Can ping websites but cannot connect

I can get POP3 emails, can connect to network computers, I can ping any website but but “Internet Explorer could not open the search page”. My symantec scan using current data definitions is clean. Am unable to run either Spybot S&D or Malwarebytes because they are unable to connect to the respective servers to update files. I suspect I may have picked up a malware because I was troubleshooting another PC infected with Sopidkc.exe and had used my flash drive to install Malwarebytes. I found a suspicious executable 968.exe in my TEMP folder and also in the registry, and removed all. I’m not sure which of the services are required for Internet connection. Any help short of re-formatting would be appreciated.