Computer help thread

[teeny]

yeah those programs can provide miracles.. good luck with adkilling, mossopp

[Mossopp]

I did everything you said Rosh, but the problem still remains.
Most of the pop-up's I get now all eventually end up saying "page not available off-line", but I'm still getting numerous pop-ups advertising free ringtones etc.
I've installed all the things you advised and ran them twice. I then deleted/quaranteened all the errors and abnormalities found but it's still making no difference. Is there anything else you could suggest I try?
Thanks for your help.
Mossopp
x x

[teeny]

would recommend a popup killer but I don't have a normal one myself. I run mozilla firefox and norton internet security that has a popup and ad killer included. So would recommend either of those, but there must be a better solution

[taty994945]

the google toolbar RULES! its so convenient it turns me on

[rosh]

mossopp mmm anti virus ? try installing or running yours. make sure its updated.

also check your programs installed [click start, run, control panel, add remove programs] and remove anything you know shouldnt be there. if youd like, you can paste the list of programs you find here or pm me i dont mind which. and we can see if we can find out which rogue program is doing this.

[Mossopp]

Originally Posted by rosh

mossopp mmm anti virus ? try installing or running yours. make sure its updated.
also check your programs installed [click start, run, control panel, add remove programs] and remove anything you know shouldnt be there. if youd like, you can paste the list of programs you find here or pm me i dont mind which. and we can see if we can find out which rogue program is doing this.

Thanks, I appreciate this.
First off, I don't actually have an anti-virus. I've installed and ran both the programs you suggested numerous times. Last night they had apparently found and quarantined/deleted all the problems. But I ran them again half-an-hour ago and they discovered 6 new problems and I hadn't even been online in the interim!! I don't understand how new bugs can be appearing when I haven't been online in order to pick them up.
I also installed Google toolbar and have selected the 'block all pop-ups' option but some are still gettting though. It's always the same 2 ads and they appear at least once a minute.
Here's a list of all the stuff in my 'add/remove programs' list. I don't see anything untoward but maybe you'll be able to tell me if there's something here that shouldn't be:

Active Disk
Ad-aware 6 personal
CD Checker
Div X Codec
Div X Player
Google Toolbar
HP Deskjet
Iomga tools
Iomega ware
Microsoft Office
MSN add-in for windows messenger
Quicktime
SIS multimedia
Soundblaster Audio
Spybot
Windows SA
Windows SR
Windows XP uninstall
Winzip
wsem update

Like I said, I don't see anything unusual here.
Thanks again for your help.

Mossopp

[DAZ]

You should also download an Antivirus as well Mossop and possibly a firewall as well.

Free antivirus at...

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php
I use this and the free version has detected more than Norton ever has.
Just go to Free Edition.

You can select a choice of firewalls at http://www.download.com/
You can also read the reviews as well.

[rosh]

mossopp ok the lack of anti virus software concerns me =) run the one daz mentioned and let it do its stuff.

which two pop ups keep appearing ? if you can let me know ... we can try and beat this lil menace a bit better

[Mossopp]

Originally Posted by rosh

mossopp ok the lack of anti virus software concerns me =) run the one daz mentioned and let it do its stuff.
which two pop ups keep appearing ? if you can let me know ... we can try and beat this lil menace a bit better

OK, I'm in the process of getting Daz's wee anti-virus thing at the moment.
The two pop ups I keep getting are a giant one for a free polyphonic ringtone and the other one - which I get less frequently - is for some mortgage company.
I also get messages appearing on screen when I'm offline saying that I or some other program have requested information from 'such-and-such' a website and asking me which internet connection I wish to use to view it. I have no idea what's going on!

[Mossopp]

I downloaded, installed and ran the anti-virus. It found 18 virus's - 8 could be healed but 10 of them couldn't so I had to completely remove the infected files. The ones that I had to remove had all been infected with some kind of 'Trojan Horse' virus.
However, even after doing all this, I'm still plauged with pop-ups!
I think it's time to admit defeat...

[rosh]

re-run the spybot and adaware. secondly when do the popups pop up ?

check and see if anything is installed in program files lately since this happened. the program listing in add/remove programs isnt always complete.

see if theres anything new you dont recognise then tell us what you find

[piojita]

Originally Posted by rosh

the program listing in add/remove programs isnt always complete.

don't know if anyone mentioned this already, but always check the programs/processes running (ctrl-alt-del). You should be able to see the program (troyan) causing this problem.

[teeny]

and don't know if it'll work or even cause trouble, but try to clear cache in Internet Explorer too.. cookies might trigger some spyware or something? Don't know for sure though. And windows is fully updated too? Otherwise: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

[Mossopp]

Originally Posted by rosh

re-run the spybot and adaware.

I have done - several times. I delete the problems only to find that they have returned the very next time I run a scan!

secondly when do the popups pop up ?

The first one - which just says 'page not found' appears approx 30 seconds after I go online. After this I get the 'free polyphonic ringtone' pop-up appearing about once or twice a minute for about 10 minutes. After that I only get one pop-up about every 5 or 10 minutes.

This anti-virus I installed earlier this evening clearly isn't working. I deleted all 18 viruses that it discovered at around 8pm. It's now 11pm and I've only spent 10 minutes online in the interim, yet in that short space of time I've somehow managed to contract 8 new virus's!
If that anti-virus was doing it's job this wouldn't have happened!!!

[rosh]

there is a process running on your machine thats a trojan.

ctrl alt del and see the list of programs running and paste them here. we will get to the answer slowly but we will get there!

[Kate]

Mossopp, about pop-ups... you should really try the Google Toolbar! It blocks ALL pop-ups (at least for me), and you can choose to allow the pop-ups from some websites, so it's really convinient! Try it! Click here!

[Mossopp]

'Unofficial forum of group tatu' and 'Spybot search and destroy' are the only things listed when I hit control alt delete.
If there's a pop-up open at the time it's only listed as Microsoft internet explorer.

[rosh]

kate - shes already using it but these wiley trojans are still getting through

[Mossopp]

Originally Posted by katbeidar

Mossopp, about pop-ups... you should really try the Google Toolbar! It blocks ALL pop-ups (at least for me), and you can choose to allow the pop-ups from some websites, so it's really convinient! Try it! Click here!

I've got it already. It's useless!!

[Kate]

Mossopp,