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.

"im running Win98SE."

that is one of the problems as well. time to upgrade to XP. by the upgrade to XP for $90, wipe the hard drive clean and start over. Load XP. Then download all the critical updates for it before you install anything else. Then by a copy of Norton System works Pro. Install everything including Go Back. Download Ad-aware, Spybot, and Sygate personal firewall. All free apps. Then reload all your applications. For extra security, download Firefox browser and use it instead of IE, but keep IE for those few sites that require it.

Win xp??
The largest virus after win me.
win 2k is better

Norton can also lockup your internet conexion.
www.grisoft.com for the antivirus, and www zonelabs.com for the firewall

Indeed is firefox a good alternetive for explorer, but I prefer Opera

[This message has been edited by EELCO (edited November 09, 2004).]

for a corporate platform, Win2K is preferred for it's lock down security. But for personal machines, XP all the way. I have been using XP since it came out. I do the updates and run AV and it runs like a charm. There is absolutely no reason for an individual user to run Win2K unless they want more headaches.

Just my 2 cents (that's all I have left), I tried XP, didn't like it. Went back to win2k on mine. As soon as I figure out how to run Toshiba winadmin on linux I'll trash windows.

just curious, what didn't you like about it? As far as Linux, I can't see an advantage either. If windows were stripped down to only do what Linux does, then it would be as stable. Linux requires to much user admin and commnad line programming.

I've had the same install of XP Pro on my laptop for 4 years. It doesn't lockup, haven't been hacked and Symantec Corperate hasn't let a single virus through.
I've had better experiences with XP than 2k on average.

When is the last time you looked at Linux? So far, there's only a couple of programs I haven't found for it yet, and they're specialty programs like Autocad and Protools. Modern Linux installs can do everything Windows can, usually better.

Quickbooks will not run on Linux! Unless you use VMWare but that is pricey for just running quickbooks.
That is the only thing stopping me from switching.
XP home is junk as far as I am concerned
XP pro is OK but my Win2k 600mhz machine runs much better than my 2GHz XP Pro machine. Not sure why but it launches apps very slow.

Not to run off topic but Linux is still a very un user friendly platform. I have gone to school for about 2 years to learn the linux/unix platform and it still puts many questions in my head. The way the file systems and kernel structure are set up, there is almost no way for a simple user to use it.

XP is the most user friendly and stable platform that microsoft has had to offer to the end user. All the way from a OS to a NOS, it provides the functionality that a home user and an experienced network user need. Anyway, enough of the microsoft sales lol... I think it might just be the inexperience of the user that is administrating the OS that would cause the problems.
As far as spyware, I have the programs available and would be able to e-mail them to you if needed. Or I can give you a link to an address where you would be able to download them off my server, and it would bypass the spyware page access problems. All you need is spybot, and a decent antivirus and you are set. HiJackthis is a more exprerienced user tool and I would not recommend anyone running it that does not know what to do.

-Austin

Get someone to download LSPFix, if you are still having problems ;-) Some spyware will inject themselves into your WinSock Layered Service Provider setting (root winsock layer access). When you delete it, you loose your internet connection also. Be careful what you are doing. You delete the wrong thing and you will have to reinstall all WinSock protocols through Windows. Good luck!


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Cody Brunson
Technology Management Solutions
https://www.technologymanagementsolutions.com