Laptop connection problems

[The-Ice-Man]

Just ESET antivirus or antivirus and firewall? It's possible that software firewalls are set to block your wifi by default. You'll be able to set them up so they don't, it's just a case of knowing how to do it in the program you're using. It usually involves opening a port, or giving certain programs full outgoing and incoming access. If it's just antivirus then I don't see why it should affect connection.

[Robert]

I'm using McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (got it through work so get free automatic updates every few days), it can be configured to block ports (especially IRC). Something to watch out for.

 

The functions of firewall, spam filter and virus scanner seem to be merging into one product these days.

It's just a matter of finding a good one.

[The-Ice-Man]

And then stopping it from disabling programs you actually want to use.

[Bambi]

It's ESET Anti-virus alone, no firewall.

 

I have the same antivirus on my desktop and it installed fine and works fine so I'm stumped.

All the settings are the same as when I installed it. If I set my windows firewall to allow all I still get the connection error....

[VT-Vincent]

Out of curiosity, do you use more than one browser? and if so, do the connection errors occur on all browsers or just one? At this point, I think you may want to create a second user account to see if the issue is duplicated there as well. If it affects another account, that will tell us that it's at the system level and not related to any changes the software may have made to your user account.

[Bambi]

I usually always use firefox.

I have been trying on IE when I get the error on firefox and IE gets the same error.

It seems to happen only when I install an anti-virus, I've had it happen 4 times now on various anti-viruses.

[The-Ice-Man]

Wierd. Maybe one of your internet related components has had a virus or spyware or something attach itself to it, and the antivirus programs are detecting it and blocking access to the component. If you do a full scan do they come up with any results?

[Bambi]

When I do a scan with ESET the virus database is too out of date to find anything.

[Shibathedog]

sent you a PM about updating it

 

It sounds like it is possible you have a virus. Can't say for sure yet though.

[VT-Vincent]

A virus infection is definitely possible, or maybe some system files have been corrupted. In either event though, you may want to consider backing up your data, formatting the drive and reinstalling the operating system. While it may be possible to resolve the issue at hand, a lot of the time you'll find future problems down the road. If you go this route, I would highly recommend installing and updating one of the better antivirus programs mentioned (ESET, Norton and Kaspersky are all good choices) before moving any of your data back. It also wouldn't hurt to back up the files to an external hard drive if possible, this way if a virus is detected in the backup it can be removed by the software.

Edited September 5, 2009 by VT-Vincent

[The-Ice-Man]

Lost count how many times I've reinstalled windows.