curious about what the ESET tool will do here.

Hello!
I ran the ESET tool after downloading from the direct link you posted to the EXE file.
I've attached the SvcRepair.log, which was in the folder "CC Support" that appeared after rebooting. Also in that folder is another folder "Tools" which has a lot of files and folder within in. Is there anything else you'd like me to attach?
The problem continues to thwart us, as chrome, IE, Steam, etc... do not connect.