Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners OT-MY PC IS SICK

my NT system has either a virus, which cannot be detected by software, or spyware. my homepage keeps defaulting to a search page even after re-setting. i have tried ad-aware 6.0 but the program will only quarantine, but not delete the files. many other programs are not for NT. can you computer guys help?
thanks
dan

kick the hard drive twice and tap on top of the monitor.. ??

i am a computer flunkie..sorry

bigjohn

1.) Clean your History, cookies and temp files.
2.) Update your virus software.
3.) Windows update
4.) I like "spy-bot search and Destroy". I works very good.

Hope this helps.

Tom

did 1,2, & 3. spybot is not for NT, already checked it out.
thanx
dan

http://beam.to/spybotsd
The site can be slow.

Get an Apple

IT is compatible.
Supported operating systems
Operating system Supported
Windows 95 Winsock update necessary
Windows 98 Fully functional
Windows ME Fully functional
Windows NT Some functions need administrator rights
Windows 2000 Some functions need administrator rights
Windows XP Some functions need administrator rights
(XP accounts have those rights by default)
Windows XP AMD64 Some functions need administrator rights
(XP accounts have those rights by default)
(no problems found, but still in testing)
Windows 2003 Some functions need administrator rights
(no problems found, still in testing)
Mac OS Not supported
Mac OS X Not supported
Linux/Unix Not supported

Go to the site I gave you.

I have the same problem with windows XP home. I've tried all the suggestions so far without success. Ressetting finally ended up with the msn default page as the permanent home page. I'm now waiting for service pack 2 in the hope I can clean this up.

thanx, will try it after i finish my purchase order. thank heaven for a risc box.
dan

Try creating a new user account to see if it's profile based. If not, then you probably have a piece of software thats causing the issue.

Tom

i'll see what happens as administrator.
again
thanks

I had this happen to me last week. I don't know if it is a feature of Windows NT, but I run XP and it has a system restore feature that took care of this for me. Good Luck.
Mike

Bazooka is a shareware app that will determine the instances of spyware/adware. It will then take you to their site and explain how to remove/cleanse the system.

Be forewarned that you will need to edit the registery. Some of the more commercial apps will do this for you, but I have found that they can miss critical keys.

NT doesn't have the nice system restore feature. Symantec's Ghost will do the job. It only take a few minutes to have your system back to normal.

Apple "security thru obscurity"

sorry couldnt resist

ANYWAY

I prefer AdAware to Spybot myself, althought both usually work fine.

Now you stated problem with AdAware not deleting, it does in fact delete, the quarenteen is jsut a backup if you find it took something out you need. Now I work on PCs for a living and I've seen some nasty's that make ya work real hard to get rid of. Be sure you have clicked the option in AdAware to update before ya bother scanning, they update the ref file frequently which makes a big difference. Also if there is a file in use AdAware can't remove it SHOULD prompt you to ahev it run on next reboot, so it can rescan before the system reloads everything. Finnaly at the end of a scan be sure to right click an opbject and select all before moving on the the removal step, if those objects it finds don't get a checkmark in em, AdAware won't remove em for ya.

ran your suggested spybot destroyer as current user. it did identify dialers etc, created a back-up, and fixed them. i also ran the tracking part of the software to see if that would help too. re-started IE 6.0 and had the same "about blank" search page. tomorrow AM, i'll run the program again as administrator. i'll keep you posted.
thanx
dan

Will your browser let you put in your own homepage?
Tools, internet options then home page. Or is this the whole problem?

Tom

P.S. I also work on PC's and servers for a living. I'm mainly a unix guy, However my job requires Windows, network and security administration. It's a thankless career.

I had the same problem with my WinXP system, the cure is to have AdAware ignore the problem, not delete it as described here.

Long list of useful stuff I just stumbled upon. You might want to check some of them out.
I use Spybot myself and I'm happy with it.

yes, the problem is my homepage is overridden to a search page. as soon as the search page appears, a pop up tells me i have spyware; what a coincidence(sp). logged in as admin, i have no problems, but as a user i do. many of my apps run as a user but not as admin. do i want to become use 04 instead of 03?
bren, i will look further into your suggestions, but i fear too many of these programs might cancel out each other. am i wrong about that?
sigh, ready to use a hammer and then ship the pieces to my it guy
dan

Have you tried to re-install IE? It may also have a repair feature in the add or remove software. Reinstalling may reset the keys. Spyware is a major pain in the a** . Try un-installing all shareware, if any.

this is typical of spyware/adware. It alters the registery, and reinstalls (in simple terms) itself every startup. The page that is loaded can be a file on your HDD, and based on the users profile that downloaded the virus - my term for this type of nasty program.

I had my team of 7 PC/;Net techs working to disinfect 1500+ machines when it originally hit many months ago. The best tool we found was Bazooka, as it allowed us to manually repair, after the automatic detection by the tool.

Since them we have upgrade all security systems - FW, IDS, AV, Windows updates, locked down desktops via profiles, implemented procedures for QA/QC of systems and regression testing.....but we are always at risk. This is a derivative of a Windows environment. Luckily, our business systems have been architected on better OS based systems!

Hate to be a broken record, but have you tried Spybot? I've found it to be more effective. You may have to start in Safe Mode to get it to kill off everything, but I think it may also work if you're logged in as the admin.

back everything you need up
format C:
install you choice of os
the image the drive to another partition or hdd.
Whenever it gets junky again, if virii scanners or spyware software cannot fix it, wipe it and restore that image. I do it all the time...Just somethin to think about if you decide to wipe it eventually

yea, tried both ways. admin and user. just dowloaded netscape 7.0. seems to crash less than IE on my pc at home.

whoa, i sell parts for a living. that's way over my head. gotta know when to say when. as i mentioned in another post, just went to netscape. IE as administrator was not affected, just as a user, so... i just wont use that program.

You may also want to check out firefox. It's my personal favorite. Tabbed browsing is better than sliced bread.

jr