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Computer Problem; Help
Topic Started: Jun 17 2009, 12:14 PM (281 Views)
Amzi
Captain
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
HELP!

Okay, I just got back from a 6 day trip without using my computer at all and when I got back, I have been greeted with a number of problems I have never experianced before.

I know nothing about computers so if any of you could help me, please do.

My first problem that I discovered is a thing that keeps popping up at on my screen called 'Auto-Protect Results'. Everytime I click close, it pops up about 5 seconds later and so on and so on.

The screen on the Auto Protect tells me I have a shit load of a virus called W32.Virut!.html and it also tells me the file it is in and if it is 'cleaned' 'patial' or 'requires rebooting'. Thats it, and I dont know what to do, all I know is that it is related to the Syamantec AntiVirus thing.

My second problem, and I dont know if this is the virus that is doing this or what, is a major problem with Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

Whenever I type something in on Google such as 'India', the normal screen will appear with the results like 'India-Wikipedia free encyclopedia' but when I click on that results it directs me to completely random things like 'Info.com' and 'Find bee.com' with things that are related to travel and other stuff like that. I simply cannot access the web page that I was supposedly going to. And this happens with everything I type in be that India or anything else you can think of.

Also, this is not really a problem, but I would like to know what this 'Toggle' thing is. One day, I suddenly had a Toggle tool bar at the top of my screen, and I am just wondering, the previous is by far priority.

Please tell me if you have any ideas.
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zzguntrip
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Senior Warrant Officer
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I'll re-direct my Dad to this page. He might be able to help.
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Amzi
Captain
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Thanks Tom

I have an example regarding the search engine problem.

I typed in Egypt and after I clicked on the first reslut, which was wiki, this is the website it gave me....

http://www.info.com/all%20about%20egypt?cb...%2DCBDD44FAD3BA

And when I typed in helium, and again after clickling on the second (wiki) this is what I got...

http://www.bestwebchoices.com/search44.php...&keyword=helium

The page I recieve and the page I clicked on are completely in related. This happens on Yahoo the same way as well.
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zzatuns
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Starshina
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If you cant figure out whats wrong, System restore.
Posted Image
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Recon
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The Village Kvetch
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You have internet security and anti viruses right?
[align=center]Head of State (President): Moncef Marzouki (Congress for the Republic)
Head of Government (Prime Minister): Hamadi Jebali (Ennahda)
Population: 10.6 Million (2012 est.)
GDP (Real): $44bn (2012 est.)
Organizations: Arab League (AL), Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), African Union (AU), International Criminal Court (ICC), International Monetary Fund (IMF,) Non Aligned Movement (NAM), United Nations (UN) & World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Strained Relations/War: Saudi Arabia, Libya and Israel /None

Posted Image [/align]
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Schwerpunkt
Dalek Caan
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I'm going to have to start writing up a generic "if you have computer problems, do this" page.

The first thing I'd recommend doing is getting SuperAntiSpyware and installing it.
http://www.superantispyware.com/
The Free edition works wonders.

While you're at it, get AdAware.
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Again, Free works fine.

Install and start both programs. Update them and then close them. This is the troublesome part. I assume you have XP.

1: Click Start
2: Right click 'My Computer' and click 'Properties'
3: A window with a bunch of tabs pops up. 'System Restore' should be the top left tab, but it really could be anywhere. Select it.
4: Find the 'Turn System Restore Off' checkbox and click it. Hit accept.

Undoing it follows the same general procedure. But you want it off because some malware will simply prompt themselves to be included in an involuntary system restore, meaning hunting them down doesn't really do much.

Now what you want to do is boot your computer in safe mode. While your computer is starting, press and hold F8. This is generally before the Windows logo pops up. Depending on your computer, it will give you a bunch of options: Boot in Safe Mode, Boot in Safe Mode with Drivers, Boot in Safe Mode with Networking (internet), Boot Normally, Reboot, whatever. Any Safe Mode option works fine, but I'd recommend regular Safe Mode. Less to load, so it's done faster. Hopefully.

Now open up AdAware and run it. A general, 'smart' scan. Once that's done, delete the trash. Then load up SuperAntiSpyware and run a full scan. This will probably take half an hour, depending on your hard drive size. This is the one that hunts down a lot of fun stuff.

If you have Symantec, Norton, Viper, or whatever, now is as good a time as any to run it. Kill the program and reboot (normally). Don't enable system restore just yet. Go dick around: do your google searches and stuff. If the computer looks normal, run SuperAntiSpyware again for good measure. If it's not, let me know.

Basically, you can skip right to where you system restore, but that literally deletes everything on your computer (if you do it right, that is). It's a pain in the ass, and some computers mandate you get new drivers when you reinstall windows -- this is especially a problem with laptops, since they generally won't have their wireless or even wired network adapters on the install CD -- it's retarded, I know. The entire system restore thing is less of a pain in the ass, but it also deletes everything. That's why you generally don't want to do it.
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Recon
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The Village Kvetch
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Unless you have a removable hard drive. You should as Schwer said use any existing anti spy or download those provided. TBH you have no excuse for not purchasing some Anti Viruses software and Internet Security.
[align=center]Head of State (President): Moncef Marzouki (Congress for the Republic)
Head of Government (Prime Minister): Hamadi Jebali (Ennahda)
Population: 10.6 Million (2012 est.)
GDP (Real): $44bn (2012 est.)
Organizations: Arab League (AL), Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), African Union (AU), International Criminal Court (ICC), International Monetary Fund (IMF,) Non Aligned Movement (NAM), United Nations (UN) & World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Strained Relations/War: Saudi Arabia, Libya and Israel /None

Posted Image [/align]
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Amzi
Captain
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For Schwer, what do you mean 'deletes everything'? You mean that literally, like nothing will be stored at all?
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zzLyly
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Senior Warrant Officer
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Sounds like a virus to me. I would suggest downloading Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and running it.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
[align=center]Posted Image
South Korea - the original 51st state!
News | Factbook | Foreign Relations[/align]
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Greece (TheOne)
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Mil Mod
Your computer is infected with spyware, malware, shitware, and everything in between.
Some of this stuff is extremely difficult to get rid of, if not impossible.
The best solution imo is to format your hard drive and start fresh.
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zzguntrip
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Senior Warrant Officer
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My Dad will tell me tonight, and I'll post some help as well as Schwer.
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Amzi
Captain
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So right now, Schwer's idea is the best option for me?
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zzLyly
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Senior Warrant Officer
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India [Amzi
 
,18 Jun 2009 09.01.25] So right now, Schwer's idea is the best option for me?

Yeah, what Schwer has going on seems to be a good kinda general first step thing.
I've not used AdAware or SuperAntiSpyware, but I know that Malwarebytes' program is really great at fishing out pretty much anything.
[align=center]Posted Image
South Korea - the original 51st state!
News | Factbook | Foreign Relations[/align]
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Amzi
Captain
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I have downloaded and installed Malwarebytes, so will this fix some things? Will it make my computer not as painfully slow.

Also, I know that my Facebook account has been hacked becuase someone is posting viruses in my info. Will this fix it or do I have to get a new profile?
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United States [Sel]
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The Creator
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I like to use Spybot:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/

You can basically avoid all of this with Mozilla and NoScript and not using crap like Outlook. After that, you're basically padding layers on, which I do. I have AVG and Spybot and an old AdAware that I never use and whatever schwer and someone else posted, which i never use.
[align=center]United States of Trump
President DONALD J TRUMP
Vice President MIKE PENCE
Attorney General JEFF SESSIONS[/align]
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Schwerpunkt
Dalek Caan
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^ Firefox + NoScript is godly. Add in AdBlockPlus for good measure (simply because most of that stuff is annoying). I've been using this computer for just about every day with that setup and, aside from ~4 cookies on my overnight scan, I've never had any malware.

India [Amzi
 
,17 Jun 2009 23.55.39] For Schwer, what do you mean 'deletes everything'? You mean that literally, like nothing will be stored at all?

The computer hard drive is divided into partitions. Partitions are either FAT or NTSF format. NTSF is superior, so they're pretty much always NTSF (FAT is sometimes a recovery and separate drive, though). Basically, if your hard drive has 100 gigs (lol), you can break it into any number of drives (within reason). You can have C:/-L:/, if so inclined.

What a reformat does, generally speaking, is deletes all existing formats (though you can opt to only delete one, or to install right over an existing partition). Since it's deleting the copy of windows on the partition, it deletes everything else. It's like dumping out bucket full of water because there's a marble in it.

It's easy, but it's time consuming and frustrating the first few times. Plus you can't exactly check the internet for directions once you start.
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United States [Sel]
Member Avatar
The Creator
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I like to use Spybot:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/

You can basically avoid all of this with Mozilla and NoScript and not using crap like Outlook. After that, you're basically padding layers on, which I do. I have AVG and Spybot and an old AdAware that I never use and whatever schwer and someone else posted, which i never use.
[align=center]United States of Trump
President DONALD J TRUMP
Vice President MIKE PENCE
Attorney General JEFF SESSIONS[/align]
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Amzi
Captain
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Malwarebytes worked for me. But I am going to install the ones you are talking about.

The virus came through my facebook account becuase someone hacked my account and sent out mass emails with a virus, and I opened one.

Im not surprised it was hacked.....my old password was facebook1 :P
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United States [Sel]
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The Creator
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Wow Amzi...

My passwords vary based on security need. Email is fairly complex, banking is ridiculously complex.

Let's learn how to make secure passwords:
Take a word like mushroom
There's lots of things you can do to this to make it more complex.
MuShRoOm M U S H r oo m
It also helps to throw in numbers or symbols. If you want something easy, use your phone number: m5u5s5h1r2o1o2m. After a while, you should get used to typing out such a thing. Especially if you login regularly.

You mainly need to assess security needs. My online banking is quite complex. The security questions are also complex. When it says "What was your first pet's name?" Don't put "Rover", put "R o V e R" or something complex. Or maybe just not answer the question as long as you can remember it.
[align=center]United States of Trump
President DONALD J TRUMP
Vice President MIKE PENCE
Attorney General JEFF SESSIONS[/align]
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CM08
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Lieutenant
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I use Avast Anti Virus and Comodo Internet security - both free. havent have a major problem in years.

How to choose a good password: have 4-5letter word + 2-3 numbers + 1-2 symbols and mix them all up

For example: De6/v6\6il - very strong in terms of security.
Posted Image

->Cabinet D/N<-

->Defence Shop<-***->Defence R & D<-

->Foreign Ministry<-***->Defence Ministry<-

->Internal Thread<-***->Current Nation's Timeline<-

->Military Budget<-

I dont RP on weekends usually. Forgive my lack of response if that's the time.
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Schwerpunkt
Dalek Caan
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It's not even like it has to be overly complicated. Hell, it can be simple and effective.

4mZ1sUKz|o|

You're probably better off coming up with a complex password and using it for multiple sites. It'll make it easier to remember.
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zzdoncampos
Lieutenant
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India [Amzi
 
,18 Jun 2009 16.48.04] Im not surprised it was hacked.....my old password was facebook1 :P

You deserve it.
I will prepare and some day my chance will come.
~Abraham Lincoln


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I was born for a storm and the calm does not suit me.
~Andrew Jackson
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United States [Sel]
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The Creator
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Germany [Schwerpunkt
 
,18 Jun 2009 22.57.57] It's not even like it has to be overly complicated. Hell, it can be simple and effective.

4mZ1sUKz|o|

You're probably better off coming up with a complex password and using it for multiple sites. It'll make it easier to remember.

<_<
[align=center]United States of Trump
President DONALD J TRUMP
Vice President MIKE PENCE
Attorney General JEFF SESSIONS[/align]
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zzguntrip
Member Avatar
Senior Warrant Officer
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Use

Spybot Search & Destroy,
Zonealarm filewall
and dumping Symantec's rubbish and replacing it with Avast.

All free, all very good.

Let Spybot and Avast do deep/bootscans and see the extent of the problem. System Restore's also a good option if things are that desperate.
Posted Image
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United States [Sel]
Member Avatar
The Creator
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The fat man swears on Norton Bloatware no matter what I say.

You're really like 95% fine with NoScript and Mozilla and no shit programs like Outlook. Turn your comp, virus-wise, into a Mac.
[align=center]United States of Trump
President DONALD J TRUMP
Vice President MIKE PENCE
Attorney General JEFF SESSIONS[/align]
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