[alumni72]

Well, since I'm finally able to post a reply to this thread from the problem computer once again, I'd say it's working pretty well now.

I can't say as I've noticed the Taskbar disappearing for the past day or so, either.

Does this mean we're done? Is there any residual crud lying around my PC's guts that I should clear out now, from all this mess?

[Advertisements]

OK, so I jumped to conclusions. I still can't log into eBay, but I can post comments here now. So that is progress.

[alumni72]

OK, so I jumped to conclusions. I still can't log into eBay, but I can post comments here now. So that is progress.

[Flrman1]

Did you do this?

How is the computer behaving now other than the login problems?

Go to Start > Run. Copy and Paste each of the following lines in the Run box one at a time. Click OK after each one and wait for the success or fail message before you proceed to the next.

regsvr32 Mssip32.dll
regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 Softpub.dll
regsvr32 Wintrust.dll
regsvr32 Initpki.dll

Restart your computer.

Try accessing ebay now.

Tell me exactly what happens when trying to log into ebay please.

[alumni72]

I executed all those commands, in the order presented.

When I try to log into eBay, it asks for my userid and passowrd.
I enter them and click the 'Sign in Securely' button.
I just get a window back showing my userid, with the password field blank.
As if I hadn't typed in a password - but no message that it was blank or incorrect.
When I type in the wrong password it will tell me so in red.
But when this happens, it doesn't. It just comes back, waiting for me to enter the password.
Same thing with Amazon.

Maybe I shouldn't have, but near the end of all this I changed my IE security settings, as suggested in the 'Spyware Protection' link at the top of every page here at Geeks to Go.
I was paranoid that in the middle of all these spyware removals something else would slip in, so I increased IE security.
Is it possible there's some setting change that I made that is causing this?

There's no other change I'm aware of aside from the things you've had me doing.

[Flrman1]

Go to Internet Options. Click on the Seurity tab. Click the Custom Level button then scroll down to "User Authentication" all the way at the bottom. What is it set to there?

[alumni72]

It's set to

Automatic logon with current username and password.

I also tried

Automatic logon only in Intranet zone

and

Prompt for username and password

Neither of those made a difference.

I didn't try Anonymous logon, but I doubt that would help.

Edited by alumni72, 30 September 2006 - 04:23 PM.

[Flrman1]

Did you check your firewall for privacy or cookie settings that mught be blocking it?

[Flrman1]

Check this out too:

http://www.duxcw.com...n/xp/secure.htm

[alumni72]

I'll check the firewall, but to be honest I know next to nothing about it. I left most of the settings at default when I installed it just because I didn't know what I'd be messing up if I changed anything.

I've tried a few of the suggestions in the linked article, but so far no luck. I'll try more later.

[Flrman1]

Is that the only site you are having trouble with?

[alumni72]

Ebay isn't the only site I have trouble with, but it IS the only site that gives me that specific problem.

There are a number of sites that I have trouble with - and not all of them display the same symptoms:

Most message boards that I need to log into will ask me to type in my username and password. Even thought I select to have the webpages remember my username/password, I have to type them in each time I go there. Using my work PC, I get logged in automatically - so it's not a characteristic of the sites. Most of these pages I've been a member of for several years, and the only time I have to re-type in my login info is when I delete cookies. Which I don't do very often.

Ebay remembers my username, but seemingly does not acknowledge that I am typing in my password (even though dummy characters appear as I type in my password). It comes back asking for my password again (with my username already entered) as thought I never typed it. If I leave the password field blank, or type in the wrong password, I get a message back saying so. But when I type in my correct password, I get no message at all - just the same screen with the password field blank again.

I cannot log into my fantasy football webpage at all. It is Fox Sports, which uses Microsoft Passport. When I type in my email address and password, the page tries several times to connect, but eventually comes back with the message:

The Microsoft Passport Network is unavailable from this site for one of the following reasons:

- This site may be experiencing a problem.
- The site may not be a member of the Passport Network.


I know that the site is not eperiencing a problem, because every other member of my league is able to log into the same website. And I know the site IS a member opf the Passport Network, because it is the ONLY reason I have a Microsoft Passport at all.

[Flrman1]

Have you tried shutting off the fireall to see if it is interfering?

Are you using a router?

[alumni72]

Ok - where to start?

I am using a router, a Linksys WRT54g.
I hadn't tried shutting off the firewall - not that it could hurt anything at this point, but I never do stuff like that. It's like playing in traffic to me.

Yesterday I was talking to an old friend who used to work in my company's IT department, and he was familiar with Kerio and suggested I check some settings I didn't know existed (big surprise).
There are Cookies settings for:
Filter foreign cookies
Filter persistent cookies
Filter session cookies

Only the Foreign cookies filter was enabled. So I enabled the other two. Wish I'd seen those settings before.

He also suggested I run SpySweeper (he said it was free), which I did - but it's only free to run it. If you want it to actually fix anything it's $30. But it found a bunch of cookies - including a few that sounded very familiar - and one Trojan: trojan-backdoor-adagoe. But since I couldn't remove it with that tool I still have it, for now.
Which of the scans we've run already would you suggest I run now? I don't pretend to understand more than a fraction of what's been going on here, and I don't know which of the scans would catch a trojan vs. which ones would not.
What I DO understand:
Trojan = BAD
Scan = good
Geeks = good
Flrman1 = VERY PATIENT

Presumably the trojan is behind the login problems I've been having - and I don't want to even think about what other problems it's been causing that I'm not aware of!

As for the router I'm using, I'm very good at procrastinating. I keep meaning to read up on it, since as far as I can tell it provides firewall protection beyond what Kerio provides - but I have no idea if it is enabled by default or not, how to configure it, etc. - now is a very good time to do that reading!

[alumni72]

I shut down my firewall and I still had the same problems. I'm running a few of the scans again and will post results. Ewido found some things but deleting them didn't help, so I'm moving on to other scans you had me do earlier.
If I have to pony up the $30 for Spysweeper then so be it, but I'm trying free options first. 30 bucks is 30 bucks.

[Flrman1]

You can run the free trial of SpySweeper that will fix what it find. I think that the problem remaining with your ability to log on to certain sites is a setting or reg key that I'm overlooking. I think I have given you about everything I can think of to look for, but I may have missed something. At any rate, it wouldn't be a bad idea to run the trial version of Spysweeper so here are the directions for that:

Please download WebRoot SpySweeper from HERE (It's a 2 week trial):

• Double-click sspsetup1.exe to install it.
• Before installation it may ask you to check for program updates. Click YES.
  Then finish installation leaving all the default options.
• Once the program is installed, it will ask if you wish to reboot now choose YES.
• After reboot, open SpySweeper, by double-clicking the icon on your desktop.
• Click Options on the left side.
• Click the Sweep tab.
• Under Items to Sweep make sure the following are checked:
  • Windows registry
  • Memory objects
  • Cookies
  • Compressed Files
  • System Restore Folder
• Under Other Options make sure the following are checked:
  • Sweep all user accounts
  • Enable Direct Disk Sweeping
  • Sweep for rootkits
• Click the Sweep button on the left side.
• Click the Start Sweep button.
• When it's done scanning, make sure everything has a check next to it, then click the Quarantine Selected button.
• It will quarantine all of the items found.
• Click View Session Log in the right corner above the box where the items are listed.
• Click Save to File and save it on your desktop.
• Exit SpySweeper.
• Paste the contents of the session log you saved into your next reply (Spy Sweeper Session Log.txt).
• NOTE: you can get to the log by clicking Options on the left. Then, View Session Log will be listed under Other Options.

Edited by Flrman1, 04 October 2006 - 05:52 PM.