I have "Use a Proxy server for your LAN..." and "Bypass proxy server for local addresse" checked off.
I normally use IE 6.0. I just tried Firefox. www.ford.com works! "https://www.eff.org" worfks too! Hmmm...
1.
Internet Explorer.
Uncheck box for "
Use a proxy server for your LAN" and select the "
OK" button. The dependent "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" entry will "gray" out meaning it's essentially inactive (so I don't think it matters whether you cleared the check box before disabling use of proxy server).
I think you should be good to go. Try it (not sure if you need to reboot first). I don't know why you would have a proxy server set unless your security software (McAfee) uses it to screen stuff before passing it on to you. I guess you could always uninstall McAfee, reboot, install McAfee, reboot; and see if and when it sets it.
2.
Firefox. If you check the internet connect configuration for Firefox, I think you'll find
no proxy server set. On the Firefox browser I'm currently running, v2.0.0.20 (quite old version); you would access configuration via:
o Tools pulldown menu ->
o Options...
o Advanced icon (from top row of icons)
o Network tab
o Connection "Settings" button
o On the Connection Settings window, "Direct connection to the internet" is the only active entry I have selected.
May be different on your version of Firefox.
3.
Potential Malware. Please see the "
Computer viruses and spyware" subcategory of the ComputerHope forums for malware assistance. (Home to some pretty good cyber warriors.) Start with
Read this before requesting malware removal help.