Virus trouble

[Mattastic]

Despite having Norton 2004 and it being bang up to date I have found myself with a virus, well more of a dialler really. Whenever I'm connected to the net, after a few minutes the dialler tries to create a new connection and tries to connect to it. Luckily it tries to connect via my internal dialup modem but I'm using my external USB ADSL modem so it never connects but it is very annoying, yes it is a porn one!

My virus software cannot delete the file and says I have to manually yet when i perform a search it cannot find the offending file. Also, the file name is at an extension which does not exist according to my PC, even with files not hidden. I ran a spyware program and it turned up 15 different ones, one of which is a key stroke logger which i am not too happy about being there seen as I bank online!

I'll get to the question, if I re-install my XP Pro from the boot up screen will this rid the virus etc from my machine? I'm not overly computer literate and do not fancy messing around in the registry as the virus software suggests.

Any tips would be gratefully accepted.
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Too skint to buy a bike

[needa400]

Yeah, rebooting should work. If you do want to try the registry, and I presume you know how to get into editing mode, then just look through the HKEY Software list or something like that, then go through each one and look for anything suspicious. If you aren't sure, or have any doubts, leave it.

Have you tried a system restore in the System Tools menu on the Start menu?

Needa
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I was here, now I'm not, coz I covering the missus in me special man snot!

[McJamweasel]

Download ad-aware - that will kill it.
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BCF: Be yourself, just don't be an arse.

[Kris]

I had exactly the same thing. As McJam says get Ad-aware and Spy-bot etc.


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[dainesefreak]

You could try Googling the dialer name it should come up with some removal options.

I can recommend Pest Control spyware killer thingy too. I've always used Ad-aware until I noticed it was allowing Cashbar to run ok. I downloaded Pest Control and it found 51 items that an up to date Ad-aware had missed, so I now use both of em.

If you're using ADSL are you running a Firewall?

[Milo]

All of the above will work though re-installing is a bit extreme!
Just disable your internal modem then see if you can get rid of it.
Maybe try stopping all of the telephony and RAS type services and try deleting it again.
Adaware should do the trick though.

Adam
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Shaft drives rule.

[Mattastic]

[dainesefreak]

It's worth downloading something like Zone Alarm. The Windows XP one isn't much cop really. Zone Labs provide a free version of Zone Alarm for download off their site https://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=zadb_zadown

[Mattastic]

Thanks for that I'll have a look when I get in from work!
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Too skint to buy a bike

[Mr.Everready]

Its not a virus, do as said above and get adaware.

[Mattastic]

Ad-aware got rid of 22 items! The firewall is keeping all and sundry at bay also!

Only problem is I think I deleted a file manually by mistake.
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Too skint to buy a bike

[GFK]

Ad-aware is mostly good, although the 20-odd items it deleted on your system will mostly be harmless cookies.

Don't just use Ad-aware though, because it *does* miss stuff from time to time. Get 'Spybot Search and Destroy' and 'Hijack This'. Both can be found via https://www.spywareinfo.com/

I do a bit of desktop PC support and spyware/dialer removal would probably top my list of common problems. I recently worked on a PC that had 'global dialler' on it. No matter how many times its internet connection was deleted, it came back at reboot. I eventually found a mysterious application running in the tasklist, which was being called at system startup. Once I removed that, the problem went away. However, AdAware, Spybot, Hijack This AND CoolWebShredder all failed to spot it.

The customer only called me after getting a £180 phone bill, with over £100 of calls all to the same number.

My tip - use MSConfig regularly. Know what programs should be in there AND in your task list, and if a new one ever appears, investigate. After all, all the ad-blockers and virus checkers in the world won't save you. The people who propagate these things are always a step ahead.

[Jon]

Ad-Aware 6.0 - https://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

Spybot 1.2 - https://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=mirrors

HijackThis - https://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/hjt.zip

CwShredder - https://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/CWShredder.exe

SpywareBlaster - https://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Trend Mirco Scan - https://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

AVG Antivirus- https://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php


https://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

[bikedudextrm]

Next time it loads up just press ctrl alt + delete, right click it in the window and select go to process. This will highlight the filename in the process window. Copy the filename and just do a system search for the file and then delete it.

The dialer is usually in the form of a file as i've had it before .