Help, I'm Being Attacked By Spyware and Viruses!!!

[Kane]

It was hard enough to get to martial talk. The computer is being spyware, adware, and viruses ad I speak. Ever since, yesterday it is going through the greatest attack ever!

Where to begin. About an year ago this spyware and viruses started to attack like crazy. It however was not as big as how it is right now. I had a few biog points but it was gone. It then started to come back rapidly. Finally I had enough. I restored my computer and it worked. All spyware, adware, and viruses went bye bye. I got some spyware removers and I thought now with periodic checks I would finally be okay. Yesterday however when I came home I found that explorer had a couple new toolbars. I thought how the hell did that toll bar get there. I didn't know that my computer had spyware and virus problems more worse than ever before. It is attacking non-stop, my browser is going very slow, pop-ups are coming more crazy than ever before. In fact, after I post this message the compueter will proabably crash and freeze.

I ran Ad-aware Spyware Destroyer and spybot search and destroyer and though it is eliminating some spyware, it keeps coming back.

There are proabably thousands of typos in this mesage. I apollogize, my computer is making random errors in the message and if I don't hurry the computer will crash.

I need to end spyware and virures once and for all. Does anyone know maybe better computer cleaners I can download that clean spyware, adware, and viruses. This computer needs help quickly. It is at its worst right now. PLEASE HELP!

 

[arnisador]

Been there. Ad-Aware is a good start; that and Spybot between them killed a nasty attack for me.

Good luck!

 

[dubljay]

Yes, arnisador is right, download spybot search and destroy and ad-aware asap as for viruses check out AVG.

Read the following threads for more info
http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19960

http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22650





Here are links where you can download these programs

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10289035.html?tag=lst-0-1

Adaware
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10319876.html?tag=lst-0-1

AVG antivirus

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5


Hope this helps, if you need any more info feel free to PM me, IM me or email me ([email protected])

-Josh

 

[AnimEdge]

You the only one who uses this computer? Cuz if not then that might be the problem, The Family computer(never mine) allways has a spyware problem becouse everyone other than me downloaded everything and anything so i gave them XP and had it set up to where they needed to be admin(me) to install ANYTHING and there hasnt been any problem since

Maybe you should set that up for your self Kill it and reinstall and set up admin and a user account with high restrictions and use the user unless you need to actually do something then use admin

A word of Advice is if you have a good size HD after you fdisk and remove everything to partintion it into groups, 1 group for programs and one for data (I have like 5 Partitions) So whenever i need to kill and restart my computer (i do every year or so) takes about less than a hour to fdisk and reinstall XP and programs onto the main partition and still have all my data untouched on the other partitions

 

[shesulsa]

Mod. Note:

Thread moved to the Computer Room due to subject matter.

Georgia Ketchmark
MartialTalk
Sr. Moderator

 

[Kane]

Yea I tried Spybot search and destroy and ad-aware but they didn't help this time. I tried used them like 50 times but it did not help.

After restoring my computer my STOPzilla connection ended. However after reinstalling it the pop-ups arn't coming. The pop-ups are coming like crazy and even giving stopzilla a challenged, but it seems Stopzilla is doing the trick better than ad-aware and spybot search and destroy.

I recomend stopzilla to anyone now whenever their computer goes crazy. It will help the best. Anyone else here use Stopzilla?

 

[switch]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your problem. Most everyone will recommend some form of anti-virus or spy/adware program to combat it. Good advice it is too but even these do little to help sometimes. When it gets to your stage I think the only thing to do is to copy all your files to a CD and format the hard drive. Start fresh and be weary. A good firewall also helps. Zone Alarm Pro has been good to me and I've never had a severe problem.

*knocks on wood*

Goodluck

 

[Andrew Green]

You many have to do a complete reinstall, from the disks that came with it at this point...

Anyways, how to prevent it from getting on:

Update windows, SP2 and all the security updates immediately.

Some sort of firewall, a router is a really good option here, a old computer is a good option, but a software firewall will work too (One is built into Win XP)

AdAware + Spybot Search & Destroy

AVG Anti Virus

No using Internet Explorer except for windows updates and other things that cannot be done without it. Get Firefox or Opera.

Watch what you install, some seemingly nice looking programs (ex Kazaa) will install adware / spyware with thier installation.

If you get completly fed up with it and don't want to deal with is switch to Linux or get a mac, both are great operating systems that are stable (don't crash nearly as much) and are not targeted by viruses, spyware or adware yet. Doing so is a lot harder to do as well.

 

[michaeledward]

Try these:

format C:

-rm remove
​

just kidding ... good luck

 

[Kane]

Havn't seen a problem with spyware and pop-ups since last night. Thank God for Stopzilla. I recomend the newest version, it constantly attacks pop-ups and spyware.

 

[jfarnsworth]

I know how much everyone said to ditch Norton but I've had good luck with it. After my PC went on the fritz I had to reformat the hard drive and forgot to put norton on it. Slowly it started to get the crap from adaware, spyware, and viruses again. I went out and purchased a new computer; remformatted the other one again, Norton got installed immediately and I haven't had a problem since then. It's been almost 2 months (knock on wood) but no problems. After I put on the system works I purchased Norton internet security and it shows no signs of letting garbage in. :idunno:

 

[Andrew Green]

I went out and purchased a new computer; remformatted the other one again, Norton got installed immediately and I haven't had a problem since then.

SO you are running 2 computers? Did you add a router into the mix? Upgrade to SP2 in the middle of that?

One thing to remember is Anti-virus is really bad at protecting you. It's job usually to clean up the mess afterwards. Installing anti-virus & anti-spyware does not make a secure system.

What does is keeping it up to date, applying all those security patches, not using Internet Explorer, not opening unknown files, and hopefully not running with administrative privledges.

 

[jfarnsworth]

My kids use the older computer for playing games and such. I very rarely put it on the internet. We keep them seperated in the house. The wife uses it for her scrapbook material as well. She has all of her files and what not on it.

Yes, we use internet explorer. No I don't have SP2 on it. I don't have an SP2 disc. I get all Norton updates as they come out. I learned my lesson as I don't open any files that are unknown. Lastly, I'm not quite sure what you mean by administrative privledges.

 

[Andrew Green]

SP2 can be downloaded through Windows Update, might take a while if you got a slow connection though...

If so find someone with a fast connection and a cd burner.

As for Internet Explorer: mozilla.org - Firefox is free and much more secure.

 

[jfarnsworth]

I seen SP2 in the windows update. It's the only one I haven't downloaded. It is huge sitting at 75MB. On my dial-up it says it should take like 3 or 4 hrs. to download. :jedi1: That's one heck of a long time.

Is SP2 that much better?

 

[Andrew Green]

Patches a lot of the security problems & adds a few things.

MS doesn't consider anything less a "current" operating system.

Can you do it overnight?

 

[Dronak]

As others noted, Spybot's Search and Destroy and LavaSoft's Ad-Aware programs are both pretty good for free spyware removal. If you're still having trouble after them, you might look into Hijack This. The only problem with that is that's is so technical and detailed that you kind of need to find a web board for support, post your log/results there, and ask someone to tell you what's safe to delete and what isn't. I have the program, but have never used it to delete things; Ad-Aware and Spybot seem to do fine for me.

As for viruses, AVG's program is the one I used before I bought the Norton System Works package a few years ago. I also used F-Prot, but I'm not sure if they still have that free for personal use permission. In terms of pay programs, Norton and McAfee are probably two of the most popular.

Others also noted that Internet Explorer isn't the best choice in web browsers. I switched over to Mozilla's Firefox not long ago when I heard about some serious security flaws in IE that weren't fixed. Firefox is pretty good and makes it pretty easy to block popups and ads (with the Adblock extension). It's free, too. You could try other browsers though. The plain Mozilla one (I think there is one), Opera, Netscape, whatever. But it seems like IE is probably the worst of the lot.

I hope some of this helps. If all else fails though, you could back up everything, then reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS. Yes, it's drastic, but it'll clean up everything. I'd make that a last resort though. Good luck with it.

 

[Andrew Green]

Other Browsers

Mozilla Suite - Basically discontinued, has been broken down into Firefox / Thuderbird / sunbird / nvu / etc. It's still a good suite, and there maybe a fork which continues to maintain it, but Mozilla is putting their work on firefox right now

Opera - Good but Ad based or pay for it

Netscape - Is AOL's butchered version of the Mozilla/Firefox code... I'd avoid it.

 

[grimfang]

The removal tactics of adware are largely dependent upon which specific adware your cpu is infected with. Spybot and AdWare S&D are primarily designed to remove various forms of the 'coolwebsearch' programs, but they do absolutely nothing to remove the 'crazywinnings' adware.
Many of the new adware programs in circulation will embedd themselves in multiple places on your computer.. typically you will have a folder in your 'programs' folder installed, one in your 'system32' folder, and another will attach itself in some strange location (the EA Sports and Fox Interactive folders have been a popular target lately.)
Also, many of the new forms of adware are 'always in use'.. meaning that your cpu is constantly accessing the file, which slows your cpu down and also prevents you from deleting the file (you can not delete a file that is in use.) The only way to remove these is to boot in 'safe mode', then locate the offending files manually and delete them.
It will take a combination of programs to identify and remove them all, and even that is usually not enough. Its critical that you are familiar with your registry and know how to locate and remove entries that might not be detected by the removal software.

The following combination of programs will help deal with 99% of whats out there right now. But not one of these will do it alone. They all target different programs and search for different things. These are all free to use for personal use, and I strongly reccommend using them all.

Adware-SE
Spybot Search&Destroy
BHO DEMON
HiJack This
and scan regularly with http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Those, when used in combination, will remove most of the major headaches.

 

[Andrew Green]

Those, when used in combination, will remove most of the major headaches.

Or, get a mac or install Linux.

Problem solved

No more scanning, no more removing of viruses / adware, no more having your computer working as a zombie to infect others....