how to remove mywebpage.com as unable to access internet

pigeonpie

A french friend's Toshy laptop PC was set up by an "expert" who has routed all her browsing in IE through https://www.mywebpage.com. ie she types in another url and it auto diverts to mywebpage, which then fails to open or times out. (trying to open itself, never mind the requested website)
mywebpage.com is not set as the default page in Internet Options. That's set to yahoo which doesn't open as....you've guessed the rest.

She can't use the web at all nor her email as uses webmail. When I was last there I once managed to bypass mwp using a wireless connection, but that doesn't work anymore either. It used to be bad but worked sometimes but now the PC can only be used offline and she has 2meg broadband for which she's paying a lot.
It connects fine to the internet (wanadoo server; normally or wifi) and the bottom tool bar claims the connection is excellent and up to speed.

How can she remove the mywebpage.com diversion as I assume that this would fix the problem? If anyone thinks they can help, please can you keep it really simple so that I can tell her or her daughter over the phone. She's a bit cash strapped right now like many of us and does not want to call in yet another "expert" to sort it out if it's not necessary.

thanks guys

wolfman

Check it's not going through a proxy.

Open IE, along the top go to, Tools > Internet Options > then the Connections tab > Click the Lan Settings button. Make sure none of the checkboxes are ticked.

If it's not that then you're looking at something possibly a little more complex or harder to indentify.

It's no the most helpful advice as it's avoiding the issue, but she could try a different browser. If she can't get online get a friend to download one and bring it round on a usb drive (or something). Try:

https://www.mozilla.com (Firefox)
https://www.opera.com (Opera)

Both are free, easy to install and setup. Great, if not better alternatives to Internet Explorer.

Browntoa

If you have SpyBot S&D installed, go to the "Immunize" section.
Is "Lock IE Start Page Settings" ticked?
If so, uncheck it

If you still have problems, some ISP's provide a customized version of IE. Some Web pages will also reset your home page and do this. One of the customizations they might make is to disable the ability to change the home page, so that you are forced to use their home page. You can re-enable this by making a small change in the Windows registry.
In Regedit, navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel
In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00
Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001
If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to "C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.
When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Quincy_3

Windows Defender by Microsoft has the ability to reset the homepage in the options somewhere and its not to bad at finding rubbish aswell.

pigeonpie

thanks guys. sorry to be thick, but how do we get at regedit and the HKEYs?

she can't download anything from MS, firefox, opera etc as the relevant webpages time out. Will have to print out and take Browntoa's advice when I am next there as can't email it to her either (no email). Whatever needs undoing has to be done offline
much appreciated
cheers

Quincy_3

Start, Run, then type, regedit