TechSupport PING
Posted on 05/14/2006 6:38:08 AM PDT by fedupjohn
I need need some help with a popup virus. Spy Bot can't see it and Microsoft's virus program can't fix it. This program redirects the browser to a website that sells software to fix the problem that it causes.
Any help will be appreciated.
The best sites to go to when you've got a nasty spyware infection and all else has failed and you need some real live expert help are CastleCops.com, Gladiator Security Forum, SpywareInfo, Spyware Warrior, Wilders Security Forums, or Geeks to Go. Thanks to Freeper backhoe for some of these suggestions.
The Geeks to Go site has a couple of excellent lists of steps to follow:
Wonderful! I have all those and Spy Hunter as well. Spy Hunter gets a lot those others all seem to miss.
How do you have Norton and Zone Alarm set? I have Zone Alarm Professional, I think and Norton System Works 2006. I think the problem the last several days was Norton fighting with Zone Alarm because somehow, inadvertantly both Firewalls got turned on together as near as I can tell.
Norton ended up corrupted anyway and took major efforts of many hours to get it uninstalled. Haven't reinstalled it yet.
The major symptom was hitting a few keys or doing even just one action and the computer taking at least 30 seconds and often 3-5 minutes before it would catch up and allow more actions. Uninstalling Norton seems to have about 75-85% fixed that but not totally.
Much appreciate your reply. Thanks big. Nice to know I have some good software. Thought so but this problem these few days has been maddening.
Much appreciate your info and post. Filing it in hardcopy as well.
God's best to you and yours.
I used Norton products, Virus, Systemworks with GoBack and their Internet Security package that included a firewall. I don't remember the specifics but there actually was a conflict with Systemworks and my W2000 of some sort and I had to turn off the utility portion and only used GoBack. When it came time to update or resubscribe, I chose to update. I could not uninstall the program. They have since recognized the problem and have a clean-up program for those who cannot accomplish a complete uninstall. It screwed my computer up so bad I finally had to hire it rebuilt. I ditched Norton entirely and changed from W2000 Pro to XP Pro. I used the GoBack many times because I know only enough to be dangerous and I needed it. Hated to get rid of it but XP is just as effective. That and cooling my exploration and experimentation. Good Luck. I now have a firewall called F-Secure provided by my cable provider at no cost which includes all the others virus control, anti-spam, etc. It seems to work pretty good. I haven't had any problems. Good Luck and the folks here are especially helpful and knowledgible if you overlook remarks to change to mac and other silly stuff. My thanks to them for help in the past.
I don't see a lot of people agreeing with me, but I'm going to repeat it. A lot of viruses and spyware can only be removed in safe mode. AdAware, for example, can be run in safe mode, and will actually clean things that it can only detect in normal mode.
I agree. The folks here are wonderful.
Yeah, I just went through the work around downloadable stuff from Norton's site to uninstall it. What a tedious task with a system that hangs for minutes at a time after every or near every little action.
Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.
Thanks. Quite my sense about such stuff, too. balance . . .
Yeah, Norton and McAfee both have given me fits on more than one occasion. I like the utilities and GO BACK.
Daschund's AntiCrash software is wonderful but it's corrupted and I haven't been able to get it back shipshape yet. It stops a ton of crashes cold. Expensive but great stuff.
System Mechanic 5 is good but I paid for 6 only to discover that it had antivirus etc. and of course wouldn't work with any of the other. So I'm reverting to System 5
I started to install Microsoft's new FIXIT IT ALL whatever it's called. But they are worse--insisting on removing ALL others. I don't trust Microslop that much! Though I'd prefer to have a quality package the operating system writer cleared and tailor tuned to the operating system. I just don't trust Microslop that much.
I have System Mechanic 5 on one computer and have decided it is a good product. I will probably install it on my laptop this week.
I lean towards non Microsoft utilities, I just don't think they are nimble enough to keep up with viruses/spyware etc.
If you used Goback, be sure you never develop a bad spot in your boot sector. Ordinarily, a bad boot sector means you have to replace the disk, but you can at least copy the unaffected data to the new drive. With Goback you might be unable to read the drive at all.
That is what I have. Thanks
THANKS. Glad I'm not the only one of that opinion.
I have often given them feedback that it's a shameful stupid disgrace to have so much money and such brilliant manpower with so many skills and put out such inadequate sloppy software with such horrid customer service.
The last year it seems like they are trying a bit harder but they have tons to catch up to, imho.
After I scrubbed them I'm back to normal...Thanks of all you for your help.
TechSupport PING
Solution: use something other than Windows.
I'm just about done with a 3 year divorce battle with my esteemed coke head ex-wife. Once I have her and and her lawyer out of my life, I plan to build a new computer and install Linux on it.
It sounds like this is solved but I would add that for very tough cases, sometimes manual work is needed. For this I use Hijack This -it shows everything that loads. Then you use the information here to decide what to kill
http://www.castlecops.com/HijackThis.html
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