Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Virus or Spy/Ad-ware?

Yes I'm having more computer trouble. Yesterday out of no where my computer task bar disappeared and a bunch of windows opened themselves up and I couldn't get raid of them. So I had to shut down the computer then after getting it back on I run my McAfee virus scan which showed up nothing.

Today it happened again only this time I had left the computer and had disconnect from online everything was fine when I walked away come back about five minutes later and the same thing as yesterday had happened I'm running virus scan now again. But my question was has anyone else ran into anything like this?

If so if you have virus scan or Spy/Ad-ware scan I was wondering which one it showed up on? Because I thinking about just getting a new Virus scan (I was going to keep it until next month when the updates expired) but if it's just not picking up a worm or virus then I'll get a new Virus scan now. Or if I need to go out an buy a Spy/Ad-ware scan.

Are you updating your spyware and anti-virus programs regularly? Because they won't find viruses or adware which they don't know about.

What you describe sounds like adware, though some adware can also contain viruses. What adware programs are you running? I have both Ad-Aware and Spybot. They're both free and each is good, but both together seem to be better.

Update your programs while you're connected to the internet. Then disconnect from the internet. Run MacAfee. Then run Spybot. Then run Ad-aware. Get rid of anything they tell you to get rid of. If they identify suspicious files which they can't delete, come back here and give details of the files - there'll be someone here who can help you get rid of them.

When you get a new anti-virus program, get one that also has a firewall - I recommend Norton Internet Security. A firewall will also help prevent adware from getting to your computer, and even more importantly, it will help stop trojans from sending information from your computer to elsewhere. It also comes with a spam filter.

I also recommend the Google Toolbar - it's downloadable from www.google.com. It has a popup blocker.

And, for the future, try to avoid the kind of sites where you pick up these malicious or annoying files. I don't know what kind of stuff you do on your computer, but most file-sharing programs (with the exception of WinMX, Filetopia and one or two others) are riddled with spyware. So are most porn sites, gambling sites, websites offering so-called free music downloads and some shopping websites (not the reputable ones such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and so on).

Good luck, and if you need any more help do post again - try to give as much specific information as you can.


Wendy

Well, a disappearing taskbar doesn't necessary mean that we're talking about a virus, but the popups on the other hand hint there.

One thing at first: If your taskbar disappears, try the hotkey windows-key + R, then type "explorer.exe" and confirm the messagebox with OK. Your taskbar should reload again.

Second: It may be helpful if you tell us more details about these popups, as there are several possible sources. Are these internet-explorer windows with some random advertisement? Are these dialog-based messageboxes? Windows (NT, 2000, XP) offers a messenger service which allows a random user sending you instant messages (kind of like ICQ) by knowing or guessing your IP address. As this is mostly used for spamming, my best recommendation is to disable the service.

If we're not talking about these messenger-popups and they're not some part of a local program, then they may be the result of some virus, malware. Wendy is actually doing everything right, so listen to her

I believe it was ad-ware because I just updated what I thought was my expired PestControl (it did updated I was so sure it expired a few months back) And it found 8 ad-ware on it so hopefully one of them was what was causing my problem.

I find the site that is giving me the most trouble lately would be FanFiction.net.

What gets me is I always end up with ad-ware and Spyware and I don't go to any of the sites they tell you not too. I had to stop going to tvguide online because I would always get so many ad-ware for that site you would not believe it.

I also have a pop-up blocking that block some ad-ware so that helps.

Do you think I could have got some of these ad-ware for ezboards or hyperboards there really the only other places other then ff.net I hang out online and of course I hang out at Yahoo.

Something that might help also is using Zone Alarm . It's a firewall and it's free. It's kind of annoying in the beginning, but it gets better after a few days.

malu

One thing you can try is McAfee's online FreeScan , which scans your computer remotely with a clean copy of VirusScan. In the case that you've got something on your HDD that is blocking your installed copy of McAfee, the web scanner will be unaffected.

More likely, though, is the possibility that whatever is going on is from spyware/adware rather than a virus. VirusScan can pick up some spyware programs, but that's not really its strong suit.

For that, you need a good anti-spyware program. Preferably more than one. My suggestions are:

AdAware (that's a direct link to the download site for the free edition. If you have trouble with it, go here then look in the bottom right corner of the page for the link to download a free copy.)

SpyBot

SpywareBlaster

Download all three. Run scans with AdAware and SpyBot. Don't forget to update before scanning. Each is capable of detecting some things the other will miss. SpyBot works by searching for a specific list of known spyware and adware programs. AdAware works by checking the actual files on your computer and seeing if anything looks "wrong."

Hopefully, one or the other should pick up what's going wrong and be able to fix it. After that, enable SpyBot's resident "Tea Timer," which is the equivalent of VirusScan's "On Access Scanner." It stays active in the background, monitoring potentially dangerous changes and stopping spyware before it's installed.

Spyware Blaster passively blocks spyware from being installed. It doesn't even have to be actively running to work! Between SpyBot resident and Spyware blaster, you should be fairly well-protected from any new invasions.

(The makers of Spyware Blaster also suggest -- and I agree -- using FireFox as your default browser, rather than IE. It has some really handy security features built in, and inherently lacks some of the larger security holes. For example, McAfee's FreeScan, which I mentioned above, is able to work through your browser to scan every file on your computer, looking for potential viruses. Now imagine what someone could do if they could abuse that power. There are some security measures in place in IE to keep that from happening -- and Spyware Blaster adds more -- but FireFox wouldn't let it happen in the first place. It means you have to use IE to do certain things like use McAfee's site or Windows Update, but it also means you're a lot safer when you're just generally browsing.)

If FreeScan, SpyBot, and AdAware don't come up with anything to solve your problem, though... I'm not sure what else to tell you. It may well just be a matter of Windows itself becoming unstable, and the only solution for that is to reinstall it from scratch.

So... Good luck, and I hope something here helps.

Paul

Paul


So far since I found and got rid of 8 ad-wares that was on my computer it hasn't acted up again. I'm hoping the problem was one of them. Because I don't want to have to reinstall Windows again I had to do that last year not fun. Took me seven hours to get the computer all back and running.

Hope you've solved the problem, then. Reinstalls are definitely no fun. Just try to keep yourself protected so it doesn't happen again. Good luck...

Paul