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12/23/2005 09:17:55 PM · #1
... the authors and distributors of spyware, viruses, worms and such.

I am concluding I'm going to have to rebuild my entire system because it's been infected. This is a 2-3 day process for me because of the software I have to reload.

By way of context, I am VERY VERY carefull, my wife says paranoid. I run 2 firewalls (1 hardware (Netgear) and 1 software (ISS, formerly Black Ice)), 4 anti-spyware products (SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Adaware and the MS anti-spyware beta), 2 antivirus engines (Norton and AVG). I don't click on links people send me, I don't accept Instant messaging links or files, I don't visit "those kind of sites" (and you know what I mean) where it's difficult to practice safe computing. And still, my PC has been infected. And with all that software, after 2 days of trying, I can't disinfect it! Dell tech support is empathetic but unable to help.

With a Billion (or more) people on the planet using PCs and the Internet, you'd think that our colective will could hunt down the bastards who write and distribute this stuff. Once found we ought to be able to tear strips of flesh from their bodies. We ought to be able to drip acid into their eyes. We ought to be able infect them with all the new diseases we see advertised on TV. We ought to be able to suspend their reproductive rights (Not to mention their abilities). We ought to sentence them to life in prison with only Reality TV for entertainment. If they happen to be photographers, we ought to limit them to 1 Megapixel cameras and smear orange marmalaid and sand on their lenses and controls.

What other suggestions do you have.

ARGH!

Sorry to ramble. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
12/23/2005 09:22:49 PM · #2
I rarely get those, but I clean them off others PC all the time. And the PC's here at work (morons)

They do seem to be getting nastier all the time. Many spyware removers are unable to get the more serious threats.
12/23/2005 09:24:58 PM · #3
God bless the Mac...
12/23/2005 09:26:33 PM · #4
I feel your pain. Should you ever catch one, please invite me to help you deal with him.
12/23/2005 09:27:09 PM · #5
I feel for you.. happened to me earlier this week...

Ever thought about doing a dual Windows & Linux/BSD/whatever install and using the non-windows OS for general work and browsing? Use Windows for photoshop, gaming and stuff.. that way a rebuild of the Windows partition won't be as big a deal.

( I'd reccommend Ubuntu or SuSE, personally ;) )

Oh and also,... tried running Windows as a Limited user rather than Administrator? I hear that can limit the impact of quite a lot of spyware....
12/23/2005 09:32:44 PM · #6
I feel your pain... I am looking over my shoulder at my old computer which fell victum about two months ago. It was most frustrating to not be able to do anything!!!! It is now an oversized CivNet game for my husband because he could not bear to lose it and we no longer have the disks! Good luck & sorry! :0(
12/23/2005 10:07:03 PM · #7
Are you sure it's a virus/spyware problem? Sometimes windows will develop problems that aren't really related to viruses or spyware, and can usually be fixed without reloading.

What you might try is, load the operating system, drivers, all the applications you use on a regular basis, get all the settings how you want them. Then use a disk clone application to create an image of the drive you have windows loaded on, and store the image on another drive or partition, or maybe even on an external drive if you have one.
That's assuming that you don't keep documents, pictures, videos and the like on the same partition as the OS - if you do, consider changing to make it easier to reload every time, and much easier to re-image the system from your backup.

12/23/2005 10:12:15 PM · #8
Originally posted by Digital Quixote:


What other suggestions do you have.



Mac

Originally posted by Digital Quixote:


Once found we ought to be able to tear strips of flesh from their bodies. We ought to be able to drip acid into their eyes. We ought to be able infect them with all the new diseases we see advertised on TV. We ought to be able to suspend their reproductive rights (Not to mention their abilities). We ought to sentence them to life in prison with only Reality TV for entertainment. If they happen to be photographers, we ought to limit them to 1 Megapixel cameras and smear orange marmalaid and sand on their lenses and controls.


You would do that to employees of MacAfee, Norton's, ISS, SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Adaware, and Microsoft? (I have always been of the mindset that when looking for something start with motive)
12/23/2005 10:15:11 PM · #9
Originally posted by stare_at_the_sun:

God bless the Mac...


Amen! :D
12/23/2005 10:16:04 PM · #10
My computer grinds coffee rather well. It will just start making that hard drive grinding noise, then up pops my virus program saying it caught a virus. It really slows down the pc when that happens....

Maybe someday there will be a way to catch these bastards and hold them accountable. It serves no honorable purpose, and costs pc users thousands each day trying to fight it. One can only hope the law of reaping what they have sewn comes around to them.
12/23/2005 10:16:25 PM · #11
yup--buy a mac
12/23/2005 10:21:42 PM · #12
Originally posted by CalliopeKel:

...and costs pc users thousands each day trying to fight it.


Millions a day. It is a business. Who gains? Think about it.
12/23/2005 10:38:32 PM · #13
Originally posted by Digital Quixote:

I'd Like to Reserve a Special Place in Hell for... ... the authors and distributors of spyware, viruses, worms and such.

I think it's Level 6...
12/23/2005 10:50:45 PM · #14
Originally posted by Digital Quixote:

... the authors and distributors of spyware, viruses, worms and such.

I am concluding I'm going to have to rebuild my entire system because it's been infected. This is a 2-3 day process for me because of the software I have to reload.

By way of context, I am VERY VERY carefull, my wife says paranoid. I run 2 firewalls (1 hardware (Netgear) and 1 software (ISS, formerly Black Ice)), 4 anti-spyware products (SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Adaware and the MS anti-spyware beta), 2 antivirus engines (Norton and AVG). I don't click on links people send me, I don't accept Instant messaging links or files, I don't visit "those kind of sites" (and you know what I mean) where it's difficult to practice safe computing. And still, my PC has been infected. And with all that software, after 2 days of trying, I can't disinfect it! Dell tech support is empathetic but unable to help.

With a Billion (or more) people on the planet using PCs and the Internet, you'd think that our colective will could hunt down the bastards who write and distribute this stuff. Once found we ought to be able to tear strips of flesh from their bodies. We ought to be able to drip acid into their eyes. We ought to be able infect them with all the new diseases we see advertised on TV. We ought to be able to suspend their reproductive rights (Not to mention their abilities). We ought to sentence them to life in prison with only Reality TV for entertainment. If they happen to be photographers, we ought to limit them to 1 Megapixel cameras and smear orange marmalaid and sand on their lenses and controls.

What other suggestions do you have.

ARGH!

Sorry to ramble. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.


what the heck are you doin mon !

Part of the problem that you are having is all of the CRAP that you are running to protect yourself from the CRAP.

1) ensure that the MSspyware BETA (junk) log file is not consuming all of your system drive space (I went on on maching and the MSspyware log was 11GB)

2) find one antispyware app and use it .. (I recommend adaware... but there is lots to be said for Spybot)

3) get RID of the other applications ... they compete for resources

4) if you are running a HW firewall and it is configured correctly you DO NOT NEED ISS or the MS "firewall"

That being said you will more than likely end up doing a reinstall of the OS.... but do your self a favor ... don't install all of the JUNK

in our network we run 5 windows XP 2 Windows 2003 server and 2 G5s and 2 Centos linux each of the windows boxes run (except the machine that we process images on) run NAI antivirus and we have a PIX 506E for a firewall none of that other junk.

Keys to success

1) NO FREEWARE (no Yahoo toolbars no weather bug no other cute little utilities found on the web)

2) UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE. //windowsupdate.microsoft.com WEEKLY

3) do not put your images on the same PHYSICAL drive as your OS and backup often.

BTW ... the G5 and the Centos boxes just run ;)



12/23/2005 11:49:22 PM · #15
Originally posted by nsbca7:

You would do that to employees of MacAfee, Norton's, ISS, SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Adaware, and Microsoft? (I have always been of the mindset that when looking for something start with motive)


You forgot Apple. They have a stake in keeping the hype up also. Funny how people think it is the "superior" operating system when it is really the fact that the Mac base is so small nobody writes viruses for it. Even so I know many friends who have Mac problems on a regular basis. Normally it is software compatibility problems and the like.

My answer is KISS (keep it simple). Use a firewall, have WIN updates run on auto basis, use one antit spyware program and one anti virus program and have those auto update daily. Can you still get hit, sure as there are new worms and virus programs written by hackers daily. And it is always the "big guy" (MS) who is going to be targeted.

Message edited by author 2005-12-23 23:50:43.
12/23/2005 11:49:37 PM · #16
I had a virus and couldn't get rid of it. Finally, I scanned at panda and printed out a list of infected programs and files. Then I used the explorers(advanced tools) feature in ms beta spyware to manually block those files and programs. It was especially useful for the programs and files that started when the computer boots up. Haven't had a problem since then.
12/23/2005 11:55:05 PM · #17
Originally posted by stare_at_the_sun:

God bless the Mac...


AMEN....!
12/23/2005 11:59:29 PM · #18
Originally posted by jbsmithana:

Funny how people think it is the "superior" operating system when it is really the fact that the Mac base is so small nobody writes viruses for it.


That is funny. They work. Odd how people would think they were better just because they work better.
12/24/2005 12:00:17 AM · #19
Originally posted by jbsmithana:

Originally posted by nsbca7:

You would do that to employees of MacAfee, Norton's, ISS, SpywareBlaster, Spybot, Adaware, and Microsoft? (I have always been of the mindset that when looking for something start with motive)


You forgot Apple. They have a stake in keeping the hype up also. Funny how people think it is the "superior" operating system when it is really the fact that the Mac base is so small nobody writes viruses for it.


I have heard that so many times and frankly, it is just not true.

The base of OSX is a a system called darwin which is a UNIX OS (1st cousin of BSD) because of the security structure on *NIX OS (UNIX LINUX SOLARIS) they are not AS easy to hit as windows boxes. Can they be had ... YES... but it is a far more complicated deal than windows... heck I can send you a MP3 what will cause a overflow on windows media player and allow access to the OS without a password. You cant do stuff like that on the *nix boxes.


Message edited by author 2005-12-24 00:02:29.
12/24/2005 12:00:20 AM · #20
Originally posted by stare_at_the_sun:

God bless the Mac...
12/24/2005 01:16:51 AM · #21
While your saving you pennies for a Mac ..... run Firefox browser on you PC. Forget IE.
12/24/2005 01:51:54 AM · #22
50 business client sites on Macs, whom I've billed in the last year. It now takes less than one day's work a week to support them. Viva OS X, that was certainly not the case with its predecessors. I made a nice living then. Paying for repeat support visits sure trumps any purchase price advantage PCs have IMO.
12/24/2005 02:27:53 AM · #23
*nix, OSX, Windows... who the hell cares! All I ever here is OSX is better, Windows is flawed... Frankly, I'm tired of reading all the BS the various fanatics pass back and forth.

Here's the truth. They all have thier place and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Windows is vulnerable because of its sucess. Virus writers want to target the most computers possible with one piece of code. So, they choose Windows. Its advantages: it's fairly easy to use and has the largest software and hardware base.

Mac OSX is very easy to use. It has a fairly large software base, but not quite as varied as the Windows software base. It excels with graphics and multimedia applications. Its weakness: Price/Performance: Because Apple keeps everything Mac inhouse. Price will never compete with other OSes

The *nix OSes. let's specify Linux. Very robust, but not very user friendly. YET! It excels in IT and server applications. Software base is growing every day. A bit of progress is being made to make it a "desktop" option. Biggest disadvantage : fragmentation of the various camps (ie. KDE vs. Gnome). The other *nix OSes will never be mainstream, because noone intends them to be.

Now, why does it always have to come to this when someone has computer troubles?
12/24/2005 02:52:45 AM · #24
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

*nix, OSX, Windows... who the hell cares! All I ever here is OSX is better, Windows is flawed... Frankly, I'm tired of reading all the BS the various fanatics pass back and forth.

Here's the truth. They all have thier place and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Windows is vulnerable because of its sucess. Virus writers want to target the most computers possible with one piece of code. So, they choose Windows. Its advantages: it's fairly easy to use and has the largest software and hardware base.

Mac OSX is very easy to use. It has a fairly large software base, but not quite as varied as the Windows software base. It excels with graphics and multimedia applications. Its weakness: Price/Performance: Because Apple keeps everything Mac inhouse. Price will never compete with other OSes

The *nix OSes. let's specify Linux. Very robust, but not very user friendly. YET! It excels in IT and server applications. Software base is growing every day. A bit of progress is being made to make it a "desktop" option. Biggest disadvantage : fragmentation of the various camps (ie. KDE vs. Gnome). The other *nix OSes will never be mainstream, because noone intends them to be.

Now, why does it always have to come to this when someone has computer troubles?


Because most of us switched after putting up with soo much MS BS. Tasks that seem simple on my Mac crashed my PCs on a daily basis. And that was without any viruses interfering.


12/24/2005 03:02:38 AM · #25
Originally posted by nsbca7:

Because most of us switched after putting up with soo much MS BS. Tasks that seem simple on my Mac crashed my PCs on a daily basis. And that was without any viruses interfering.


Never seem to have that problem myself, but I only run Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver MX, Microsoft Word and Flash MX while playing MP3's and chatting on Yahoo. Maybe I'm not putting enough strain on it.

That said I can crash any OS ... and I can work effeciently on any OS. The problem with Windows as an OS, is a lot of the time it isn't configured correctly or someone has downloaded some malware to it. Macs on the other hand are configured by Apple (who'd know better than Apple, right?), so they pretty much are always configured correctly and there isn't much malware that will execute on them.

Linux, ehh, let's not even get into that... let's just say you better know what you are doing.

Like I said, every OS has its advantages. Macs happen to be easy. Some people like that.

I still like the Mac's handling of Quark better. I much preferred to use a Mac back in my newspaper days.

Message edited by author 2005-12-24 03:09:16.
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