Problems downloading

[Wraith]

I've just built myself a new PC , which is running fine except for one thing. I can't seem to get downloaded stuff to work. I can download the software, and get no error messages indicating problems, yet when I try to use it, it fails.

I have tried it with a variety of different downloads, including BF2 patches, the BF2142 2nd beta, Fear Combat, and the Folding @ Home client. I have also tried downloading from different mirrors, and tried with and without download managers. They all fail. The only downloads which (seem to) work are the Windows Updates. I have all of the latest updates apart from the MS spyware remover.

It's not my internet connection, because I can connect my old PC to the same connection with the same modem and it works fine. I doubt it's anything to do with my firewall or AV as they are the same as on my old machine (Zonealarm and Sophos respectively).

It's not the downloads themselves as I've been able to work around the problem by downloading the items (from the same sites I tried first) onto a different machine and transferring them across by USB memory stick, at which point they work fine.

Can anyone help?

Wraith

P.S. I asked our IT guys at work who were less than helpful. The response I got was "sounds like somethings wrong there" - No shit guys

 

[BiG D]

Right click on the file and go to properties. Check near the bottom, it might say something to the effect of "this file has been blocked because it may be unsafe." Just hit the unblock button (or whatever the button is called...)

 

[Ronin Storm]

Is Sophos preventing certain files on your computer from actually being updated? That's my first guess.

 

[Wraith]

@ Big D: Can't see anything like that on there.

@ Ronin: I don't know and I don't know how to find that out. I did have a look in the Sophos menu but can't see anything that suggests that that is a feature of Sophos (or at least a feature I can turn off). I'll let you know if I can find out anything.

A friend of mine mentioned that it could be something to with a corrupt registry key. Is that a possibility and if so, how would I find out which one and how to fix it?

Thanks for the help so far guys.

 

[Ronin Storm]

As regards the registry key, I honestly couldn't say. Still, something awry in the registry could do, well, almost anything I'd imagine.

I had a quick check on my PC and couldn't find the setting BiG D mentioned either. Am I missing something?

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

I can see the thing Big D is talking about, but mines isnt unblocked (Im not sure if its actually 'blocked') and it works just fine.

 

[thatbloke]

Try booting into safe mode and running some of these files. See if they run then.

If they do, something is blocking them, be it a security setting in windows or some kind of virus checker or firewall or whatever... you just need to find the right thing!

 

[Ronin Storm]

Ah, good plan TB!

 

[BiG D]

As regards the registry key, I honestly couldn't say. Still, something awry in the registry could do, well, almost anything I'd imagine.

I had a quick check on my PC and couldn't find the setting BiG D mentioned either. Am I missing something?

It's an SP2 thing, and it's... random at best. It only happens to me if someone sends me an MP3 via msn. exes are fine. Downloading from the internet is fine. If you don't have to deal with it, consider yourself lucky...

Did you download these files with IE? Can I see a screenshot of the properties window? I seem to remember there being some hoops you have to jump through before it lets you at the unblock button.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Pretty much everything I download is through Firefox. That the same for you too, Wraith?

 

[Wraith]

Now you mention it, I am using Firefox on this machine. Given that I used IE on my old PC, I wonder if it could be something quirky within Firefox? I guess the only way to check that would be to download something using IE.

Edit: While I realise one result does not give conclusive proof, I have just downloaded Spybot Search & Destroy with IE and it worked fine. Interesting.......

 

[thatbloke]

IIRC, when you use both Firefox and IE to begin with, when you download files as a security measure, if it hasn't encountered that type of file before it will ask you if you want to run that file. It will then provide a dialog box which normally contains a tick box saying something like "don't ask me this again."

It is perfectly possible you pressed No rather than Yes in one of these boxes...

Did you try Safe Mode yet?

 

[Wraith]

I'm pretty sure I said yes to all of those dialog boxes. I haven't tried safe mode yet because I've not got any files to try out yet. (I got them to work by downloading from another machine so all my games etc are up-to date)