PC PROBLEMS NOW!!!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-18-04 AT 09:38 PM (CDT)
 
I am having this DARN spyware pop up take over my machine. I cant check my mail or do anything without this happening. This message took 5 minutes to type. It actually changes the page. The address can be one thing but this stupid "Search for" page comes up!!!

What do I do???

Go to http://www.stopzilla.com Download pop up killer.I'll get you a key code or type a search for cracks.

Thanks I will try it. I am on my XP machine now and I am not having any problems. Is this something I can load to a floppy and take it to the other machine? I simply cant do anything on that machine now.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-18-04 AT 09:52 PM (CDT)
 
Just go to site and right click, save as and burn disk. Go there on that computer and download and stop popups forever. I also have spynuker. Well worth it.

You can run one of the several spyware removal programs available, to remove the crap in your system.

I use Adaware equiped with all of the (Free.) plugins, while leonard has another favorite. Then, get a copy of Zone Alarm's firewall for your computer. There is a free version available for that too.

Zone Alarm has a popup stopper that has been 100% effective in my systems for the last couple of years.

Those items plus a good anti-virus program should keep you uninfected for a while.

BIGS

" What constitutes the dignity of a craft is that it creates a fellowship, that it binds men together and fashions for them a common language. For there is but one problem - the problem of human relations."

I've heard that Spybot and Adaware (both have free versions for download) catch some spyware that the other does not. Used them briefly and they did work.

>I am having this DARN spyware pop up take over my machine.
>I cant check my mail or do anything without this happening.
>This message took 5 minutes to type. It actually changes
>the page. The address can be one thing but this stupid
>"Search for" page comes up!!!
>
>What do I do???

Short term

Go to:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

download AdAlert 6 (free)

disconnect from internet (hang up or pulll out ethernet/firewire/USB/serial line)

install and run AdAlert

Configure firewall properly.

reconnect to internet, works OK.

Long term

Get Linux or get Macintosh.

Brett,

That's AdAware from Lavasoft. I use both this and Spybot: Search and Destroy on a pretty regular basis. Maybe once a week for AdAware and every other week for Spybot for my Windows box. They work.

>Brett,
>
>That's AdAware from Lavasoft.

I knew that, even visited the site seconds earlier - just had "alert" stuck in my mind for some reason.

I have it on my work PC, but of course I can hardly bring myself to use the machine - what with a Sun Blade 2000 and a 6-year old PowerMac 8600/300 w/21" flat panel monitor just 3 feet away.

I thought getting rid of the spyware would keep the PC from crashing and slowing down to the point it had to be restarted every two hours. But I find that spyware is not necessary for that to happen.

I've got a coupel of Sun Blade 2000's sitting to my side at work, they drive my Xerox continous for printers. Funny thing is, the Blades are the file controllers and are hooked to the print devices that have 2 IBM clones a piece in them, which of course are running Windows.

Can you guess which side of this operation Blue Screens?

> I thought getting rid of the spyware would keep the PC
>from crashing and slowing down to the point it had to be
>restarted every two hours. But I find that spyware is not
>necessary for that to happen.
>
> Brett

I realize you are a Mac user. It seems the engineering schools prefer them. But, all pros and cons aside, My PC runs continually and I don't reboot it. Don't have to unless I am updating software. But I do use Norton Utilities, and have the spybot running constantly. If you have that much of a problem with a PC, there is something wrong (like some bad program lingering on, or a file missing, or something.)

Have to agree with Leonard,

I look after the network operations at a local college. Mainly PC's with a few Imax's.
All Pc's have Spybot Search & Destroy installed + Mcafee anti virus.
Given that students tend to surf where they should not, have had zero (0) problems in the last few months.
The Imax's (Netscape) are now starting to get hit. Seems like the spyware freaks are starting to target the Apple OS.

Regards,

>. Seems
>like the spyware freaks are starting to target the Apple OS.

Swell for them - but to run a program on OS X, you have to cooperate with them by allowing it to be installed. XP has the same feature, but until SP2, it was turned off by default.

Gee Leonard, I don't have to reboot when upgrading my Linux system, and I don't need Spybot or AdAware. While there are problems with Linux, like any system (including Macs), that nonsense isn't one of them.

>
>> I thought getting rid of the spyware would keep the PC
>>from crashing and slowing down to the point it had to be
>>restarted every two hours. But I find that spyware is not
>>necessary for that to happen.
>>
>> Brett
>
>I realize you are a Mac user. It seems the engineering
>schools prefer them. But, all pros and cons aside, My PC
>runs continually and I don't reboot it. Don't have to
>unless I am updating software. But I do use Norton
>Utilities, and have the spybot running constantly. If you
>have that much of a problem with a PC, there is something
>wrong (like some bad program lingering on, or a file
>missing, or something.)

Well, having been re-imaged about 10 times, replaced entirely 3 times, and under continual "professional" support, behind a firewall, I don't think it's a spyware issue. Particularly since the same thing happens with the classified machines - which aren't connected to the internet.

One significant difference is that there is a lot more going on in there than the standard MS "secretary's load" of applications. But it's always the MS applicaitons that bomb out - Outlook and Word being particularly crappy. We are warned against even firing up Exploder, even behind the firewall. Supposed to be using Netscape, but I use Mozilla since it's less bloated.

I have 5 different systems that I frequently use on a daily basis. In order of reliability:

VAX/VMS - completely bulletproof, no crashes aside from power outages in ~15 years

iBook G3/900 /Mac OS X - also never crashed, but is frequently power-cycled just because I want to turn it off frequently.

PowerMac 8600/300/Mac OS 8.6 - crashes occasionally, particularly running Netscape 4.79, maybe once every 6 months

Sun Blade/Sun server/Sun OS (Unix) - crashes or has to be restarted maybe once a month (must be the crappiest version of UNIX ever)

IBM Netvista P4/1.8Ghz/Windows2000 Pro - crashes or has to be rebooted due to dragging performance roughly every two hours, even if you just leave Outlook sitting there. Data loss frequent when using Word*. Never mind the things it just won't do properly, by crappy design.

For example, the exotic task of pasting figures into documents. Let's see, use postscript, figure doesn't appear unless you create a preview, but preview doesn't really match the printed version. Bitmap? Well, that the same, but it looks very poor. TIFF - swell, looks good - but why did my document just go from 120 K to 1.5 meg? Great, I'll save it - but wait, it says I am out of disk space. But I have 16 gig free. Must be a corrupted object, now I can spend the next hour figuring out which of the roughly 2000 Equation Editor objects might be corrupted. Oh, and I just noticed that the *original* document that I had previously saved is now wiped out.

Same thing on Mac. Click on figure, hit apple-c, go to new document, click where picture goes, click apple-v, move on with life. What format does it paste the document? Heck if I know, it looks right on the screen, and it looks the same when you print it out.

It's not just my machine - it happens to most of my cohorts, too. And it happened with previous NT system, too. It's junk - but unless you have a reference frame with which to compare, you won't know any better.

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I noticed even if I pull the phone line out of the wall the pop ups keep comming. It is some type of spyware crap that downloads to your machine. This stuff should be illegal. My Son fixed the problem. I get tired of having to re-educate myself every 3 months to keep up with computer stuff.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-04 AT 07:02 AM (CDT)
 
I know what you mean. I think I have a bug that calls up ads automatically whenever you go online. Some pop-ups are getting past the Google pop-up blocker too. Something even seems to keep disabling the Google tool bar. I have to keep re-installing it! One other irritant is whenever I do a web search using Google another search page using Lycos pops on in a new window slowing everything down. I did buy the fancy version of Ad-aware but it hasn't cured all the ills yet. I may not be utilizing all of the tools effectively. Usually the computer starts working normally after 5 or 6 minutes after the initial wave of ads (usually just 2 or 3)gets through. I was wondering if the pop-up blockers were trying to block some ads that eventually get through anyhow and that's what slows everything down early on. I don't even know if a computer works that way or not though. I'd like to find the SOB's responsible for this crap that slows down everyone's computers and pull about half the spark plugs out of their car. I bet thay wouldn't be happy having a machine they rely on being slowed down considerably.

Try stopzilla it works! http://www.stopzilla.com You get a free trial but you can crack it on the web.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-04 AT 10:02 PM (CDT)
 
>Try stopzilla it works! http://www.stopzilla.com You get a
>free trial but you can crack it on the web.
Got it. It showed 4 blacklisted spyware/adware programs immediately!
Whatever spyware bug I had also was keeping me from downloading photos from the digital camera. It kept shutting down the camera and then the computer would freeze up. It's workng fine now!

I have "Spybot, Search and Destroy". (It's free) It has free upgrades and has kept my system clean. As has been mentioned, you need to remove the spyware (and that is what this is). The easiest is to download one of these programs. A pop-up elmininator will stop the pop-up ads (usually) but it still leaves the spyware program on your computer (and that is what you have.)

One fast solution is to delete all of your cookies. A lot of the spyware comes in this form. Cookies, themselves, are not bad (you have one from the clstunt.com website that you are using which keeps you logged on and remembers where you were when you return.) It is just the bad cookies that give a bad reputation.

Just remember, if you do delete all of your cookies, you will need to log back on to the forum. However, there is probably another program that has been installed and that is why you need a spyware program to find it. Norton Systemworks can also scan your system and fix some of the errors, but the spyware has got to go first.

One good thing is the anti-spyware program such as I mentioned above will continually monitor your system once it is installed and prevent this from happening again.

OK, I follow you so far. I need adaware or spybot. Got that part.

Do these programs remove the spyware that is on my machine?

>OK, I follow you so far. I need adaware or spybot. Got
>that part.
>
>Do these programs remove the spyware that is on my machine?

Yes, search and destroy. Then they stay on duty and prevent new adware from installing itself.

Not to be a pest but....

You really need a firewall. The one that comes with Windows XP is full of holes but a GOOD one like Zone Alarm's "Black Ice" will not only keep you from being hacked but will also include a great pop-up and malicious code blocker.

Black Ice warns me when my McAfee anti virus needs updating, logs intrusion attempts and a lot more. I have had over a dozen attempts at hacking my computer occur in the last year alone. Not one was successful.

Yahoo's popup blocker is pertty useless but I havn't seen a popup either since installing "Black Ice". If I surf without the firewall turned on my system is inundated with crap.

As far as I know, you can still get it for free. I wouldnt be running on a DSL line without it!

BIGS

" What constitutes the dignity of a craft is that it creates a fellowship, that it binds men together and fashions for them a common language. For there is but one problem - the problem of human relations."

Argh...The bane of my existence lately at work. Gee, where to begin...

Doug, you will get more home remedies than you will know what to do with, heh. As to software solutions, Spybot S&D is also my choice. BUT, it doesn't always get your system clean if you don't fully understand how to use it and / or the infection is accompanied by a tricky Trojan.

Make sure your virus def's are up to date and run a full system scan first.

Go to download.com, search for Spybot 1.3, you should only get 1 hit. Download and install it.

Start it up and swith to Advanced Mode. Go to "Settings", then also to the "setting" button in the left icons, go to the startup sub catagory and click the circle "run once at next system startup" and also click "run check on program start" and "fix problems". Then close Spybot, reboot and let it do it's thing.

Next phase. There is also included a utility in Spybot to view your startup files under "tools" then "startup". You will notice double arrows on the right, click them and you will get a split screen. Click each item going down the list of items in your computer startup and view the comments that appear in the right window pane. If any are spyware, malware or trojans, it will tell you. You can either disable or delete them at that point from the list.

Reboot again.

I'm not sure what your tech level is, but if you know how to navigate DOS, I stronlgy reccomend booting in safe mode to a command prompt. Type the "set" command to see you environment variables. Look to see where your "temp" and "tmp" files are stored in those results from the set command. change directory to that temp directory. Attrib -h then Attrib -r to change any files that might be hid or read only. Then del *.* , which will delete everything there. BE CAREFUL! Before you del *.*, you want to double check you are at the temp directory dos prompt, or you might be deleting your system files or something else you want to keep, heh.
A lot of spyware dumps .DLL files into your temp directory and you can not delete them in regular mode because they are in use.

Finally, there are plenty of popup blockers out there, a freebie is available at www.panicware.com

Have fun!
Eric Vilgione

Len,

Generally speaking, cookies are used for tracking with spyware and malware. Some other limited uses, but they are generally for tracking. The really ugly stuff (like Gator) installs software without your permission that can be exceedingly difficult to remove through Windows and makes some pretty ugly registry entries that are again, tough to get rid of. Some stuff even AdAware and Spybot can't get rid of and you end up having to manually eliminate them. That can be dicey.

I recently had my Windows box hit with a particularly nasty program that AdAware and Spybot couldn't touch (though at least they identified it...Spybot even found all the pieces). I found the running programs from the task manager but was informed that I didn't have permission to stop them (and I had administrative permissions), found the registry entries and was told I couldn't delete them and so, of course, Windows refused to let me delete the programs from the drive. Only way to dump this stuff was to either kill them through the network from Linux or reboot with a command line disk. This is what I finally decided to do using a Knoppix CD I had.

Man, what a pain. 36 files, 10 registry entries and 50-some cookies all related to the same piece of malware. And all because my wife logged onto a horse-breeding web site that had been infected. No wonder I seldom use Internet Explorer at home. There are drawbacks for Microsoft in having IE so tightly tied to Windows. Leaves them open to crap like this. I understand that XP-SP2 will fix a lot of this. I can't wait.

Besides Spy Bot, another thing that really helped out was to quit using Internet Explorer. I downloaded Netscape, and most of problems with hijacking my home page and spyware went away.
The latest Netscape is very similar to Explorer and can use your Explorer bookmarks.

I have used Mozilla or FireFox almost exclusively for the past several months, and most Popup problems have vanished. They are free downloads at:

www.mozilla.org

Mozilla is the engine that powers Netscape, but is a lot less bloated. FireFox is still pre-release, but is much, much faster.

2nd the recommendation for FireFox, I downloaded and installed it a couple of weeks ago. Faster, Better, Safer, has it's own Pop Up stopper and the tab pages are a real nice feature. IE is garbage compaired to FireFox, and you really don't need a MAC

Make sure you are current with Windows updates. ( tools, windows updates, scan for updates ) DRM

If this is a Windows XP, download the Service pack 2 from guru3d.com
Norvald Olsvold

BigC,

Another option is Mozilla Firefox. This is what we use at home on Windows, Linux and my son's new Mac Powerbook. Lightweight and very, very fast; it can import the IE bookmarks (favorites in Windows parlance). A very cool program, it has some slick features that I haven't seen elsewhere and is much lighter on the system than the fullblown Mozilla or IE. I really like the plugin feature. There are about 500 plugins available that can do all sorts of neat stuff, making use of it really customizable. And the builtin popup blocker is a lot brighter than others I've seen.

OK, ad over but it's worth a look if anyone is interested in changing out of IE.

http://www.mozilla.org

Mozilla! I switched over last fall and never looked back. Its popup blocker works beautifully - you can easily enable pop ups from sites where they are needed. Its download manager works well too.

I also run the Norton Personal Firewall, and System Works/Antivirus weekly. And I do bother to keep the Windows 2000 PE updates current.

Virtually no problems, no blue screens, virtually never. A couple of programs (like Real Player, which I use for net seminars) do hang periodically, I just kill them with the Task Manager. The workhorse programs I use continuously, all day long - AutoCad, Orcad, Quartus II, Word 2000, PowerPoint, Acrobat writer, Excel 2000, Outlook Express, Visual Basic, TextPad, LView Pro, etc. all are quite reliable.

I recently tried Word 2003, and then shortly uninstalled it and went back to Word 2000. It suffered Piginess Raised To the Piginess Power, generating enormous files, constipating, and failing to refresh the screen properly. (That must be the one that Brett has been trying to use..) At the same time, my wife's Dell with XP Pro seems to be running its Word 2003-ish looking XP program without incident..

The only thing I use Microsoft IE for is what absolutely requires it, like Windows updates. Also, I run the recommended Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy (thanks to Leonard and others recommendation) about monthly, and find an occasional tracking cookie.

I may find myself stuck in this configuration, since it works well for me, and I see no reason to change.

[photo not recovered: 412587837d6e39d7.jpg]

Only minor problem I've had is with LView Pro - occassionally it slips into inter-dimensional recursion, and I'll get a stack overflow, because I have only 1/2 gigabyte of RAM..

[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]

"All good work is done the way ants do things, Little by little." -Lafcadio Hearn

Hi Larry,

Yea, I use Firefox because I don't really need all the extra stuff that comes with the full blown Mozilla, but they work about alike. Have to admit I really like it.

Man, that is one crowded desktop.

Randy

PS-The plans for the new elliptical plane are done. The program is KOOL!!!

There ya go, Randy! Reminding me that I've been working on WORK again, when I need to get back on Stunt Ship.

I'll be expecting a full report on your methods and recommendations!

[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]

"Half the failures of this world arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping." -Augustus Hare

Doug: (and everyone else) here's a good overview on the subject from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/expert/honeycutt_spyware.mspx