Timeout connection elapsed

[midwyfjan]

well, for someone who isn't an expert, you sure seem to know what you're doing. Thanks so much for taking this much time in the middle of your work day - wow, I didn't mean to intrude into anyone's personal time.

Anyway, if anyone else has any suggestions, let me know. I'm using my laptop for now - which, altho it's connected to the same wireless system, isn't having any trouble. At least it's obvious which computer in the house is definitely the problem. The people at my ISP tried to imply it was the whole system. But of course they want me to buy their virus program for 5$ per month and wanted to criticize Avast.

Thanks again

[galooma]

Thats quite ok , i and many others volunteer our time as gesture of giving back to the community where we can and enjoy helping others. There are posters here from Alwil who help customers/users as well but mostly with problems related to their product.

[alanrf]

I am sure that you must be rather frustrated with this problem by now.  I am sorry to intrude with a couple of thoughts that may seem to run counter to the other advice you have been given and I certainly do not want to cause you any further frustration.

I did not see any evidence in your log that you are running a Firewall, for most of us these days a Firewall is a pretty important way of protecting our system.  Do you use one? 

From your log the only piece of software running on your system that really stands out to me as a possible issue is "SpywareCleaner" which seems to have something of a questionable reputation for being more foe than friend.  Do you recall when you installed this product?

As to running foul of your ISP for spamming - there may be a way of stopping the problem from getting outside your system and upsetting your ISP but only if you have a firewall installed.  If you are not using one may I suggest the ZoneAlarm free edition that many of us here are using along with avast! quite happily?   

[midwyfjan]

Alan
Thanks - that is very helpful. I thought that part of Avast was a firewal - that WebShield part. Apparently not, eh? Silly me.

Anyway, I'll do that asap.

The Spyware Cleaner was just downloaded yesterday, as part of my effort to fix the problem. It came up when I went to HiJack This. Thought that was what I was supposed to have used, then figured out it was something else, but not before using it. I can get rid of it, of course.

Again, much thanks.

[midwyfjan]

I installed Zone Alarm and after configuing a few things (yikes!), it seems to be helping. I had to tell it not to send out messages with .exe endings, and that caused a problem, cuz there are several programs that use that. But I was able to see when the explorer.exe one tried to send - and block it. Now those timeout messages are gone.

However, I have a different problem. Now when I'm shopping online, it won't let me check out of any website, like Amazon. I had a shopping cart full of stuff saved there, and when I add an item, it removes everything else that was there. And when I try to check, it thinks the cart is empty. Is there something in Zone Alarm I need to change to get it to leave this stuff alone?