please help, annoying computer virus

[danger boy]

overnight i got a annoying computer virus on my Win XP machine. So far it doesn't appear to be to malicious, but you never know.

I don't know what the name of the virus is, but it's the one that keeps reopening Internet Explorer browser.

so if anyone knows how to get rid of this virus please let me know.

someone suggested I to a restore point from a couple days back.. that sounds like a good idea to me. and i'll give it a try tonight.

[treitz3]

Good luck. I have no pointers as I no jack about computers but I "think" I have gotten rid of a nasty one I got last week [with a lot of paid help, might I add...]. What I thought had caused the virus wasn't even the case.

Viruses SUCK!!!!:mad:

[Jstas]

It's not a virus, it's adware trying to contact an ad server that isn't responding. If you don't have one, get AdAware or SpyBot or both, update them and run them. They should clean it out.

Update your Internet Exploder too.

[Rivrrat]

I have good luck with ccleaner. It seems to get stuff Adaware and McAfee don't.

[Demiurge]

Wipe your hard drive and reinstall XP.

[Rivrrat]

Wipe your hard drive and reinstall XP.


That would work.:eek:

[HB27]

Download and install AVG Free. (www.grisoft.com) and run it. It will eleminate all viruses. If the virus persists start computer in safe mode and run AVG again. 100% effective.
I run all free security.
AVG, Adaware, Spybot. I haven't had a virus in 7-8 years probably. I'm ALL OVER the net.
I don't get junk email, spam, etc. NEVER.
HB
Contact me and I'll send you direct links.

[Demiurge]

That would work.:eek:

Unfortunately once you're infected that's usually the best solution. Save what you can and dump the rest.

The idea is to have all the protection in place before you get nailed with a virus. :o

[bruss]

its probably called "smithfraud virus"

says your pc is infected and to go here to get the fix.. blah blah

kind of a bastard to get off..

[ShinAce]

If you're getting like 50 ie windows, def spyware. Spyware cleaner is your fiend.

edit: sorry, friend. Double sorry, this is not even an edit.

[danger boy]

i have adaware and newest version of McAfee suite

[danger boy]

ok i am making some progress it seems. i restored my computer to a couple days ago.. then restarted it.. no pop ups.. then went in and turned off system restore, restart again... so far so good. Knock on wood.

but, did that clean out the ad-ware or did it just cause it to go dorment? either way.. i'm never using IE again. Never had this problem of adware using Firefox.

I will take all suggestions and download and install Spybot and the other free cleaners. I was surprised Adaware didn't catch it though. and I have the latest version and it's updated. but i guess some stuff still gets by those.

[Face]

McAffee sucks and Norton is a resource hog. I've been using Trend Micro PC cillin for the last 2 years and haven't had a problem since.

[HB27]

Doesn't look like the McAfee worked.
AVG works. It's free, it's easy to use.
HB

[danger boy]

its probably called "smithfraud virus"

says your pc is infected and to go here to get the fix.. blah blah

kind of a bastard to get off..

yeah that sounds exactly like it. it brought my 6 yr old computer to it's knees for a while there though. :mad:

[SKsolutions]

As was said earlier, Wipe it. If you have any infections that you can see, you may have ones that you can't. Root kits, trojans named after OS files all festering and multiplying in your box. . .
Clean install, use a security product that has internet security built in. Free doesn't mean bad, but you do sometimes get what you pay for. For free, try WinPatrol and SpyBot in addition to a Virus/Security suite.

[Demiurge]

As was said earlier, Wipe it. If you have any infections that you can see, you may have ones that you can't. Root kits, trojans named after OS files all festering and multiplying in your box. . .
Clean install, use a security product that has internet security built in. Free doesn't mean bad, but you do sometimes get what you pay for. For free, try WinPatrol and SpyBot in addition to a Virus/Security suite.

Yep, our IT guy says the same thing when we've had problems.

The best way to be sure that all the bad stuff is gone is by wiping the drive and doing a fresh install. It's a pain in the ass, but it's the only way you can be sure it's all gone.

Installing a bunch of third party free-ware can often cause more problems beneath the surface you may not be noticing beyond hampering performance. Sure, it may stop IE from opening, but there's often more going on.

The key is taking the appropriate measures to protect your machine before there's a problem. I think AVG is fine, but AVG isn't going to clean a jacked up machine to 100% after there's been a problem.

[Jstas]

I have yet to have to do an entire reinstall of any computer due to something as silly as a virus or spyware.

If your IT guy is telling you that, it's because he is lazy and doesn't want to go through the work of removing the offending software.

A complete reinstall is rarely the answer and always a last resort.

[Demiurge]

I have yet to have to do an entire reinstall of any computer due to something as silly as a virus or spyware.

If your IT guy is telling you that, it's because he is lazy and doesn't want to go through the work of removing the offending software.

A complete reinstall is rarely the answer and always a last resort.

Sorry, Jstas, I keep forgeting you're the expert on everything.

[bobman1235]

People have this aversion to reinstalls like it's some last resort. It's the cleanest and surest way to rid yourself of these types of problems, and has the added benefit of usually speeding up your computing experience.

Why spend hours upon hours trying to remove these viruses, when in the end you have no way to be sure you got it all, when you could spend half the amount of time doing a clean install?

[Refefer]

People have this aversion to reinstalls like it's some last resort. It's the cleanest and surest way to rid yourself of these types of problems, and has the added benefit of usually speeding up your computing experience.

Why spend hours upon hours trying to remove these viruses, when in the end you have no way to be sure you got it all, when you could spend half the amount of time doing a clean install?

I'll agree that sometimes it is necessary to reload an operating system, but I definitely always try to wipe the virus/adware first. There are a whole lot of very useful system tools at one's disposal to tighten the ship, so to speak, and often you can remove the offender within an hour if you know what you're doing.

Having a custom machine and having to reinstall EVERYTHING from drivers to software usually takes somewhere close to a full day for. I'd try to thwart it if I could.

And if you can't, buy Norton Ghost and make an image of your fresh install after all the updates and necessary software is installed. That'll save you countless hours.

[Jstas]

Sorry, Jstas, I keep forgeting you're the expert on everything.

I deal with this stuff for a living and as a side business. I have a couple decades worth of experience. My client's data is much more important than the ease of getting the reinstall done. The Geek Squad and Firedog reps resort to reinstalls. My clients call me back and even sometimes they allow a Firedog or Geek Squad monkey to touch their systems. Then end up calling me back to fix what the monkeys screwed up.

I'm not an expert on everything. One of the few things I am an expert on is computers and if I can help I prefer to speak up. What I don't prefer to do is combat misinformation ad nauseum from everybody that has an "idea" or what "they do" to fix a problem. Especially when it is the worst possible way to go about it.

I'll just keep my help to myself anymore. It's a waste of time trying to help people that think they already got it figured out anyway.

[bobman1235]

Wow, hypocrite much? YOu criticize others for their "misinformation" based on what "they do", and then you prattle on about what "you do" and how it's the only right way. I also do this as a job, and have for almost a decade. There are many "correct" ways to solve a problem, and which one you choose depends very much on your application. For many home users with a basic understanding of computers, in my "professional" opinion a reinstall is going to be the path of least resistance, guaranteed to work. Tackling a virus or spyware for the average user is a daunting task and there's almost no way to know if it was successful.

[Jstas]

Hypocrite:

1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.
2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.



I do not pretend to have virtues and qualities that I do not possess. Nor do I subscribe to belief systems that I do not follow. I will not tell someone to do as I say not as I do.

I do not feign some publicly desirable attitude. In fact, most of the people find my attitude to be less than desirable. Maybe it's my fault. Nobody respects my feelings so I have no desire to go out of my way to protect their fragile egos. Give me some common respect and you'll get it in return. I don't behave any differently here than I do in real life. Maybe I come off differently here in text than I do in person. I don't know.

But several people have used the word hypocrite to describe me and point out ancillary instances where they think I have compromised myself in one way or another.

A hypocrite I am not and those who think I am should gather a better grasp of the English language. They didn't have English classes in school so you had a period to get some Z's.






As for my experience in the "computer field", 20+ years. Everything from simple desktop support to extensive server/client installations at enterprise levels. I have worked on high availability clusters, assembled clustered servers, built entire database systems and managed it all. I have a laundry list of credentials that has pretty much let me write my ticket in any job I have taken. I'm not a two-bit hack and I have a ton of knowledge and experience. I am much more advanced than any typical home user. The difference between me and many other people on my level is that I will gladly explain whatever someone doesn't understand and show them how to do what I am telling them to do as many times as necessary. When people on Internet forums question my integrity, assault my character and dismiss my credentials just because I think that they are giving bad advice, my interest and enthusiasm for helping others having a flawlessly running computer like I have wans rapidly.

[shadowofnight]

The Geek Squad and Firedog reps resort to reinstalls. My clients call me back and even sometimes they allow a Firedog or Geek Squad monkey to touch their systems. Then end up calling me back to fix what the monkeys screwed up.

Understatement of the decade....I cant believe people pay so much for this shitty service when every single instance I have seen they have screwed up the situation more then helped.

Half of them resort to reinstalls when a simple registry edit could have solved the problem...from what I have seen from Geek Squad ( Havent had any run ins from Firedog ? Wonder if they are here out west ? ) they are bad news.

[HB27]

I have yet to have to do an entire reinstall of any computer due to something as silly as a virus or spyware.

If your IT guy is telling you that, it's because he is lazy and doesn't want to go through the work of removing the offending software.

A complete reinstall is rarely the answer and always a last resort.

I'm in agreement. A simple virus is a very easy thing to resolve. No need for a lengthy reload at this point.
There ARE times when a reload is called for. You are not at that point yet or even close.
HB

[shadowofnight]

I'm in agreement. A simple virus is a very easy thing to resolve. No need for a lengthy reload at this point.
There ARE times when a reload is called for. You are not at that point yet or even close.
HB

Agreed....+1

[Demiurge]

You are not at that point yet or even close.
HB

How do you know?

[Demiurge]

People have this aversion to reinstalls like it's some last resort. It's the cleanest and surest way to rid yourself of these types of problems, and has the added benefit of usually speeding up your computing experience.

Why spend hours upon hours trying to remove these viruses, when in the end you have no way to be sure you got it all, when you could spend half the amount of time doing a clean install?

This is exactly it.

I'm not computer retarded nor do I know all of the ins and outs of PCs. The "IT guy" is a close personal friend and maintains the computer system of our states energy supplier. He also installed our network and does the maintenance for us. Calling him lazy doesn't even make sense -- he gets paid not to be. :rolleyes:

His advice for my business when we have had a couple workstations get nailed by a virus was to simply get them off the network and reinstall the OS on the individual machines. It's happened 3 times now in 10 years and we've always done the complete reinstall rather than paying through the nose for diagnosis and hours of maintenance that leaves no guarantees.

Besides, I want to be 100% sure that the machines are safe since they're used to conduct business. I treat all of my personal computers the same way.

If your PC is just a jerk off box, by all means -- keep installing free-ware and letting it 'fix' your PC for you. If you want to make sure everything is gone, a full reinstall is the only way to do that.

[HB27]

I've been working on computer systems since '77.
I'm an electronics tech and a part of my business is computer repair, software, and PC building.
I am not a KIA (know it all) either, but I've not seen a single virus in close to 5 years or so that I've had to reload a pc because of it.
There's a lot of good software available to remove "junk" from your system.
McAfee may even have already "patched" the problem by now.
PC security is always behind. That's why upgrades and patches are always available.
I mean no disrespect to anyone. I DO know what I speak of and I'm just trying to help a forum member with a problem I find is very simple.
Though not a "cure all", the AVG is a very easy to use, software compatible, program designed for just such cases.
The safe mode restart and running your pc security in same mode is where I would start. Even McAfee and Norton use this feature.
HB

[MKZ]

overnight i got a annoying computer virus on my Win XP machine. So far it doesn't appear to be to malicious, but you never know.

I don't know what the name of the virus is, but it's the one that keeps reopening Internet Explorer browser.

so if anyone knows how to get rid of this virus please let me know.

someone suggested I to a restore point from a couple days back.. that sounds like a good idea to me. and i'll give it a try tonight.

I believe that is not a virus or adware. They install the program somewhere in your system. The solution is on Symantec's web site. You might need to delete some registry value and some services. If you don't know what you are doing please let somebody do it for you.

[Demiurge]

My "How do you know?" question was in regards to your statement of knowing what's specifically going on with someones comptuer over the forum. It could be as simple as adware or it could be something more serious.

The only reason this turned into a debate is because someone had to get on their high horse and make some dickheaded comments about a differing opinion.

[Demiurge]

If you don't know what you are doing please let somebody do it for you.

Which is why a lot of times a fresh install is the quickest, cheapest, and easiest.

Most PCs that weren't home built have recovery discs in them that revert the PC back to the day you bought it. Easier than paying someone else to fix it, which I don't doubt can be done, and you've got a 100% safe PC.

If you don't back up your files, then I can see why you wouldn't want to do it. I keep all of my files on a stand alone hard drive and all the apps I run are on there as well.

[HB27]

My "How do you know?" question was in regards to your statement of knowing what's specifically going on with someones comptuer over the forum. It could be as simple as adware or it could be something more serious.

The only reason this turned into a debate is because someone had to get on their high horse and make some dickheaded comments about a differing opinion.

Understood and agreed.
His calling it a virus apparently came from his PC security identifying it as a virus.
There were times my Adaware SE Personal was identified as a "trojan horse".
Even in a "general statement" I can think of NO reason at this point to reload.
Yes, a clean scrub and reload will eleminate this problem.
HOWEVER, I've seen viruses pop in during reloads of drivers, motherboard flashes, and many online updates.
Viruses CAN/MAY be a problem.
A virus may not necessarily be a virus but simply identified as one.
I do have to say though, these little things do help pay the bills.
It is nice to get the varied viewpoints on this subject.
HB

[Jstas]

The only reason this turned into a debate is because someone had to get on their high horse and make some dickheaded comments about a differing opinion.

Heh. Classy.

If your "friend" is unwilling to track down the problem and fix it for you then he is quite lazy and likely sees no benefit in it for him. So he's going to take the easiest route to get out of it while doing as little work as possible to avoid doing work he likely isn't getting compensated fairly for if at all under the guise of friendship.

I don't care if he works for an energy supplier and isn't lazy at work. they probably pay him well and honestly, it's his job, he signed a contract saying he would do it. His paycheck kinda depends on it. That doesn't mean he isn't being lazy for you. I know plenty of people at my job who work their keisters off at work but want so little to do with computers at home that they don't even own one and avoid requests for help like the plague.

Since he has an extensive background concerning his experience with computers, I can almost guarantee that he is being lazy. I hate getting taken advantage of by friends for their personal computers and even some for their businesses. I have friends with similar levels of experience who also complain of getting taken advantage of by friends and family. I will avoid doing work or do minimal work for certain people because they want something for free because they call me "friend".

I'm done with this thread.

[danger boy]

I have yet to have to do an entire reinstall of any computer due to something as silly as a virus or spyware.

If your IT guy is telling you that, it's because he is lazy and doesn't want to go through the work of removing the offending software.

A complete reinstall is rarely the answer and always a last resort.

agreed... i have never reformatted a HD and it kind of scares me to death. since i'm not a real organized person.. i'm not sure where all the software is in my house. :confused:

But as Demi and other's have said.. free ware to help fix problem may only cover it up for the time being. but it doesn't get rid of the adware that caused the problem. only a clean reinstall would do that.

either way.. my PC is running like normal again. but i'm not going to use IE anymore. I never did like IE much anyway.. but this computer is due to be replaced next year anyway. so as long as it holds up for another 9 month's, i'm cool.

[MKZ]

Uninstall the IE and delete the registry key then reinstall again. You could download from Microsoft.

[Jstas]

I wouldn't get rid of IE completely because some sites require you use it. I would go and get the update packs from Microsoft, the have fixes that solve the problem you were having and prevent it from happening again in one of the service packs for IE6. Might also want to look into upgrading to IE7. They did a decent job with exploits but the look'n'feel isn't the same.

So I lied, I wasn't done with it. I will be now though.

[Demiurge]

Heh. Classy.

If your "friend" is unwilling to track down the problem and fix it for you then he is quite lazy and likely sees no benefit in it for him. So he's going to take the easiest route to get out of it while doing as little work as possible to avoid doing work he likely isn't getting compensated fairly for if at all under the guise of friendship.

I don't care if he works for an energy supplier and isn't lazy at work. they probably pay him well and honestly, it's his job, he signed a contract saying he would do it. His paycheck kinda depends on it. That doesn't mean he isn't being lazy for you. I know plenty of people at my job who work their keisters off at work but want so little to do with computers at home that they don't even own one and avoid requests for help like the plague.

Since he has an extensive background concerning his experience with computers, I can almost guarantee that he is being lazy. I hate getting taken advantage of by friends for their personal computers and even some for their businesses. I have friends with similar levels of experience who also complain of getting taken advantage of by friends and family. I will avoid doing work or do minimal work for certain people because they want something for free because they call me "friend".

I'm done with this thread.

Ah, say a bunch of stupid shit and then run away by saying you're done with it? Cute.

Typical. It's a wonder anyone engages you on this forum when the end result is you talking at everyone rather than with them. You put friend in quotes as if he isn't really one and I need to justify it -- and I am sitting here wondering how it is you have any yourself with how you constantly treat people on this forum.

I'm sure there will be no response since you're done with this one. :rolleyes: