more PC virus fun...

[CanuckAmok]

So, now the following sites can't be reached through my MS Internet Explorer connection:

google, netscape, spaywareblaster, hotmail, and a few local ones.

WTF?! I've tried zapping thin with spybot, spywareblaster, Norton Antivirus, AdAware, and even installing and running Firefox.

Whatever this is, it's getting worse, and I can't seem to get rid of it.

[enigmatic]

1. Have you tried any of the online virus checkers?

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

I've tried these and caught viruses that Bit Defender or Norton would recognize..

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. A suggestion

Get Firefox.

www.mozilla.com

You cannot imagine how great it is, and you'll wonder why you ever stayed with IE.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. Some of these things have "manual removal instructions"...

...that are as long as your arm.

I gave my previous Dell PC to the daughter of a friend. She's LEARNING about spyware and viruses and trojans, but BEFORE the learning curve started, she picked up some NASTY stuff.

Some of these things bury themselves D-E-E-P in your registry.

I hate to say "reformat your hard drive," but if you get to the point where you can't remove it (or identify it) with the standard toolkit, it MAY be your next option.

On the bright side, post the "clues" and "symptoms" on DU...there are a lot of tech-savvy people here who are more than willing to help.

:toast:

[Peachhead22]

4. HijackThis

Look for a little free program called HijackThis. Download and install it. Run it. Don't check or uncheck anything in that scan till you're sure what you're doing. That HijackThis scan lists everything running in the background. Some necessary things along with worms and viruses.

Then go to the forums here: http://www.spywareinfo.com/ and I think you can post the results of the HijackThis scan. They should be able to tell you what to remove (through HijackThis) to zap your bugs. Then go to one of the online scanners Enigmatic listed to totally zap them.

After you've gotten rid of them switch to Firefox.

on edit: spelling

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

6. HijackThis is excellent, but you have to be careful...

...and you're right, it's absolutely a two-step process (do the scan, get advice on what is safe to delete).

:toast:

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Learn about he HOSTS file...

and how it can be hijacked and redirect your browser. It's kind of complicated to explain here, and I'm not sure of some of it myself, but that's probably the problem.

Do NOT believe those who tell you about Firefox. It's true that Firefox is more secure than IE, and they fix the security holes faster, but it is not a panacea, and now that it's become more popular, hackers are looking closely at it for flaws. The only browser with no known security holes is Opera, but even there no one in the business will tell you that it is "really" secure. It's still up to us to make sure we don't do something stupid, and to keep our online software security options as tight as possible.