Strange problem with IE and LAN settings.

[riddellcomp]

I looked at a friends computer who has been having trouble trying to connect to the internet via a wireless connection on a WIN98 machine. The wireless connection works fine but they have no internet connection. (Which did work fine for months until now)

When I go into Tools>Internet Options>Connections under IE and click on the LAN settings, "Use a proxy server" and automatically detect settings" are ticked.

But here is where it gets wierd. When I untick these and click apply>ok Internet Explorer shuts down. On restarting IE I find that these settings are ticked again.

As we are not using a proxy server Im sure that If I can untick these options the internet will work again as it once did.

[shamus]

Have you run a virus scan?

[futuretech]

What IP is listed for the proxy server?
Have you tried leaving IE closed and go to control panel internet options and remove the proxy settings there?

[Platypus]

Some internet security software uses a proxy server with a watchdog that restores proxy settings - any site restriction (Net-Nanny type) application installed?

[ringo2143z]

I had the same issues as described above using IE7 on XP Pro. Very annoying but I have just this minute resolved the problem. I'd been playing with the registry up until now, but that was a waste of time as it never worked properly.

Run Hijackthis. It will give the following entries (perhaps more, perhaps less):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
"AutoConfigURL"="YOURAUTOPROXY"
"ProxyServer"="YOURSPECIFIEDPROXY:PORT"

Go and find them in the registry and make a backup of the keys in case it doesn't work (although after 2 weeks of messing it did for me). The above is a copy from my backup .reg file. Tick the boxes in Hijackthis referring to the above entries and Fix them. They're deleted and you can change the settings in LAN settings once more!

Still don't know what the reason was for the inability to alter the settings though...