sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories problem with spyware

hi. got a prblem with spyware on my home computer. I ran adaware and got a huge list of nasty things eating my computer. I quarentined it and went about my life Then a few hours later my internet shut down. It would still dial up but wouldnt recieve any info from any website. I restored all the spyware found in my search but its now two weeks later and Its still not working. Any help on how to rectify this problem, or to configure adaware so this dosnt happen again would be a great help.

Thanks

run ad-aware again. make sure you do the updates first.

Then run spybot search & destroy, get the latest version out 1.3 I think. do the updates first.

I would also run hijackthis.
be careful of this one. This will show you everything running. It will kill anything you tell it to so becareful of what you tell it to fix.

I can usually clean an machine up with these as far as spyware goes.

these programs can be found at download.com. They are shareware programs.

Dont forget to run a good antivirus scan also.

Get one if you dont have one, it is money well spent.

If you dont have one go to www.antivirus.com. They will do a scan for you there. (it is a free service)


good luck.

BD3c

yeah, the problem is I can't GET to download.com, i can't pick up any sites. How about any mags that give them away on the cover disk? thats how I got adaware. only british mags, Im in the UK.

Whats stopping you from getting to download.com?

Do a google search on those programs. That may point you to another site that you can get too that will have them.

BD3c

There is a spyware program that prevents you from accessing any sites and I fixed a couple of computers that had this problem but don't remember exactly what it was. If you hit Ctl+shift+Esc it will pull up Windows Task Manager. Look through that and kill any process that is not something you need. Dont kill Explorer.exe or your system will lockup. What ever it is it has to be killed and then deleted in C:\Program files and the Registry. It will be something .exe that you didn't install.

Hopefully that will help and maybe I will remember what it was.

Ohh and the spyware programs don't detect it so they are useless against it. It will relaunch everytime windows restarts and changes its name.

[This message has been edited by Crabb (edited October 22, 2004).]

Try booting in safe mode with networking and see if you can get to download.com.

It sounds similar to wintools (3 programs that monitor and restart each other) or maybe new.net. Go to another computer that can get on the net and download the programs and updates and put them on a cd. Go into safe mode to add/remove programs and uninstall anything you didn't install. Which version of windows is it?

im running Win98SE.

any luck on this?

If you have that spyware that crabb is talking about.

I say see if a friend can download HIJACKTHIS for you.

This will show you everything running and also registry entries it that may have been changed by different programs. And allow you to kill it.

I had the same issue on my dad'd machine a couple of weeks ago.

I was able to clean it up pretty good with just these 3 programs. HIJACKTHIS, AD-AWARE AND SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY VER 1.3.

also del all your temp directories!!

I've seen viruses screw up the Hosts file (located C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc) if you open it with notepad you should find
127.0.0.1 localhost
and no websites after that. The host file can really limit your browsing ability.
I'd also make sure you have the latest version and definition file for Ad-aware.
There isn't much that Ad-aware misses.