Where To Turn When Malware Strikes Your PC
Edition #46
Earlier this week my computer caught some nasty viruses. It was actually my fault, but it was a mistake anyone could make.
I went to download some software from what *looked* like a clean site. When I clicked to download, it asked me to install an ActiveX control. Since this is a pretty normal occurance, I said “yes”. My Norton antivirus popped up saying it was unable to block a trojan, and about 5 seconds later the trojans were working like crazy to infect my entire computer as fast as they could.
I immediately unplugged my internet connection and disconnected my external hard drive to make sure the virus couldn’t get to my backup.
Admittedly, I had turned off the Windows System Restore function (it was slowing down my PC), so my two options were to restore the backup from the external drive, or to fight the infections.
Having been in the web hosting business, I learned that backups are not 100% reliable, and should be restored only as a last resort. I also didn’t like the thought of losing everything I had worked on since the last backup.
So I decided to fight it head on. Unfortunately, the trojans had installed all sorts of adware, spyware, malware…the works! This was no small infection.
I had to keep rebooting just to do anything, and when I accessed the internet I had to close pop-ups every 2 seconds. So I did what most people probably do in this situation… In a frenzy I bought the first thing that promised it could help me. Then when it didn’t help me, I bought something else…
This is why I’m writing to you today. I want you to avoid the mistakes I made, and go directly to what’s going to help you.
Now before you read another word, I want to make something clear. I am not selling or advertising ANYTHING today. I know for a fact that if I told my readers to buy something that would protect and/or fix their computers, hundreds would buy it.
That’s not what this is about. It’s about pointing you in the right direction so you know where to go if this kind of thing ever happens to you.
First of all, let’s talk about what NOT to do.
Don’t go buying all sorts of stuff like I did. It probably won’t help, so you don’t need to buy it. I bought an anti-malware program, which deleted a bunch of spyware, but it wasn’t able to fix the bad stuff, and I learned later I could have used something better for free.
I also bought a task manager program called WinTasks Pro, because it promised to help me regain control of my computer. While it’s not designed to remove any infections, it really did help me block a few of their processes which in turn allowed me to more easily work on fighting them.
Again, I’m not here to scare you into buying anything today, so if you want to check it out they have a free trial download here:
WinTasks Pro (direct link to the exe file).
In case you’re interested, I used the “block list” to block certain processes by name, and I set it so that I had to confirm or deny all new processes as they started.
Next I went in search of some real help. I came across a bunch more sites trying to exploit my vulnerable emotions with software scams. If you want to see a ridiculously long list of spyware removal scams, check out this page:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
And then…FINALLY…
I found a heaven-sent site amidst the chaos.
Please take a moment to write down or print out this next section, so you’ve got it when you need it…
It’s called Geeks to Go, and they provide 100% free computer help! I have absolutely no affiliation with them, and they have no idea I’m giving them a pitch, but I’ve got to tell you they’re the real deal because they helped me.
It’s volunteer-driven, so I’m sure some helpers are better than others, but I’ll tell you the guy who helped me was a genius.
You can reach the site at:
If you need help with an infection, then the first place you need to go on their forum is here:
It’s a list of steps you need to take BEFORE getting help from them. What you’ll find is a goldmine of 100% free tools and step-by-step directions to fixing your PC.
I would give links to all of those tools here in my newsletter, but there’s a method to their madness and it’s important that you do the steps IN ORDER.
As their site says,
“Please remember, people are helping you for FREE. Be patient, somebody will help you as soon as they become available. We all have REAL jobs, families, have other interests, and may live half way around the world. Plus, there may be people in front of you waiting for help. Following these steps will lighten our work load, and allow us to help more members.”
Make sure you are very polite, and thank them each time they respond. Most of the volunteers have a Paypal donation button available. If you want to get quicker service, you could try what I did… send a PM (personal message via the forum) to the volunteer who is helping you and let him/her know you’ll give him a tip if you get your problem fixed.
I gave a $25 tip because it sure beats calling in a clueless $100/hour local repair guy, but I’m sure most of those volunteers would be thrilled with $5 or anything for that matter.
To make a long story short, they helped me kill the infections systematically, using totally free tools. There’s absolutely no way I would have figured it out on my own.
What to do once you’re clean
First of all, it’s good to have a backup. You can find external backup drives online or in your local store. If you’re interested in what I’ve got, I did a blog entry about it back in January.
Then of course you need a good antivirus program. I used to use Norton, but my viruses fried it to the point it could no longer validate, so now I’m trying something called AVG. I’ve found it’s a bit less resource intensive than Norton anyway. They actually have a free version for home users, but I upgraded to Pro since I admittedly use my computer for business purposes (plus it was only like $38 for 2 years).
You can also find a ton of other tips on Geeks to Go’s forum for securing your PC. Stuff like securing your browser, using a firewall, and free adware/spyware blockers.
I’d list it all here, but I’m really not the expert…they are. The important thing for you to take away from this is that you should be prepared, and have a plan of action if disaster strikes your PC so you don’t go wasting a bunch of money on useless programs.
If you’ve got any good resource links, stories, comments, or warnings feel free to post them here in the blog.
Have a great day!
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(added 05/12/06)
PS– One of our Eric’s Tips members has written a good ebook about computer security. I’ve reviewed a copy of it for him, and found it to be well laid out, lots of good resource links, and 130 pages that will give you a good education about protecting your PC. You can get more info here:
Hi Eric,
Man I’m surprised a guy with your experience would still be using Norton. I’ve been using the free AVG and Zonelabs.com’s Zone Alarm firewall for almost 6 years now, with hardly a problem… certainly no trojans anyway. AVG does a great job of blocking viruses and trojans. The only time I’ve downloaded a virus and once a keylogger was with a zip file. The Anti virus program never picked it up until I opened the Zip file, however it immediatly warned me when it opened.
When I recently bought a new computer system for currency trading (built on an Intel server and running 6 monitors) I decided to go with the Pro version of ZoneAlarm, which includes an AntiVirus in the suite.
I’m curious why your blog has a greyed out Google PR bar. This is a matured site that’s been around long enogh to get it’s fair share of PR4 nand PR5 links, and should rank at least PR4 by now, if not PR5.
Have you done something to upset the Google Gods Eric?
Hi Eric
Thank you very much for your warning about the virusus and how to get rid of them. As a newbie I would’nt have known what to do if it struck my computer, but thanks to you I will make sure I’ve got the right stuff.
Keep up the good work.
Karin
South Africa.
I had a similar problem early last year. I think I ended up reading the solution in a forum at a site like Geeks to Go, but don’t remember the name now. At the time there ended up being only one antivirus program that fixed the problem, from a Russian outfit called Kaspersky Lab at http://www.kaspersky.com/
At first I was nervous since it was a Russian company because I’ve read in the computer press that most of the viruses, trojans, and worms (oh, my!) come from Russia and the Baltics. It’s like the Wild West of computing, lawless and anything goes. I was suspicious, since their product was the only one that fixed it, that these guys had actually created my problem in the first place.
But this was a particularly nasty problem and it affected Windows Explorer itself, which is the shell that boots and runs your entire Windows op system when your computer comes up, so something like the WinTask Pro would not have helped.
Well, this did the trick and I haven’t had a moments problem since. I guess since hacking is like the Wild West, it pays to have someone who knows it.
I had something similar happen and I went to MajorGeeks.com. Apparently it is something similar. I went through their step by step program and was able to get rid of a malware-trojan attack that Norton had let hide on my computer until I disconnected it to move it. Glad to see you came through relativey unscathed.
Eric,
What great tips and site resources!! So many times we go looking for these things AFTER we have a problem…so it would be wise for all of us to remember to be proactive in caring for our computers BEFORE we have a problem
Due to past infections and problems also encountered, I’ve definitely become a big fan of the portable harddrives because, as you mentioned, when you know something has gone awry, you just unplug that baby as quickly as possible and deal with things from there!
Of course we would do well to remember that a back up is only as good as the operator who did or didn’t do the back up!
Thanks again for all the great info…and a timely reminder!
Back it up folks…you just never know what lurks around the next corner!
Kathe
Hi Eric, it is amazing how easily it is to find a story of a near miss like yours or a one of a total loss of data. I worked in field sales for GE for 13 years and saw my colleagues lose there info all the time. Everyone had CD or DVD burners but never got around to actually doing a backup.
I recently launched a new service called MillerNET Protect. It’s an Automated Offsite Backup ( some refer to it as an Online Backup). You install the client, tell it what folders you want backed up and how often. The system scans the folders you specified, and then does an incremental backup via ssl to the server. Most users have it run every night. There is even a retention area where you can access old versions of your files. If that virus or malware trashed your Outlook PST file and you didn’t realize it, and you backed it up. You would lose it all. With my solution you could simply restore yesterdays PST file and be up and running in minutes. You even receive a detailed report with the results of the backup operation. As with any automated system the reporting is key to ensuring that everything is running properly. I have client software for PC, MAC, Linux, and Solaris. The packages are available in 200MB, 1GB, 5GB and up. I am giving out 200MB accounts for FREE right now. I’m also about to launch my affiliate program. It pays 30% recurring
Hi Eric,
I just wanted to say that I belong to MANY ezines
and newsletters.
I find yours to be in the top 5 and “actually” look
forward to reading it to the end.
Keep up the great work!
Jack
Hey Russell, I’d never heard anything bad about Norton… I still haven’t really. But so far I’m glad I made the switch to AVG…I’ve noticed it scans my email quicker.
It’s showing as a PR4 for me… I think it’s been a PR4 since the week after I launched it. The PR system is so frustrating though. I know I’ve got hundreds of people reading my entries (and sometimes thousands), but PR doesn’t care about that. Maybe you all should start linking to my blog
I’ve tried going for high PR on some of my sites in the past, but it’s a bit mystifying really. I’ve got some sites with hundreds of inbound links, but they still show as like a PR2, while some of their internal pages are PR5. So obviously Google doesn’t like something about them.
Lately, I haven’t been worrying about PR at all, as I’ve found it really doesn’t dictate my paycheck. I’ve got a lot more to say about PR, but I’ll save that for a future edition. I’ve actually been experimenting with buying high PR sites lately… I’ll have my case studies done within the next week or so hopefully.
E
Jack, Kathe, and others… thanks for the kind testimonials. It’s always appreciated!
E
FYI, AVG == Kaspersky. Same thing. Kaspersky labs (a Russian firm) licensed their software to an American firm in Kansas for marketing to the North American market.
What trojan did you get? My wife’s system got infected with something a few weeks ago called “winlogonhelp trojan”. I downloaded AVG and it detected it and quarentined it. So did SpySweeper. But as soon as it got deleted, it reappeared!
I even tried Symantec’s online service. It also identified the intruder, but the long elaborate process they gave for fixing it didn’t appear to coincide with what I was obvserving as the actual intruder’s behavior, so I ignored it.
I realized something was calling the cmd.exe program, so I renamed this file and within 2 minutes there were 47,000 copies of some weird .tmp file in my /winnt/temp folder, and they were increasing at a very rapid rate.
Anyway, it took me nearly 12 hours over three days to track down and kill this sucker completely. The silly thing is that while both AVG and SpySweeper identified it clearly by name, neither of their web sites included any information on it. In fact, searching Google and Yahoo for that name yielded zero hits.
Hey Tool Wiz Dave… There were several, but the one that gave me the most problems was Qoologic. All the AV/Spybot programs were not able to kill it either. It ended up taking an arsenal of tools including FindQool, Avenger, Killbox, and a few custom scripts to clean it out.
Dear Eric and everyone
I too had an awful trojan. AVG missed it, Microsoft Defender (A great free util from Bill!) also missed it. I too was tempted to download the stuff as it popped up.
However… my solution, and one I offer to all, is as follows:
Borrow another computer which is similar.
Take out your system disc (ie c:) and attach it to the other computer.
Boot this one and your system disk should appear as E:, F: or similar.
If this works then copy ALL your data from it to a CD/USBpen/ other removable item.
CHECK you can read your data.
Then remove your own disk, put back in your own computer.
Reformat and reinstall the operating system, or buy another disk use that, and keep the old one as a backup.
I know it’s a bit nerdy/geeky way of doing things but it may save you loads of time and money.
More details available on request.
Thanks,
Paul McLaughlin
http://www.BlueOwlPublishing.co.uk
Eric,
I’ve heard bad things about Norton for several years (starting with a computer radio talk show on every Saturday here in the Los Angeles area and finally from our great IT guy last year…he likes Panda).
Because Dell only supports Norton or McAfee, I use McAfee.
But I also have Spy Speeper, Spybot, Anti-Spy (Yahoo) and now, since your last warnings, Trojan Hunter which I found on the geeks site you recommended!
I hope I never have to go through anything as bad as you have and I’m so paranoid, I am constantly running all these things. I had a bunch of windows keep popping up one after the other several weeks ago and it was hard even with the task manager to stop them…but nothing has been discovered on my computer afterwards by any of the above programs.
Did you end up buying Trojan Hunter???
–Linda
Hey Linda, I did download the free trial of Trojan Hunter and it seems like a decent program. I didn’t buy it though. For now my plan is to keep running AVG antivirus, and try very hard not to download any questionable stuff
E
Eric,
you say your are not selling anything in your blog today, but you completely are. .
Norton is known for not being very good. It misses a lot of adware, spyware, and viruses. It also really leeches onto your computer and is hard to extract. Plus, it takes up a lot of memory.
There are a few really good software programs out there. They each are good for different things.
For example, Zone Alarm is great if you want the Best Fire Wall
http://url123.com/yessd
Nod32 is the Strongest AntiVirus
http://url123.com/ye6bu
My Source: http://www.mycomputermagician.com aka http://www.mymeepmeep.com aka my husband the computer know it all. He professionally fixes computers.
Have a Blessed Day!
P.S. - Aurelius Tjin has granted me permission to
give you this f.r.e.e. g.ift
=> http://www.undergroundgiveaway.com/?thankyou-page=3602
Hi All.
The best way to prevent virii and trojans is not to allow activex controls to operate on your browser, shut down all the automatic stuff in your microsoft email prgram that makes all the pretty stuff work, and never open attachments or zips unless you can confirm the source.
User behaviour and a lowest common denominator operating system like windows is exactly why the trojan writers target Microsoft products and their users.
You have to get security conscious - I use Eudora for email, set to text only. The program warns you when a hyperlink isn’t as written in the email you are reading, no active x or anything else.
The same reason why I use Opera web browser with everthing fancy turned off.
An operating system like Microsoft which uploads stuff without your knowledge, reboots the computer at night when you are sleeping, and needs untold security patches all the time needs careful management and watching.
Caveat emptor.
Rick Rakauskas
P.S. Since most of the virus writers are Eastern bloc, the best people to fight them also come from the Eastern bloc
Hello all,
Thanks everyone for the great tips and resources on this post. I have been in the computer consulting arena for several years now, and the common call I get from clients is that they have a virus/spyware/trojan or combination (such as Eric had - I feel for you buddy, I know the pain they can be to fix) of all of them.
This is now a “reality” in our connected world, but there are ways to prevent this from happening to you. Here is some tips on how you can keep your computer protected:
1. If you have Win XP as your OS, be sure it was installed cleanly. Go here to do that: http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/security/page_2.htm.
1a. First, whether your computer is new or old, get rid of the junk software that you do not need (i.e. AOL, Norton, etc.). Use “Add/Remove Programs” from the Control Panel to do this.
2. Also, do a backup of any critical data/files/folder to CD/External HDD. It amazes me how many people MISS this step - it WILL cost you if you neglect to backup data.
3. Either turn off “System Restore” or minimize how much space it will use. For instructions for doing this see: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;LN;310405 or http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks3.htm (some great other tips at this site as well). I recommend turning it off completely, as viruses/spyware/trojans can be hidden in the _restore directory and can come back, even after you’ve supposedly cleaned your hard drive of them. How? because anti-virus/spyware software cannot access the restore directory.
4. Install an “approved” anti-virus software. These were recommended further up in this post. I personally recommend NOD32 (http://www.eset.com/download/index.php), AVG(http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1) is good as well.
NOTE: Don’t install two anti-virus tools onto your PC, this will give conflicting results when you run either one.
5. Install a “good” spyware tool such as Webroot Spy Sweeper (http://www.webroot.com/). This is a paid version, but well worth it - and it’s cheap! Highly recommended.
6. Install a firewall (other than the built-in one that comes with WinXP). I recommend ZoneAlarm which you can download here: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp. You can also purchase the Suite version, but check out the free one first and try it out.
7. Download Spybot S&D and AdAware SE here http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22262,00.asp. Also, if you are an advanced user, download HiJackThis utility here: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html - scroll down the page and you’ll see the HiJackThis title.
8. Opt-in to the new Windows Update here: http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us. I would not allow updates to be installed automatically, but do allow it to notify you of updates then you can manually download them once you find out they are safe to do so.
This should give you a great start in keeping your computer clean and safe. If you have any questions, post them back here (Is that ok Eric?) and I’ll answer them. Thanks.
Patrick Whitson
http://www.comicbookcollecting.net
http://discoverebay.blogspot.com
Hi Eric,
I managed to infect my PC recently. I got it fixed using free help from Geeks To Go as well.
I use McAfee anti-virus and firewall and have downloaded Ewido as it’s excellent for picking up spyware.
As you mention though, sometimes you need extra tools to get rid of them completely.
Best wishes… Carl
hi everyone
i used to use avg (advanced virus guard), but i recently changed to the free version of avast, i must admit its a whole lot better.
if your looking for a anti virus for free then i recomend you check it out: avast.com
hey eric,stay off the porn sites and you wont get viruses lol
only joking dude
good luck
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the information about this virus problem. I’ll certainly check out the Geeks to Go site…
I really appreciate your informative “Tips” newsletter.
regards,
Mike
Hello Eric
This is your best friend from india. anyone looking best and freeware anti virus soft that is only avast 4.6. please recommed
ok Bye
I posted this on a web site about a week ago - Take note of the comments
The BEST anti virus program and its FREE « on: July 09, 2006, 11:05:18 AM »
The absolutely best anti-virus program available is, Grisoft - “AVG Free” Automatically updates -(generally every day) Reliable anti-virus scanning engine Free Virus Updates for the lifetime of the product Options to define file name extensions Real time protection with the AVG resident shield E-mail scannerhttp://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 - then click AVG Anti-Virus Free on the left side and you wil be taken to the free download.This is not some free garbage, AVG has won numerous International Awards for Excellence. . . . . 100% Detection Rate certified by independent ICSA Labs VB100% award in Virus Bulletin tests West Coast Labs Checkmark Level 1 certification TÃœV Monitored Virus Protection certification GRISOFT has been awarded the Red Herring 100 Europe award AVG Free for Linux achieves ‘Recommended’ award February 2006Want more : http://www.grisoft.com/doc/37NO, I don’t make anything out of this - its FREEI have used this for the past eight years and even through the worst Internet viral attacks, have NEVER been infected. If you have kids who download music from some wacky sites, get it.
Comments:
I’ll second that!I have personally use the software for the past 7 or 8 years myself. I use it on ALL computers on my network. I offer it for download from ALL my websites.
———————–
I’ll be the third to chime in on that thought!We use the commercial version at our office and I have it on my home computers too. I have used them for at least the last five years and have not experienced any down time or loss of files from a virus yet! It does an excellent job of quarantining any that come through, embeds itself nicely into most email programs and even works with IE AND Firefox! And the best part is the price! It is free and almost daily updates and more.
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FREE is sometimes very good!
Hi Eric,
I am a recent subscriber and think I have found a gold mine in your tips Ezine. I Took special note of your last post. I’m a middle level user and always paranoid. I have used AVG, AdAware, Spybot S&D and others for the last year and haven’t had any trouble except for tracking cookies that seem to always sneak through. I have recently switched to Firefox for my browser in most cases (some sites won’t work with Firefox). I will definitely be checking out your recommendation on Geeks to Go as I am always looking for good information. The one thing missing from your post (I am sure you have your reasons) was the site that infected your computer. If there is a sleeper badboy out there, it would really be nice to know where it is, especially one that starts the infection as quickly as you indicated.
I hope you were able to get rid of all the infection.
Thanks for the alert. I look forward to future editions.
Ken
Oh dear. Eric, Eric, Eric … so many mistakes, and you’re still making them!!! And so many of your readers with a similar story of their own!
Look folks, learn it now: You don’t aim to be ready to “fix” something after it has gone wrong. Your first consideration MUST be to prepare your PC to be inviolate in the first place. AFTER THE EVENT IS TOO BLOODY LATE!!! You need *selected* scanners and also special tools like SpywareBlaster - not a scanner, but prevents the download of certain known-bad things in the first place.
Eric, the Qoologic trojan is one of many “special cases” that can be tricky to remove, but there are solutions to everything if you know where to look. As you discovered, downloading every “fixer” in sight is not the answer. But ,my friend, I have to say it — you should never have picked it up in the first place. Proper preparation is the key to a trouble-free existence online.
Some of your commenters said they are running multiple anti-spyware tools. This is not a bad thing in itself, so long as there are no known inter-app incompatibilities. But it is important that only one app of each type be active real-time. By all means use multiple anti-spyware tools for user-initiated scans, but definitely not running together in the background as real-time watchdogs. Of course, if you are using the *RIGHT* tools, you don’t need to be running a whole stable of like types.
Russell and Liz are quite right about Norton. If you’ve never heard anything bad about Norton it can only be because you aren’t looking. There’s plenty of sad/mad/bad stories out there.
One of your respondents said he uses “Pro version of ZoneAlarm, which includes an Anti-Virus in the suite”. Yes, it does, and that’s it’s weakness. Zone Labs’ fame is built on their personal (software) firewall. It’s a pity they had to jump on the “suites” bandwagon. Their av component is not up to scratch. I recommend using ZoneAlarm standalone, not the suite.
And Eric, your backup is an external HDD? If, as I suspect, you work from home, then that is seven-tenths of the way to being useless as a safeguard against a catastrophe. Think about what makes a “catastrophe” or a “disaster” and you’ll see why. Think fire, flood, vandalism, burglary, etc. Your backup will go the same way as the main system.
Further, the external drive is part of your system and just as susceptible as the main drive. YOU CANNOT MOVE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT - so thinking you’ll be able to save a mirror by unplugging it is (sorry) delusional.
While I applaud any group of people who make themselves available to help others, I must say I have some serious reservations about some of the recommendations on the “Geeks to Go” site. It’s mostly good stuff but, for example, any list of anti-spyware tools that doesn’t feature Webroot Spy Sweeper in the top five is a bit of a worry!
Remember folks: The first line of defense is the human brain.
Best regards,
- Bill Hely
- Author: “The Hacker’s Nightmare”
- http://HackersNightmare.com
- “How to keep hackers, worms & other germs out of your PC”
Hi Bill- It looks like you really know your stuff! Thanks for the input- appreciate it!
So what do you recommend for backup instead of an external HDD?
Eric
Hi Eric: I’m fairly new to internet/affiliate marketing, but not at all to computers/internet. I can’t believe how all the IM experts seem to be still locked into PCs/Windows, and forever struggling with this or that. Most of the leading edge software guys have long since moved over to Mac. Eric, you are driving a Model T Ford! Of course it will clap out like that. Personally I have better things to do with my time, and money. Best of luck. Roddy
Jessica M.
I’m sorry for little off-topic, but I want to ask you about design of this site. Did you make this template yourself or got from any templates website? Looks pretty cool for me
Hi All,
Looks like this thread’s been around a long time. Wouild have been nice to have seen it when I had my own problems.
I was dumb. I replaced the motherboard in my system and had a fresh windows install. I connected to the internet *before* I had reinstalled my anti-malware utilies. (Bowing head in shame.)
The stuff I got infected with, including one of those home page hijackers, wasn’t quite as annoying as Eric’s problem, but it was bad enough. The freeware spyware programs did nothing, HijackThis didn’t help, but SpyWare Doctor killed all of it. What’s the price for headache relief? $30 bucks. http://www.pctools.com/en/
Now I have GeeksToGo bookmarked.
Thanks Eric.
Greg
http://www.pctools.com/en/
Hi Eric,
After 15 years of never having a virus this was my week. It was terrible. The virus ate my memory. Everything was lost. I was very protected with a firewall, Norton and take very good care of doing all the things you should do to keep your computer clean but it happened to me big time. Fortunately I have backup info and am back online. I cannot say enough about backup! Anyone who has a business needs to do it to save all your hard work. If you don’t back up, it is like forgeting to lock the door of your store when you go home at night. Having a plan for disaster is very important. Thanks for your information Eric.
Penny
Thanks for the great advice. It came in very handy. I had a problem with a Trojan a month ago, and did an overhaul and thought that I had gotten rid of everything, but lately haven’t been able to place any ads with UsFreeAds or even make changes to my ads at Overture. That can be a real problem. I went in and uninstalled all my adware prevention/ malware software, deleted cookies, etc, but no good. Was just debating whether to do a disk reformat (which aside from the time doing all the backups first, the uninstall, and reinstalls would have been a big pain, and nothing would have been the same on the computer), when I got your email. I though what’s to loose and went through all their steps (a few hours of work, but nothing compared to doing all those reinstalls), and now everything is running fine. I have access to Overture again, and can place ads at UsFreeAds also. Best of all the service was free, not to mention the free virus software besides. I did spend some money to buy the pro version of the Panda Activescan because the small amount they were asking seemed more than worth it for the time and effort that was saved, as well as the future help that is offered. Thanks again. (By the way, yours is one of the few emails that comes into my inbox that actually gets read. Keep up the good work.)
Hi Eric,
Thanks for all the warining and advise too. I am so glad to be one of them receiving your newsletter. Thanks to all those above who provide other useful tips too. Keep it up guys . Good job!
It is all for win2000 and xp. I have that problem all the time.I find AntiVirGuard free version to be very good and enough for my win 98SE.
Thanks for your info
Eric, my personal Geeks, (God love ‘em) installed Ad-Aware SE Personal from Lavasoft on my computer. It protects against tracking cookies, spyware, etc. Lavasoft is a very reputable site. My protection is all free - but then I am a small user. I use AVG, Ad-Aware SE, SpywareBlaster (which I don’t need, because of the Ad-Aware), and CCleaner. Each of these can be upgraded to a higher level of protection for professional users. I run DSL and go anywhere I wish and have never had a security breach, so needless to say, I am extremely happy with the products I have. I think you’ll be thrilled with AVG; it is so much less cumbersome than Norton, and really does the trick!
Kindest Regards and a Million Thanks for Your Wonderful Advice,
Ida
Hi Eric,
just read your mail about your virus attack.
You have my deepest sympathies my friend.
I detest Norton with a passion, from personal experiences it has more holes than a sieve!
AVG is very good, I used it for a couple of years with no problems, but, one day, it too let me down.
I now use avast which also has a free version available to home users and have found it to be faultless (so far)
At the end of the day, all your protection can only ever be as good as the last virus to be invented. Unfortunately, most of these viruses start off as pranks by school kids with time on their hands.
I have been a Norton Protection user for years and have had some virus’ overpower my system as well as “over power” Norton Virus program. My Norton Anti-Virus program could not fix or delete a nasty trojan virus I got last year. My sister-in-law said to try “Web Root” Spyware/Virus program. I did and it worked fantastic.
I let my Norton protection expire and all I use now is WebRoot. Easy and effective - priced about the same too.
Hi Eric,
I had a similar occurence happen to me over the weekend, but it was some new hardware that I was trying to install by myself. After I did that, my computer crashed! It was a goner for the week, until I decided to look into it myself.
Anyways, my computer is running perfectly now, but I’m never going to touch that hardware again! I recently looked at a website that has software which actually helps you backup information and all that. You can take a look here - http://simurl.com/internetready
I’m glad all our computers are smiling at us today!
Bye for now,
Darleen
Eric,
I only have two words for you. “Zone Alarm”.
Hello,
This is my first time on a blog. I have been receiving your tips for about 3 weeks now.
I just wanted to let you know that the almost exact same thing happened to me back in last Sept
ActiveX started it and I also had Norton and it just crashed my computer.
My friend who I was renting a room from at the time fixed everything for me and he installed the free version of AVG and I have not had a single problem sinse.
Take care and hope you ankle heals fast.
Lonnie from BC Canada
Dear Eric:
I have a great spam filter and I love it. It is called, Qurb. All my junk mail goes in there and I review it and keep what I want and delete the rest. I love your newsletter, it is great! Thanks a lot.
Oh, I tried to sign up for your Blackwire site but it would not accept my domain so I bought a new one. “westenterprises.” It will be working probably tomorrow. I hope I can still get your site builder then. I must admit I have no idea whar I am doing. I am taking a business course from Prosper Inc and when my autobiography sells I plan to build a site to advertize it. Do you know any publishers personally. You see my book is rare, it is the discovery and day to day recovery of a multiple personality. I want to travel with my book and tell the world what God brought me through. (He integrated us and healed me, Oct 2005. Thank you for your time and ear.
God bless,
Carol West
Whatever it was, AVG Anti Virus is the best and until now my computer never be infected by those nasty viruses even after 6 years! You just name it: Trojan, Trajan, Trujun…. or whatever… This AVG just so perfect and these viruses can’t do anything to cross over the wall….
It totally works!
Eric,
We had an incident where the trojan horse that invaded our computer was put out by the company that provided the fix. When looking for help, I looked up the virus or trojan horse and found a site that discussed the company and issue. They also provided a free fix and several paid programs. I actually used three virus cleaners to clean the computer.
The caution is this: watch for a pop-up that says click to download a program that will address that particular virus. The price for the program was about $70. I do not recall the name of the virus or company at the moment, but do recall the misery we had for days.
Thanks,
Steve
Thanks so much for the info. I wish I’d gotten this 2 weeks ago when this happened to me. I actually had to reinstall my OS from the beginning, but my system hasn’t really recovered. It acts like a car trying to move with a faulty transmission. I suspect there is still a hidden infection lurking where McAfee can’t find it. I will definitely be checking in with the Geeks, and reading the ebook, too. I will be sending everybody I know a copy of this newsletter, too, since this is as important as you and I think it is.
Thanks Eric,
Your tips are always helpful. You’re right about Geeks to go, they are excellent help. I discovered them a few months back and I was able to recover a friend’s otherwise dead computer!
I have another free program that I really love. I have bought the pro version, but the free one is absolutely great. It is “Advanced Windows Care personal” It closed up your defences for you and will remove spyware and clean up the registry. It’s a fast scan and it really works. You can get it at http://www.Iobit.com
Hi Eric ,
Many thanks for your great objective Tips and the warnings and steps
to take to avoid total disasters.
Just wanted to confirm that having had a similar problem with Norton almost
slowing my computer to a grind I would also recommend Kaspersky who also
offer a 30 day free trial. Very secure and no heavy system load.
Thanks again.
Martin
Hi Eric,
and everyone else,
My ten cents, I used to have loads of problems, until I got rid of spy sweeper and spy doctor and norton.
I installed adaware se , avg free, and spyboy search & destroy all free all 2 years ago and have had zero problems since. I make sure at the end of every day that they are updated and run them one after the other in no particular order, not simultaneously. Oh Yes, and I stopped using IE for my surfing and switched to Mozilla.
I use CCLEANER @ http://www.Ccleaner.com. this is a great program to cleanup temp files and any orphaned files. It will reclaim hard space for you very quickly. Give it a try…I love it. I run adaware, spybot, Registry Booster 2.0, defrag on a regular basis to keep my machine running smoothly.
Russell’s first comment above I agree with completely (just don’t have time to read all 47-some-odd other undoubtedly good comments).
I’ve used the Zone Alarm free version, plus AVG for years. Have had no problems (except the one time I clicked on something from an email attachment to install a “codec” - Microsoft auto-installs codecs, BTW) - anyway, I’ve had NO problems with this set up for these years.
Zone Alarm asks you if you want to let something access the internet (and your own network).
AVG will scan a ZIP or any file for you if you want it to (left-click menu item).
Both are perfectly workable as free versions, and can be upgraded to very nice paid versions.
Eric,
Thanks for the reminder about how important it is to back-up your data (at a minimum). You reminded me and inspired me to purchase an external hard drive and do regular back-ups. I’m now running a free back-up softare program that seems to be working great (it’s called Back2zip for anyone who’s interested). I also purchased a Seagate FreeAgent 250Gb external USB hard drive (great price on buy.com). It’s silent and seems to be working perfectly.
I’m also a firm believer in using AVG Antivirus software — I’ve been using it successfully for several years and it’s caught and eliminated more viruses than I can remember from all of my computers. I liked AVG so much that I purchased the Pro version of it and it keeps my machines running virus free. It automatically updates itself on a daily basis.
Thanks for provinding great information to your readers! Have a blessed day!
Wow after opening ERIC’s newsletter I “happen” to get all the “symptoms” of the virus he just so happens to recommend on the issue , The next day…….
why thanks eric i saw in parenthesis it is the “direct link” to the site. NOT an affiliate link, as Im sure with all your HTML experience you would never fool us like that since you are someone who is a man of the church.
I am very thankful for your astute report to us suckers out here. I have now the policy of backing up before I download anything. and have the switch to my backup drive on off. i turn it on when needed and keep it off when not.
I HAVE AVAST ANTIVIRUS IT CAME HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY AN ISP GURU I KNOW. I KEEP YOUR NEW SERVICE IN MIND, AFTERALL, $38.00 FOR TWO YEARS IS A GIVEAWAY.
Eric:
Awesome! That’s all I can say about this tip. Thanks so much for all your work on this troubling issues. I really appreciate your honesty.
Sincerely,
Daniel
Avast 4.7 might be slow to open email but boy does it catch things quickly and then, click… there gone. I caught a trojan in a well know persons website it came in the download link. They did not even catch it. Thank you Eric for your honesty, and integrity.
Thanks a lot Eric for reminding us. I am also fond of downloading things from Internet. Yes, I also suffer the same consequences getting free software with virus attached in it. Surely, Internet is a big business. Bill Gates once told in his Bibliography, that he’s dream of having computer for each home is fast becoming a reality here in the Philippines. Here everything is expensive from Electricity to Computer Hardware to Internet Connection. I did not use my computer for my own sake, I used it to learn and earn an honest income. Of course, it will take me along time to have this dream of mine but if I will stop, then I will not neither have it tomorrow isn’t it? Eric, you’re a nice guy and I hope you continue sharing those stuff to newbie like me. I don’t have money to pay all your information and ideas you share with us, what I have is a prayer asking God to give you more wisdom and health so that you can continue your work in the future. A big thanks.
OR…you could simply get a Mac and be done with all of those headaches, antivirus downloads, troubleshooting, and general silliness. Choose to be more productive and creative. Next time, choose a Mac. No better time like today, when the world’s best operating system (OSX Leopard) will be released tonight!
Hi Eric–
Thanks for your recommendation for Geeks to Go–I have bookmarked this site as a favorite now. It is always good to have insurance!
I am very new to the internet world, and have lately been exploring the world of online marketing. True to newbie form, I have downloaded a lot of stuff, (but have yet to open most of it) and a lot of it is in zip files. I am trying to learn how to scan single files for viruses, etc. before I open them because I don’t want to kill an already cranky computer. Plus I am trying to distinguish between legitimate opportunities for online w.e.a.l.t.h and ones that are something else entirely. Lots to learn!
I do have a technical question, if anyone can help. My browser is often freezing up on my home page. I have run Spyware, etc. and everything comes up clean, but the problem is persisting. I was told upgrading the (malfunctionong) graphics card will help the problem and was wondering if there were other solutions as well, as my budget is stretched rather thin at the moment. Thanks!
I to have had trouble with Viruses, Trojans and such. I have tried the free versions and they are good. But I prefer the entire Internet Security Suite that includes Firewall, AntiVirus, AntiSpyware and Malware. They are all integrated and are made to work together. Zone Alarm is good but kept hanging up my Computer, even the Security Suite. I have always come back to Trend Micro PC-cilin. It is good and easy to set up. Another good one is Kaspersky AV. For Spyware, eTrust PestPatrol is quite good. Ad Aware 2007 is free and is very good. The best advice is what you said. Have a good Firewall, Anitvirus, AnitSpyware and do periodic scans and Restore Point Checks.
As to the one with the Browser problem, you could try Firefox and Thunderbird (eMail Client) there are free and come in an External Application-you can put it on a USB drive and run it from there. I do it so that I do not loose any saved websites or email.
Again thanks for your help and keep of the good work.
Hi Eric, thank you for the brilliant update on pc viruses and the site Geeks to Go. I have kept that mail as a reference guide. I too get all sorts of Active X’s trying to access my info and since I keep a back up of my entire website on my hard-drive which is the hub of my entire network here, it sends me reeling when something goes wrong. I use AVG and set a system scan daily. AVG also offers an anti-spyware software that you can download and use as a trial for a month… This is an excellent programme and really does give results. I also tried hundreds of others and AVG gives me the best results. For the price you’ll pay for the full version it’s really negligible when one takes into account spending R750 a shot getting a technician to look at the pc and shake his head not having a clue…
Thanks again for the excellent information
Hi Eric,
AVG is the best free antivirus out there. there are also several good firewalls, with the recomended free products above, you can be well protected, however, NO program is 100% effective all the time and some nasties require special tools to remove. Back up is important.
I am currently using Defender pro suits. I got a 5 in 1 for about 29 dollars comes with a great antivirus, firewall,(say you update your firefox, when you go to use it it pops up a warning telling you the .exe was changed, and recommending you run the antivirus, or if it is because you update, you click a button telling it you know it was changed) the firewall asks you if you want to let something access the net and control how it does so. there antispy is not that great really, spybot is better. they also include a nice utility program. and a couple other things(including an antivirus for cell phones)
the 15 in 1 has alot more and I paid 39 dollars for it. these are kapersky labs programs, and work great.
one program i got that i recomend you buy is webroot window washer. it has the ability to allow you to wipe your entire hard drive, making the data unrecoverable(as well as shredding files) so if you do need to reinstall your OS you can wipe the drive first making it clean again.
some nasties stay resident in memory, and even if you put in a new hard drive can reinfect your computer.
Norton is worthless and MCafee is only slightly better.
I want to point out, that some of those free programs contain adware. I know that spybot, adaware se, and avg are clean, but some of those others are not, and never use the “free scans” some sites offer, they will give you false positives to get you to buy the product.
thank u Eric
i always enjoy ur newsletters
thank u all
god bless u all !
I have been using AVG for several years now and I am very happy with it.
I know that it has saved my pc from the dumpster on several occasions lol…
right now I cannot afford the pro version so I have been using the free version I highly recommend it to anyone that needs it
Eric,
I could have used this last week. I got the nasties too. I finally just wipped my computer clean and started over. What a pain. I had no idea how much stuff I would have to reload. I had to go scrounge in the attic for my office disc etc.
I too had norton and it got destroyed. I am now using AVG too. I will definitely write down your steps just in case I ever get put in this nasty place again.
I thought my computer was protected. I had 3 or 4 different things going on anti-virus, antimalware, firewall…well you get the point.
Only lucky thing is I back up all of my data on an external drive and only plug it in when I am saving to it.
I think a good point is it doesn’t matter what your experience level is they can get you.
A fan forever,
Will
Hi Eric,
I felt that I must respond to your email because I had just finished doing the same thing that you had to do. Three minutes after I finished with my computer, I saw your mail. Wow!, What a surprise. I mean, I thought, What a coincedence. This guy had the same problem I had.
I had web sites loading none stop. Hey, I couldn’t even read my e-mail. The popups were comming faster than I could kill them. On top of all this, spyware company’s were popping up all over the place, offering free downloads, which almost makes you wonder about how they knew about my problem. Of course, I did not take any of their free downloads because I knew that they would not fix anything unless I paid for their product first. Boy! was I ever pissed off. Even got a little mad at the Spyware company’s that offered to give me free downloads because I felt that they had caused this.
To cut it short,I did find a spyware that fixed it all. I mean, all of the problems. PC runs like new. Same old speed came back. I’m like you in that I don’t have anything to do with selling this product. Felt like that it might save your readers a whole bunch of problems if I told them about how I came to the solution to this problem.
I do have Norton 360 and it’s up to date. I still became infected with everything. Also had Windows Defender. No help. These programs can’t spot a virus when it’s right in front of them. For $39.00, I bought the (Max spyware Detector and Max Registry Cleaner). Did the complete job on my 2002 Systemax, 2.4. Worked so good that I bought anothe set for my wife’s new Vista laptop. You can’t know the relief I felt especially since I’ve had to reconfigure the hard drive three times last year.Didn’t lose much because I had a W D external 250 gig hard drive backing me up.
The place where I got my spyware is Again, I don’t give a hoot or a holler if you ever buy this software. Oh, It did work to delete all the problems durring the trial, before I had paid for it. It just did not offer me real time protection until I paid for it. Tip-If you download the program for the trial free of charge. You can then go to the control panel to the add -remove. As soon as you try to uninstall this program, the spyware people will offer the software to you $10.00 cheaper.
Good fishing to you all,
Grayghost
My computer (HP Pavilion/Window XP) came with Symantec/Norton installed about 4 yrs ago, used about a year and then went with Zone Alarm Pro for 3 yrs, until it became so bloated, used a lot of system resources. I’ve been using AVG free version, Comodo Firewall Pro, also using Windows defender. CCleaner is good for getting rid of all the junk temp files. I haven’t had virus or malware yet. I also use a Hosts file to block out bad websites and ads (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) which I think really helps. Also check out Avant browser.
Eric,
I really just wanted to thank you for this tip. I’m pretty new to internet marketing and I’m glad to see this post because just two days prior I had gotten a virus and my virus protection popped up on the screen and alerted me but it was doing nothing but telling the virus was there so I really didn’t know what to do and shut it off. Later on I turned my computer back on and thought my virus scanner would take care of it but that was a joke. Luckily I was able to find the infection and take care of it but it was just a minor problem. So when I read your post I realized how unprepared I was and if that would have been a more serious infection I don’t know what I would have done. Well as luck would have it now I do. Can’t thank you enough for the info!
Eric, I remember having a malware storm a couple of years ago and switching off the modem etc.
That left a search program on my desktop, among other things.
I reviewed several security programs and suites for my book about being safe on the Internet which was released a couple of months ago.
A little-known, but reliable, suite of free programs are available from comodo.com
Like another poster, I used Kaspersky Internet Suite for some time after something got past my AVG (grisoft.com) paid program.
But, another Internet marketer recommended Trend Mico Internet Suite Pro to me and I am now a very happy user of it.
It’s resource friendly (I use two old PC’s so that’s very important) and it has some great extras which are useful, not flashy.
They have a trial available which I used, but I signed up before the trial was finished
Your external drive information also looks very interesting. I bought one a couple of weeks ago, mainly to help me to finally get organised.
Thanks, John Williams
Hi Eric, I glanced through the other comments and over the years l’ve had my share of virus’s.
l didn’t notice anyone mention stop sign (e anthology.com) as l have found them to be the best for about 36.00 year. When they cannot remove a virus they make up a special program for you when necessary. Over time l have tried a lot of the ones mentioned. Just thought i would mention it in case you never heard of it.
Thanks Jack
Hi Eric
Thanks for this. I do have a PC for a couple of
things that my Mac can’t do and to check out what
things look like through the PC eye. However I
can’t praise Macs enough for their safety on this
virus problem and the rock solid reliability. (that’s X
not the old classic BTW) so guys do yourselves a
favour and check out the future. I am NOT a football
side tub thumper or mac evangelist - it’s just that you
will really love the freedom, the elegance and the
…oh stop. It’s just that I love sheer quality don’t you?
Jackie
Hi Eric, I clicked on one of those so called Anti-spyware free trials and all it was, was Spyware. At the time, my programs could not remove it. I went to the forums. Found out the “Anti-Spyware” would fix the problem for 50 bucks U.S.. I finally found a great free or paid, Program that could remove it. Been using it ever since. http://www.superantispyware.com Works Great. Hope this helps. Never needed any other Antispyware program sine this and I only use the free version. Bruce
Hi Eric, thanks you for your great information about Spyware , Malware and all kinds of nuisance wares concerned. It’s never happened to me before, but your experienced notify me to always alert to these features. I also used one type of Spyware Software in my computer to protect from this abused alien. So far its ok. You may have a look at SuperAntiSpyware (4.0.1154). One of My friend recommnended it to me. It’s free trial. Best Regard from Fauzi. Again….thank.
Hi Eric,
Your experienced so call info is very much usefull to me. As a new comer this kind of info will help for future undertaking. To be honest I know about ‘ Geeks to Go’ thru another affiliate but only read it half way. But thru your link i fully understand how good they are and their program!
Thanks a lot Eric for render the information in detail.
Hi Eric,
I haven’t had any problems since I installed Win Patrol (winpatrol.com) They warn you when a new program is being installed. If you’re not installing anything, it’s probably something nasty, and you can delete it before it starts. They have a free version, which is what I use, and a paid version with more features. It also has a bunch of other features, but this is what makes it invaluable.
I also use Avast and the free version of Zone Alarm and am satisfied with both of them.
Hello,
Thanks for the info. I have already experienced this more than once. I am always prepared now. But, what I do is I shut down my computer and restart it in the safe mode and then run a new virus scan. I do this twice with two different antivirus programs. One is for free, AVG, and the is MacAfee, which I pay for. I like it a little better than Norton but it still does not cover everything. I use Spyware Terminator which is free as well, but I have Spyware Doctor as a backup too.
Running the scans in the safe mode pretty much takes the entire day, but it has saved me from losing thousands of dollars in software and files.
I will check out the sites that you listed.
Thanks again,
Gregory
Last week, same happened to me too. I used Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware (free) and nod32. Nothing else helps.I have win xp so I had to go to safe mode and clean everything well. I have backup now
You never know.
You tell a familiar story. I recently went through a similar problem but I also had a mailer spamming with my primary email account.
I am not sure, but I think it was also my fault that the little buggers got into my goodies.
I use kaspersky for my anti-virus and firewall and it has worked great up until that point.
I found something that fixed me right up for cheap and I am very impressed. It’s Panda’s antivirus online - ActiveScan.
I didn’t have to download or install anything and I didn’t have to disable my current software. Nice.
It found dozens of nasties and sent them to the virtual shredder.
Hey Erick,
I download “warez” programs a lot and I use ZONE ALARM SECURITY SUITE to SCAN and Clean them and it has ALWAYS come through without a hitch!
In my opinion it’s BETTER than Norton which it’s just very heavily advertised and pushed commercially but, as you found out, it “crumbles” when you NEED it the most!
I stopped using it about 3 yrs. ago and stuck with my Zone Alarm Security Suite that has kept me Protected until now.
BTW, before settling on Zone Alarm & experimented with others like, AVG, Kapersky, Panda, Trend Micro and the winner in my book is ZA!
My son attends Xavier University. Their tech people recomended AVG 3 years ago. I bought the license and have been extremely satisfied ever since. None of the other anti virus programs compare. The updates are daily and automatic at startup.
AVG is good but still has a larger footprint (resource useage) than some of the others. Many of the corporations I used to work for and now I use it is the NOD32 from ESET. Extremely effective, and the smallest footprint and resource hog on the market. Does virus, trojan, spyware, etc.