i believe i have a virus in my computer, because my internet explorer 6 homepage which is set to yahoo.com has now been changed after i visited a few adult oriented websites. also there are adult websites under my favorites link. the same thing happened to me 4 months prior, and i was able to detect and remove the virus using norton 2004 free trial version. but my trial has ran out.
i decided to go to internet option in IE6 to change my homepage back to yahoo.com restarted my comp, but it didnt do anything.
i have a home computer, with windows xp home edition, and i just installed avast 4 home edition more than a month ago.
i’ve read a lot of good reviews about avast, and says it can detect viruses that norton and macaffee couldnt do.
well, i just used avast an hour ago, and did a quick scan don drive c, to see if there are any viruses,but it didnt detect any.
what kind of scan should i use to detect viruses? standard or thorough?
i am certain i have some kind of bug, virus or not, in my computer.
just tell me how can i use avast to its maximum to find those viruses?
also, once i find the virus, can avast delete it to or …
It doesn’t mean your Internet-explorer-startup-page is change to a different one that you have a virus. Some appz setup their homepage on your explorer for commercial reasons,… so i don’t think that is such a problem.
You can always run the thorough scan really.
Be aware on links with *.jpg at the end,…it may download a vbs.
But avast takens care of that one. especially at pr0n-sites ;D
It might be good to know that alternative browsers like: Mozilla Firebird, are “immune” to this latest thread (as far i have been told)
i'm not sure if i have a virus, but norton 2004 free trial was able to take care of the problem and return my settings back to normal.
Norton and mcafee's Latest version now detect spyware avast does not.you can get spybot S&D for free to clean you machine of spyware
but [i]BE SURE TO UPDATE IT[/i] http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download
how long can a thorough scan take? i have at least 15 gb of memory from drive c used up.
Depends on speed of your processor and how large the files are.
My 1Ghz gateway scans 5 GB in about 8 minutes
i use ad-aware 6.0 as of right now. and i used spybot last time i had the same problem, but it couldnt remove it. both programs couldnt remove the problem.
Sounds like we’re running pretty nearly neck-and-neck here. I run through 4 gigs in about 6-minutes-plus.
Interestingly, on my system a thorough scan takes only slightly longer than a standard scan, maybe an extra 15 or 20 seconds. Wonder if the fact that I always scan archives has anything to do with that?
Norton might have just used a browser restore, to return settings back to normal (saves original settings for backup).
Install spywareblaster and spywareguard. These help to prevent spyware from ever installing in real-time and offer restores and disabling of homepage changes:
It sounds like your homepage might have been hijacked, you might think about downloading HijackThis which is a program designed specially to target homepage hijackers and is even recommended by the folks at Ad-aware.
A word of warning though, not all the things HT picks up are unwanted and you could damage something if you just delete everything, I suggest posting your log to the forums at http://www.spywareinfo.com and ask their experts what to remove.
There is another possibility to your problem and you may have been hijacked. Some sites through what is referred to as a browser or homepage hijacking agent and this will revert or control your browser’s home page. The actual definition is called a restriction and it can be easily resolved by downloading the camtech software at www.camtech2000.net and look under utilities in the top menu bar and find ie restrictions. Once you download it and set it up you will find a simple interface window with 5 or 6 different menu sleeves. each of the pages will have a short list of options and if any of the options has a check mark it means that your machine has been restricted to certain command or counter-command. All you need to do is to un-check the box and you will be free from it. This is one of my “certainly recommend” sites and I am sure you will agree. That’s it, good luck,
Chris
http://
btw, also, under my favorite links in IE 6, there are 3 adult websites listed there that i didnt bookmarked, i deleted those,but they always come back in the same spot after i restart.
Dr;
go to my computer (your computer) and double click to bring out the address bar, click to the right of the “my computer” to highlight the address and type %temp%.
This will bring you deep into your internet temp cache files and they should be deleted safely. many times if this is not cleared several anti-virus and anti-spyware programs will not load or are overtaken by the contents due to memory restrictions or limitations,
also you should delete your browser plug-ins, and your active x files safely. these are all command driven and can be deleted safely as if they are not in cache, you can always load up the newest version active x or swf, etc… upon need.
As well you can use a tool like jv16power tool or reg mechanic and take a look. Use the registry search and find the item that fits, it will be there, then go into the serarch mode and deep scan. Please be careful here because the deep scan does not advise you as to the shared values and you can wipe your registry the wrong way, and you will be in deeper kimchee than just a hijacked browser.
Also, if you use myie2 or secure ie you can go to proxy browsing. myie2 is the finest and its free,
one last lastly, if you are very strong on the security and not too meek in the pocket, try using a usb memory stick next time out and check out some of the very cool internet isolation apps (go to www.imaginelan.com) see their digital memory e-mail/browser solution—cool and these are great folks!, these put the entire chore of security for your email and browsing into a stickmem and keeps it there so it does not get into your machine, this makes for easier isolation and always clean machinery.
you are welcome to it;
Chris
when you get your boogie to work right use configsafe at imaginelan.com to snapshot your registry and config and then you can bring it back to the right state as long as you keep it up dated. always take a snapshot upon installing anything.
chris
"go to my computer (your computer) and double click to bring out the address bar, click to the right of the “my computer” to highlight the address and type %temp%. "
i’m a little lost, can u rephrase that? is it the “My Computer” i am having trouble finding the address bar.
hey guys, thnx for your help. it was a spyware afterall, although i cant validate it.
but i looked for spyware remover in google.com,and i found one, called BPS spyware remover, 5 day trial. so i installed that. and played around with it until i finally got it right after i restarted my computer for a few times.
hopefully it fixed the problem instead of just putting a bandaid over it temporarily.
if i restart my comp again tomorrow and the problem goes back to the way it was or once my 5 day trial is over and it goes back to the way it was, i’ll let you know.
i am so happy, at least now people wont think i am a pervert vising adult sites.
I run through 4 gigs in about 6-minutes-plus.