hi guys, i've had the exact same problem as at the start of this thread. I followed the instructions exactly as before, so that I could connect to the avast site. now what happened to me was that initially it worked fine(ish) i connected to the internet (not through IE, which wouldn't work, but through firefox) and managed to re-register and access internet. however when i restarted my computer the internet would not work at all on either I.E, firefox, messenger, etc.
I had made a copy of my original hosts file, and so i put that back in the folder and removed the one i had added, plus the backup hosts file, but wouldn't work at all. I can't figure out what the problem could be as I have tried editting the host file in every way that's been mentioned but to no avail. One aside, which i dont think is relevent but will let you know anyways, is that I had also installed comodo malware recently which removed an svchost.exe file, however this file was removed from the programs//DAP folder, which i'm sure is the folder for my (formerly used) Download Accelerator Plus program which i uninstalled a long time ago, and shouldn't affect anything.
So... I doubt that had anything to do with internet not working, i know it isnt a hardware problem, i doubt its a virus/trojan/spyware problem because i'm quite well covered, so I can't figure out what it could be?? Im not an expert at all when it comes to editting system files, so any help whatsover would be greatly appreciated. In running on XP SP2, and really just want the ability to connect to the internet again! All hardware conections are fine, and have tried repairing the LAN connection and have cleared the cache of temp internet files. If info is of any help windows messengers repair thing lists hosts file and dns in error state and asks if it can clean up the hosts file. I let it though nothing happens and is still in error state.
Any Suggestions???