Can't connect to Malwarebytes.com (and other sites)

[mjslakeridge]

Beginning this afternoon, I began having problems connecting to common websites I am on every day (Foxnews, Iheartradio, etc.) I ran a full virus scan with Windows defender and it came up clean.

After hearing many on Tom's recommend Malwarebytes free software, I Googled "Malwarebytes Free" and found the links to the legitimate Malwarebytes.com site. However, when I try to connect I get the following:
"This site can’t be reached

www.malwarebytes.com’s server DNS address could not be found.
Try running Windows Network Diagnostics.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN"

For a while today, I couldn't even connect to Tom's, but obviously I can now.

Windows 8 Pro, 32bit.

 

[ss202sl]

What dns are you using

 

[mjslakeridge]

I am not sure what you mean by that? My ISP is AT&T U-verse. Also forgot to mention that the problem occurs on Chrome and IE. I flushed the DNS cache per some instructions on a random google search.

 

[mjslakeridge]

Update: After typing my initial message, I went back and hit the reload button a couple of times and eventually connected to Malwarebytes.com. When I clicked on the "download" button, it initially gave me a similar unable to connect error, but after clicking reload a couple of times I eventually got it to download. So I installed it and ran the scan. It only took about 10 minutes, compared with about 1.5 hours for a Windows Defender full scan - does that seem right?

Came back with one item: Scan Complete - Non-Malware Detected

Identified as a Threat. Name: PUP.Optional.SysTweak, Category: Potentially Unwanted Program, Type: Registry Key, Location: HKLM\Software\Systweak

I will hit "remove selected" and see what happens.

Update #2: After typing in the above, when I hit Submit your answer, I again couldn't connect to Tom's. Luckily I was able to save what I had typed to a word document and copy/paste it here. The only way I could get back to Tom's was to exit Chrome and get back in. My internet connection was fine the entire time as I was listening to iHeart radio without interruption.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

1) Windows Defender provide absolutely NO protection. You need a real Antivirus, and there are several free to include AVG, Avast (thought these two appear to have merged together per a email today), Avira, Panda, etc.
2) You can download any of these from www.filehippo.com (including malwarebytes). Antivirus stops viruses (like a Dr stops a virus) Antimalware stops the trickster programs (ALERT! Windows Antivurs (SIC) 2020 detects a infect, run this file to clean your computer!). The two are seperate things.
3) Based on your response to ss202sl you seem to have no technical skills. I would suggest you have either a 'tech friend' come by and assist this (this is now in the very technical real like a transmission mechanic working on your car) or bring it to BestBuy / ETC. and point out these issues including you need proper antivirus solutions.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I would agree that Windows Defender is not optimal. A while back, it detected a virus and supposedly "deleted" it, but it kept coming back.

I would not say I have no technical skills. Admittedly, I know much more on the hardware side of things, having built multiple successful rigs. In fact, I have been using computers since 1985 (Tandy TRS 80 Model 4), and have programmed in Basic, Fortran and Cobol (not recently, of course).

If my problem still exists tomorrow, I will revert to a disk image I created a month or so ago, restored to a spare HDD I have laying around. That has been my go-to solution in the past when my computer has experienced problems.

 

[mjslakeridge]

What dns are you using

OK, I did some research this morning. Under Network Connections, Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties, the box "Obtain DNS Server address automatically" is checked.

Running the command prompt "ipconfig/all", Under DNS Server it shows the ip address of my router. So it looks like it will first go to the router to look for cached IP addresses for sites I have previously visited.

If I go into my router settings under diagnostics and do a Traceroute to Google's server, the first leg of the path is 172.11.88.1. If I type that address in the box and hit NSLookup, it returns "172-11-88-1.lightspeed.hstntx.sbcglobal.net". So I guess that is the secondary DNS server.

Note: Things are working fine this morning on all websites. I did power cycle the router last night and shut down my computer (not set to sleep like I normally do).

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Nods sounds like your service had a DNS interruption or more likely a DDOS attack on it to deny services. You could try to manually input Google's Free DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) to void that in the future, but the tone you came across on the OP was that you had specific sites and all were related to things to help REMOVE a problem.

I would still highly suggesting, as a course of action, to still install the much better alternatives and do a manual FULL scan with both the new antivirus and Malwarebytes. Never hurt to check.

 

[mjslakeridge]

The only site I tried to visit to help remove a problem was Malwarebytes.com. All of the other sites were just my regular sites like iHeartradio, FoxNews.com, Tom's Hardware, Avid.com (Pro Tools software forum), etc.

As said above I eventually got to Malwarebytes and was able to download the free version and ran a full scan. What I though was odd that it only took about 12 minutes, and scanned 300,000 or so objects, whereas Windows defender takes over an hour and scans over a million objects. Also, Malwarebytes did not scan my data drive, only the OS drive. Data drive contains recorded TV, mp3 files, dvd files, backups of ProTools audio session files and some Acronis True Image disk images, so it should be pretty safe, but I would still like to run the malwarebytes scan on it. Maybe I just didn't see in the settings where to select the drive to scan.

If I have problems like this again, I will try using a different server. But the odd thing is, that when I was unable to connect to FoxNews.com yesterday, my wife's computer was able to easily connect. Same router/modem, except she is connected via a wifi range extender and I am connected via ethernet cable.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Your confusing Malware and Viruses. As I mentioned above, Malware doesn't do a 'full physical' like a Dr does when they look you over. It is only concerned with the sort of programs that will 'confuse and persuade you' to do things you shouldn't by pretending to be the legit 'pop ups or notifications'. So no it does NOT "scan my data drive".

And as I mentioned before, it doens't matter what Defender does, it doesn't "see" what is normally looking for in security application. A comparison; would you feel safer with a professional armed security guard at the bank protecting your money, or the retired 80 year old napping in the corner security guard? Defender is the napping 80yr old who isn't paying attention or 'sees' what is going on, these other security applications (Avira, Avast, AVG, Panda, Kerpesky, etc.) are all the armed and ready to 'go' security systems.
Please download one and apply as soon as possible, and do a full 'scan'.

 

[mjslakeridge]

OK, so I dug around some more in the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Home program that I downloaded. Clicking on the Scan button near the top of the screen allows you to select Custom Scan, where you can select which drives (including thumb drives) to scan. I did this for my C and D drives and the scan took 2.5 hours to complete, which to me looks like the traditional virus scan I am used to.

Oddly enough it did find one Potentially Unwanted Program, which was in my Downloads folder. It was the setup file for an older version of CPU-Z (cpu-z_1.62-setup-en.exe) that I had saved. It identified it as an non-malware detection. I let the program delete it none the less as I have a more recent version of CPU-Z installed.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Well it may " looks like the traditional virus scan I am used to" but it isn't. It still just scanning for only Malware code, not viral code. You should still download as suggested a real Antivirus system as Defender does not provide the base support to keep your system intact.

http/www.tomshardware.com/news/Microsoft-Security-Essentials-AV-TEST-Malware-Certification-Bitdefender,19452.html

http/www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2536165/microsoft-security-essetials-good.html