I need help: Kazaa messed my PC up

[WilliamPitt]

On the recommendation of a friend, I downloaded the free version of Kazaa yesterday. Today, my internet functionality is all screwed, particularly at DU. Now, all hyperlinks here are double-underlined, and go only to this RX service web page.

I have used AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy to clean any ad software off, and have uninstalled Kazaa. It is still screwed up. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[KG]

1. you should've bought a Mac.

:eyes:

[Awsi Dooger]

43. That's the obvious answer

Pitt is one of many DUers who've taken a stand in that regard. Or just have too much invested in PC hardware and especially software.

For P2P, find the best donkey program for PCs. I know what it is on Macs (Sancho, bundled with the latest core) but no clue regarding PCs. Whatever it is, the results will blow away anything you find on Limewire or the other Gnutella clients.

[KG]

46. heh. actually it's just a smart-alecky reply to pre-empt the

usual non-relevant 'you should bought a mac' answer to somebody who has a problems right now with a PC. :)

[Awsi Dooger]

48. I figured that

And quite effective, BTW. I scanned the thread and was surprised there were no further "get a Mac!" replies. I get tired of those debates myself.

Actually, I replied to your post not to make a Mac statement but simply to mention the superior options like eDonkey or eMule early in this thread, so it wouldn't get buried below.

[donheld]

53. Sometimes I wanna smack

those who say Mac. :evilgrin:

[matcom]

2. virus scan

immediately. or throw it out the window.

P2P software has killed MANY a system

[Sannum]

3. I downloaded Kazaa and it fucked my computer

I had to re-install the whole OS. I think the whole thing is just a spyware scam.

[anarch]

4. Lars Ulrich says "that's what you get!"

sorry, couldn't resist...can you do "system restore" to a point prior to installing it? What's your OS? I guess system restore is Windows XP only....

[WeRQ4U]

9. Lars is a dickhead.....

He probably took part in placing viruses in Kazza and other P2P sites to discourage downloading.

[LynneSin]

5. Might I suggest Limewire

I've had it for a few months and I've had no problems with it. I'm trying to figure out how to do direct share.

[datasuspect]

24. free version of limewire is bundled with spyware/malware too

[Xithras]

37. Not true anymore.

The version posted at LimeWire.Com went spyware free sometime back. It's now "nagware"...they have an upgraded commercial version that they want you to pay for. If you get the free version, it just bugs your to upgrade every time you launch it. Since the nag is just a quick clickthrough, it's not a big deal for most people.

I still prefer the Kazaa network, but I've been running Limewire for over a year now and haven't had a single problem. In every case where I've heard a person complaining about a spyware problem with LimeWire, it's turned out that they downloaded the virus from another user on the network...they didn't get the virus from the software itself.

[LynneSin]

38. That is correct - spyware was removed on the free version

:D

[Awsi Dooger]

40. There's a simple solution to that

Anyone who has the freeware version of Limewire can merely use it to search for and download a Limewire Pro installer. Trust me, it will be there. Not necessarily the latest version but perfectly acceptable.

[AntiCoup2K4]

6. Looks like your browser was hijacked

Try this...
http://javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

You might want to try Limewire next time instead of Kazaa. Much less likely to contain spyware.

[WeRQ4U]

7. Restore or Reboot

It happened to me in college.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Start>Run>regedit

look for any references to "searchenginebar.com" or "rxbar" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software. Delete them if there. That should help. (Oh, and try using a browser other than IE, too. It's much more vulnerable to this sort of fuckery.)

[hunter]

10. You're screwed, depending more or less whatever other crap is on there.

Sorry. You got yourself pierced and tatooed and then you went swimming naked in the sewage ponds after you visited the crackhouse-brothel.

Who knows what you got?

Throw the machine out the window or find yourself a good doctor.

I used to fix machines for friends until I saw what kind of porn they kept. Some things you never want to know.

Stop looking at my feet like that, it makes me uncomfortable.

Good luck!

[LynneSin]

11. OMG.....

:spray:

You got yourself pierced and tatooed and then you went swimming naked in the sewage ponds after you visited the crackhouse-brothel

That was just the funniest thing I've ever read!!

[datasuspect]

27. pretty much - swiss cheese ports

pc open to russia and north korea.

yikes.

[DS1]

12. Pay me 50 dollars and I'll come over and fix it*

*not guaranteed to be fixable without format

[matcom]

13. you'll give him his $50 back in that case right?

:spray:

[DS1]

15. Nope

I'm just saying, it might have to be formatted in order to fix it, but I'll do everything I can to fix it without formatting. And I'm usually very good at doing this kinda crap without a format.

Such is the offer, he can take it or leave it :shrug:

[dolo amber]

14. ...

:rofl:

[hunter]

16. We are all evil rat bastards.

fdisk

[purr]

17. I did that too today and i got the underlined thing!!

Pissed me off.. I'm going to remove it after I'm done with my files :(

[captain beyond]

18. Be safe

Format immediately.

[ET Awful]

19. Believe it or not, the MS anti-spyware tool works extremely well

Go to microsoft.com and download it. Odds are it will remove the spyware you're afflicted with.

I've found that Limewire is not only faster than Kazaa but is easily obtainable in spyware free versions.

[DS1]

20. Hamilton blocker

:grr:

[ET Awful]

21. LMAO . . . It took me a second to figure out what the hell you were

talking about :)

I didn't mean to . . . ahem . . . block you :evilgrin:

[hunter]

34. Party pooper.

If that doesn't work, call DS1. $50 is a good deal. I back everything up to another hard drive if things are ugly enough that I have to reinstall the system. Nothing gets lost.

You might want to look at external USB hard drives. Backing up all your data on an external hard drive is easy to do, and if you have to reinstall your system, or if you buy a new computer, all you have to do is plug the external drive in and drag all your old files over.

[ET Awful]

35. I just make my boot drive a 10 gig partition, and install all applications

to a different partition.

Then, every month or so, I just create a Ghost image of my main boot drive. If something fries my registry, I can be back up and running in about 15 minutes. :)

[Xithras]

22. Oh no, you DON'T want the official Kazaa. You need K++ or a clone

The Kazaa network has tons of stuff on it, but the official Kazaa client is well known to be infected with all kinds of spyware and browser hijackers. The actual Kazaa company is crooked as all hell.

Luckily, there are a ton of freeware clients that you can use to connect to the network that DON'T have those spyware problems. I use KLT K++, but many people swear by Kazaa Lite Revolution. The problem you'll run into is that Kazaa has adopted an interesting tactic to combat these clones. Whenever a new one comes out, they'll republish their own version using the exact same name and post it to a dozen different non-Kazaa sites on the Internet. When you search for the clones on Google, you can easily bring up one of these imposter's and download the official Kazaa (spyware infected) version without realizing it.

Is it worth the hassle? I say yes because the community is huge, and a ton of people have high speed connections and the network uses a centralized system which makes Kazaa's network much faster than the Gnutella based competitors. Still, if you aren't willing to fight with it, I'd suggest LimeWire as a great alternative.

[datasuspect]

29. additionally, kazaa and limewire

are the most scoured by riaa/doj/what have you for litigation-spamming.

[Xithras]

31. Which is why I don't share what I download.

Separate folders for downloading and uploading. In my Shared folder you'll find many gigs of files that the DOJ/MPAA/RIAA don't care about. Open source code, video game roms from the Atari days, pornos, and even a bunch of music from local groups that aren't covered by the RIAA.

What I download goes into a second folder that nobody can see. Unless the RIAA has started using honeypots, I'm not worried about it.

[datasuspect]

33. 10 roger

yep yep.

[WilliamPitt]

23. Dammit

Just did a virus search, found five files, but the thing won't let me delete them.

This blows.

[matcom]

26. nice paperweight you got there

:hide:

[Xithras]

30. What are their names?

Sometimes you have to reboot the computer into safe mode to delete the viruses. Sometimes you also have to delete registry entries to get rid of them.

Symantecs site has a long list of known viruses and instructions for removing each of them. Search for the five and follow the instructions given. Just try to remove them ALL at once to prevent them from reinstalling each other.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/global/vinfodb.html

[ET Awful]

36. Reboot in safe mode and try it again.

Should work fine after that.

[The Flaming Red Head]

52. I removed Kazaa and put up my firewalls and mine went away

My son put Kazaa on my Computer because I asked him to and it wrecked or so I thought, everything, (I had the same thing, RX search ruined my poetry on my blog and I was pissed) but when I removed Kazaa and put my firewalls back up it went away after I rebooted.

My son and his friends are fruity troopers so they don't have the problems working on their music that someone would have who writes.

[datasuspect]

25. try shareaza

freeware.

unbundled.

just cover your tracks . . .

[Wapsie B]

28. backup what you can

and take DS1's advice and wipe the hard drive

[DS1]

42. whoa!! HEY !!! STOP!!

I never said wipe the hard drive!!!

That's only the last resort, if you know what you're doing, like me, you can pick these things out like tumors in a brain.

Which is why I'm asking for 50 bucks. Shit, I'll bet if you, Will, formatted your machine, it would take you 4 times as long as it would for me to fix it - just to reinstall and reconfigure all your apps.

Think about it.

Yes, I'm a broke techy.

[matcom]

45. .

:spray:

:rofl:

[DS1]

49. or, you could take matcom's advice

and blow scotch all over it :P

[hunter]

50. What's on matcom's hard drive...

:scared:

[Rosie1223]

32. Are you using XP?

Before you format your drive try system restore
<start>
<all programs>
<accessories>
<system tools>
<system restore>

Pick a date before you installed Kazaa. This does work to restore windows to a previous state without messing your personal files. I've used it successfully before when my kids downloaded some bad stuff.

Good Luck!
Rosie

[TallahasseeGrannie]

39. Download the Windows beta spyware thingie

and run a scan.

Kazaa is sure death.

[LSK]

41. if you get your PC fixed, used Emule instead

http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/general.cgi?l=1

I have been using it for years with no problems. I have seen some friends of mine also fall victim to Kazaa.

[darkism]

44. Try Soulseek when you get it all cleaned up

www.slsknet.org

[underpants]

47. Will Will Will tsk tsk tsk

Now how did that REALLY happen? Will? Will?????

[Darth_Kitten]

51. Kazaa messed up my PC.......

Wish I could help, but I had to call in outside help. :(