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Post by Mark on Sept 14, 2008 15:29:02 GMT 1
Ouch !! What a pain. Hope youj get things back on an even keel soon Baz.
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Post by afkmatrix on Sept 14, 2008 18:51:14 GMT 1
Ok Bazza slow down there mate you don't need a reformat and reinstall mate. I too got a nasty little virus that stoped me using any search engines and mucked up the internet good and proper.
Now here is what you do to fix it!!
First I hope to god you have some spyware programs installed, if not install these ones now!!
Just do a search on google for these:
1. SuperAntiSpyware 2. Spyware Blaster - Just install this and then enable protection, it just sits in the background protecting ur system. 3. Spybot S&D 4. Ad-Aware 5. Windows Defender - Can find this on Microsofts website.
Now there is no point doing a scan in normal windows as you will not get all the nasty stuff.
So you need to get windows into safe mode, to do this you reboot your system and just before it comes up with the loading windows screen you need to press F8. It should give you a list of options to start XP in safemode without networking, with networking etc. Choose the Start XP without networking. It will boot into XP and a window will pop up asking if u want to go into safe mode just click yes.
Now run Superantspyware and do a complete scan of all your hardrive partitions. It will take a while so I left mine running all night. When that is done delete any thing it finds. Then I would run it again, keep running it until it finds nothing, then run Spybot S&D. Do the same thing run it until nothing comes up. You can also try Ad-Aware but it doesn't seem to find as much as Spybot S&D.
Now reboot your system and let it go into normal windows, hopefully you are back to normal but you can run the spyware programs again if you want to.
This worked a treat for me, a damn pain but it worked without a reinstall!!
If you have any questions etc just pm me ;D
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2008 0:32:07 GMT 1
Also once your system is back and stable head for the following file and lock it too read only. The file is called "Hosts" NOTE. No Extension on this file what so ever. It's located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc for windows xp. The nasty probaly dumped something in there, so check to make sure it has nothing more than the follwing. # Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. # # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one # space. # # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. # # For example: # # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host 127.0.0.1 localhost If you like I can send you a modified hosts file which has a lot of these nasites blocked, also no adds in the forum. I would add HiJackThis to the list afkmatrix has given you. www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
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Post by popeye on Sept 15, 2008 15:13:18 GMT 1
Might I also suggest that you buy a virus/internet/firewall protection software package (I can thoroughly recommend Norton products, I use Norton Antivirus and Norton Firewall, for which I renew the license each year at about £20 each). These check all you incoming mail and attachments and monitor all incoming data when on the internet. They will warn you and automatically isolate anything suspicious. They also automatically update themselves whenever you are connected to the internet to ensure that they can detect and protect against the latest viruses. I have been using them for over 8 years and have never had a problem.
You also get Norton Go-Back with a number of the Norton packages, which is a very, very useful utility. It enables you to reset you whole system to an earlier time (how far you go back depends how much has changed and what disc space you allocate for the Go-Back memory, typically it can go back up to 2 days if you are making moderate changes to your system or downloading significant data). It acts like a rolling backup and keeps a continuous record of ALL the changes to your system. It starts up with the machine, so it gives you the option to go back in time when the computer starts, before Windows starts. It has saved my life several times, especially when I have been loading a new program that doesn't work properly with the version of Windows that is on the system and I either cannot get Windows to start properly or I can't fully delete the program. You can also use it if you are "experimenting" with software.
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Post by popeye on Sept 15, 2008 15:51:20 GMT 1
PS The Norton CD also allows you to fix viruses on the computer at startup, before/without loading it so you might also be able to recover the system without having to reformat the hard disk etc.
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Post by russ on Sept 15, 2008 18:32:35 GMT 1
i say go with the reformat helps get rid of the spam on ya machine as wqell, also nic elooking model there are you making the rc version or the static
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Post by afkmatrix on Sept 15, 2008 20:45:11 GMT 1
Hi popeye,
Not to rain on your suggestion but i would advise strongly AGINST getting norton antivirus. It is a very bloated piece of software that does not find all of the viruses on your system. I used to have norton and changed to AVG free and i did a scan with norton just before i uninstalled it and installed AVG and it said my system was clean but then AVG found 2 viruses!!!
If you want a good solid antivirus I would recommend either Kaspersky or NOD32, I have NOD32 and it is totally unobtrusive and very good at what it does. You do have to purchase these but if you don't want to I would recommend AVG free.
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Post by Achtung!! on Sept 15, 2008 21:11:37 GMT 1
I use AVG too, Norton is very power hungrey as well.
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Post by eric on Sept 15, 2008 21:29:51 GMT 1
I agree, I swapped from Norton to AVG (the bells and whistles full protection, paid for), and my comp is noticably faster.
Edit; Sorry Baz, did'nt mean to hijack your thread.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2008 1:06:14 GMT 1
For a firewall Baz go for Comodo firewall. it's free and controls things going in and out of your pc. www.comodogroup.com/I have avg 8 free. Nortons won't even run on my pc!!!
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Post by Martin on Sept 16, 2008 9:00:33 GMT 1
I would reccomend avast its free and it works with 64bit pc's.
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Post by russ on Sept 17, 2008 18:45:30 GMT 1
topic of annit virus i use avg to norton blocks softwhere and allows viruses
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Post by danny on Sept 17, 2008 21:51:56 GMT 1
just a quick note:
some "anti"-spyware programs are fakes and sometimes actually install spyware themselves.... some even give false results and claim that they have found spyware that can only be removed by buying the full version of the software, even though your system may not even have that spyware installed!!
I only use Ad-Aware SE (www.lavasoft.com ) as a spyware remover, and AVG anti-virus ( http://www.grisoft.com) as a anti-virus program... that's all you need really.
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Post by afkmatrix on Sept 17, 2008 23:31:26 GMT 1
I would add the spybot Search and Destroy to ad-aware danny as I have found that ad-aware does not pick all of the spyware up. I know many people using Spybot S&D with no probs etc and I know superantispyware works as it definitely solved my internet issue.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2008 1:07:39 GMT 1
I have Ad-Aware 2007 (yes it is for xp as well) - danny I strongly suggest you upgrade to it. Windows Defender, Spybot S&D (stops nasties getting into the registry) and AVG 8 Free. Also the modified windows host file, which blocks a lot of the nasties sites. p.s. Love your avatar afkmatrix.
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