Forbidden Internet problems Help!

[sim2340]

i have a problem in which many downloads and sites wont load claiming im not authorized and things like pcpitstop fail to load. the stange thing is i did a non format system restore to no succsess and ive checked and no viruses are present.

the error page says HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden which cannot be wrong security settings cos i reformated.

[mtrox]

Yea that is pretty odd Sim. Normally after a reformat you'd have default settings and no problem. Just to be sure, might want to go to Tools> Internet Options> Security, then go into each zone and click the "default" button. While you're there click the "Privacy" tab and set your cookie handling to "medium". I don't think its cookies though. You mentioned pcpitstop and I don't even think they use cookies.

After the reformat, did you load any super duper anti-spyware kinda thing? Do you know what your HOSTS file is? Does that just have the loopback address?

EDIT: See this KB (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245142)from Bill Gates.

[sim2340]

thnx for your help mtrox its sorted now. It was a setting in zonealarm set wrong. But it caused me to switch to Firefox which is better so pretty good alround

[mtrox]

Good for you. Zone Alarm has gotten a bit more aggressive the last year or two.