OK! What virus is this?

[curryman]

The last few days my pc has gone really slow, taking ages to do normal little things like opening word or excel - thats if i'm lucky it doesn't crash.
it also disconnects me from the internet near enough as soon as i connect or it connects at a really slow speed (dial up). After a bit of talking to a few people someone suggested i had the blaster or welcha worm.
I managed to get hold of a disc that checked for both worms and sure enough they were both there and they were deleted.
Now that sorted the internet problem but not the sluggishness of the pc, so i thought what the hell - new year and all that, i'll have a wipe and a clean install. So i start to think of everything i need to backup and low and behold it won't let me. - If i try to copy and paste to my second hard drive the paste option is greyed out after i selected copy, ok then not a problem i'll burn it straight to disc - nope!!not allowed. nero opens then crashes and closes, so i reinstall nero and same problem, so i try another app ( another 2 in all) and still they all open and crash.
last chance saloon: goto system restore (win xp) and low and behold it's been disabled
it's as if i've been stopped from backing up anything.
so if anyone knows whats going on i would be very grateful if they could shed some light my way, and please, no shouting at me for not having an upto date virus checker or firewall, it's just i've got used to having as few apps as possible running for capturing/editing - though i've learned my lesson and shall be off to pc world for my latest version of mcafee or norton as soon as i work this one out.

[holistic]

Don't waste money on Norton/McAfee (shudders)

Free Antivirus here.
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php
or a free online scan
http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/enterprise.htm

get hijackthis then post the "text dump" here : http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

tutorial.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html

a tip. In future run a antivirus and i recommend a firewall if on broadband.
When you go to capture simply [ctrl] [ alt] [delete] and 'end task' the antivirus .

][

[lordsmurf]

I've been using Norton stuff since 1993, best programs ever to me. No problems, just lots of help from them.

I'd use their AV package, and it comes with 6 months free updates. Symantec is also normally the first AV to fix new viruses, others follow shortly thereafter.

I'd also suggest Norton Utilities and Norton Firewall too.

I'd use them in a situation. Once the sub expires, and you are okay, using free stuff may work alright ... if you don't want to get the new Norton AV updates sub.

[Faustus]

I've been using Norton stuff since 1993, best programs ever to me. No problems, just lots of help from them.

I'd use their AV package, and it comes with 6 months free updates. Symantec is also normally the first AV to fix new viruses, others follow shortly thereafter.

I'd also suggest Norton Utilities and Norton Firewall too.

I'd use them in a situation. Once the sub expires, and you are okay, using free stuff may work alright ... if you don't want to get the new Norton AV updates sub.

I take it you don't do computer support? Norton products are horrible, and sometimes break the computer when you try to uninstall them. Legendary in their suckyness much like afterdark.

Go get avg from grisoft.com and be happy. The basic version is free, and the full version is well worth every penny.

[vitualis]

I personally use McAfee VirusScan. Very happy with it and it works well.

Regards.

[bottle-necked]

Isn't it wonderful how helpful these hackers/virus writers have been to us normal computer users. Aren't they so very nice people.....NOT.

There are ways of getting your data off that disk but you may not want to. Read this:

I setup a new system for a friend who wanted her email and photos off her old computer. I checked it out and she had about 1GB of photos, an address book, and a few saved business email messages. To make things easy I took the HDD out of the old system and stuck it in the new system to copy her files, then removed the old drive. No big deal. But it was... After the copy job her new computer developed the 'MS-Blaster' virus.

If you save those file you need to be certain they are not infected or you will infect your new install. Blaster is a pretty mean virus.

Good luck.

[rallynavvie]

Blaster is an exploit of a Windows security flaw. It's not really something you transfer between computer like a typical virus. It's simply the MS RPC service causing your computer to restart. You'll need to have the latest Windows updates to keep that one from coming back (or just disable RPC).

[Cobra]

Personally, I use Norton antivirus. No problems - does it's job etc etc.

I had something that made my PC run really slowly, with loads of hard drive activity. In the task manager it was "cidaemon" and you could end it but it'd just re-launch. It had phenomenal memory usage too. It really killed the PC. Fortunately, I live with a computer scientist who was able to exorcise it from my system.

Anyone know what this was?

CobraDMX

[jeex]

personally, i keep windows updated and dont use questionable software.

[Will Hay]

AVG and Zonealarm for me.
Ditched Norton three months ago, six months inot subscription.
Will

[Icu2]

I use ETrust EZ Antivirus formerly Vet. I only used it because my dads work uses it and they give everyone free updates who worked for the company. Then his worked changed to Etrust..but its the exact same program as vet just differant name (probably like power dvd and wateva else its renamed as). I have never had problems with it as long as i stay updated and it automacly does that only a 1 mg file.

For a firewall i use to use Mcafee. But know i own a Netgear router with a firewall and print server and that works fine for me.


ICU2

[curryman]

Thanks for all the advice guys,
Holistic, I tried Hijackthis but couldn't paste the text here due to stupid pc and i didn't fancy typing it all out but thanks anyway.
I had a spare hard drive hanging around so i went for bottle - necked's idea being careful to check all the files i saved before re-installing.
upto now everything is sweet after updating windows security patches,
just need to read through all these comments and pick a virus checker cos' i have no idea what it was but i certainly don't want it again!

[curryman]

AVG and Zonealarm for me.
Ditched Norton three months ago, six months inot subscription.

Will,
whats AVG, and is it free?

[curryman]

Oooh! Another problem,
Everytime i boot up, I get an operating system choice menu giving me the option of installing windows xp or windows xp, I gather it's where i installed windows on d drive to wipe c drive and so on.
but once i sorted all this out i deleted windows from d drive but it still gives me the option of installing either operating system.
Anyone know how i get rid of this system menu so windows automatically loads?

[rallynavvie]

I had that problem of asking which OS to boot even though they're both XP. Basically you just need to tell Windows to skip that screen. Right click on "My Computer" and select "Properties" to bring up the "System Properties" dialog. Then select the "Advanced" tab and hit the button for "Startup and Recovery" settings. The first dropdown list will show two instances of XP so likely just use the first one. Uncheck the first option that says "Time to display list of operating systems", that will get rid of that boot screen asking you which OS to launch.

Don't worry about uninstalling that instance of XP, I haven't noticed any problems with the machine that had this issue before.

[curryman]

Thanks Rallynavvie,
worked like a charm.

[Will Hay]

AVG and Zonealarm for me.
Ditched Norton three months ago, six months inot subscription.

Will,
whats AVG, and is it free?

It's AV and yes, it's free.
Here you go buddy.
Will

[curryman]

Thank you, my Northern friend.
I'll go get myself a copy now.

[gmatov]

Norton 2 or 3 or whatever, I got from work, screwed my 'puter royally.

Format and re-install.

2001, 2002, excellent. Bought 2003, Systemworks, installed NAV, screwed up the computer royally.

Format and re-install. Still on 98SE. No more support, after 1/16/04, so will have to go to W2k as main OS, not as secondary OS. Shoulda done it long time ago. Bought it probably 3 years ago, maybe 2 + . Have XP, don't like it, wasted too much money buying that.

Cheers,

George

[rhegedus]

Norton Antivirus, Firewall, Systemworks and Anti-spam.

Work like a charm.

[curryman]

poxy blaster worm/lovesan A, whatever you want to call it just won't piss off!.
Work this one out:
wiped hard drive, installed xp home edition, then set my broadband backup, then installed zonealarm and AVG virus.
straight to windows update for my critical updates and while their downloading i get an error message about something or other and my PC must be shut down, well i'll go to the foot of my stairs - how's that for infection.
got tool from symantec for removing blaster worm and it did the job and avg/zonealarm are bang upto date so hopefully that's the last i see of it.

[curryman]

AND!,
to top it all off while trying to activate windows I was told I had used my authentication serial number too many times - had to ring microsoft explain what happened and they gave me a new code - said something about adding new hardware causes it(recently installed second hard drive).
have to go now, If that's ok with you Microsoft

[mujahid7ia]

I had AVG (free) before, and it never gave me one virus alert... Does it have real-time scanning

At the same time, I sometimes got messages from Norton AV... usually false positives though.

Any other AVs to look into besides McAfee, Norton, AVG? I'm not a security maven, and i don't want to take a noticeable performance hit.

[ChrisX]

Symantec is to blame for my network of PCs troubles over the weekend.

The product is NIS/NAV 2002. It all started on Thursday with the updates. The updated new version of LiveUpdate wouldn't work, the NAV was slow with the time outs at shutdown on all PCs.

Only one PC the LiveUpdate still worked with the slowness still there. All computers were affected in some way.

The gateway PC was worse with the firewall not working well at all. The only way to fix was to uninstall and to re-install the NIS/NAV and to re-download everything all over again on all of them.

This took me all afternoon to get my network back to normal. I am not very impressed with Symantec and I am consider changing the vendor.

Symantec tells us, "not our fault", check out: http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000048600,20282575,00.htm

I do find this as unbelievable suggesting "Verisign" is to blame for the problems.

I will have to check out to see if there is any worms in the PCs such as the welchia. Nothing is found.

[gmatov]

Chris,

That is the only part of SystemWorks I do not install, NIS.

I forget what it did to my machine (I'm an old fart ), but never again.

All the rest I do install, except 2003 is giving me some trouble, only on one machine. "Uninstall this" but it is not ther, so can't uninstall, must re-install 2002, to to have something to un-install.

Ah, well, nothing's perfect.

Cheers,

George

[ChrisX]

Oooh! Another problem today,

The Symantec customers are really having a hell of a time for the new year.

Another problem for me today, this time a corrupted downloaded file from Symantec. Not very impressed and I am just about to trash and and ditch their products.

The corrupted file is a Intelligent Updater, dated Jan 14th 2004.

The Fault: Error: "Problem verifying files from archive. You may be out of disk space or the file may be read only..." when installing virus definitions using the Intelligent Updater.

For info, check out: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/8d071816eedd7cac88256c0e005a96e5/56c13bda...rc=bar_sch_nam

Don't download and install the above file and best to use LiveUpdate or wait at least the next day's update.

I have to uninstall and to re-install NIS/NAV only on one computer due to the corruption. The others are ok and I just have to use LiveUpdate to correct the problem.