New thread - Old topic

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:50 am

So I don't have to do any searching in the old threads...

What is the best freeware for spam blocking? Adaware? I have only T1B open and I contantly get pop-ups. When I leave the computer on overnight to burn a DVD, I get messages that I am running low on virtual memory. I've already maxed out virtual memory. I think I have some spam shit running on my PC. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:58 am

Ok, I found that the ads were coming from a program called OIN (Outerinfo). Not sure how that got loaded onto my PC, but I uninstalled it. I was getting a popup every minute. That has gone away now that I have uninstalled that program. Still would like somethng that I can install to keep this shit from happening again.

Shlomart Ben Yisrael · Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:20 am

What browser do you use? Firefox...Opera...IE?

Do you log on with the Administrator account always?

What firewall are you using?

PSUFAN · Post by **PSUFAN** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:57 am

Do you scan with all of the usual spyware removal programs?

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:32 am

ok, I left a DVD burn running last night and just logged onto my home computer. There were 43 windows open for IE. My computer was barely breathing so to speak. Something's FUCKED. I downloaded Adaware and did the scan last night before I kicked off the DVD burn. It found 300+ things that I had removed. I also cleared all cookies and temp internet files.

Now, I am getting popups right and left. I have no idea why. What the fuck?

I use IE, btw.

ElTaco · Post by **ElTaco** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:25 am

IE is your first problem. It sucks. Make sure you have IE 7.0 at the minimum if you are going to use it. Better yet, use IE selectively and download Firefox or Opera and use those for your day to day browsing. Only a few sites need IE these days, and they tend to be Microsoft products like weboutlook that companies use for accessing their exchange email accounts.

Anyway, to clean your PC/Laptop I suggest you start with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. After doing updates, run them in normal mode, as well as your choice of Anti-virus software. Then reboot and run them again. This may solve the problem, if not, reboot again and boot into Safe mode (hit F8 when windows starts booting and select Safe mode). This will help not start the spyware/virus processes and so you can remove them a little easier. This still doesn't solve all the problems but it could help you get closer.

You can also go to the open source discussion to find some free software:
http://www.theoneboard.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=996

There are a few anti virus programs and a few spyware programs you can try just to see if they work. There are also some tools you can run and submit the results to have people diagnose what spyware may be on your system and give you directions for removal.

Once your machine is clean, You may want to consider a few things:
Set up a firewall. At the minimum, enable your windows XP firewall. Of course if you are behind a firewall at home, this isn't a big deal, but it can't hurt. You also want to run two different anti-spyware programs and some anti-virus software.

Its also a good idea to set everyone up with their own user accounts and reserve the Admin account just for installing and reconfiguring the software.

Of course your machine should be updated regularly.

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:18 am

Have you tried restoring to a previous day?

EM sure is slow up in this bitch.

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:25 am

I.F.,

Here's what I have set up. Works great and I never have an effing problem.

Firefox.
Zone Alarm Pro
avast anti virus home edition.

I am the sole administrator.

That's it. I run adaware once a month, but there's never anything more than a few harmless data miners that I probably pick up at commercial sites.

I haven't had a serious invasion since I started using this combo.

fix · Post by **fix** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:37 am

Spywareblaster... it helps keep shit off to begin with.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:08 pm

Well, I cannot even open IE any longer at home. I kept getting something called Think-Adz into my startup menu. I deleted them, rebooted and they were there again. Did it again. Same thing. I right-clicked the programs to see the target executable. I went and deleted the target executable and rebooted.

BOOM! That was it. After deleteing those I could no longer get onto IE. I do a CTRL-ALT-DEL to check what processes are running and there are just a clusterfuck of them with names like 264819be.exe. All the while, every time I open IE, it shuts itself down. However, left and right I am getting popups stating my computer is infected with a virus and trying to get me to buy something called PC Doctor.

I'm going to go ahead and download some of these things you guys have posted here and see if it will work. The key here is this though. As soon as I installed the freeware version of Ad Aware, all this started. Before, the only real issue was that I would get a popup saying my virtual memory was low. Now I can't do anything. How can this NOT be related to the Ad Aware install? I have a feeling Ad Aware infects your machine if you choose the free version. They'll clean it up once you buy it.

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:06 pm

IndyFrisco wrote:Well, I cannot even open IE any longer at home. I kept getting something called Think-Adz into my startup menu. I deleted them, rebooted and they were there again. Did it again. Same thing. I right-clicked the programs to see the target executable. I went and deleted the target executable and rebooted.

BOOM! That was it. After deleteing those I could no longer get onto IE. I do a CTRL-ALT-DEL to check what processes are running and there are just a clusterfuck of them with names like 264819be.exe. All the while, every time I open IE, it shuts itself down. However, left and right I am getting popups stating my computer is infected with a virus and trying to get me to buy something called PC Doctor.

I'm going to go ahead and download some of these things you guys have posted here and see if it will work. The key here is this though. As soon as I installed the freeware version of Ad Aware, all this started. Before, the only real issue was that I would get a popup saying my virtual memory was low. Now I can't do anything. How can this NOT be related to the Ad Aware install? I have a feeling Ad Aware infects your machine if you choose the free version. They'll clean it up once you buy it.

I've been running the free version of Ad Aware for years without any kind of problems. No, your problem is that you have a program installed on your computer that is executing commands without your permission. Here's read this...

http://www.spywareguide.com/spydet_3161_think_adz.html

My recommendation is to make sure Ad Aware is fully updated and to load Spybot Search and Destroy on your system.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Once you have both fully loaded and updated, reboot into safe mode and run both. That should clean you out.

Once you're cleaned out, do what the pros have been telling you to do earlier in this thread. Otherwise you'll wind up like a friend of mine who won't fucking listen and keeps on reinfecting his computer to the point where he's had to reghost the machine 3 times in the last 6 months because the there's more spyware/adware on the machine than useful programs.

ElTaco · Post by **ElTaco** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:00 pm

Ad-aware is one of the most highly rated and reviewed anti-adware products in the industry. Its used by a ton of geeks. If it had spyware built in, you'd know about it before you ever installed it.
There is a better chance that you or it couldn't uninstall the spyware installed and now its gone haywire.

I'd probably spend another day or two trying to dis-infect the machine and then its time to nuke it and start from scratch.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:35 pm

I've had that bullshit deal where the spyware renames itself with a different number and moves to a different folder when you try to remove it.

I don't remember the exact cure.

I'd say boot in safe mode(restore to previous day, if need be), and run Spybot S&D... great utility.

Once you get it working, get a copy of HiJackThis(can't believe no one has mentioned it yet -- when you go to the uber-geek advice sites, it's the first thing they want you to do). Hijackthis will show you a menu of apps that run on startup, and will let you disable them, and then you can remove them.

And with IE, sad to say, I've had pretty decent luck with popups running the Yahoo toolbar.

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:20 pm

Dinsdale wrote:HiJackThis

Great program. I've used it myself to clear out a whole bunch of crap I don't want running on startup. But I wouldn't recommend it for someone who thinks Ad Aware is launching unwanted programs onto his machine. You can straight up cripple your system if you run HiJack This without knowing what you are doing.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:26 pm

I'm no El Taco, but I kow my way around a computer. I've just been fortunate over the years to never have this problem.

I saw HiJackThis in another forum. Looks like a good program.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:57 am

Well fuck. I tried installinf Symantec Antivirus. It got to the point where it tried to turn on the services and it shit on me. It says it cannot activate services. I am a system administrator, but it won't let me get to the task manager because it says the task manager has been disabled. What the fuck?

I have adaware and noadware installed and scanning. I'm getting pissed. I might bring the computer into work where our desktop guy can help clean it. I'm at a loss here.

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:38 am

STOP USING IE.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:01 pm

Bushice, I CAN'T use IE. If I try to open it,k it shut's itself down. I'm using my work laptop on my wireless network to download programs to install on my home desktop.

ElTaco · Post by **ElTaco** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:18 am

Backup, Format, Reinstall..

Sometimes its just not worth the work. I've run into machines that were hit with too much stuff to the point where ms Windows was unable to run with any consistency.

If IE is not able to run, its likely that important files may be corrupt.

You may just want to consider this as a loss and see if you can salvage your files and then go for the reinstall.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:37 pm

ok, I am trying to get into Safe Mode. Only thing that shows up for me in safe mode is a black screen with safe mode in all 4 corners. No taskbar. No icons. Nothing. It just sits there with an hourglass.

I did find that the Win32.trojan.rx virus Ad-Aware was complaining about is actually this:

http://www.symantec.com/security_respon ... 99&tabid=2

That is exactly what happened to my machine. Fucking Drive Cleaner. My problem is that everytime I try to install Symantec Anti-Virus, it fails saying it cannot start the services. Somehow this virus took over as admin and locked out all my admin functions.

Is it worth taking it to the Staples hacks? They're probably better hacks than me at this.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:42 pm

found this site. will give it a try.

http://remove-drive-cleaner.info/

ElTaco · Post by **ElTaco** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:29 pm

If you take it in, make sure you tell them they only have or 2 hours to work on it to figure out a solution and give you an estimate to fix the problem. Some of this stuff can take hours of work and it can add up at a store like that.

A small shop may charge less for hourly work. Where did you get the machine? If its dell and you still have support you can also call them and a technician will walk you trough things to try. I think a few places like AOL, Earthlink and such also have support you can call if you happen to be a customer of theirs, which hopefully you are not but its a resource to consider.

If you look through the open source list, there is a number of freeby anti-virus softwares and anti-spyware software you can try to install and see if they are any help.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:38 pm

I have a DEll, but the computer is 4 years old and no longer under support. As cheap as they are these days, I'm better off just buying a new one probably.

And this time, I'll put a rubber on my dick. I'm just worried about losing files.

Shlomart Ben Yisrael · Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:29 am

IndyFrisco wrote: I'm just worried about losing files.

Remember what Marty always says:

"Data not backed up is data you don't care about losing."

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:36 am

IndyFrisco wrote:Bushice, I CAN'T use IE. If I try to open it,k it shut's itself down. I'm using my work laptop on my wireless network to download programs to install on my home desktop.

Get a copy of firefox or opera, and never look back.

You can't use IE now because it started the problem in the first place.

indyfrisco · Post by **indyfrisco** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:57 pm

Martyred wrote:
IndyFrisco wrote: I'm just worried about losing files.
Remember what Marty always says:

"Data not backed up is data you don't care about losing."

Lucky for me, the only real thing I would "care" about losing are all my digital pictures. I've always backed those up on DVD-RW discs.