Hello!
I am going to address some of these issues by each paragraph that your wrote.
I understand the above, yes. Although you may not be able to provide a
'premadefix', you could still organise the forum into sections for the major offendors, and one for all other cases? As I saw posted earlier by an admin, some members of staff are used to some viruses, but not so much others. This could help members of staff offer help where they can give it best.
I am a little confused here by what you mean. Do you mean that we should have a sub forum for smitfraud/psguard/avgold, one for epolvy, one for winfixer ect? Or do you mean that we should have our normal Malware Forum, along with a subforum titled Major Offenders (for example, it does not have to be named that). Where in this forum we have the basic "outlined" fixes for each major offender?
Not one that says to delete certain files, but one that recommends the best software to use for that problem. People could use these basics to eliminate most of the problem, then post the hijackthis logs for the eyes of the staff to go through in detail to fully remove the threat.
At this time, we have something similar to what you have described above. We have a post that is stuck to the top of the malware forum that is titled
You Must Read This Before Posting a HiJackThis Log. In this topic, we have the basic tools for download, these tools are AdAware, Spybot, Trojan Hunter, Ewido, CleanUp, and others. The purpose of this post is for users to be able to clean their system and get rid of the most basic infections. This allows us to come in and read the HiJackThis log and determine what infections are left over, and the appropriate method to removing this infection.
For example, (this might get technical). If a person has smitfraud and avgold on their computer, along with lets say nail.exe and a nasty cool web search infection. I can post the basic tools needed to remove the infection, but there are times when a certain infection needs to be removed before others can be cleaned. If we had a topic that just told a user what tools to use, the tools might be ineffective due to how and when they are used. There are also other infections, like the VX2 infection, that requires a log to be posted for a helper to look at before the infection can be cleaned.
Using the suggested basicscould help the users to gain control of their internet browsers back, and elminate pop-ups, making thier PC more useable, and easier to deal with. It would also reduce the work needed to do in detail by the staff, and a lot of common problems would be solved.
In theory, yes the suggested basics could help a user gain back the basic functions of their computers, but they could also do more damage to the system. As most infections require a fix in HiJackThis, as well as using the fixes that have been made by people. If a person is asked to go into HiJackThis and looks for a file, and does not see the exact file, but they see something similar, that file could be required for your computer to operate.
We use our eyes to find the wrong infections, we trust a few programs to get rid of the basics, but most of the time, we are creating registry fixes, and other programs to help a user get rid of an infection.
I really enjoy discussing this with you, as it is something a lot of members wonder about. So if you have more questions, please ask them.
I also thank you for keeping this discussion civilized, as it makes it a lot easier to communicate.
Edited by Jfcap, 30 July 2005 - 05:57 PM.