Change Proxy Settings/Internet Properties not available

[69liz]

My son has a netbook with Windows 7. At school they use a proxy server. Previously he has had no problem switching between using his netbook at school and then again at home. However, on his recent return to school he has been unable to access his Change Proxy Settings button which means he can't access the internet at school. Going through the Control Panel also doesn't give him access to Internet Options. He was using Chrome and the Change Proxy Settings button in Chrome simply does nothing when clicked. Same story in IE.

I've scanned it completely and it is free of malware, viruses and any other nasties. His school technicians are not being helpful at all.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions at all please as the point of the netbook is for him to be able to use it at school?

 

Thanks in advance!

[tom_newton]

Is his user the only user on the machine?

What do you mean it "does nothing"? Does it allow you to set a proxy which then doesn't work?

Have you tried (for the sake of completeness) doing the same in firefox?

[Oaktech]

it sounds like he either has a piece of software restricting access to those internet settings as a way of controlling the effects of a browser hi-jack or the machine has picked up some kind of policy either from the school network or because someone has fiddled! I'll have a look and see if there is a way of checking.

[69liz]

Yes, he is the only user of the machine.

 

Yes, I installed Firefox and uninstalled Chrome but still no joy.

 

The Change Proxy Settings button does nothing when pressed. No options come up at all. When clicking on Internet Properties or Options through Control Panel - nothing happens.

 

I think it is a setting he has inherited from school which is why it is so frustrating that his IT technicians are being so unhelpful.

[plexer]

Does he have permission to use his personal netbook at school?

 

Ben

[Oaktech]

I wonder whether multiple reboots off the school network may fix this, sometimes it takes 3 or 4 boots to adopt gpo...

[plexer]

If it's not a member of the domain then it wouldn't inherit GPO's though.

 

ben

[Oaktech]

its a fair point, but I can't think of anything else that would cause that behaviour, other than a corruption. Unless it is something like s&d spybot which prevents access to the internet options...

[69liz]

Yes, he has permission to use his personal netbook at school. They went wireless and actively encouraged students to take their own devices. It worked fine for 6 months, then he came home for a weekend and connected to our wi-fi. When he went back to school he couldn't get on to the proxy settings to reconfigure to getting back on the network.

 

I think it is down to the technicians to sort it out as I think it is a policy setting like someone else has suggested.

[Norphy]

What version of Windows 7 is on this netbook? Is it a school owned and issued device or is it something you've bought for him?

 

If it's running a Home version of W7 or if it's not a member of the school's domain, it's not going to be a school policy which has caused the issue and in that case it won't be down to the school techs to sort out.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Norphy

[plexer]

 

I think it is down to the technicians to sort it out as I think it is a policy setting like someone else has suggested.

 

If his computer has not been joined to the school domain which would have probably had to have been done by the school technicians then it cannot have applied any school settings so is not "down to the technicians" unfortunately this issue is something that will become more prevelant with BYOD who fixes it when it goes wrong.....

 

As has been said it could have been some malware contracted at home that is preventing this access and therefore is not the schools fault.

 

If you've installed firefox that takes the IE settings but is not iteself affected by the proxy settings in control panel as it stored them itself under options - options - network - settings

 

Ben

[69liz]

He has AVG Free on there but not Spybot. He does have Malwarebytes but I downloaded that after the problem started so that I could scan for problems.

 

His AVG did actually stop working as well - ie. He couldn't open it - nothing happened when clicking the icon - does that give any more clues?

 

I uninstalled that and re-installed it.

[69liz]

The netbook is running Windows 7 Starter. When he first took it to school he had to log on to a school registration network - this was set up especially for students to register their laptops and netbooks on the system - the school actively encouraged students to bring back their own equipment and this netbook was brought new for this purpose.

Once he had registered he was emailed by the technicians which said his netbook was fine and they gave him the password needed to access the main school network. He was then given the proxy server address and the port that he had to add. This he did and all was fine but recently he has not been able to access the proxy settings in order to change it so he can use it at school.

[tom_newton]

It is extremely unlikely that his netbook could have picked up a policy, as others have said - not a domain member, so not feasible.

 

The only way to push proxy settings to non-domain members is DHCP (opt 252), or DNS, and both these should (a) make things better, not worse, and (b) not prevent folk changing the proxy manually.

 

I take it the behaviour is also exhibited at home?

 

Is there any recent software installed (and before you believe a "no", check the list in "installed programs" and let us know what's on this machine).

[mrwobbly]

The fact that both the Antivirus and the proxy settings are not available screams out malware infection of some sort to me.

 

Google “Eset online scanner” and run a full scan.

Did Malwarebytes not find anything?

[69liz]

It has Open Office 3.3, AVG, Collins Dictionary, Malwarebytes, Skype, Firefox and IE9. I put Spybot S&D on to scan it when the problem appeared but it wasn't on before the problem started and I've uninstalled it again. Everything else was installed as standard. And yes, I have checked the list!

[Michael]

Windows 7 Starter cannot process GPOs (Group Policy Objects) or be a member of a domain, so if the settings are greyed out, it'll be a setting in the registry or most likely malware which has created this problem.

[69liz]

Malwarebytes found nothing. The re-installed Antivirus is working fine.

 

Doing the online scan now - thanks very much - really appreciate everyone's input.

[mrwobbly]

I’ve given this some more thought and it sounds like exactly the sort of problem you get on a machine that has been infected with one of those fake Antivirus programs after it’s been cleaned. Some of the variants are easy to remove. Others you can clean up so much but the only solution is a clean install of Windows to remove all traces.

[69liz]

So, is that what you recommend? A clean install of Windows? I'm afraid I don't know how to do that but at least it is a solution

[mrwobbly]

See what the Eset scan brings up first. If you do need to reinstall Windows I'm sure people here will be happy to help you.

[plexer]

Check the instructions or google the make/model for factory restore instructions most have a hidden partition for this purpose.

 

Backup docs first to usb drive.

 

Ben

[69liz]

The Este scan brought up nothing either.

[eddyc]

Combofix is really good at removing most malware. We use it whenever we have an infected laptop that we cannot reimage for any reason.

 

A guide and tutorial on using ComboFix

 

If you follow the guide through and see if that removes anything.

[Arthur]

Try this...

 

1. Go to the Control Panel, select the Network and Internet category and click Internet Options.
   
2. Click the Advanced tab.
   
3. Click the Reset button.
   
4. Click the Reset button in the box that pops up.
   
5. Click the Close button.
   
6. Open Internet Explorer and try visiting a website e.g. bbc.co.uk
   

Edited April 12, 2012 by Arthur