talkmagic.co.uk

If you're still in trouble, you can try the forum at Geeks To Go:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html

It's free, and the Geeks are quite knowledgeable and helpful. They've saved my bacon a couple of times (not with viruses, but with other problems).

What absolutely astoundingly good logic...

I have AVG I caught a virus but it's ok because when I get rid of the virus I will continue to use AVG as I am clearly protected!!!

Brilliant!!

ha ha ha

Jordan C wrote:What absolutely astoundingly good logic...

I have AVG I caught a virus but it's ok because when I get rid of the virus I will continue to use AVG as I am clearly protected!!!

Brilliant!!

ha ha ha

Do you not agree, though, that no matter what anti-virus protection someone is using they are still liable to get a virus if they click on random, strange emails connected to Facebook or MySpace, which is what Replicant said happened for him to become infected? No software makes you invincible if you're trigger-happy with the mouse whenever you see pop-ups etc.

I downloaded that "MalwareBytes" thing you recommended, which you said would probably show up tons of things AVG had missed, and after an update and a full, hour-and-a-half-long scan it told me there was one detectable threat, which was some exe file in the System Volume Info folder. So I guess it was worth it for that, but hardly an AGV-damning coup as far as my logic stretches, but each to their own, eh?

You clearly by what you say though do execute safe usage and savvy of the net which is to be commended. One of my industry friends operates with no antivirus on one of his machines and because of his self restricted usage on that machine he regularly proves that simple safe net usage is the best protection for anyone.

I commend you on only having one item!!
xx

By the way Kat, what version of AVG do you use?

Jordan C wrote:By the way Kat, what version of AVG do you use?

You're not asking that so you can try and hack it are you?

I use AVG Internet Security 8, as well as occasionally running the latest Windows Defender and SpyBot S&D. Oh, and I now have Malware Bytes thanks to your recommendation, which I think I'm going to keep using now and then as it seems worthwhile.

As if I would... you're being nice to me just now lol


nicely protected then, the immunise feature on spybot is really useful for those who don't know. It immunises you against the most prevalent bots etc.

Well, I'm back online now.

This is only a guess, but I think the virus must have corrupted some files connected with IE because I installed Firefox and all is now well. IE is still not working but I suspect it will work once I reinstall it. (Not that I'm in too much of a hurry to do that, mind. Firefox is looking pretty good so far).

And yes, I will continue to use AVG. I have used AVG for as long as I can remember (several years) and never had any issues with it. But as Kate mentioned, no anti-virus program is 100% reliable; indeed, the very nature of the threats means it is impossible to keep up with these people as they work tirelessly to worm their way into our systems. I have friends who use programs like Norton and they have been victims of viruses before, so I see no reason why I should pay for protection when I can get it for free. Just because AVG let me down once, it doesn't mean I'm going to go out and spend money on, in my opinion, unnecessary software.

Anyway, I installed Malwarebytes (thanks, Jordan) and did a full scan; it picked up no less than seven bits of nastiness ('tis a technical term, that) on my laptop...

Scan type: Full Scan (C:\|)
Objects scanned: 142348
Time elapsed: 1 hour(s), 2 minute(s), 17 second(s)

Memory Processes Infected: 0
Memory Modules Infected: 0
Registry Keys Infected: 4
Registry Values Infected: 1
Registry Data Items Infected: 0
Folders Infected: 1
Files Infected: 1

Memory Processes Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Infected:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{014da6cc-189f-421a-88cd-07cfe51cff10} (Adware.MyWebSearch) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Code Store Database\Distribution Units\{1d4db7d2-6ec9-47a3-bd87-1e41684e07bb} (Adware.MyWebSearch) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved\{014da6cb-189f-421a-88cd-07cfe51cff10} (Adware.MyWebSearch) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Schemes\f3pss (Adware.MyWebSearch) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Registry Values Infected:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\sysftray2 (Trojan.Agent) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Registry Data Items Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Infected:
C:\Program Files\TinyProxy (Trojan.Proxy) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Files Infected:
C:\WINDOWS\fmark2.dat (Malware.Trace) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

My sincere thanks to each and every one of you who took the time to post a helpful reply in this thread. As always, I appreciate it very much.

EDIT: It might be me, but I'm sure Firefox is faster than IE. My brother has been bugging me to switch to Firefox for ages; I wish I'd done it sooner because in addition to the extra speed it has some very nice features.

Don't forget to grab the NoScript plug in Replicant, and to perform an update and a FULL automated system scan each day.

Tomo wrote:Don't forget to grab the NoScript plug in Replicant, and to perform an update and a FULL automated system scan each day.

Done - thanks, Tomo. Any idea what sort of configuration I should have? Or are the default setttings OK? There are loads of options available and I'm a bit confused (doesn't take much, granted).

The defaults are fine. If you're on a site you trust, allow scripts to run, if not, don't

a big thanks to Tomo for that info, i got an Intel Netbook today, and just downloaded the firefox stuff. Very good indeed.

£230 - 1GB of ram, 80gb for the hardrive, webcam, wifi, bluetooth and 10" widescreen...didn't think that was too shabby.

im sorry but pllleease jordan hack queenies pc..........she said you could and it would be soooo funny......oh and on a serious not come on the obama tonight

Poo. Just tried logging into my account at First Direct and it appears FD are only compatible with IE. So I installed IE8 and still can't access the internet at all with it. (Firefox still working fine, though).

Flippin' Windows; if it isn't one thing, it's another. Always something wrong.

Tried using IE7? IE8 is still in beta and so still a tad buggy (I was using it last night in fact, and it crashed a number of times)

Sadly though, large corporations like banks fail to see the need to make their sites cross browser compatible. Boooo to them, I say. Send them a cheery letter saying how wonderful their online system is... if only you could get to it!

I will try IE7 later. And yes, I will be contacting FD to tell them what I think of their IE-only attitude.