Computer help needed here please folks

[bearfan454]

Does anyone know what we can do to keep advertisements and popups from getting through panicware popup stopper, zone alarm, EZArmour antivirus from road runner, and PC Surgeon ? Mrs bearfan and I have had a hell of a time these last few days. Anybody ? Our registry keeps getting reset and our home page keeps getting hijacked too on IE6. Also we are unable to open My Computer and almost all other program files on the desktop. Running slow also with 256k dd ram. Anybody ?

[DS1]

1. Google spybot, download it

let it restart your system and clean out stuff it can't the first pass.

Never click yes when prompted to install software you didn't specifically ask for.

Make sure your popup stopper has the latest updates, if you can't find where to update it, it might not have updates.

Drop in Google toolbar to stop popups and have a nifty search engine built into your browser.

Immediately kill off any extra browser toolbars such as mysearch, lycos, real.com, etc.

for Win2k/XP hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to get to the task manager, and put the name of every running process in google (groups tab) to see what it is. If it's spyware, nuke it.

[Randomthought]

4. You beat me

Spybot is a good place to start. Also find your cookies folder and delete everything in it -

[bearfan454]

6. We've done all of those already

What else ?:bounce:

[DS1]

8. You've inspected every process and not found anything unwanted?

Unlikely, but ok :shrug:

Offload your data and wipe the whole thing clean with a complete reinstall on a formatted drive. It's brutal but effective, unless you want to dig for the problem.

Hint: Tell us where your homepage is being redirected to, or google the page and 'virus' and see what it gets you. I mean, they're pretty much telling you exactly who they are by making themselves your homepage right?

[historian]

2. sounds like a virus

run virus scan- if the scan suddenly stops for some reason etc...go into safe mode and do it again

[no_arbusto]

3. Stop using Internet Explorer.

Switch to Mozilla Firefox. http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
It blocks popups better than both my firewall and Zone Alarm combined with Internet Explorer.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Mozilla - excellent suggestion

Works like a charm.

I also have the google toolbar for my IE, which works like a charm most of the time, but every now and again it decides that it will no longer accept a "right click --> open link in new window" and I have to shut IE down entirely to get it to work again. A minor quibble, but odd.

I use Mozilla most of the time, but for a few things I like to use IE.

[DS1]

7. Try avantbrowser.com

It's the IE display engine inside a tabbed browsing setup, with popup blockers, flash blocker, shortcuts (alias just 'g' to http://www.google.com for example), built in google search, etc etc.

[no_arbusto]

9. Do you use any of the other toolbars in Mozilla?

You may already know this, but if you click on the Google toolbar and select "add engines" it allows you to add search tools for things such as guitar tab, IMDB, news, and even Bible verses.

[bearfan454]

12. We downloaded it

It seems like it will work good.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. It's a browser hijacker.

Or maybe a Trojan/worm.

Never had one myself, so I'm not all that sure how to get rid of it, but AdAware, Spyware Blaster and Spybot are good first things to try. Avast and AVG are freeware antivirus tools that might help, too. Trojans and hijackers are tough to find, so what one AV misses, another might deal with.

If you insist on using IE, make sure security is at the highest levels and turn off Active-X.

I usually use Opera and have never had a problem. Opera, Mozilla, and Netscape are all evolved from the same source way back when and were designed with few of the IE security problems.

Most people get hijackers from porn sites, games, or music downloads, btw.

[bearfan454]

11. kick

.

[sugarcookie]

14. The same thing happened to

me last week and I'm still picking up garbage. My Google toolbar got highjacked by a Lycos toolbar. I still don't know for sure how it happened...I use Norton Internet Security and update on a daily basis.

After the highjacking I did a virus scan and 18 "at risk" files came up. Norton eliminated most of them but I still had 4 "Adware" entries that were "not going away".

One in particular, Adware.Portal Scan, checks for Pop up Killer software and disables it. Sounds similar to what you may have picked up.

After several attempts at removal, I still kept getting a "delete failed" from Norton. I followed Norton's link to these Adware threats and instructions on how to delete them manually . Don't attempt this unless you are familiar with changing the registry entries. I screwed up on something and to use "Go Back" and start all over.

The next time, along with my Norton, I used Ad-Aware (Spybot is supposed to be good too). It cleaned most of it up, but there are still enought traces for my Norton to pick up in a scan. However, when I checked...the registry entries that the Adware created ...were gone.

If I don't get rid of all mine soon I'm going to format and start over.

[FloridaJudy]

16. Same Problem here

McAfee didn't do any better. Every time I tried to "clean" "delete" or "quarantine" the vermin, I got the message that they were "write protected".

Frankly, I'm sick and tired of spending money and time trying to keep these creeps out of my system.

What are the chances we can go after them legally and make them clean up their act? It's not the hackers in Manila causing me grief; it's those conscienceless slime on Madison Avenue.

We need a new circle in Dante's inferno for telemarketing executives and pop-up designers.

[bearfan454]

21. You got that right

The 3 I can never get rid of are roimoi, roings, and ssprint. Adaware deletes them but they are there everytime when I boot up again.

[FloridaJudy]

22. Weird....

When I rebooted and ran the virus scans again, they were gone. And my computer's acting normal again.

Or maybe it was just all those banishing spells I was muttering under my breath. :evilgrin:

[MichaelHarris]

13. download

Winpatrol it will stop whats loading and you can block it and it will block all changes, plugins to explorer that webpages may add. Also there is a security patch at MS to stop this from happening again.

a. Click Start -> Run, type regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.

b. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

If you find sub-folders called restricted or control panel, delete them. Check for the same sub-folders in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

and delete them, too, if they exist. Then close Regedit.

If your search pages have been redirected, re-establish the defaults:
a. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Change the Search Page value to:

http://home.microsoft.com/access/allinone.asp

and, if it exists, change the Search Bar value to:

http://search.msn.com/spbasic.htm

b. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL

and change the default value to:

http://home.microsoft.com/access/autosearch.asp?p=%s

c. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search

Change the SearchAssistant value to:

http://ie.search.msn.com/{SUB_RFC1766}/srchasst/srchasst.htm

and change the CustomizeSearch value to:

http://ie.search.msn.com/{SUB_RFC1766}/srchasst/srchcust.htm

reset your homepage and install Winpatrol. I'tll never happen again

[bearfan454]

24. Thank you VERY MUCH !

We will do it in a few minutes. Thanks again. I hope it works.

[MichaelHarris]

27. let me know

If not I'll give ya some more tips

[Madrone]

15. I concur with many of the suggestions already posted -

but have a couple more.

To recap the other advice:

I use Mozilla, it rocks. NO popups.

Spybot, Search and Destroy.

AdAware.

Two more suggestions not mentioned:

CWShredder. Find it on Google.

HiJack this - also found on Google. Some of the things HiJack this finds you will want - you post your output on their website and someone will tell you what to delete if you're not sure what to get rid of.

Those things combined (and massive antivirus scans) helped me clean a couple of computers that were SO bad they would have had to be formatted.

[Kellanved]

17. if everything else fails: Web Washer

http://www.webwasher.com/


It works as a Proxy Server, thus it can even stop Gator et al.

Oh, and the new Version is alot easier to use, than the previous one(s).

[RebelOne]

18. I know that I am going to get flamed but,

I have AOL and their pop-up blocker is the best yet. No ads are able to sneak through.

[Philosophy]

19. It's too late

Looks like you have some bad pyware. You can try those spyware removal programs but they never find everything. As bad as your problem is, I would fdisk and reinstall windows. Then remember -never click yes on one of those popups that asks if you want to install something, unless it is from Microsoft. It's impossible to get spyware without you doing something stupid to let it happen.

[KTM]

20. Proud Demo has the winner !!!!!

I've been it IT for almost 8 years.. I'm a spyware guru, if I do say... in my freelancing days between jobs, I'd say 50% or more of the issues I was called to repair were caused by Spyware, and I never found a single one that could not be fixed. I'd lay dollars to doughnuts the CWShredder is your answer.

CWShredder will cure what ails ya BearFan... Cool Web search and its many variants are almost never fixed by any of the popular spyware removal tools. The tool can be found Here, and is updated VERY frequently. Be sure to always download the newest version if you need it more than once.

If I'm wrong, and it does not work, download a tool called HiJackThis - it will generate a report of all the startup entries and IExplore registry values that frequently get abused. Send the list to my dumail and I will have a look at it.

--Edit--

The poster above is dead wrong (no offense). A reload is major surgery - you just have a minor, if hard to pinpoint, illness. This is entirely fixable.


Although I have no problems with IE, I did download the new Mozilla FireFox beta, and it works very well. I still use IE the majortiy of the time, but FireFox is pretty sweet in its own right.

[alfredo]

23. Yes, firefox will help greatly. It also has features lacking

in IE, Tabbed browsing, and pop up blockers.

[bearfan454]

25. Wow ! Thank you.

I hope this works.

[sugarcookie]

26. I tweaked my Ad-Adware settings

to do a more thorough search and so far it seems to have done the job.