[cjlandry]

I screwed up last night. I tried to download some mp3's from some lyrics site. In the process, I ended up with about 10 shortcut links on my desktop and something that keeps trying to change my homepage in my browser. Spysweeper catches it every time I start the computer.

I tried "remove programs", but whatever it is doesn't seem to be listed.

Any suggestions?

 

[O'Man]

Chad

I had one of those and they are a PIA. Mine kept swapping my home page to some sort of search engine. If ya swapped the home page back to the one I wanted it was OK till the next boot then BOOM back again at something or other Easy Search or whatever. It also added some special "Favorites" to my favorites list. It also changed my default search engine to Easy Search now that I think about it.

In order to get rid of the god damn thing I installed Norton Virus and Norton Firewall and Spybot and Ad-Aware. Finally and I mean FINALLY I got rid of the problem. A real PIA.

If what you have is like what I had the minute you boot you go to that site...whatever it is...because the wrom / virus has secretly changed the I-net home page during your last session. In the process of loading that "forced site" a cookie comes onto your machine. The worm /cookie changes your I-net home page back to "Xyz" then next time you boot the machine you pull up the XYZ page. Then in the process of getting the XYZ page another cookie is downloaded ..and here you go again.

People that do this little mischief need their n_ts ripped off. It is NOT funny, it is not cute and it is very very expensive in terms of software to guard against it. God help any propeller head kid who ever admits doing those kind of cute things in my presensce.

 

[cjlandry]

Thanks. It sounds like the exact same thing I have. I just checked my favorites, and it has all sorts of ugly new favorites installed.

I'll see about getting spybot and adaware to see if they'll get rid of this garbage.

 

[BobMcC]

One of the benefits of having XP as your operating system is that you can "back up" in time by using the "System Restore" function.

 

[HwyStarJoe]

AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
and
SpyBot Search & Destroy http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
will clean it up real nice. Delete everything they find.

There's also a Network Associates product that will go beyond your normal virus scanner and detect worms\trojans\virus' that disable virus software so they can plant themselves. Here's the link:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/Stinger/

 

[O'Man]

CJ

Hope this squares us for you help with the wiring. You gotta have a firewall. Norton shows ya everytime some damn fool program tries to acces your machine from another machine out in cyberland. You will be surprised how many hits the firewall detects and stops. It is only about $150 for norton Virus scan and Forewall if you get the home additions at Office Max or whatever. Spybot and AdAware are free. Honestly I think all four are needed.

 

[jgoggan]

A firewall would not have helped him in this situation. Too many people answer "get a firewall" for things that are not firewall issues...

HwyStarJoe's reply of AdAware and the Spyware detection software is the way to go.

- John...

 

[cjlandry]

I appreciate everyone's advice.

I already had spysweeper on the computer, but it didn't prevent anything.

I have a firewall on my home computer in Baton Rouge, but not on my laptop.

I downloaded SpyKiller, and it wiped all that crap out in just a few minutes. It located and cleaned 12 spyware programs. The computer is running much faster online now.

Now if I could figure out how to get my browser's search function back to normal... Anyone?

 

[jgoggan]

Originally posted by cjlandry:
Now if I could figure out how to get my browser's search function back to normal... Anyone?

HiJackThis! is a nice app that looks for changes to your search (and other) URLs and can fix them for you.

- John...

 

[O'Man]

Originally posted by jgoggan:
A firewall would not have helped him in this situation. Too many people answer "get a firewall" for things that are not firewall issues...

HwyStarJoe's reply of AdAware and the Spyware detection software is the way to go.

- John...

I am not saying that a firewall would have helped this situation I am saying that a firewall is a necessary tool to help stop this hacker crap. Please advise if I have used the term hacker incorrectly in this context.

 

[faulkkev]

If you install items that are not defined as viral or spyware based then you have to manually remove them period. A firewall prevents people from seeing you or exploiting your ports. It does nothing if you directing downloads or etc unless you specify to block certain lines of communication. Which really isn't applicable to a home user since we all download ftp etc. So with that said check your add remove? Anything there you don't want kill it. Check processes. If you see one running and aren't sure use your windows search. Find it and identify it. The search will tell you where it lives so if you can't use add remove then delete the folder it is called from. Often it is in the common files folder for example(gator likes that one). The final thing I do when in your situation is go to the run line in the registry and pull the run call for the intruder program. that should kill it and upon a reboot all processes should be either windows based or items you want to be there. The registry is tricky so make sure you understand how to use it before going there. If you use it correctly nothing removed from the run line should hurt you.

 

[1968]

Bob McC has a good idea if you have Windows XP. This is what I had to do just the other day. It allows you to go back in time to before you had the problem.

 

[jgoggan]

Originally posted by oman:
I am not saying that a firewall would have helped this situation I am saying that a firewall is a necessary tool to help stop this hacker crap.

Sorry, when you said that "You gotta have a firewall", I thought you meant that it would have prevented this. I agree with you completely that people should have firewalls. Sorry for any confusion there.

Please advise if I have used the term hacker incorrectly in this context.

Actually, in my opinion, you did -- but your usage would agree with most of the (biased, sensational) media -- and, unfortunately, most of the public -- so oh well. I'm just more of a purist -- or "old school" ethic. A "hacker" didn't use to mean a bad thing. Now they've ruined the term. I should probably give up trying to correct that -- since it isn't going to happen...

- John...

 

[cjlandry]

Thanks for all the input guys. Oman, I knew what you were getting at. I have firewalls, but they did me no good when I said "OK" to downloading something. Never did get the music, BTW.

The "Hijack This!" program worked great for straightening out my browser. I love it!

Thanks for all your help. I'm back to normal now!

I can always depend on Team Chevelle.