Posted on 03/29/2011 11:26:05 AM PDT by Professional
Last week I got hit with a nasty set of viruses, malware, and trojans.
One of the first things I did, was to check out Freerepublic to get some free advice. Unfortunately, it didn't help much, so I've decided to try and add some value here for folks that have something similar happen to them.
My problems began, by using Google searches for information pertaining to the Japan Earthquake. Now, I suspect that part of these internet virus scams, is to embed the trouble in searches that are very popular at any given time.
I took the advice of this forum, and downloaded malwarebytes. Sure enough, it helped identify a bunch of the stuff, some that my avira virus scan could not detect. So, after identifying the problems, they were removed. I also did a system restore going back a few days in time, beyond the origination of the trouble.
Trouble is, that each time I restarted the computer, I got more viruses, etc. I also could no longer contact microsoft updates, it was being blocked. My browser was being hijacked, and I was getting all sorts of websites redirected, mostly about a survey and a free walmart gift card. While the computer ran, eventually I got a message reporting problems to WIN32 being shut down. This turned out to be a huge problem, because that would shut down the msft security center!
I did some searches about viruses, and that only brought me to MORE plague filled pages. This is a huge RISK, DO NOT DO SEARCHES about viruses!! Many fake leads using key words, then you wind up with more trouble than you started with.
I downloaded Microsoft Security essentials on another computer and put it on a thumb drive. I ran the program on the infected computer, but it could not solve the win32 problem, and I still could not use the internet to contact microsoft.
Ok, now I'm into this like 3 days, and I'm really, really getting ticked off. Nothing is working, and I'm about to call a guy and pay him to fix the computer. My concern there, is that they almost always just wipe out your computer, and give you a few of your old files back.... In my case, that means an enormous amount of work that I'd rather avoid.
Finally, I use the other computer to browse microsoft website about viruses. There was a toll free number available, so I gave it a shot, figuring that would be a long, long hold.... No, it rang straight through to Bombay. Raj does a remote takeover of my computer, and runs into one obstacle after the next. Finally he finds a way to get through, and do a virus scan. After 1/2 an hour or more....my computer is supposedly "clean". I get disconnected, and I go home and go to bed. But, Microsoft doesn't give up that easy. By Monday morning, I've gotten 2-3 emails at yahoo, and two voice mails at my office. Next thing you know, Bombay is calling me again.
Now, I've got one of their experts. He takes the computer over again, and this time he fixes the busted windows registry stuff. That was the heart of the problem. Once that was completed, I ran a few more virus checks, and did a msft update and got the system fully up and running again.
I'm very pleased with how microsoft helped me. I should have gone straight to them, and in the future that is what I'm going to do!
Right now, I have a paid computer expert in my office, and he's analyzing our operation. We have service through comcast, and he informs me... that norton antivirus is FREE, full version, due to our business with comcast. We were not aware of this.
I hope my description above is helpful for all freepers.
Still overpriced.
Norton is a bloated pig that hogs resources.
The tool you should have used was Malwarebytes.
Further to protect your computer you should have installed Spybot(free). Run it once a week to make sure everything is clean.
F-prot should stop just about anything and runs in the background without beating on your hard drive the way Norton does.
I know... but when you’re just kidding, what does it hurt?
:D
Hoss
bkmk
I get problems blocked while visiting my Photobucket account...doing searches for landscapes, etc.
It is indeed a mistake to think you can only pick up viruses by searching naughty sites.
I run Advanced system care, a freebie occasionally, too.
tag for later.
Nothing until somebody thinks their favorite product or company has been dissed. Then it can be a really, really big deal. Depending on what product or company it is.
There’s the problem, once you’ve installed Norton, it is very difficult to get rid of.
Windows is a dead os move or have a life of misery dealing with this nonsense .....use a Linux distro or buy a Mac
During my corporate days (in IT) the company used a corporate version of McAfee, had a firewall, some websites blocked, and still had weekly infections of a bunch of user computers in all depts. How and why, I dunno, but my PC never got the bugs from the internal network, probably because I used a couple of additional tools.
Also have a good Firewall and Antivirus running. The ones built-in to Microsoft are okay, but there are a number of free ones that are superior.
My 3 computer network here at my biz is just about 2 yrs old. In the past I’d been really careful about what I bought, but I was in a hurry and wound up buying 3 bad computers. They have been slow as molasses for the duration, and have AMD chips. Something is seriously wrong with these AMD Athlon 64 processors, and even after installing a patch to the drivers, they stink.
In a bizarre twist though, in my desperate hours of trying to fix my computer, I over installed my xp pro OS and the speed picked up 4 fold. So, I’m assuming there is some sort of software hardware conflict.
The computer expert in my office right now, is going to try the same thing now with the other two computers, but it is taking FOREVER, because those other two pcs are barely moving. Ugh...
6-12 months from now, I’ll torch the old system and buy something completely new. I’d like to incorporate smart phones with the computers, state of the art stuff. I’ll be very picky.... Any suggestions welcome.
That crazy set of problems I had, it hijacked the mozilla firefox browser as well as the IE I was using.
I hope you didn’t put Norton AV on your machine. Norton AV is hands down the WORST software available. Whenever you see a game that says to turn off your AV to play, they mean Norton. It’s a pig, it’s unstable, and it doesn’t uninstall clean. Go with Avast, also free, and doesn’t suck. Used to use AVG but they went very naggy, I understand the desire to turn customers using your free product into customers using your pay product, but don’t bug me about it every couple of week; I have a brother-in-law like that, I don’t give him money either.
Seems to me, that the best way to stay out of trouble is to be very careful about checking out new websites.
Used to be pretty common getting viruses from emails, especially those stupid chain emails, but most email hosting these days seems to stop the problems??? Thankfully so, because it is much harder to get folks to stop sending you stupid email stuff...
I get spam e-mails from myself all the time and have not been able to stop it. I was told by my ISP that it would take the PC manufacturer to solve the problem. I do not believe that.
Yep, it’s called browser poisoning and you don’t have to download anything. It’s a “driveby” download (not unlike the mainstream media and their brainwashing)
I like to use combofix in conjunction with malwarebytes.
Sometimes you have to rename the .exe to .com to trick it into running in safe mode with networking.
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