Very weird PC problem

[GodOfRhythm]

I spoke to lots of people about this, even called up my pctech and he was dumbstruck, never heard of it before.

Whenever I load up a page that has Windows Media Player on autostream or just streaming, it does NOT crash my system, BUT it crashes the internet...

All of my settings are reduced to 00.00.00...... (IP, mask, etc) and it somehow sets my settings to 'vpn.alife.de', alife.de looks like a normal site. The only way to get the internet back is by just going to the basement, resetting the modem and resetting the router downstairs and a couple of seconds later, internet is back....

I've got a constantly updated Norman virus scanner (subscribed user), I run frequent spyware searches with Spybot Search & Destroy.

Perhaps I should do a registry sweep or something? What kind of programs should I use/try?

Any IT buffs out there?

[heartfielder]

It sounds like you have multiple IP stacks on your computer. More than one program is trying to take control of your IP traffic. Go to Control panel, Add/remove programs, and remove anything that would appear to have the balls to control your comms. Windows Media Player shouldn't have anything to do with your IP address acquisition or maintenance. Try that and get back and let us know what happened.

[quakana]

VPN is a means of remote access to a corporate site from home or travel. Is that something that you installed or have installed on your machine a VPN client?

[GodOfRhythm]

VPN is a means of remote access to a corporate site from home or travel. Is that something that you installed or have installed on your machine a VPN client?

To my knowledge, not at all, and definitly not to the site of 'www.alife.de', which IS actually a corporate site, from the looks of it. But I can not remember ever installing such a program wilfully...

[quakana]

Can you hop on the chat and we can check a few things?

[GodOfRhythm]

That would be awesome, I'll be right there!

[GodOfRhythm]

Quak, it crashed again last night so I just went to bed.

Thanks a bunch though for the help, never could have done all of that without ya! (Free, StJames and the others too!)

[Jack The Riffer]

Have you run HiJackThis?

[GodOfRhythm]

Not yet, will check it out!

[Soloist1]

Have you run spybot from safe mode yet?

[gtrcollectr]

Also check out Autoruns it is from sysinternals and is a free download. It scans the registry and shows you all of the autoruns that start when your computer boots. You can turn off and delete items that should not be there. This program is a life saver and it is much easier then deep registry editing.

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html

Just be careful not to delete anything that you are unsure about.

Todd

[toejam]

www.ccleaner.com

[Mr.C]

if you are running xp then a system restore may be in order, just go to a date when you knew you were not having a problem & restore it back to that time..

definitely run spyware program (update it first)

[ApeDosMil]

What were the last things you recall installing before this happened? Have you tried streaming in another program such as Itunes and Quicktimes to see if it happens?

[Newc]

Have you updated XP, including I.E. and/or Outlook Express?

Are you running any sort of beta software? Any browser add-ons that do really cool things, were not made by MS, and were free?

Sounds like a new adware/spyware/hijacking trick where they're tying it into streaming media. Normally I get Spybot warnings about a site/page that is trying to load a known threat, and if I decline the download then the page doesn't load at all. I'm sure the people that make Adware and such know that as well and are always looking for new ways to get their filth into your PC, just like when they started putting virii into images a few years back.

See if you can lock your IP settings, and definitely blacklist those sites.

It's a crying shame you can't surf the internet without some douchebag trying to load you up with crap like that. That crap oughta be considered terrorism as much as hijacking an airplane or bombing a church, and carry the death penalty regardless of age.
That, and spamming through someone else's email account - I get emails from myself for Hoodia, Prozac, and free laptops