mitchy: (Rip your lungs out)
Add MemoryShare This Entry
posted by [personal profile] mitchy at 02:03pm on 24/10/2008 under ,
OK, this can't be good. I cannot connect to a single anti-virus, anti-spyware website. Not.A.Single.One. I'm assuming the 'orrible virus has left something nasty that prevents connection, because a friend can get to the sites just fine and I can (obviously) connect to other websites no bother.

I've run AVG which wasn't updated but did find some trojans which it claims to have removed. I'm guessing it didn't get 'em all...*mutters* I've downloaded Avast from a download site but wouldn't you know it, the setup file crashes every time you run it. *sighs more*

Is there a kind soul who could chuck Avast and/or a spyware removal gizmo up on YouSendIt or some such site so that I can try sneaking around the problem? If that doesn't work, umm, I may have to cling to some techie person's ankles and wail for more help. You've been warned. Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Mood:: 'cranky' cranky
There are 8 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] silenttex.livejournal.com at 01:48pm on 24/10/2008
From what I can see on t'web, this seems like it should be relatively easy to remove. Follow the manual instructions on this site: http://www.411-spyware.com/remove-antispywarexp2009
and check everything is gone. I'd also check your hosts file. For XP it's at: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC. Right click on it and choose Open With Notepad. Check for anything you don't recognise. You can *usually* safely delete every entry in here. (Make a backup copy first in case I'm wrong!)
You could try replacing the hosts file with one from here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Delete your Temporary internet files and cookies, and then open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /flushdns" (without the quotes).
You could also try googling for HijackThis, which is a tool that tells you what's running in the background. You can export the results and post them on the site forum and ask for help.
If none of that works, I suspect a complete reinstall is probably going to be the quickest and easiest recovery method.
 
posted by [identity profile] mitchy.livejournal.com at 03:41pm on 24/10/2008
Had to go the reinstall route in the end. It just got worse and worse. Oh well, I didn't have that much to lose, except my email and most of the important stuff I saved over at hotmail too :)

Thanks for the help though, it's a shame the PC refused to co-operate.
 
posted by [identity profile] silenttex.livejournal.com at 04:15pm on 24/10/2008
Sounds like there may have been more going on than just the XP2009 thing.
Right, what I'd suggest is this. Get yourself an external drive that's bigger than the capacity of your hard drive. Google for some software to take an image of your PC. (I'll also have a look when I get home. I may already have something which will work)
Get your PC setup the way you want it, install all your programs, configure email, do any little tweaks, etc.
Then use the software to take an image of it onto the external drive. Take a new image every time you do a major update, or set up a backup schedule. If you want to be extra safe, keep a current image and the previous image. Practice restoring an image at least once. Make sure you change the PC by deleting or renaming a bunch of stuff to be sure the image replaces what's there.
This way if something happens, restoring the PC is easy, data loss is minimised, and it saves the hassle of reinstalling everything from scratch. You just re-image, reboot, and start working again. The other advantage is that I doubt there are any viruses out there that will target imaging software, so whatever else the virus breaks, you should still be able to re-image.
 
posted by [identity profile] mitchy.livejournal.com at 04:21pm on 24/10/2008
Yeh, I'm fairly sure there's something fundamentally wrong with this install, it's been flakey from the get go and I get the same bugs, even after two reformats. I am hoping to get a new PC :) But yes, an external drive and decent back up procedures are long overdue. Next pay day, there will be investigating of options! Thanks :)
 
posted by [identity profile] silenttex.livejournal.com at 10:22pm on 24/10/2008
http://selfimage.excelcia.org/
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

I've not used any of these, but they all claim to do what you need.
 
posted by [identity profile] gayeld.livejournal.com at 03:36pm on 24/10/2008
If the other instructions don't work let me know and I'll send (snail mail) you my Norton 360 disc. I bought one of the "good for three computers" ones and only put it on two computers. (My new one runs Vista and the version of 360 I have doesn't work with Vista. *scowl* It would be nice if someone got my monies worth out of it.)
 
posted by [identity profile] mitchy.livejournal.com at 03:40pm on 24/10/2008
Oooh that would be great, thank you! I had to do a reformat in the end *sigh* So I'm now resinstalling everything. Again :P But a really good virus program would be great. I'm setting up Avast for now *prays it works* When I get my email up and running, I'll drop you a line with my address. Thank you again!
 
posted by [identity profile] gayeld.livejournal.com at 07:01pm on 24/10/2008
Good luck! And you're welcome. *g*

January

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1
 
2 3
 
4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31