Today I dedicated a goodly amount of time to fixing my grandmother's computer.
Yesterday, I spent my day battling a vicious trojan that had saved itself onto her computer as an anti-virus program. We all know how that is.

I emerged victorious, but a causality of the conflict was that computer's internet connection.
At first I though it was the router. No, it wasn't the router, other wireless computers could still access the internet.
Perhaps it was the network itself. We'd been having some serious weather lately. No, it wasn't the network, the wireless, cable, and telephones still work.
Check the IP address. Okay, so we're not getting an IP address.
Uninstall the network and reboot. Still not working.
Maybe it's the adapter?...
And so on.

IT was full of it, giving me the same run around every time I called before finally recommending that I call a computer technician. Yeah, right.

My father, the Kung Fu Master of computers, patiently coached me through IP settings, command prompts, and hardware re-installations before, finally, we were both stumped. As a last ditch effort before throwing the machine across the room, I loaded IE 8 onto a disk and installed it onto the computer. IE 8 failed to connect, but offered to find out what was wrong. It found something, and asked for a reboot to repair it.

I log back on and voila, the internet has been restored.


What you need to take away from this is two things:

01. Antivirus 2010 is a trojan program that attacks IE's internet configuration on top of sending you fake alerts and opening spam Internet windows. This will prevent you from accessing the internet, even after you've removed the program.
(For removal, I used Spyware Doctor Professional. Yes, you have to pay for it, but it's the best removal program I've found, and nothing else would touch AV 2010.)
If you become infected by this trojan and lose your internet after its removal, first check that you are receiving an IP address (Click Start, Accessories, Command Prompt. Type in 'ipconfig' and hit Enter. If it shows you an IP address, then you are recieving internet access, you just cannot access it). If you are receiving an IP, burn the latest version of IE onto a CD (for arguments sake, let's say IE 8). Install IE 8 onto the afflicted computer and open the browser. If it gives you the error page, click Diagnose Connection Problems. For me, it found a Proxy setting error, despite the fact that I had no Proxy settings enabled. It required a restart. When the computer restarted, the internet was back.
For manual removal of this program, read this. I cannot speak for its effectiveness, but it's another option.

02. IT guys are full of shit.