Windows 98, IE, "Cannopt open the search page"

[Punkrulz]

Hey guys,

Having a real problem here with Windows 98 computers. So far we are up to our fourth computer, that is Windows 98, where no matter what you try doing online you get the error: "Cannot open the search page". Here's the jist of it all:

1) No matter what website you go to, "Internet Explorer cannot open the search page".
2) Tries accessing www.www.whatever.com.edu, and ohter websites.
3) Manually entered in DNS, still no luck.
4) Can ping addresses, but not the names of the addresses.
5) Ran both Spybot Search and Destroy, as well as Ad-Aware, removed 516 components of Spyware, still no luck.
6) Removing and reinstalling TCP/IP stack fails, because it appears to not load it from the CD, however it loads it from somewhere on the hard disk. No idea where, no idea how to stop it, but when it loads TCP/IP it loads all of the previous settings as well.

Any ideas?

 

[muzikool]

Just a shot in the dark here, but have you looked at the HOSTS file? Open it up (c:\windows\hosts) with a text editor and make sure that it's not a mess. Technically, it only has to have the entry:
127.0.0.1 localhost

 

[Punkrulz]

Yes, the hosts file [this was something I neglected to mention] between the four computers only contains 127.0.0.1 localhost

 

[tdinc]

98? Do yourself a favor and upgrade to at least 2000

 

[muzikool]

While upgrading would be nice, it should work fine under 98. I'm not sure what to recommend, especially since every 98 system is doing this.