Internet barely working even with cable modem

Hi, Arnie. I'm probably (LOL) way out of my depth but....
First re: DSO exploit: Are you finding this due to a Spybot scan?? If so, it's a known bug in the V1.3 when on XP machines. Just check that your Active X download settings in IE Advanced show Disable for unsigned and disable or prompt for signed, Then ignore those.You can put in setting to not report that particular item.
Was the puter on a "Very Good" surge suppressor? was cable feed going through it also?
In your C.P. Add/Delete programs, when you go to delete IE, you should be offered several options in the process. One of which is "Repair IE". Worth trying. Possibly running Scan disk or SysRestore point might help.
Another left fielder: Whats his system performance showing? How much free capacity? About norm for his machine? Some worms will cause usage to hit near 100%.
One more lefty: Possible Video display problem? Drivers? I have noted after installing latest full set of MS Patches, Browsing performance badly slowed down on an XP Home Laptop. Don't use this site for page loading tests, as this site has some continuing problems with IE taking sometimes 2+mins to fully load opening page.
If you hit stop , you'll only get part page showing.

All I can guess at. Hopefully, some one, with more knowledge, will jump in here! Luck!

Arnie,

According to what you write it can be:
- hardware damage to the cable modem
- hardware damage to the computer (say, the ethernet card)
- software problem with IE or malware

The best way to research this would be:
a) Find somebody with a good working cable modem and see what happens if you use it. Or, alternatively, try your modem on his computer. Or let your cable company try a different modem. But you will have to pay them if it doesn't help. Or try another computer on the same modem.
b) To check the ethernet card, use a router or switch to connect the machine to a second machine in a network and see how fast this LAN connection is. Or simply replace the ethernet card (for another make and model you might need to install different drivers). Or try the ethernet card in the other computer from step a, if you've got that running.
c) If hardware damage is excluded, only then go about to reinstall Windows XP.

It might make a difference how probable the connection with the lightning is. If it's only approximate, and your nephew did download a lot of software around the time it happened, software damage is becoming more likely.

This could be time-consuming to find out, I'm afraid.

Hope this helps.


Kees