Internet connection not available but it is

[cojack]

I was helping a friend who had not run his AV in two years because he didn't know you were supposed to renew the subscription and never ran spyware remover. I tried to download AVG 8 but IE wouldn't go to the website (Not found) I tried downloading McAfee stinger, Again, couldn't open website (Not found). I finally downloaded Spybot and attempted to install in but but when the software went to int Internet for info, I would get a message "Internet connection not available" but it was. I downloaded and installed AdAware but when I went to update the defs, I would get the same message "Internet connection not available". Finally I went to my PC and downloaded AVG * and downloaded it to my Flash drive and installed it and ran on His PC. Updated fine. Found several Trojans and reg viruses and they were removed. Same result when trying to update AdAware or install spybot. PC is running much better but I want to fix the problem with Spybot and AdAware. He is running Win XP Home and IE 6.

[patio]

Clik Here and Follow the Instructions...

[cojack]

Followed the instructions and the computer is running great and he has no problem connecting to all the site. Found and removed all kinds of malware, spyware, adware and viruses! THANKS!

[patio]

Good News indeed...
Happy Holidays and stop by anytime !

[cojack]

Well, everything that was good has gone bad again! Can't update Adaware or AVG as before. Now can't run malwarebytes, spybot or superantispyware. When you DC the icon, the hour class starts and stops but no program opens. I removed superantispyware and tried to reinstall and it will not install. It comes up with " an error has occurred in superantispyware and needs to be closed". I ran ad-aware w/o updating and pulled out 79 objects and removed them. Ran avg w/o updating and it came back clean. Downloaded and ran stinger. Clean result. Internet seems to be working well. I tried to do a system restore to 12/24, the last day it worked well. Will not do it. No other dates availabe to restore.

[cojack]

This is an update to my previous post. Internet is not working well. Can't open several sites because the sites I am trying to access are being hijacked by marketing sites and either go to "page not found" or "error opening the page". He is on IE8 Beta. Can't run Hijack this either. Tried friefox and a few sites that wouldn't work in IE worked in Firefox but not all sites.

[cojack]

How do I get this moved to Malware, Viruses form?

[Kurtiskain]

I have come across this variant before..

It appears to block the sites that are known anti-virus/spyware and will not let you download updates because it is blocking the host.

Here's what I did:

Managed to access the AVG site through a 'cached' google page.

and I found I could download using this direct link if I 'saved as'
http://www.avg.com/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_8_176a1400.exe

then I had to get an update file using another machine and then use a USB stick to transfer it over (dangerous I know)

But that is what worked for me

By the way this wasn't my own machine either, it was while I was working in a computer repair shop.