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Old June 29th, 2007, 04:42 AM
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glitterless glitterless is offline
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When Norton AntiVirus isn't enough?

I hope someone can help, because the professionals aren't doing much.

Something is going on with at least one of our computers at work. Management is clueless and we don't have our own tech support on staff.

Things were kind of weird for awhile, but I thought that the computer was just slow. Then MSN (for those boring days when you don't want to be at work) started acting up -- 100 windows or so would pop up at once! Then finally Norton AntiVirus kicked in and found 2 trojans. I quarantined and deleted the files. Beyond that I don't know what else to do. I've done 2 full system scans since then (Norton IS up-to-date) that haven't shown anything, but we get the odd message from Norton that it's found more trojans. I do the same thing -- quarantine and delete...repair doesn't seem to be an option for some reason.

I got in a Symantec chat room with a tech. He told me that we could go into the registry and get rid of these files, which sound like spyware. Great, but we're on a network here, and I don't know that allowing Symantec remote access would be a good idea. We need the system up pretty much 24/7 also.

Then I called a toll free help line that we have for one system that we use. The guy was more helpful than I thought he'd be. He agreed that it was probably spyware, went in, deleted some stuff, changed some internet options...basically cleaned up overall, but didn't find any actual problems. He told me that he thought we would be okay. Minutes after getting off the phone with him I had the usual pornographic pop-ups and error messages that don't make any sense. Norton has also found another trojan!

So now what? None of us are very computer-literate here. Should we attempt something ourselves or hire someone in? I've had viruses and such at home, but Norton has always fixed everything up fine.
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  #2  
Old June 29th, 2007, 06:53 AM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Sounds like trojan viruses, not spyware. Same thing happened with our computer. After running numerous anti-virus programs, the only one that cleaned it all up was AVG Free Edition. Google it, download, and run it (it's free). It's been keeping our computer running smoothly ever since. Depending on how badly your computer is infected, it can take several hours to run. Good luck.
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Old June 29th, 2007, 09:28 AM
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meg4050 meg4050 is offline
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I also had the same problem and was told that the virus was some sort of system designed to record keystrokes - that way whoever developed this can record your passwords, etc. I too downloaded AVG which worked far better than any other anti-virus I tried. At first (it started about 2 months ago) AVG was detecting 4 or 5 trojan files every hour or so and gradually has cleared my computer of them and I only get them once every week or two. Computer is much faster now! Definitley download the free version, and if you're in an office environment I believe there is a version for that which is fairly cheap.
hope this helps!
-Megan
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Old June 29th, 2007, 09:35 AM
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CyberKitten CyberKitten is offline
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AVG is good but what you have sound slike it also could be malware which Spybot and Ad Aware programs can help with. I would try AVG but I'd also run those two. There are others for really tough malware! In my experience, no one program gets them all, alas!
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Old June 29th, 2007, 10:05 AM
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dtbmnec dtbmnec is offline
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Go with Cyberkitten's advice. Run all three programs.

The only thing to be aware of is this: Norton may not play nice with AVG. So to get around that (as horrible as it seems) download AVG, install it, run the scan, uninstall AVG. For some reason, a lot of Anti-Virus programs do that. They don't like each other for some reason.

The other option is to run an online (since I'm assuming this PC is on the net) virus scan that will also remove it. The one here

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

works wonderfully. It'll ask you to install something or other and do it (it can't "see" your computer otherwise). Safe site. One of the other "big names" in Antivirus run the site

After downloading them all, update them. Run it ONE AT A TIME. If you run Spybot at the same time as Adaware your PC will explode (figuratively). They pick up things that the other has picked up but they also pick up things the other does not.

The spyware removers are all "allowed" on the computer at once, so long as you just run them at separate times.

Ease of use - here have the websites

AVG's site (also has a spyware remover for free)

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Spybot - You want the "Spybot Search and Destroy 1.4"

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Adaware

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Megan
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  #6  
Old June 29th, 2007, 10:28 AM
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Dracko Dracko is offline
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Yup, I dumped Norton a long time ago. Just screws up your computer and makes it run slow.

Now I use AVG for virus protection, Adware and Spybot for spyware.
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