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Argle
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!
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!
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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.
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Thanks for the help though, it's a shame the PC refused to co-operate.
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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.
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http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml
I've not used any of these, but they all claim to do what you need.