Friday, August 8, 2014

Reconnect after Malware Removal

Today after a long time I got a chance to do what I love to do the most. Get a computer system out of trouble.

I had installed a software called Malwarebytes AntiMalware some months back and had forgotten about it since it wasn't updating its database. Today as I smelt something fishy in the connectivity I just clicked started and went to programs (something I don't do often since the frequently used 5 programs in quick launch). In there I suddenly noticed Antimalware and ran it. To my surprise it updated its database and ran well.

After its first run it detected some snap.do entries which have been causing trouble to a lot of users. And strangely detected CDex, an ages old Audio CD extractor as a malware. Nevertheless, I happily quarantined/removed all that it had detected. It asked me to restart the system. I did that happily as well since I was expecting any antivirus to ask me that after a virus removal.

After the system restarted I lost my internet connection. I called BSNL because they usually have problems in rainy seasons. They said everything is fine. Now that worried me. I knew the modem was fine and it was something to do with registry and things like that. I couldn't connect to my wifi modem through other devices like smartphone either. I fiddled around and then went for a quick nap (which lasted more than a nap). I woke up. Hard resetted everything and then suddenly realized that I was having connectivity on my cellphone (through the same wifi connected). Then something hit me. It was only to do with the LAN / Ethernet connection of my PC now. Since my laptop connected as well.

I quickly grabbed my phone and started searching for websites that offered solutions for this problem. Seems like many people faced this issue but the solutions provided were horrendous and very dicey. Dicey because seems like they were provided by some other malware creators or similar people redirecting people to their servers/dns eventually infecting them. Some more intelligent hackers provided removal tools which were infact malware installers to do so.

Many of them gave ways of flushing DNS, and things like that which a normal user will find tedious to do.

Nevertheless, let me cut it short. Consider this situation and see the solution.
1. You have removed an virus/malware and lost connectivity on the device that you ran the antivirus on.
2. Check if other devices connected to the same modem work. Close all open browsers.
3. IF they work simply go to your Windows Control Panel
4. Open Network Connection
5.Right click on Local Area Connection and click on PROPERTIES
6. In the list select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then click on properties button below
7. Simply punch in the default entries that have been provided by your ISP (e.g. BSNL) else just select - "Obtain IP Address automatically"
8. Wait for 5 minutes for your LAN (Local Area Network) to restart and then start the browser

Everything starts working fine. No need to install anything no need for complicated process.
This process is actually the first thing I would have done back in 2001 n' around, but with more devices in hand and solutions on internet a faster option I had forgotten this simple step. Thankfully this process awakened that part of my brain. Feeling refreshed. Hope your connections feel refreshed too.

TAGGED (People with same problem searched for) : lost connection after malware removal,

No Internet Connection after Malware Removal,

Fix No Internet Connection After Virus / Malware Removal,

Fix Internet Connection after Malware Removal,

No Internet connection after virus/malware removal fix,

Solved: Lost network and internet connection after virus removal,

No Internet connection after running AdwCleaner,

Cannot Connect to Internet After Running MalwareBytes, Constantly losing internet connectivity - dns errors,

No internet access after Malware removal,

Internet connection disabled after removing worms