[Solved]Can't connect from all Windows accounts

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by leocg

I have three non-administrative accounts on my Windows 10 Pro (version 1903, OS build 18362.535) computer that I will refer to as Pu, Org, and Ma.
Opera can connect with both Org and Ma accounts but not the Pu account. Currently Firefox cannot connect to the internet in any of them. I have used Firefox and Opera without any issues for the past few months.

Chronology
Late last week Opera and Firefox could not connect from either Pu or Org while Chrome and Edge could.
Removing Firefox and Opera from the list of allowed programs in Zone Alarm, cold booting and adding them to Zone Alarm did not work.
I upgrade Opera from 65.0.3467.62 to 65.0.3467.72
I executed netsh winsock reset and netsh int ip reset
As a result Opera was able to connect to the internet from Org.
After uninstalling Adobe Flash Player Opera was able to connect from Ma.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Definitely weird. In Firefox, if you goto settings and then "settings" under "Network Settings", and set "no proxy", does Firefox work then? If so, for Opera, check that a proxy isn't set in "Start -> settings -> Network and Internet -> Proxy".

You could also try uninstalling Zone Alarm temporarily to see if that fixes things for all accounts.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Thank you for responding. Opera didn’t post my request for at least a day.

I changed Firefox’s proxy settings to “No proxy” and “Auto-detect proxy settings for this network” from “Use system proxy settings” in the Pu account but neither worked.
Following a suggestion, I successfully connected to the internet (choosing safe sites only) with both Opera and Firefox when I booted in Safe Mode with network support.

From Opera, I launched Window’s proxy settings and found that the manual proxy server is off.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Okay. So, if things work in safe mode, something is starting up (service/driver/task) in normal mode that's breaking things. I'd run anti-virus and anti-malware programs to see what they find.

I'd also look through the services and startup tabs in the Windows Task Manager and see if you find anything that stands out as shady.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by leocg

@burnout426

Solved by replacing security software!
I uninstalled Zone Alarm version 15.0.159.17147 and replaced it with version 15.8.026.18228.