Windows 7 - no internet for one user

I've been working on a Windows 7 install. There are several accounts on the laptop all of which have working internet access. Except for one which refuses point blank to display any web pages whatsoever on any browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE). I can ping my router, MSN Messenger works and various widgets are updating their content so it's a bit strange... All the other accounts, both admin and standard, have no issues whatsoever. To make it even stranger, on the affected account the browsers won't even display my router's admin webpage!

I'm stumped on this one so can anyone help out?

TIA

Do the browsers have a proxy server set for the particular user by any chance?

Nope.

Try deleting the account and creating a new one?

That's a last resort. I'd really like to not have to do that as the user has loads of documents, files, etc I'd rather not have to back up and restore.

Any software running when that user logs in that's not present for the others?

EDIT - and another thought - any internet security software with Parental Controls that could be restricting access?

No. Just double checked that.

And you've reset IE to default settings etc?

All three browsers were in default settings from start.

try going to network connections, attempt repair?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bluecube

All three browsers were in default settings from start.

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No harm in trying it then?


I've got to be honest: it smacks to me of a proxy issue. It only seems to be affecting HTTP traffic, as DNS is working fine. It's not a HOSTS hijack as that would affect all users. I'm assuming that you've already run some sort of malware scan because you'd do that before asking on Hexus...

In all honesty if this was happening to me I'd have given it 30 minutes of troubleshooting and then backed up the data and removed and recreated the profile.

Mcafee and Adaware have been run so OK there. I'll check parental controls et al before nukeing it. Thanks all.

Probably worth running Malwarebytes & CCleaner too before nuking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bluecube

That's a last resort. I'd really like to not have to do that as the user has loads of documents, files, etc I'd rather not have to back up and restore.

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Create a new account, give it rights to existing account's documents. Move everything across to new account's docs folder, nuke old account :)

Which is exactly what I did an hour ago :D All sorted now and passed back to happy relation. It was a strange issue to have though so I wonder what it was!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bluecube

It was a strange issue to have though so I wonder what it was!

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Glad you're sorted. Was very weird. No idea as to cause I'm afraid.

Glad you got it sorted - for reference here's how I typically approach profile issues...


For problems that hit specific users, most issues are down to their user profile hive (not the entire profile folder).
If you get to the point of creating a new profile entirely, you could first try just putting in the template user hive.

When you create a new user account, the C:\Users\Default folder is used as a template, and the hidden file NTUSER.DAT is the profile hive.

When a user logs on, their C:\Users\{username}\NTUSER.DAT is mounted under HKEY_USERS using their SID.

Per-user settings are checked before system defaults, so my first guess woul be something under HKEY_USERS\{SID}\Software\Classes key went somewhat wonky, specifically something relating to HTML/HTTP.


My preferred order of troubleshooting profile issues:
1. Replace the user's NTUSER.DAT with C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT
> This will give them a blank user profile hive, as if the user has never logged on before, but retain all of their files - things like MRU (Most Recently Used) will be gone as this is stored in the profile hive

If that doesn't work...
2. Copy away the user's profile whilst they are logged off, then use the System Properties > Advanced > User Profiles [Settings] button to delete their profile, then log them on
> This will create a brand new profile entirely for the user, so their files will appear to be gone - this is where you go to the copy you made and drag them back in

If even that doesn't work...
3. Create a new user account - does the problem still exist?
If so, the Default User profile has something dodgy in it, so creating a new user account wouldn't help.


The reason I try to avoid creating a new user account is if permissions were granted to the original user in specific locations - these are referenced by SID so creating a new user, even if it has the same name, would not get those permissions.


If you find an issue is down to a specific user's NTUSER.DAT, you can sometimes use Process Monitor to record "working" and "non-working" scenarios and compare them (filtering on registry I/O under HKEY_USERS as the logs get huuuuge sometimes).
This can be very time consuming, however, especially if you've already found a workaround of using a blank profile hive.