I am having a recurring problem with viruses on my computer. The funny thing is that I never had these problems until I started visiting this site. It could be a coincidence of course, but I am wondering if anyone else is having problems with the Welchia worm or something called VBS. I am thinking of getting a firewall because its a real pain to keep running the virus scan and the removal tools. If I use my work computer then I have no problems because that thing is protected like Fort Knox, but at home I find that I pick up a virus almost everytime I am on-line. My I.T. guys at work say I should disable a bunch of stuff in Windows (like telnet and FTP) so there aren't so many ways for my system to get hit. Many of you (probably all of you) are much better at his stuff than I am. Last night I was trying to score the post about Harry's OWL's and MS Office got clobbered, my resouce meter showed I was down in the red area (shouldn't be) and I had two viruses that I had to remove in "safe" mode. I don't open e-mail unless I know who it's from, and I don't open attachments unless I know what they are. Any advice? I'm going to fix this, I am not going to give up.
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Do you run "file sharing" software, I think you know what i mean by asking this. "File sharing" software usually comes with spy ware. Spyware, are small programs that run in the background. They keep track of all your "browsing" on the internet. Then that spyware sends that information back to the database and that database controls what "pop-ups" appear on your computer. If you have alot of spyware(which you either do, or don't)then this can take up a decent amount of resources, and slow your internet connectivity down abit.
Solution:
I suggest getting a "Spy-bot" killer, you can look this up on downloads.com, I would disagree with your "IT" guys. Stopping some processes, like FTP, may cause your computer to go nuts. A firewall won't do much, because the firewall just stops people or programs, from getting into and accessing your machine. If the programs are already there, what is to stop them then? My best suggestion is to go out, and purchase your self a Anti Virus Package. The best one out there is Norton. I know, you actually have to spend money, but it is well worth it in the end.
"Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through. . ."-Fred and George(CoS)
I have Spy-Bot and I run it from time to time. I will try running it tonight before I do anything else, but it never really finds much. I also have Symantec/Norton Anti-Virus 2003 running at all times and have live update activated. I have everything in Norton set at least to the recommended level and some are set higher (like bloodhound). So, even after that, I am having these problems....which is why I need HELP!!!!! (sorry 'bout that - venting....)
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Wow, seems like that last repsonse i posted is blown to pieces....well, from what your saying you shouldn't have a problem. The only thing i can suggest is a complete Reinstall, and get Virus Protection up asap, then reinstall all your software...yes its a pain in the arse, but i do it about every 4 months, and it does wonder's for your computer, if you have alot of programs running....computers just get cluttered, that might be it...i dunno, try a firewall.
"Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through. . ."-Fred and George(CoS)
Thanks for trying Locke. When I installed the Anti-Virus package (about 2 months ago) I used Nortons process which called for doing a full scan of your system from their website. The idea was supposed to be that if some of your files were already corrupted, they would fix them first before you installed the Anti-Virus software (I think that was what you were suggesting) and I did that so I would get a clean install. Then I re-scanned once the software was installed.
So, nobody else is getting this annoying error message(which signals a new infection) that says you have a problem with svchost?
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I got that message before with certain pop-ups- Norton didn't like them. Next time you get one, go to your anti-virus's website. When it happened to me it was just from a pop-up, and that's what the website said. I also got a pop-up blocker. It doesn't work on everything, but it cuts a lot of it out, and I haven't had that message since. I wouldn't go reloading your entire computer just yet- that's a WHOLE lot of work. You said it doesn't happen at work- do you have an IT group there? I've found the IT group where I work doesn't mind taking a look at my machine if I happen to bring Christmas cookies (or some treat) in with the computer. Good luck!
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Cookies, donuts...all very much appreciated. I'm lucky that I'm in tight with I.T. and they will help me with or without a bribe..hehe. I have an active pop-up stopper. Today I bought a firewal and have installed it. I can't wait to see what happens next. I now feel like a knight in clunky heavy armor. I hope it all works. Thanks for the help.
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WOW, I've only had this firewall thing loaded for about 3 hours, but it shows I have been 'pinged' about 100 times. It shows where the ping comes from on this neat map and it shows the IP address that sent the ping. It also shows sites that were trying to get into my computer. I , of course, am not sure what it all means yet, but it's very cool. I haven't had the virus re-occur and I've tried a lot of things to get it to happen. YEAH!! (so far...)
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My virus protection program also functions as a firewall, and picks up many ping "attacks". A ping is actually just a return, or an echo, if you will, of information being sent and then again received over the internet. This is a function used to check that the internet connection is still alive. If you go to a website, it will most likeyly send you a ping and if it echos back, it knows that you are still online. If someone where to send you a ping (such as a hacker or someone) they would get an echo back and know that you are online, and would receive no further information. At least, this is how I understand pings to work. Nothing really to worry about there.
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Sorry if none of this is working out Mom-Eye. Personnally, i don't have problems with this kinda stuff. I have a router, and it acts as a firewall, but i am very carefull of the stuff i open and download. And i don't even have a firewall or anti-virus installed. Then again, like i said, i always do a clean install about once every 4 months, backing up my data, and re-installing all of windows, and my software, but you have to "know" how to do that crap...you got a computer wizz in the family?
"Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through. . ."-Fred and George(CoS)
You shouldn't wait until you format a drive before backing it up. You should do it at least once a month. I have recently started backing up all of my harddrives more often ever since my 40 gig died and I lost everything on it that was updated since my last backup (some months previous). I was so upset over some of that lost information. Just a suggestion.
As for formatting, it's a pretty easy thing to do. If you don't know how, a quick search on the internet will inform you on how to do so. Make damn sure to print it out first so that you have the instructions right in front of you the first time through the process so that you don't get stuck along the way. Then you would really be screwed.
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Thanks guys, once I got the whole firewall set, and told it what to allow and what not to, it was really nice. I'm happy I did it now. Also, as I said, its rather cool to be able to see where all those pings are coming from. I found that it stopped several potential viruses from hitting my machine last night. They even have a site you go to to test the vunerability of your machine to attack, then it gives you an assessment.
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MadEye, what operating system are you running? If it's Windows XP, you can get yourself some added protection by enabling the built in firewall. To do so, right click on "My Network Places" and click "properties". When the window opens, right click on your main internet conection, go to properties, and then go to the advanced tab. Now, check the box that says "Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the internet". Then hit okay. I still recomend leaving your current firewall up, always, but this will just help with some added protection. Unfortunatley, if you are running an older version of Windows, this feature will not be avalible to you. You can also check out www.windowsupdate.com to see if there are any updates to add to your machine to help prevent attacks on your computer. If you are running Mac, Linux, or some other non-winodws OS, I'm afraid that I can't help you anymore than this.
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