Hello all I'm new here to this forum and I'm hoping someone can help me. Sorry in advance if this is a long post. I just want to make sure I give as much information as possible. I have a computer with Win98SE, a gig of ram, and 1 GHz intel celeron processor. It's not a name brand computer since my husband and I built it piece by piece. A couple of weeks ago I got a notice about a critical update for Windows. I went to the Microsoft page but the program wouldn't scan. It would just hang there at 0%. I did some research and found a document in the Microsoft knowlege base that said I needed to re-install the window scripting software version 5.6. I went ahead and downloaded it. I got an error message the first time I tried to install it, (I can't remember the message). I ran it again and it installed and everything seemed fine again. I shut down and the next day when I went to start up my computer I got a bunch of messages saying certain files were missing, (iso.vxd, ifsmgr.vxd, esuart.vxd and vmm32.vxd). Then it told me Windows did not have enough memory to start and would shut down. I tried starting in safemode and the same thing happened, it just shut down. I was finally able to re-install windows but my display wasn' working and I didn't have an internet connection. I currently have a cable modem and my ISP is Brighthouse/RoadRunner. My husband and I share the connection through a DLink 4 port broadband router (DI704P). His connection is fine (he uses a Mac). I couldn't Ping ip's or domain names. In order to save space I won't get into everything I did. However, I did uninstall and re-install the network info, (I have a 10/100 PCI ethernet adapter) and updated all drivers. I was finally able to ping ip's but not domain names. Internet Explorer (IE) would start but then it gave me an error message regarding the msvcrt.dll. I replaced that file, (copied from my other computer) and then I added my isp's ip and domain name to the host file. IE now starts and I am able to use the internet. I can also ping both ip's and domain names. My problem is however, I still have programs that tell me I do not have an internet connection. For example the following programs all say I do not have access to the internet, RoadRunner medic (diagnostic program), Live Update for Norton Internet Security (NIS), Firefox and a couple of more. I disabled NIS completely and still had issues, in case that was causing issues. I can download files and access any website using IE. So my question is what I have I missed? I have run different utility programs and can't find anything, and I am now at a lost as to how to fix this. I consider myself to be in intermediate computer user but in no way an expert. Any help/ideas you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need more info.

Well I figured out the problem. It appears that when my computer first went haywire, Norton created a firewall protocol that was prohibiting some sites from seeing my connection. I restored the default protocols and everything is now working.

Thanks for both posting about your problem, and then saving member's time by letting us know that the problem was resolved.
By posting the solution you found, you may have helped others who find themselves in the same situation.
Regards,
John