"The parameter is incorrect" ArcGIS Server connections

[PaulHuffman]

I have a user that reports that after running Spybot Search and Destroy, and correcting a few issues, (as recommended by our IT guy) now all his map projects that use services.arcgisonline.com are showing those map layers are missing or moved. He's running ArcGIS 10.x Win 7 pro 64.  When I opened up his ArcCatalog, there were red x's on his AS connections. When I tried to make a new connection to services.arcgisonline/arcgis/services,  AC came back with an error "Error: The parameter is incorrect".  Not a very helpful message. 

There were some cases in the forum where this was corrected by changing the settings of Internet Explorer away from "work online"  However, we are now running IE 11, and that is not an option to be found in IE settings.  But it does point to some internet connection change on the system that was made by Spybot. 

Yesterday, I ran Spybot Search and Destroy on my WIN 7 64 PC as well, and my ArcServer connections  to ArcDesktop 10.2.1 are still working.

[PaulHuffman]

More info today.  We temporarily brought down the PC's windows firewall, but it didn't help.

User also reports that Google Earth doesn't work either.  Do GE and AGS use the same port on a PC?

[WilliamCraft]

For the broken layers, try re-pathing them to their original source by right clicking the layer, opening the Properties, going to the Source tab, and setting the data source.  If this is not successful for whatever reason, try disabling Spybot and then re-opening and re-pathing the map document thereafter.  Based on your description of the behavior, it sounds like Spybot could have cleaned up something needed by the map document in order to connect to the layer data sources it needs but honestly doubt it.  Do you have another computer with ArcGIS Desktop where you could try opening the same map document in order to see if the external services you mentioned break or don't break?  Based on the fact that you said yours was working after running Spybot, the problem may not be Spybot at all... in fact, the user who reported this issue to you could simply have lost his internet connection which might explain why external links don't work.  Can you access the REST URL for the external services via a browser from his computer?

[PaulHuffman]

Right clicking the layer>Properties>source>resetting the data source in the map project is the obvious fix. That hasn't worked. That's why I went back to ArcCatalog to check the arcGISServer connections to arcGIS Online and tried to refresh or make them over. Each of these just gave the  "Error: The parameter is incorrect" message.  I turned off Spybot Resident and Symantic endpoint protection, and windows firewall, but still was unable to make the ArcGIS Server connections.

The PC is showing under "Solve PC issues"  solve a problem with Google Earth. Tried that but got ""could not be downloaded". In Google Earth I tired GE diagnostics, got a message that port 80 was blocked.  If ArcGIS Server connections use port 80 also, this could be a clue.

The PC will make a browser connection to the rest url.

Last night, I manually opened port 80 for in and out. Didn't fix the Google Earth error or the ArcGISServer connection problem.  I expected as much, because the earlier attempt at just temporarily bringing down the Windows firewall didn't fix anything. 

The owner of the PC wants to reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows and applications. I told him go for it. 

I'm ready to throw this PC out the window, and tell the front office there was an accident.

[PaulHuffman]

I got on a screen sharing session with an ESRI analyst. Showed him the error message and that Google Earth also wasn't working.  We installed Fiddler so we could examine the internet traffic and the ArcGISServer connections started working, possibly because Fiddler acts as a proxy. We then tried to reset internet options, but couldn't because there was still an IE process running. We killed the IE process, reset internet options, and then were able to make ArcGISServer connections and Google Earth connections. 

However, a couple of days later, the PC owner complained that the PC was running slowly. When I looked, the PC was loaded up with malware again.  I unplugged the network cable and ran some more malware fixes on it.