Geek Help

[fictional]

Hi! As if this week wasn't fucked enough (insurance people think I don't exist! Medical assistants are rude and classist! there's FAKE GRAVITY pulling me in weird directions! I HAVE TWO PAPERS DUE and apparently I need an MRI...) - I seem to have picked up a weird Trojan! I know, I know, those filthy corners of the internet that you have to frequent in order to get the skinny on Satan...

So, I ask for assistance, Oh Ye Mighty Powers of Flist!

When I open IE, I get infinite amounts of popups; at first they were for porn; they have now devolved into ebay ads, verizon ads etc. Then the browser closes by itself for no reason. I have installed IE 7; this did nothing to help. I'm using Firefox now, which seems free of the popups, still has the occasional popup though with much less frequency, but I am concerned about infection in the innards of the machine.

Thoughts? Advice? I am poor and un-techsavvy, and would much appreciate any pearls of wisdom you lot might have to offer...

ETA: Thanks so much to anyone who offered help & advice, especially visitors from rm's flist. New Problem: The virus/trojans/malware is preventing me from running any of the setups for the spyware/virus scan etc. that I'm trying to downlad. It's just stopping in the middle. Also, it's giving me fake alerts about spyware that purport to be from Windows, but aren't. I'm beginning to think I'm truly screwed.

Comments

[calloocallay.livejournal.com]

Also, I tried to call you yesterday to see how you were doing and the call would not go through! Did you change your number? Can I have the new one? I promise not to harrass you or whatevs.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/

download the free avg antivirus (from firefox; ie may not let you), install it, see what happens. avg also has a free spyware thing:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-spyware/us/frt/0

which i would also recommend. i use avg at home and it works fine for me.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I am downloading, and will see if it helps.

[magnetgirl.livejournal.com]

I have AVG too. It annoys me when I start up, but it's good and free

[framefolly.livejournal.com]

*hug*

Not a geek, unfortunately -- but I've had good experiences with Firefox and now use it as my primary browser.

I hope your health and healthcare problems improve soon...*kicks medical insurance people for you*

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! LJ ate my previous reply. Boo!

Also, *hug*

[mneme]

(coming from rm's request)

Doesn't sound like a virus.

Sounds like a javascript trojan that's inserted itself into your IE home page. Closing IE is probably just it tickling a bug in IE that crashes it rather than intended behavior for the malware.

Reccomendation: go into start/{might be more here}/setttings/internet settings and blank out your home page. Regardless, Firefox should be unaffected, and is less prone to this sort of nonsense in general.

You might want to look for "anti malware" software.

Regardless, back up any data you keep on that machine -- since the only recourse for a -serious- infection is to wipe the iron, reinstall the OS, and start over.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your advice. I definitely think you're right, as now IE is just constantly starting by itself, and then popping up these popups. Also, it's just playing ads now (out loud) with no player in sight.

I backed up important files, and now will see if there's anything I can do aside from wiping the OS.

This is so terrible!

Thank you so much for your help.

[spiralflames.livejournal.com]

download SPYBOT- search and destroy

http://www.download.com/3000-8022_4-10743107.html

(downloads from the 'download.com' site are always safe and virus free) it takes out spyware, adware, malware, trojans etc. it's free and it's awesome. you need to update it manually once a week on the free version, but that's no big deal. i LIVE for this software. (i'm also from racheline's f'list..hello)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I will definitely try it, and appreciate your advice muchly.

[spiralflames.livejournal.com]

good luck! i lost a computer to the "blaster" worm, so i know from your fear and frustration.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

You have a combination of nasties. Form the sounds of it you most lieky have some rogue toolbars, a good dose of malware , and more than a few bad BHOs.

As we say, it's not the end of the world, it's just the wreck of the Barbie Ferrari.

First off, get thee a copy of AVAST ( www.avast.com ) this is free for home use, and it is an excellent anti-virus program as well as a interceptor that catches bad things as tehy coem down the wire destines for various programs ( it protects local email clients, web browsers, p2p programs , chat programs and so on .... ). Register it for home use, and you will get a free registration code. Software updates and signature updates are likewise free. After installing it, it will ask if you want to do a boot time scan - say YES. This allows the program to run once at boot time, intercepting alot of nasty self-replicating programs prior to their starting, or protecting themselves from removal.

Afterwards, go grab a copy of " Spybot Search & Destroy " ( http://www.safer-networking.org ) ... go through the install and immunization process HOWEVER make sure that when the options appear to enable " Helper " programs, you can install TeaTimer ( registry protection ) but DO NOT install the IE helper program ( Bad URL blocker ) There are bugs in it that while not critical , are annoying. After installation follow the wizard guide for immunization and setup, then let it run. It will take a while, but it's worth it.

After that , you should be ok from a large portion of the issues out there. If you ahve any problems email me directly ( RM has my address ) and I'll help out as best I can.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Wow. Extremely helpful. I am d/ling and will attempt to put into practice this evening. Thank you again for the offer of assistance; I appreciate it greatly.

rm's flist is mighty & awesome! I shall send mental fruitbaskets to all.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

How did it go? Defense against the dark ( digital ) arts?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I did not get my OWL.

We tried all suggestions - for a moment it looked like it worked, but we obviously didn't scotch it hard enough, as it d/led more stuff shortly after restarting.

I will have to leave it in the hands of someone trained to do such things, as I've come to bounds of what I can do on my own.

Thank you so much for your help though; it was much appreciated.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Its terribly hard to do remotely like this. In a better world I'd jsut take the L train and do it in person. Odds are you have some BHO's in place and other evil that is happening. Sadly I am trained to do this sorta thing, but I'm on the worng side of the planet.

If you are still game, grab a copy of "Hijack THis" ( http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php ) and save the report it makes and email it to me, and I can give some pointers.

[dacuteturtle.livejournal.com]

(I followed a link from RM's journal.) FYI, I do this stuff for a living.

You've got lots of good advice.

In addition to the above, download a copy of Ad-Aware and run that. It's free for personal use. Stinger from McAfee is also free.

That may not stop it.

I usually need to use the following things: Spybot, Ad-Aware, McAfee Antivirus with Antispyware Module, HijackThis!, BartPE to manually find and remove recent files, and Google searches. Adware is nasty, nasty stuff. I feel sorry for anyone who is not an expert in Windows. Even if you are an expert, adware is maddening. As a general principal, run everything that you can, because there is no single product that finds everything.

Good luck.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Also, you do this stuff for a living? If you don't mind my asking...where does one go to look for (paid)assistance in such matters? We used to have a guy that would help us out with these sort of things, but he was...a crazy fundamentalist Christian who attacked his wife with a butcher knife (I think unrelatedly), and also almost never showed up when he said he was going to, and well, despite his excellent skills, I feel I should explore other options. However, I know not where to look.

[dacuteturtle.livejournal.com]

I've been fixing PC's since 1990 and using them since 1984. I've been around the block many times.

Finding good folks is hard. That's mostly word-of-mouth. The pro-services are more worried about bodies. I have little respect for those folks. Most techs don't have enough experience in anti-ad stuff to get good at it. I had a nasty spate of this stuff a few years back and was fixing machines weekly. I guess that I've cleaned 40-50 computers.

If you find someone who has a good computer tech at work, ask them if that guy does work on the side. Most of us will for the pocket money.

BTW, by good, I mean an OK tech who can look up answers, translate your issues, work with you to develop solutions, and generally plays nice with others. There are lots of good techs who don't play nice, and that's competence, not excellence.

Did I answer your question? Any follow-on questions?

[erratic0101.livejournal.com]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, I didn't notice it in other posts.
But make sure to run most of these scans and tests while in safe mode.

Some of the nastiest spyware / trojan's / etc can only be removed while running in safe mode.

btw, redirected from RM's journal as well.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! As I said upthread, rm's flist is mighty, and I send mental fruitbaskets to all. Thanks again for your help and advice.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Also, I will add to this if anyone tells you to run Panda, don't, as the time this happened to me that made things much much worse.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Wow, your flist rocks. I had a suspicion it might, but DAMN.

[rm.livejournal.com]

So is it fixed?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

No. I was merely speaking to the volume of replies. I'm actually at the GC right now (about to leave actually). I'll try to implement some of these suggestions tonight. GAH.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Then send me more communiques about wizards if you remain functional. I'm enjoying this roll!

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Ulterior motives? How very Slytherin. *g*

I'm off; I'll attempt to wizard at you later. And yes, it has been most delightful!

[rm.livejournal.com]

You're the one who asked for the favor....

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I did indeed. And I'm truly grateful. However...see the edited entry above for how fucked I really am.

[coridan.livejournal.com]

I advise installing Firefox with the NoScript (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722) add on - it kills all manner of scripts and pop ups.

Firefox is superior to IE, anyway.

CB

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I will certainly do that in future.