Getting rid of spyware

[Borgsta]

leigh i just found another site which seems to have very good instructions.

http://computercops.biz/postp392743.html

looks like it could be fixed in about 30 minutes using it. Good luck!

 

[Leigh Roy]

Is that process for all or just that particular user? My understanding is you find a site like that, register, post a log from the programs you are told to download, and then they study them and you wait for their posts.

I believe I am fixed now thanks to one of the sites that feher posted either here or in a PM (I registered at 4 different sites and all of them had boffins reply and offer to help me) - this is a huge problem that could affect heaps of BF members, are the admins reading this thread? This isn't an ordinary infection, this is something which has got an apathetic PC user like myself well and truly buggered.

 

[Borgsta]

it worked for about 10 different people on a few message boards. But im glad to see you have finally got it worked out. Got my fingers crossed for ya that nothing happens in the next few days.

As you said this could be a huge problem in the coming weeks, so if ya dont mind could you list the different msg boards that you used. It could help others in the future.

 

[Leigh Roy]

Okay, this will be a bit long but I'll explain each site:

MajorGeeks is one of the four forums I registered at simultaneously and posted a thread explaining my problem. I like others made the mistake of going to other threads first and reading them to see if they matched my problem and then posted in those threads for help. I was told to butt out and start my own thread because the clean-up procedure entails that they work on one person at a time. It's easier if 'patients' keep to their own threads that they can create. I have linked to my thread on Majorgeeks first as it is the one that I used to fix my problems. The guy chaslang and I happened to be on at the same time so I thought 'righto, I'll stop what I'm doing and let him help me' for.....however long it took. I can't remember but it was long. The biggest thing they stress is that you shouldn't re-boot your PC once you and them start your procedure. The bad files you're looking for will change names, locations, and you will have to start all over again. I have always been annoyed at yanks saying 'you will have to "start over"'.

The MG forum as you can see doesn't just deal with my spyware problem, but lots of similar stuff.

Tech Support Forums is a site with a forum for people like me to go to, it's their HijackThis Log forum. Let's say I was as smart as them, and you used HT - when you gave me its log I could tell you whether or not you had spyware on your system. Once again, I wanted to post there around the time someone who would be able to help me was also on. They are on standby for anything I have to show them, but I might not have to as the MG forum may have set me right.

This site is very much inundated with problems similar to mine - like the one above they are looking back on my thread for when I am ready to stay on for the time needed to do the clean-up.

This site here is probably my most important one at the moment, MG have helped me heaps but I've got cookiegal on this site giving me a 'second opinion'. She's helped out others like me successfully and like the two above she won't forget about your thread, if you post in there saying you want to take her out she'll go in and read it because you are encouraged to keep in the same thread if more things happened. I'm waiting for her to give me the all-clear then I will start to believe my PC is working fine again.

 

[Leigh Roy]

Update: I'm sorted. They really do work!

 

[mighty mick]

just wanted to know if people have been using the microsoft spyware tool

warns of homepage changes and asks you to confirm any homepages.

very similar to adaware in most regards

 

[Leigh Roy]

Is that their virus checker that's just come out as well? Link please!

 

[mighty mick]

Is that their virus checker that's just come out as well? Link please!

its a spyware program like adaware. heres the review and download site

http://www.download.com/Microsoft-Anti-Spyware/3000-8022-10353596.html?tag=list

 

[Borgsta]

just wanted to know if people have been using the microsoft spyware tool

warns of homepage changes and asks you to confirm any homepages.

very similar to adaware in most regards

it sounds exactly like spywareguard which is what i use. Very good program.

 

[adey115]

just thought i'd mention that i think spysweeper is top notch. i was running updated adaware and updated spybot and both missed about a half dozen nasties which spysweeper picked up.

 

[gadj1976]

a mate of mine has just had his computer infected by spyware and I suspect viruses. I tried to get onto download.com and the comp just freaked out, went in circles, looping between virus sweeper software which only indicated that we had a problem and the download site.

So is there anything non internet related that we can use to get rid of it (Norton Antivirus 2000 wont run either). Any programs people have used that they haven't had to download would be great!

Oh, also the home page has been changed and we can't seem to change it back - it's disabled the "use current" and "use home" buttons - any ideas?

 

[Borgsta]

you said that the virus program indicated that you had a problem, so your best bet would be to look up the virus on the net, or post it here and let us find out how to fix it.

If its something small you could probably download a small program to fix it, which would mean using your computer and then copying the file to a floppy disk. Starting your mates PC in safe mode and running the file asap.

 

[year of the roo]

I have this file IGGDBW.exe that ad-aware has indentified as a problem file or whatever, but cannot quarantine it. I located the file on my hard disk and could not delete it. Anyone have any ideas of how to get rid of it?

 

[teams]

Not sure who is using it but this browser cuts out a huge amount of nonsense relative to IE.


http://www.advancedbrowser.com/

 

[Lethal]

just wanted to know if people have been using the microsoft spyware tool

warns of homepage changes and asks you to confirm any homepages.

very similar to adaware in most regards

I actually downloaded it tonight after it was recomended on Call for Help last night, found a few that had been missed by ad-aware.

 

[remind]

Try NO adware, it is free, but only lets you delete one adware file per day till you buy it or try Mcaffee anti spyware
ciao
PM

 

[NuMbA_7]

Hey, ive only read the first two pages so i dont know if this problem has occured yet, here it is, the other day my friend sent me an item on msn messenger called 'me n you pic' so i downloaded but she actually didnt send it and it was a virus. now i have located it(not 'IT' but the shortcuts n cant find the originals ANYWHERE!!) u delete it and it just keeps coming back, it automatically sends itself to everyone online on your msn messenger and attempts to switch mouse buttons around and it has deleted task manager and a few other things, my registry for Norton has run out so i cant update the definitions etc.
any ideas what to do?? help MUCH appreciated!!!

 

[cyberdog]

i gave up trying to get rid of spyware,so i just wiped my hardrive and re-installed windows,also got nortons,which i update regularly, and haven't had a problem since.

 

[mighty mick]

i gave up trying to get rid of spyware,so i just wiped my hardrive and re-installed windows,also got nortons,which i update regularly, and haven't had a problem since.

you cant hide from what you cant see

 

[Fogarty]

a mate of mine has just had his computer infected by spyware and I suspect viruses. I tried to get onto download.com and the comp just freaked out, went in circles, looping between virus sweeper software which only indicated that we had a problem and the download site.

So is there anything non internet related that we can use to get rid of it (Norton Antivirus 2000 wont run either). Any programs people have used that they haven't had to download would be great!

Oh, also the home page has been changed and we can't seem to change it back - it's disabled the "use current" and "use home" buttons - any ideas?

I had exact same problem when my computer became infected, the virus wouldn't let me download any fixes.
So, what I did was use getright (it's a down load manager) downloaded spybot with it, saved it to My Documents and opened Spybot from there.
Problem fixed.
Hope this helps.

Fogarty

 

[Mr Magoo]

I've got these damn popups on my WinXP, telling me I have spyware and I need to visit their website (www.spw7.com) to get rid of it. I've tried everything under the sun, virus scans, ad aware, spybot search & destroy, regScrub...quite a few. None of them work. I finally gave in and visited the pop-ups website, only to find that they are selling their product. Essentially, they've invaded my computer, and the only way I can see of getting rid of it is to buy their product.

Anyone know of a way to fix this? I'm desperate here, I can't even run any games as the pop-ups come on at all times.

I am using mozilla firefox as my internet explorer and i just added ADblock as a patch and i haven't had no annoying pop up's since.

Another internet explorer option is called opera which is apparently better than using firefox or so i'm told.

 

[Im The Gun]

Just thought I'll post on this.
You need more than one program to be anywhere near safe (you're never 100% safe).
The first one is Ad-Aware.
Free, works well, easy to use, easy to update, easy to get rid of crap.
The second is Spybot S&D
Free, works well, a little harder to use but once you get used to it it's fine.
The third is a old one that has a newish name.
Microsofts new anti-spyware.
Free, works well, updates it self, scans itself.

Now to be a little safer I also run Spyware Blaster, it doesn't remove it stops crap from being installed and if you can stop them from installing you'll win more than lose.
It's also free!!

Just becareful thinking that you're safe using firefox, Firefox does cut spyware from downloading, but it can get in other ways.

Also yahoo's new toobar does let programs like gator install unless you turn off some hack.

 

[Former]

Microsoft one is crap. It picks up nothing, and due to a financial interest in one of the biggest spyware companies they have downgraded their recommendation on that company's spyware from "quarantine" to "ignore".

Stay right away from it. Ad-Aware does everything you need it to do. Always a good idea to run a couple of them so, in addition, install PestPatrol or Spybot just to be safe.

 

[Im The Gun]

Microsoft one is crap. It picks up nothing, and due to a financial interest in one of the biggest spyware companies they have downgraded their recommendation on that company's spyware from "quarantine" to "ignore".

Stay right away from it. Ad-Aware does everything you need it to do. Always a good idea to run a couple of them so, in addition, install PestPatrol or Spybot just to be safe.

This is from Call for Help.
(http://www.g4techtv.ca/callforhelp/extremetips/0216A.shtml)
We compare the freebies against six paid programs
By Andy Walker


We tested the following products against our spyware-infected computer. Here’s what we found out of the 37 known infections.

Microsoft AntiSpyware
Rank: 1
Spyware caught: 17 of 37
Price: FREE

CA eTrust PestPatrol
Rank: 2
Spyware caught: 15 of 37
Price: US$29.95

Aluria Spyware Eliminator
Spyware caught: 14 of 37
Rank: 3

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE
Spyware caught: 12 of 37
Rank: 4

Sunbelt CounterSpy
Spyware caught: 11 of 37
Rank: 5
Price: US$19.95

ESET NOD32
Spyware caught: 10 of 37
Rank: 6 (tied with Spybot)
Price: $39 (anti-virus too)

Spyware Search & Destroy
Spyware caught: 10 of 37
Rank: 6 (tied with Nod32)
Price: FREE

McAfee AntiSpyware
Spyware caught: 7 of 37
Rank: 7 (tied with Norton Anti-Spyware)
Price: US$26

Norton Internet Security Anti-Spyware Edition
Spyware caught: 7 of 37
Rank: 7 (tied with McAfee Anti-Spyware)
Price: US$72.99 (includes the Internet Security Suite)

What they did is installed 37 of the worst known spy and ad-aware on a heap of computers and ran this programs.

I'll go with what they say.

 

[thewhippersnapper]

This is from Call for Help.
(http://www.g4techtv.ca/callforhelp/extremetips/0216A.shtml)
We compare the freebies against six paid programs
By Andy Walker


We tested the following products against our spyware-infected computer. Here’s what we found out of the 37 known infections.

Microsoft AntiSpyware
Rank: 1
Spyware caught: 17 of 37
Price: FREE

CA eTrust PestPatrol
Rank: 2
Spyware caught: 15 of 37
Price: US$29.95

Aluria Spyware Eliminator
Spyware caught: 14 of 37
Rank: 3

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE
Spyware caught: 12 of 37
Rank: 4

Sunbelt CounterSpy
Spyware caught: 11 of 37
Rank: 5
Price: US$19.95

ESET NOD32
Spyware caught: 10 of 37
Rank: 6 (tied with Spybot)
Price: $39 (anti-virus too)

Spyware Search & Destroy
Spyware caught: 10 of 37
Rank: 6 (tied with Nod32)
Price: FREE

McAfee AntiSpyware
Spyware caught: 7 of 37
Rank: 7 (tied with Norton Anti-Spyware)
Price: US$26

Norton Internet Security Anti-Spyware Edition
Spyware caught: 7 of 37
Rank: 7 (tied with McAfee Anti-Spyware)
Price: US$72.99 (includes the Internet Security Suite)

What they did is installed 37 of the worst known spy and ad-aware on a heap of computers and ran this programs.

I'll go with what they say.

That's interesting, I'll have to download Microsoft AntiSpyware. Would have thought the programs I was using would be better then rank 4 and 6.

Edit: Just scanned with Microsoft AntiSpyware, it found 3 objects that both Ad Aware and Spybot missed.