Windows Server 2000 problem

[donjo13]

Our server here at work is working fine letting all the computers feeding off of it get all our email, and continue having internet access. Its like nothing is wrong at all on our local machines. But when you go to the server room, You cannot log onto the internet, IE6 freezes up and Norton has red circle/slash over the icon on the taskbar.
This happened after I installed a windows update 2 days ago.When the server rebooted, the problem began.
I tried chkdisk, defrag, virus scan, etc. I tried to reinstall ser pack 4, but it froze up during the install early in the process. Then, I tried to reinstall windows server 2000, but same results. Any ideas? The local machines feeding from it still work fine! Odd.

 

[Liquidlen]

Did you try to roll back out of the Update(uninstall) or is that too late?

 

[donjo13]

Yeah. Did that, no luck.

 

[Liquidlen]

Can you get any error messages ,Event veiwer etc?
The slash over Norton is not a good sign, and I take it there is no system back up program in place.

 

[urbandragon]

First and foremost. disconnect this box from the net. the fact that your AV is not working may lead to virus or hacker activities....
Anyone in the corporate IT environment will tell you the same thing...


Diagnose your problems offline as much as possible.


Things to check out. look at your HOSTS file to make sure it has not been modified. This is one sure fire way to check for alot of viruses. The viruses will set the ipaddress for your AV updates to go to 127.0.0.1 which is the loopback on the box therefore you will not get updates.. alot of viruses will also delete your DEF files so you can scan all you want to but without luck because you are scanning for "nothing"

IF possible remove this box from the network and use a "backup" server to get online and download AVG and all of the definition packets.

While you are at it grap adaware by lavasoft and the others listed here in the forum. dont forget the updates.....

one other thing to remember do your troubleshooting in safe mode.

go to start>run> type services.msc and disable any services that are not needed for your network..
go to start>run>regedit and from regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CurrentVersion\run delete all things listed on the right side of the pane that you are unsure what they are. This is one of the places programs start up from when your reboot your box.



Additionally you need to check and scan each box on your network ASAP as well because you said this box is your gateway to the internet for the other boxes... so everything going in/out gets passed though it..... It may seem like my suggestions are somewhat extreme. but if this is for a business better to be safe than looking for another job........

 

[donjo13]

Thanks for all the tips and insight.
The funny thing is Norton AV works fine on our local machines. I can even update the def files. Adaware finds nothing. A virus scan of the server from my local machine finds nothing. The HOST has not been modified as far as I can see.
The system is backing up every night still to our Travan tape system. So we are good to go there as well.
I'm turning it over to our off site IT guys. It's too much for me and I dont want to risk screwing it up further. I'll leave to someone else to do that! Thanks.

 

[Liquidlen]

If you find out what it takes to fix it , let us know it might help someone else.