ive used zone alarm basic for a while now, and it's been the best thing ive done. combined with the xp firewall and the built in firewall in my ADSL modem.

with the virus, if worst comes to worse, uninstall windows and reinstall. this is a last ditch effort, though, i had a basic virus in my system32.exe file and norton deleted it. system32.exe that is. so i had to reinstall windows. and then i lost my encryption keys. but that gave me an exscuse to clean out the shrap in my hard drive.

Vi

Kimk - Ugh, fine. *Undertone: Where's Taw when you need him? *

Check out these registry keys, and tell me what is in them (if anything);

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

under \run...
Name / Type / Data
(Default) / REG_SZ / (value not set)
ctfmon.exe / REG_SZ / C:\windows\system32\ctfmon.exe
msnmsgr / REG_SZ / "C:\program files\msn messenger.."
mywebsearchengine / REG_SZ / C:\program files\mywebs\bar\1.bin
seticlient / REG_SZ / C:\program files\ seti2home\[email protected]


ok if any mods can edit this so it comes out as a table, much appreciated.

there was no 'runservices' folder.

Edited by - kimk on 5/20/2004 5:05:41 AM

if this is a virus thread, i've just got a question
a firewall - do i really need one?
i've never had one on my computer, and i've never had any problems with it - no viruses or bugs. my friends say i'm incredibly lucky that i never got MSBlaster, because i have never, ever updated XP

is it worthwhile getting a firewall?

yes. you've been VERY lucky so far, and that's all. Just cos you haven't had a virus doesn't mean you aren't at risk from other threats.

..you shut your mouth, how can you say, I go about things the wrong way..

okay, i'm just getting the AVG firewall that chips recommended above then. thnx

Kimk - Did you install "mywebsearchengine"? It sounds like spyware to me. There's nothing suspicious there are apart from the above. The problem with Bobax.C is that it has a random name, so it makes it difficult to find. Firstly, install this patch from MS if you haven't already, and then update your virus definitions so that you can remove the worm. Read this. It explains exactly why manual removal is bloody difficult, but as you have Norton, it should be able to get rid of it for you once you have updated the DAT files.

Darkness - You've never had any viruses? At least ones that you know of .

oh i have never had viruses from over the net (that i know of, true!)..... apart from the time in yr 7 when a friend put a virus on cd and installed it on my comp during a LAN session.... the next morning there was *nothing* on the computer - i was pretty annoyed

btw, where in aus are you from esquilax?

EDIT : okay, only one virus - keendownloader or something

Edited by - the_darkness on 5/21/2004 12:40:00 AM

Darkness - I'll take your word for it, but I'm still harbouring doubts .

I'm from Melbourne, as is Viator.

Kimk? What's your status?

sorry about that,

i found out i'm also gotten that auto-shut down worm.. blaster i believe.. anyways downloading patch for it atm. and that mywebsearch engine, yeah i do believe its spyware too. also downloading that patch you recoomended esk.

Good. That patch (and others) are highly recommended. I assume that you know this, but in order to stop the constant shutdowns, go to the command line and type "shutdown -a" which will disable the countdown. Hmm, you should really get a better firewall .

hm. i've got bullfrog.. hang on.. it was bull guard and norton and avg running simultaneously. and just what other pathces do you recommend?

Well, anything on this page would be a good start .

"mywebsearchengine"
adaware flaged that as malware on my system funny that when i eliminated that 99% of popups on my conection disappeared, google toolbar took care of the rest