Virus troubles

[Zephik]

My dad is having one heck of a time with viruses on his laptop. It's been going on for quite some time now, but every time he gets onto his laptop, that is, turns laptop on and logs onto his account, he has to run AVG. Also, every time he runs AVG, it detects a trojan or some other virus. Why does this keep happening? AVG takes care of the files, but it seems there are news ones everyday.

He uses his laptop for researching property listings and putting down ideas for what he wants to do with a certain house. He's a Realtor by the way. lol

oh and also, he doesn't even check his email anymore, its been a couple months since he has even opened up outlook or whatever that program is called.

Sorry if this is confusing or not detailed enough, I'm in a hurry. But if you have any questions, comments, blah blah blah, I'll answer them asap.

Thanks for the help!

[Spawn-Inc]

well i'm not the best expert at this but i run nortan 2007, spybot S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/), Adaware SE personal (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php) and hijackThis (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html)* if there is any problems. i haven't had any problems as of yet but i don't use this hard drive alot ( i have my own windows installation on my own hdd on my parents computer. hope that helps some what.



*NOTE: hijackthis will display bad as well as good things so you should know what your doing, i've used it enough that i generally know what i'm doing but you can always go here (http://www.castlecops.com/f67-Hijackthis_Spyware_Viruses_Worms_Trojans_Oh_My.htm l) like i did and post your scan log and have experts go through it and give you proper help.

[Greco101]

He may have an uploader in his temp. Sometimes they get deeper into your system (registry) and even though you're deleting the detected viruses, it just replaces them. When it detects the virus, instead of deleting it through the program, check to see where it's located.

If he uses IE, that could be where the problem started.

I used to be on the ball with all the script kiddie bs back when I was younger but I guess you do lose it if you don't use it.

[SgtM]

I've found that a very effective way of cleaning spyware and viri is to either scan it in safe mode, or if you can.. take the drive out, hook it up to another system, and scan it that way. I always have one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203012) on hand for laptop drives.

[calumc]

now i know that this definitely wont be the case but i thought i might mention it anyway; if he has any patched software on the computer the patches will be showing up as a virus but they are really doing nothing bad

[xRyokenx]

I'd recommend doing the following, in a similar order:

Download a firewall such as ZoneAlarm, as Windows Firewall sucks big time, it's there as a filler.

Get whatever other antimalware programs you want/need.

Disconnect the computer from the web.

Run some virus scans.

Kill off what you can.

Reconnect to web.

Run more scans.

If more problems persist, use HouseCall (or whatever it's called) to run a scan.

If need be (and you want to go to the extreme), reinstall Windows XP/Vista/Whatever. But that's usually better to avoid than do.

Just trying to give you an idea of what you can do, it's kind of what I did a few months back when I had that problem. Oh, and Norton AntiVirus is a problem in itself, I've seen nothing but trouble from it. My uncle has problems with it all the time at work (he's an IT guy for IBM) and neighbors, friends, whatever haven't had luck with it. Moral of that story, try the free stuff before buying anything, and be careful then too.

Good luck.

-Anthony

EDIT: Oh yeah, using Mozilla Firefox with the addons Adblock Plus (good to remove those banners) and NoScript (disables Java Script by default, you can change it), which are both very good addons for keeping out stuff you don't want. I haven't had a virus in a very long time.

[Zephik]

Rawr! My father is such a stubborn old man! How can he even possibly think that he knows more about computers than his 20 year old son who spends 6+ hours every day on a computer compared to him who spends an hour every other day and the most he ever does, or has done, is check email and browse property listings? Not only that, I haven't had a virus on any of my machines in a pretty long time, and all I'm using is Windows Firewall. On top of that, my laptop used to be his, now that its in my possession, it runs so much faster than it previously did.

psh, I should have known better than to help him. He does this every time I try to help fix his computers, "I have more problems now than I did before!"

...right. I told him to start using Mozilla Firefox (which he quickly and literally called "crap")instead of his outdated IE and I turned on his automatic updates. So you know, he can get security fixes and what not. oh, and he blames his problems on the fact that my younger brother installed MSN messenger and uses Myspace all the time. The myspace thing he is probably right about, my younger brother could easily get malicious files off of myspace from spammers and whatever other stuff. oh wait, but why doesn't he (my younger brother) have any viruses or "spamware" on HIS computer? Hmmm.... maybe because he uses FireFox instead of an outdated IE? AND he keeps all of his stuff updated? Because why? Because *I* told him to.

wow, what a rant. lol sorry about that, but I feel better now at least. If anyone wants to comment on whether who is right or not, feel free too. I don't mind being "schooled" from time to time.

/rant

oh yea, and thanks to all of you who tried to help. I appreciate it, I don't let information go to waste. If I ever have a similar problem, at least now I know how to fix it or take steps to fixing it or at least understand what could be wrong.

[slytherock]

I understand you're pissed. I have the same problem, except I'm much older then you ;) I think he's favorite is: Your computers are always open; that can't be good :D Bottom line: fathers don't understand Modders... (cheap word play here)

[Eclecticos]

Its attached itself to one of your prefetches or startup programs
. .so when windows loads . .it loads it all over agian.

The virus is resident in the Memory. . Install Avast Free (http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html) home version.
It will reboot and scan the memory before windows boots. Problem Solved.

[Zephik]

Its attached itself to one of your prefetches or startup programs
. .so when windows loads . .it loads it all over agian.

The virus is resident in the Memory. . Install Avast Free (http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html) home version.
It will reboot and scan the memory before windows boots. Problem Solved.

I'm pretty impressed with Avast so far, does anyone else use this software or has anything to say about it? I'm curious as to what other people know about it, whether its good or bad or in between.

[Nick_Black]

I think Avast is great, shure you should run spybot/adaware too, but it's cought pretty much all my viruses, it's got loads of features that usually come with the expensive do-dats, and it's free :D:D (well for 60 day's...) and it's called "avast" I meen, it's like a pirate, can't get much cooler than that :p (cept maby ninja, but "Kia" might sound like a car rather than a virus killer)

my rating 8/10 becouse it dosn't catch all adware and I have gotten like 2 viruses with it b4...

[SpArX]

am i too late?

well i do this every other day

-install bit defender (http://www.bitdefender.com/)
-run bit defender on highest possible security settings
-do this a few times then write down all the viruses it picks up after the 3rd scan
-boot in safe mode and delete them from their root file (just find them using search etc you know the drill)
-boot in normal mode and scan with bit defender
-if there is anything still there take out the hdd and hook it to another pc, and jsut scan it or you can alternatively format it (formatting is quicker!!)

SpArX
:)

[Crazy Buddhist]

Antivirus
Avast is good (is it really only free for 60 days now? - shame :( )
Antivir (http://free-av.com/) is also excellent
AVG I went off of about two years ago - seemed to be losing it's edge
Norton is bloatware and will kill any computers ability to do anything usefull
MacAfee used to be much better but suffers similar issues now

Also always try Pandasoft free online scan and Trendmicro's Housecall if your systems stuff isn't cleaning your system for some reason.

Spyware & Firewall
No good just running one of the free antiviral's as others have commented: also run anti-spyware: Spybot S&D AND Lavasoft's Adaware (http://www.lavasoft.de/). And use a firewall - not just the built in XP one - unless you are behind a Nat router that is very well configured.

Free firewall: Zonealarm is excellent.
Sygate: used to be so good that Norton bought it and shut it down: now older versions are risky.
Not up to date with other free offerings.

ALL SECURITY S/W NEEDS UPDATING AND A FULL SCAN WEEKLY MINIMUM

Also:

Go to Gibson Research Corporations (http://www.grc.com/) Website and try their "probe my ports" scan to see if your computer is offering any services to the net. You would be surprised how many people have ftp, telnet and even web servers running by default and offering wide open ports identifying your presence. "Probe My Ports" will tell you what you have open. Sometimes it's an infection listening out on the net ... Steve Gibson's site is worth a read too - interesting man - codes only in Assembly language so he knows his code isn't going to be weak: actually it's bulletproof.

The other thing is as mentioned before to use Hijack this. Hijack this identifies all the things that run when your machine or browser starts and lets you remove them. It is to be used with caution - if you do not know what you are doing with it you can cause mayhem with your machine.

All free software mentioned here is available for from CNET's downloads.com (http://www.downloads.com/).

The problem now is the virus writers and script kiddies have ever better tools at their hands. Many of the problem creations now inject themselves deep into windows and disable all your antivirus etc because they are called on by that software in one way or another or get deeper into the system than that software.

And one always sneaks in because your AV isn't up to date or their signature writers don't get the sig in the update before you get the infection ... blah blah ... then you have the trouble of getting rid :(

So .... despite having been something of an expert in matters of internet security for many years and especially "how to do it for free", for the first time in my life, I am now using a paid for security suite (Kaspersky Internet Suite). I just got fed up of having my computer start slowing on me and knowing ... that I had another round of disinfection to undertake. Not sure if I will renew next year. But if not I will probably try another paid suite.

I just can't be arsed fighting that war any more when I can be doing better things at my computer. Kaspersky works really well. I'd like a little more of an advanced interface and some more control from time to time but it does seem to do its job and from time to time I take it places I know it won't like just to check. ;)

CrazyB

ps A health warning. I believe my advice is good. You must make your own choices and live by them and with their consequences.