iexplore.exe

[joroma]

On friday night i turned on my pc as usual but when I try to start IE7 Zonealarm pops up to say iexplore.exe needs to access my pc. I deny access and IE7 says webpage unavailable (it doesn't matter which webpage I try to go to).

I can still access all my emails using Outlook Express.

I can't work out why iexplore.exe suddenly needs to access my pc as I haven't installed any new programmes. I am cautious about simply allowing ieplorer.exe to access my pc and looking on google there is a suggestion that this may be a virus. Anyone know anything about this problem or how to resolve it?

I did a search on my pc hard drive for iexplore.exe and found it in various folders including some Messenger sub folders. The kids use the pc a lot for Messenger.

 

[.walls]

sorry, haven't seen this myself - but do the kids have their own accounts? if not, maybe they should have a user account instead of an admin one?

 

[div0]

By default Zone Alarm is set up to allow IE7 (specifically iexplore.exe) to access the internet. Sometimes when programs are upgraded Zone Alarm will not recognise them as the same program, and will ask for confirmation that they are allowed access. Have you recently installed any Windows updates or anything that might have updated Internet Explorer?

The reason you can't access any webpages, is because you told Zone Alarm not to allow access, and so Internet Explorer can no longer access the internet.

I suppose it is also possible that these things could have come about because of a virus. Some good free programs to download and install are:

Ad-aware
Spybot Search and Destroy
AVG Anti-virus
AVG Anti-spyware

(unfortunately you'll need access to the internet first!)

If you right-click on Zone Alarm in your taskbar and open it up - you can then go to 'Program Control' (I think that's what its called) and allow iexplore.exe access, so that you can download these programs. But it all depends on how likely you think you have a virus or not. As you may not want to allow it access before scanning your comp. If this is the case, then you'll need to download these programs from another machine (or however else you've accessed the forums to post (Firefox?).

 

[joroma]

Thanks guys. I do run AVG, Ad Aware and Spybot S & D. They are up to date and do not report any problems. Hadn't considered an update to IE7, my pc is set to update automatically, but I would have thought a file called iexplore.exe would be new though I realise my logic is flawed as why else would Zonealarm be asking for it. BTW I am accessing the forum from work! Still suspicious but surprised nobody else has had this happen as quite a few people on the forum use Zonealarm.

I didn't say in my origainal post but my "support" pc that the kids normally use is suffering from the same problem and that uses Firefox! On that one I did allow iexplore and now it won't let me log onto an account.