Hi Terry,
Jumping in here. BTW glad you got the USB problem fixed!
On the issue with not being able to get to our forum from 2 different computers. I've seen this before on both my home network and on Client's network. If you are using a wifi router to connect your 2 computers to your broadband Internet provider (Cox, Charter, AT&T, Comcast, etc.), you may need to connect into it using a hardwired PC or laptop via an Ethernet cable and go into the Admin settings. Make sure that you don't have the Blacklist option selected. If so, disable it temporarily. Reboot the router from the Admin utility and try connecting to our forum via any installed browser on either computer (IE11, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.). If that still doesn't solve the problem, you may have gotten a virus in your wifi router!
Those exist, I've seen them and even have a few saved in my virus quarantine bag.
Most people are not aware of these; they usually infect business or corporate networks where I worked for 30+ years in IT. Every once in awhile though, they do get loose on home networks. The morphology vector (source of infection) is that if your daughters used their computers in the University or logged into a work network, they can catch these quite readily. Once they bring their laptop or smartphone into your home and connect to the Internet with the infected Mobile Device, the virus gets onto the router and hides a copy of the virus in the router. Every subsequent computer logging into that infected wifi router will then be immediately infected over your home wireless LAN! This also includes any neighbors who you are letting surf on your dime for a free Internet ride. (you may want to tell them their computers are now infected also!).
As to how to repair, there are 2 common and easy solutions. The first fix is to find the
RESET button on the back, front, or bottom of your wifi router (download manual from router manufacturer website; i.e.: Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, etc. if needed to locate the button). Then use a pen (not a pencil!) or a paper clip and hold the reset button down while removing the AC power cord from the wifi router. Continue holding the reset button down or in and then plug the AC power cord back into your router
---IMPORTANT--continue holding that reset button for a minimum of 3 minutes. This will do what we call a
"FACTORY RESET" of your wifi router and clear any and all settings and stuff that wasn't there when you first bought the router and opened it from it's factory package. The
Factory Reset will almost always remove the virus from your router, and you can then proceed to rescanning your other connected computers (both wired and wireless) to be sure that any detected viruses are gone.
Retest your browser(s) and attempt to connect back to our forum. 99% of the time this will solve your problem
; as long as you have done Windows resets or Windows reinstallations from factory Recovery Media on all other connected computers.
The above 2 solutions may require quite a bit of work on your part; probably a week or two. Especially if you have more than the 2 computers your daughters have on your home network connecting in to your wifi router. Of course, prior to doing the resets on each of the computers in your network, you must make sure to
BACKUP ALL PERSONAL DATA ON EACH CONNECTED COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL MEDIA!! It's very important to wipe or erase the hard drive on
EVERY computer on your network if you have contracted a router virus. Logically that only makes sense, as if you don't, and you have even 1 computer connected to the network that still has a copy of the router virus on it, as soon as you factory reset the router, that infected computer will reinfect your router and you'll have to start all over again!!!
Hope that helps.
Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>