Calling all computer geeks

[Tater]

I have a serious problem with my computer. My computer is infected with some sort of malware that's basically shutting McAfee down. My computer works Ok in safe mode but I can't do anything to fix the problem in safe mode and when I try to run in normal mode my computer freezes up after less than a minute. I'd prefer to try and fix it myself but I can't figure this one out. Any help?

[BILLY D.]

Tater

I found about a year ago Norton Anti Virus IS a virus. Since I deleted it from my 'puter I don't have problems. I went to AVG and another program called AdWare SE.

At Rockys insistence I went to Firefox also. That was fun. I was up till 0515 the other morning till I finally got things straightened out.

Sorry I can't be of any assistance. Theres other folks here that are computer smart. They'll help ya out.

Best wishes, Bill

[Tater]

I can't stand Norton either; that's why I got McAfee on this computer when I bought it. McAfee's served me well for the last 2 years. I'll try downloading AVG and see it that helps. The only problem I may have is that they may not install while in safe mode and my computer doesn't run in normal mode. I'll give it a shot, though. Any other advice from anyone?

[denton]

AVG is a good product, and it's free.

One of the things that the stronger viruses do is immediately disable the virus protection software. Nasty.

You also need Ad Aware, as mentioned. It is also free.

Some of these nasty critters, like Banker, lie almost unnoticed. But when you use a credit card number or bank account number, they snag it and report it to the person who propagated the virus.

Once you get the new software, unplug your computer from the Internet while you troubleshoot. That will save you a lot of trouble.

[Jack]

IMO, both Norton and McAfee are poor ( I'm being really, really polite!).
AVG is much better.
Tater, do you have a firewall installed and running? If you don't, you need one. The Windows one that is part of XP is ok, and you may already have it. Zonealarm is another free firewall that works.
The big thing is for you to get antivirus and a firewall up and running.
Another resource, maybe, is a lot of the people that make and sell antivirus programs have a website that will do a free scan for you, on line, if you can get to them. PC pitstop is one such place.
http://www.pcpitstop.com/default.asp
If you can get those downloaded, or get copies on CD from someone, take the PC off line and try to install AVG and have it scan everything.
AdAware, by Lavasoft is good for catching spyware too. There's an even better program called Spywareblaster that sort of does the same things as AdAware, but catches the stuff before it gets on the PC- it's free and works extremely well.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Tater, all the programs everyone has mentioned are very well known and will come up right away on a search.
If none of this works, I'd make a call to the local independent repair shop- look for a little 1-2 man place. NOT a place that sells lots of name brand computers. When I had a problem quite a while ago, my local shop made me a copy on CD of all these programs and gave it to me.

[Tater]

The problem with all that is that I cannot install/run those programs from safe mode. When I start my computer in normal mode it locks up in about 30 seconds: no where near long enough to do anything but get more pi$$ed off. McAfee has worked well for me for the last 2 years which is about 18 months longer that Norton ever did. All those other programs work great (I've used them in the past) but they don't do me much good if I can only work in safe mode.

[BILLY D.]

GEEEEEEZ

I did something right for a change with my program selection.

See, God does take care of little kids and Polacks. :D

Best wishes, Bill

[Lilred]

Tater,
I have Norton...but MCaffee should have come with, or you should have, created a boot disk. Do you have one?

[Tater]

If I have one I haven't been able to find it. It's with the Windows restore disk, which I was also looking for. I can reinstall the program straight from the net, just not in safe mode.

[petey]

Download Stinger from McAfee and see if that clears up your problem. It can be ran directly from a CD or where ever you download it to. Just Type in McAfee Stinger into any search engine.

or just click HERE (http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger )

This isn't virus protection, it's virus removal after you're infected. It looks for a select nasty bunch of viruses. Hopefully the one you're infected with is one that Stinger is designed to find and kill. If so, you'll be back up and running in no time. It's saved my rear on many computers that had been infected with Norton. BTW, I rebuild about at least a computer ever month or two at most from friends and co-workers (home machines) Every one that was infected had Norton on it. Norton only updates dat files once a week, and that's kind of stupid since there's like 200 or so new variations of viruses out each day (or some crazy number like that) Only makes sense, that if you're running Norton, you're probably gonna get infected sometime on down the road. It's still the old FORD/CHEVY/DODGE debate, and personal preference. But I've been running my Jeep (McAfee) for over 4 years now and never been infected...Got it on 3 machines at home and she never skips a beat...knock on wood ;) haha


Lemme know if that doesn't fix your problem. If not I can walk you through a manual way of finding the little nasty bugger. It'll involve looking at some key places in your registry (where it tells the malware to fire up on boot)

[Tater]

which one do I use? There are 2 or 3 to download

[petey]

The one at #1. Version 3.8.0

Should be a file called stng380.exe

[Tater]

thanks petey

[petey]

How did ya make out? One other thing I might mention if Stinger doesn't whack it for you is to search on a tool called "Hijackthis"

You download the tool and run it, it generates a log of everything running on your machine, registry entries, blah blah. THere's a forum out there that you can post your Hijackthis log and the guys that do this stuff for a living tell you exactly what you're infected with and how to go about getting rid of it. I've never had to personally use it, but I've been to that board and those guys are pretty knowledgable. Just like someone coming here wanting to know anything about Huntin...we'll point em in the right direction. Unfortunately I don't recall the URL to the forum, but like a said..a simple search will probably give you what you're looking for.

Good luck!

[Tater]

Seems to be running Ok now. I noticed that my computer froze right after McAfee started so I uninstalled it from safe mode, restarted in normal mode and ran AVG and NOD32. Each came up with a few things which were promptly removed and my computer seems like it's doing Ok. I'm going to wait a couple days before reinstalling McAfee but, for now, things are cool. Thanks again for everybody's help.

[gumpokc]

i'll give hijackthis a heary second as well.

i use that, system suite 7 antivirus and firewall, adaware and spybot search and destroy.

spybot S&D now had a TSR in it that is very very good :)

grab a good firewal as well, as was mentioned, windows firewall is ok, zonealarm is pretty good as well, especially the paid versions.

there is also a anti-rootkit software called "blacklight" if i remember correctly. damn good, but it's a paid software after trial.
I used it about a year or so ago to clean a friends computer.

[Brother Rockeye]

if you want a comprehensive anti virus/spyware package that comes FREE-

Avast antivirus-best freeware anti out there,and better than alot of paid ones.

Spyware Terminator-does everything you need as well as preventing spyware from being installed to begin with.

Comodo firewall-simple easy to use and works VERY well.

use hiJack this regularily! to know what's runnin on your system.

remember,your protection is only as good as your last update-STAY UP TO DATE!

that 3 yr old flueshot won't help you this year...

[GoodOlBoy]

First of all Norton AV isn't the problem it is when you install the whole security suite. Symantec AV (which is the corporate version of norton) is the best av out there. AVG basically will catch about 2/3rds of the problems, the rest of the time your system crashes. I wouldn't put McAfee on my worst enemies computer.

The reason it keeps shutting down your AV is because it is either in startup or is in the system registry starting before everything else does. You CAN remove it by hand if you know your way around a registry AND know what virus/worm/trojan/malware it is. MOST antispyware programs by the way REALLY are spyware themselves. EAnthology (one of the worst spyware/malware softwares out there) Xupiter, etc etc. The best thing to do is go get ahold of a copy of Norton or Symantec AV (ONLY THE AV) and install it on another computer. Get it up to date, etc. Scan the system it is on. Then install your drive in the other system as a secondary drive and do a full scan on it. Once it is all removed put your drive back in, fire it up, and assuming it still runs afterwards install the AV on your system and update it. If that doesn't work format the system (which is by FAR the fastest and cleanest way to get the needed results anyway)

Stay away from hijack this and other 3rd party registry viewers unless you are just DYING to know what every protocol and item running is, and then you do about 10 years worth of research to find out what they are for, and by then new ones replace them, so unless you are a geek, or a professional tech (ahem) then leave it be you will sleep better at night. Remember the OLD adage when it comes to FREE anything. There ARE NO free meals. It works for every "free" software package mentioned here. There is a reason they are free they either get access lists to sell to junk mail spammers, steal passwords and account information, or just generally bombard you with pop up ad crap until you scream. Many of the "prevents it from bla bla" also prevents things from running you DO want running.

After all this get your system up to date and KEEP it up to date. I still use IE7, there is nothing wrong with Firefox for a browser. I won't say either of them is better because they BOTH have their ups and downs.



There you go.

GoodOlBoy (Professional Tech for 16+ years)

[jmarriott]

BlackIce firewall is one of the best available. It even catches brighthouse (My cable provider) scanning Ports on my router for Peer-to-peer server issues and what they deem to be Denial of service attacks. (Me trying to constantly ping my own companies servers acrossed the brighthouse network using a macro full of traceroutes and extended pings ect). I was doing this to prove that the companies Network service provider was stuffing more packets into our bandwith space than they were legally allowed to do. At 12 midnight the Bandwidth dropped 50% as they sold non-peak time to others cheaper that I was paying for 24/7 bandwidth.

Norton is what I use and other than slowing down the overall computer response times it works real well for me.

Peter Norton selling his good name to Symantec was a horrific thing as Symantec Fu**'* up every thing that company touches.

What norton is not good at is removing virus that already resides on a PC before the program is installed. Other than that it is just a slow old virus protection program. I do not use the suite of programs just the AV/SPYWARE.

[GoodOlBoy]

Right, however symantec corporate version does not affect performance like the home version does.

Also for the standard user turning on the windows firewall (in XP service pack 2 or in Vista) is usually more than enough. Make sure ALL accounts on your machine have passwords with both letters and numbers or every time you connect to the internet (even if only through dialup and only for a minute) you are in danger of an automated worm latching on to you. If nothing else use a name or word you can remember and the last four digits of a home phone, work phone, SSN etc. You are not trying to stop hard core hackers from attacking you here you are trying to prevent automated sources from latching on to your system (which is by FAR where most of the issues come from).

GoodOlBoy