My misery started when my computer got infected with this Pro Alert Antivirus. My Zone Alarm (ZA) was turned off when I got this. I then run My ZA , the installed the malware byte and removed all the suspected viruses. Now, my web browsers are not working. I originally have IE 7, then I installed the other browsers, Opera & Firefox, but the problem persist. I can ping the websites by name or IP address, I checked the Network Connection and I am getting a signal. The message that I am getting on my IE when I try to go to a website is...you seemed to be connected, try again..., the other browsers are giving me error msgs. I am using Windows XP Media. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated, thanks.

As far as IE goes, you could try to reset IE defaults
-tools, internet options, adv tab
-scroll to bottom and click Reset Defaults

Close IE and restart IE to see if page opens

Another thing you can do is to do a system restore back the time and date before this all happened.

Steps below are the same for Vista

System Restore
-Go down till you see
How to use System Restore to restore Windows XP to a previous state
How to restore Windows XP to a previous state (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084)

seahwk83 , I already tried the system restore, but it didn't work. I also tried clearing all the cookies, history, and reset the IE default, but the problem persist. I uninstalled IE 7, used IE 6, then installed IE 8, but the websites still would not open. This is the same with Opera/Firefox. My firewall was disabled as well. How could this be, I can ping the websites from the cmd prompt, but when I try the web browsers, even with the IP address, it does not work. I already used the HijackThis and removed some files. For some reason, something is blocking the web browser from opening?

Sounds like ZA may well be blocking port 80.
I have experienced this in the past and they only way I found to resolve it was a complete rebuild.
Basically the malware as messed with ZA's settings and caused this.
I found that even an uninstall/reinstall of ZA didn't work !!!

Drastic I know, but it was the final solution.

Curlyben, my friend suggested also suggested to uninstall the ZA and try w/o it then reinstall, but you said that even doing this will not work and the only way is to rebuild it? I have to find my recovery CD that came w/ this PC. Hopefully, I can find it, thanks.

HI guys, just want to add that I reset the Winsock and it's all good now, thanks.

Thanks for posting what worked out for you, sure it will help others to.