Connections timing out in certain programs? in Off Topic

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ID:181386
 
Aug 24 2010, 9:30 pm
Recently, I've had to clean a couple of viruses off my computer, and since then, I've noticed that some programs, such as iTunes and Steam, cannot connect to the internet - the connection always times out, and very quickly at that (much, much faster than it should take for a time out). Does anyone know what can cause this? I already checked a couple of possible culprits, such as firewall settings and the hosts file, but beyond that, I'm at a dead end.
#1 Aug 25 2010, 11:24 am
This may be extremely obvious but...have you tried restarting your computer, doing an ipconfig /flushdns, and an ipconfig /release plus ipconfig /renew in cmd.exe?

Besides that...in the process of cleaning out the viruses, some sort of file could have been damaged/removed.

What kind of anti-virus system are you using?
#2 Aug 26 2010, 5:25 pm
In response to OrangeWeapons (#1)
I'm using a mixture of avast!, Malware Bytes, and manually removing all the files and registry keys (though I've only ever removed keys belonging to fake programs; I've never messed with any other keys).

Either way, I've tried all of those :/ methods; I'm wondering if one of the viruses messed with my networking in some strange way. It's not too big a deal, luckily (I only use iTunes to sync my iPod and get album art, I rarely use Steam, and when I use Dropbox, it's usually through the internet client), but it's still a pain.
#3 Aug 26 2010, 10:59 pm
Do you mean randomly your web browser and other programs can't seem to make new connection, but active connections still work?

If yes I'm having same damn problem 0.o
#4 Aug 27 2010, 9:35 am
In response to Ripiz (#3)
No, Firefox is fine, its just that some programs instantly time out.
#5 Aug 27 2010, 10:06 am
In response to Jeff8500 (#2)
It's possible that something bad (ie: virus or just poorly programmed/improperly uninstalled network software) has inserted itself into the winsock stack. On XP, the command 'netsh winsock show catalog' will list all the stuff like TCP/IP and NetBIOS that's hooked into winsock. Looking to see if there's anything strange in the list might help or it might just be a waste of 2 minutes of your time.
#6 Aug 27 2010, 10:08 am
In response to Skyspark (#5)
Yeah, maybe that's it; I'll try it now. I'm running Vista, but the command should be the same (or google will tell me what it is).
#7 Aug 27 2010, 10:13 am
In response to Skyspark (#5)
Just checked; nothing seems too suspicious, though the most suspicious thing was that there was a lot of base service provider entries, but I'd assume that that's normal.
#8 Aug 27 2010, 6:09 pm
My two cents, take it or leave it: Get rid of any existing anti-malware solutions. Install Microsoft Security Essentials.

[Edit- you said you did this, but I'll leave it for future reference]
Additionally, check the following file:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

This file should be pretty much empty, or at least all lines preceded with '#'

It is possible current anti-malware software will have populated this file, which is okay- but if the file isn't empty, post it to some site like pastie or pastebin so we can take a look.
[/edit]

If you really care to dig deep, you can check out Wireshark which will monitor network packets. Run Wireshark, then try to run the programs that time out. In Wireshark, find out what destinations these programs are trying to reach. Trying pinging these addresses from the command line. Try accessing the address through Firefox (which may not work anyway since they may not be webservers).
#9 Aug 27 2010, 7:07 pm
In response to Airjoe (#8)
Hmm, so Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't suck? My computer automatically installed it while upgrading other things, so I just uninstalled it.

I'll try out Wireshark, though, and post what I find out.
#10 Aug 27 2010, 7:11 pm
In response to Jeff8500 (#9)
Jeff8500 wrote:
Hmm, so Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't suck? My computer automatically installed it while upgrading other things, so I just uninstalled it.

MSE is freaking amazing. It includes real-time protection so you don't need to run a scan to find something (though of course you can do a quick or full scan, too). It has low resource usage, it's great at detecting problems, and even better at removing. Where I work we use the enterprise Symantec anti-virus, and it wouldn't remove some malware one of the machines; I installed MSE and it cleared it right up. It's been really well praised, beating out all the other free anti-virus programs and most pay-for ones, if I recall correctly. Google around, it really is pretty good.


I'll try out Wireshark, though, and post what I find out.

Feel free to save the capture file and upload it.
#11 Aug 27 2010, 7:56 pm
In response to Airjoe (#10)
Ok, I did the trace. Here's the dump. Nothing really looked wrong to me (other than the fact that iTunes and Steam only sent one packet before giving up), but I didn't really understand most of the packet info.

EDIT: Oh, also, I tried visiting one of the websites steam couldn't access; Firefox failed to load it, too.
#12 Aug 29 2010, 1:41 am
In response to Airjoe (#10)
MSE is freaking amazing. It includes real-time protection so you don't need to run a scan to find something (though of course you can do a quick or full scan, too). It has low resource usage, it's great at detecting problems, and even better at removing. Where I work we use the enterprise Symantec anti-virus, and it wouldn't remove some malware one of the machines; I installed MSE and it cleared it right up. It's been really well praised, beating out all the other free anti-virus programs and most pay-for ones, if I recall correctly. Google around, it really is pretty good.
So it's a ripoff of Avast! Antivirus? That was realtime scanning VERY fast (go on a virus infested site, it WILL detect it immediately, download a virus etc), I can't notice a difference in resource usage with it on or off, etc.
#13 Aug 29 2010, 9:03 am
In response to Moonlight Memento (#12)
For one thing, I feel that I have a nice setup of virus protection:

Avast! Anti-Virus (user version)
McAfee SiteAdvisor
MalwareBytes

and it was all free.
#14 Aug 29 2010, 11:18 am
In response to OrangeWeapons (#13)
Good for the first, second one is a resource hog and sucks beyond all belief, and MalwareBytes isn't an antivirus (one you run 24/7) but it HAS saved my PC before.
#15 Aug 29 2010, 11:28 pm
In response to Moonlight Memento (#12)
Moonlight Memento wrote:
So it's a ripoff of Avast! Antivirus? That was realtime scanning VERY fast (go on a virus infested site, it WILL detect it immediately, download a virus etc), I can't notice a difference in resource usage with it on or off, etc.

Putting an empty line between what you quote and what you write helps to read what you actually wrote quite a bit.

That said:
Avast!
MSE

TL;DR
Avast fell in protection of 0-day attacks, fared worse in protection at runtime, can not remove as well as MSE, slows the computer more than 2x compared to MSE, and yields false positives.

Avast was a good program and had a good run. MSE is better, and doesn't require registration every year, either.
#16 Aug 29 2010, 11:36 pm
In response to Airjoe (#15)
MSE scans each time you start the PC up? And it's supposed to be good? Also really now, you're so desperate to insult Avast you bring up something stupid like yearly registration?
#17 Aug 29 2010, 11:45 pm
In response to Moonlight Memento (#16)
Moonlight Memento wrote:
MSE scans each time you start the PC up?

No.

And it's supposed to be good?

Yes.

Also really now, you're so desperate...

No.

...to insult Avast you bring up something stupid like yearly registration?

Yes.
#18 Aug 29 2010, 11:58 pm
In response to Airjoe (#17)
Airjoe wrote:
Moonlight Memento wrote:
MSE scans each time you start the PC up?

No.

And it's supposed to be good?

Yes.

Also really now, you're so desperate...

No.

...to insult Avast you bring up something stupid like yearly registration?

Yes.
A Microsoft-made Antivirus... good? Are you serious?
And to the last, wow, you are desperate to insult Avast if you bring up something like that, something that isn't even bad or annoying.
#19 Aug 30 2010, 12:02 am
In response to Moonlight Memento (#18)
Moonlight Memento wrote:
A Microsoft-made Antivirus... good? Are you serious?


Airjoe wrote in [link]:
Avast fell in protection of 0-day attacks, fared worse in protection at runtime, can not remove as well as MSE, slows the computer more than 2x compared to MSE, and yields false positives. Avast was a good program and had a good run. MSE is better, and doesn't require registration every year, either.
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