>>>Worked with Dell for an hour last night on a rebuilt PC. IE will not work - cannot find page error - but we get good pings (all 4 replies received back) and Outlook mail is working. We checked everything I could think of and finally came down to running some/all of these utilities:
>>>
>>>LSPFix.exe
>>>WinsockFix.exe
>>>
>>>Or installing SP2 and/or using FireFox. This is a client's PC, and I think he feels that it should work exactly as it did when he bought it. I used all the factory disks and everything seems to work great except IE.
>>>
>>>Suggestions before I do any of the above?
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>>You've reformatted the hard drive and rebuilt this machine from scratch using the original Dell CDs?
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>>Did you do this while the machine was directly attached to the Internet via a high-speed connection (i.e. without a hardware router/firewall)? Be aware that on average it takes less than 20 minutes for a directly-attached, unpatched XP machine to be compromised by remote exploits. It takes longer than that to download and install security patches, so if that's what you've done there's a very good chance you're already compromised.
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>>If you're on broadband and don't already have a hardware router/firewall, get one. I bought one yesterday for a client - D-Link DI604, C$28.88 after rebates. These days only the ignorant or foolhardy run on broadband without one.
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>>Install up-to-date antivirus and antispyware utilities, DISCONNECT from the internet and run the utils to make sure you're clean.
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>>Then disable adware/spyware/malware toolbars that may be parasitically attached to IE. Right-click on the IE icon, go into Properties, go to the Programs tab, click on the "Manage Add-ons" button. A list of so-called IE "browser helper objects" will be presented. Disable anything you don't recognize. On an unused system about the only ones that are legit are Adobe Acrobat Reader BHOs. Only trust ones from MS if they are verified.
>>
>>If the above comes up clean you may still have other software such as NewDotNet which intercepts DNS calls and can badly screw up an XP system. Look for a NewDotNet folder under C:\Program Files, if present run the uninstaller in that folder, then delete the folder entirely.
>>
>>If DNS in IE still doesn't work as a last resort you can try WinsockXPFix (note it's XP-specific) at http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html
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>*SNIPPED from a related thread*
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>>If you're talking about the IE issues you mentioned in another thread, that sounds like a DNS issue. Anything which auto-updates will require functional DNS, not just a browser like IE or FF.
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>*SNIPPED from a related thread*
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>Ahhh... Is there anyway to resolve DNS issues, as in know what they should be? I wonder now if I messed up when I copied some of their application data files. I'm a bit hesitant to run the utilities as I don't want to mess up what works at the moment. They can do everything they need to except a couple of these automatic connection things. I did notice that it wouldn't do the Windows Auto Update either. Are there any good reference materials on this? Is it a registry issue, or missing/invalid files/directories?

I'd go through the steps I listed above, in order. I know that NewDotNet, for example, prevents access to the Windows Update site, and also to secure (https) sites. Your system can appear to mostly work and still be infested with worms, spyware etc.