WAS IT DELL OR A SCAM?

savn4amac,

Spybot would not mess up your proxy settings. Not sure what happened. You can try the steps below for resolving the proxy settings issue.

For Chrome Browser:
Go to Chrome menu > Settings > Show advanced settings.... > Under Network, click Change proxy settings > LAN Settings and deselect "Use a proxy server for your LAN.

For Internet Explorer:
Tools menu item, which may be in the menu bar at the top or the right-hand side of the Internet Explorer window. Click on Tools and you will get a drop-down menu (below, left). Click on Internet options at the bottom of the menu and you will get a second window that has seven tabs across the top (below, right). Now click on the Connections tab.After clicking the Connections tab, a new window will appear with a LAN settings button.When you click the LAN Settings button, you will see yet another window. Now, if your browser has been hijacked with Proxy Server settings, an IP address will be inserted into the Address box under the Proxy server area (as shown below, left). To clear this configuration, simply un-check the box, delete the Address and delete the Port number (if present). After removing the Proxy Server settings, check the Automatically detect settings box in the upper part of the window.After the changes have been made, click OK and exit your browser. Reboot the computer and then launch Internet Explorer to see if the ability to access web pages has been restored. If Internet Explorer is working properly, you may then try to run your alternate browser to see if they are also working properly. If a Proxy Server hijack was the cause of your internet connection problem, hopefully, this procedure will have solved it