Calling You Computor Buffs

[Fisherman Mike]

Help required by Computor Dinosaur.

 

I have some unwanted security Icons on my bottom tool bar telling me that I have virus infection, adware and spyware & god knows what else and that my security is at risk. Several pop ups keep appearing as system alerts which direct me to websites selling security systems..... what a suprise.

 

One of the sites has taken over my home page on Internet explorer and no matter how many times I reset my home page in internet options as Yahoo it keeps coming back.

 

I suspect I have some unwanted software down loaded from one of the kids internet music sites which some how as got through my Trend internet security system. Ive used Trend to run a virus and spyware check and it comes up clean.

 

How can I get rid of these irritating icons, pop ups and reset the Internet explorer home page permanently.

 

Yours exasperatedly,

 

Dino Saur

[il cacciatore]

You have spyware on your computer called a 'browser hijacker'.

 

There are several anti spyware programs that you can to use to get rid of them.

 

Lavasoft Adaware SE is the most popular.

http://www.download.com/3405-8022-5153545....ubj=dl&tag=top5

 

There is also spybot search & destroy.

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

 

You should always run virus scans periodically even if no symptoms are apparent. Always use a firewall while connected to the internet because trojan horse programs may be used to gain control over your computer.

 

I would also recommend that you run checks for spyware frequently and update the definition files frequently as well.

 

Cheers.

[pin]

One of the biggest favours you can do yourself is ditch internet explorer.

 

99% of people have it, so almost all the malware (spy/ad/virus/trojan) writers will write exploits which assume you are using it. Its bloated, slow and lacks the features of decent third-party browsers.

 

Have a look at Mozilla Firefox as an alternative. It looks almost the same, has loads of useful features and is open source (thousands of people can contribute and spot problems rather than one large corporate). When you install it your settings and bookmarks will all be dealt with for you.

 

This will not make you immune to problems and there are exploits for Firefox too, but they tend to get fixed quicker and a bunch more of them are spotted before the malware lot cotton on to them.

[ChrisNicholls]

It could be worse than spyware, it could be malware and can be very difficult to get rid of, if it is you will have to take the appropriate steps to get rid of it depending which one you are infected wth.

 

In the meantime here are two programmes you could try that are much better than Ad-aware, Ad-aware has gone downhill since the SE release and some people claim thats because they are being paid by companies to leave their stuff alone.

 

One is called Spyware Terminator,

 

You can get Spyware Terminator here,

 

Spyware Terminator

 

Ewido is also a good programme, get it here,

 

Ewido

[Pushkin]

FM - i can recommend this site PC PITSTOP and have posted this link to their help page for problems like this. There is a lot of knowledge and information available here http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?showtopic=61975 it is an American site so get back time may be a problem - but then again - there are a lot of Brits using the site as well. Ignore the Hijack this and HJT logs at present until you have tried the stuff lower down the page. Won't be long till they get you sorted out mate.

 

Pushkin