Internet Explorer Problem

[Truckman36]

My friend has a Gateway Computer, couple years old, running Windows ME on it. For the last few days when He tries to do Google Search or www, address bar search, or surf net the following is displayed on the bottom internet bar "detecting proxy settings" and never does anything else. any suggestions appreciated.

[Redo40]

Internet Explorer/Tools/Internet Options/Connections tab/Lan settings and make sure "Use Proxy Server" isn't checked.

Also, you may want to download Hijack this and Spybot S&D and scan for spyware or a browser hijacker.

[glc]

Uncheck "automatically detect settings" on that page that Roger mentioned.

[AlwaysSmilingGuy]

I'm guessing that this just started happening, and that you didn't get it resolved. If your friend is on DSL or Cable, they may need to contact their provider. I've had that problem in the past, and had to force my DNS servers. Later on, through switching to MSN and having that not work, I found out that it was Zone Alarm that was killing my DNS attempts.

The way to find out for sure is, have them go into Start Run... Command (cmd in Windows 2K/XP) and type in this.. ping www.google.com If it's successful, they'll get packets sent, and replies back.. If not, they'll get Unknown host memberservices.passport.com. Then, have them ping 65.54.229.246 (this is the IP for memberservices.passport.com). If they get a reply back on this, it's most likely the DNS Server issue (or their firewall if they have one).
Hope this helps a bit..
Patrick.