[dowsp]

Hi Fenz

I sent you the log by PM..

I meant to say after I did the long scan ZZZZ..

I fell to sleep late last night... when I woke up my pc had rebooted and I had NOT done anything to it.

I later went back online to find out the forum was closed down for maintainance.

I noted when I came online today, it says Ive had a windows security update..


Now IF I recall when I got that last Virus, I accidentally clicked on a icon on my lower right hand side on my screen and this was what sprked the virus off.. when the icon had opened ,It claimed to be a windows AV secuity
file....That was a red icon if I recall.. but the update icon has shown a green icon when i 1st came online as an windows update. the icons not showing below at the moment.


I prey its a genuine update if it does accidentally activate or does so when i close my pc down.


OTHERWISE MY COMPUTER IS RUNNING VERY WELL .... :-)


Many thanks , I await your reply and will arrange payment.


cheers Dowsp

Edited by dowsp, 07 March 2009 - 08:28 AM.

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Got your pm.. Looks good to me.. Lets do some cleanup...


Please download OTCleanIt and save it to Desktop.

• Make sure you have internet connection..
• Double-click OTCleanIt.exe
• Click the CleanUp! button.
• Select Yes when the "Begin cleanup Process?" prompt appears.
• If you are prompted to Reboot during the cleanup, select Yes

Please read these excellent articles by miekiemoes :
Help! My computer is slow!
How to prevent Malware



Read these links about safe internet surfing..

http://www.pcpitstop...safesurfing.asp
http://bluefive.pair...afe_surfing.htm



Please reply to this thread once more and tell us about the computer behaviour before we can close this thread



Have a safe and happy computing day!


Regards
fenzodahl512

[fenzodahl512]

Got your pm.. Looks good to me.. Lets do some cleanup...


Please download OTCleanIt and save it to Desktop.

• Make sure you have internet connection..
• Double-click OTCleanIt.exe
• Click the CleanUp! button.
• Select Yes when the "Begin cleanup Process?" prompt appears.
• If you are prompted to Reboot during the cleanup, select Yes

Please read these excellent articles by miekiemoes :
Help! My computer is slow!
How to prevent Malware



Read these links about safe internet surfing..

http://www.pcpitstop...safesurfing.asp
http://bluefive.pair...afe_surfing.htm



Please reply to this thread once more and tell us about the computer behaviour before we can close this thread



Have a safe and happy computing day!


Regards
fenzodahl512

[fenzodahl512]

Ah.. One thing before I forget..

Your AVG7 is outdated and no longer supported by Grisoft.. It has been replaced by AVG8.. I strongly suggest you to uninstall AVG7.5 and replace it with AVG8.. More info below..

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0

[dowsp]

Hi Fenz

A Thousand Thank Yous for your Very Kind help and assistance in helping me resolve my Virus and computer problems.

So far It appears to be working VERY WELL !

I ran the last clean it programme and that seemed to just reboot the computer and did not do any process that I could see.

From what I could make of my experience in following your help and advice, It seems unlikely that JUST ONE Anti Virus software programme or checker will NOT necessarily find or resolve a specific virus... I assume that there are just far too many being created on a daily basis.

What I cannot understand though is the FREE AVG 7.5 Antivirus checker that I have has updated daily since I have had it... and I am sure some viruses or spyware etc have been on my PC for many month, BUT the updates have NOT detected them....

I even had loaded / used other virus checkers both on my H drive or online and they did not find them either or at least resolve the issue or make my pc run as well as you seem to have made it do so.

So I do get the impression that it takes a talented Programmer to find and resolve any issues and probably many
Anti virus checkers...


YOU have informed me that my AVG 7 antivirus software is outdated and no longer supported by Grisoft..

I am not too sure I understand fully how Grisoft support effects the 7 version BUT IT does STILL update daily.

I will however consider version 8....

BUT MY brother suggests that Norton is Better and he has given me his verion to install.


I AM NOT SURE WHICH IF ANY IS THE BEST OPTION... BUT I get the impression that you still think AVG is as good as any ! otherwise you may have commented otherwise.


Anyway, Many thanks again and Please Tell me if you will be able to receive payment from Next week after you
go away ...


Have a good trip or what ever you get upto between Now and May and all the best to your future.

Happy Computing..

Cheers Dowsp.

Got your pm.. Looks good to me.. Lets do some cleanup...


Please download OTCleanIt and save it to Desktop.

• Make sure you have internet connection..
• Double-click OTCleanIt.exe
• Click the CleanUp! button.
• Select Yes when the "Begin cleanup Process?" prompt appears.
• If you are prompted to Reboot during the cleanup, select Yes

Please read these excellent articles by miekiemoes :
Help! My computer is slow!
How to prevent Malware



Read these links about safe internet surfing..

http://www.pcpitstop...safesurfing.asp
http://bluefive.pair...afe_surfing.htm



Please reply to this thread once more and tell us about the computer behaviour before we can close this thread



Have a safe and happy computing day!


Regards
fenzodahl512

[fenzodahl512]

Before I close this topic, I just want you to know that, whether its AVG, or Norton, or any antivirus that you want to use, the most important thing is to update the definition frequently.. Daily if possible..


Norton is a good antivirus but quite a bit resource hog.. However, its really your choice..


Well, I'm not really "away" but will be extremy busy until 2nd of May due to final exams and final year projects.. I'm a below-average chemistry student


Ok, do you have any other question before I close this topic?

[dowsp]

Hi Fenz

Ok, thanks for the comments on AVs.... I will have to think which is the better option... but it may be down to opinion and experience..

I was a bit disappointed with AVG lately as It doesnt seem to be as well updated as some that I am led to believe may be better... also the fact that you have giiven me many different Malware / spyware programmes certainly suggest it misses a LOT...

Chemistry is a hard subject in my opinion...maybe one of the hardest.. BUT I am sure it can be very interesting.
Science is a good career..

My Brother is a Chemist and used to work for ICI.

At least you have your Compter expertise to reply on what ever..

I went into Mechanical Engineering , But I dont think I was really suited to it. And I searched a long time looking for many ways to try and make money... including Financial Markets/trading and Internet Marketing.

I think I am quite a good analyst, but not a good trader.. theres a big difference.. I specilise in Market timing and I did give an excellent call that the Dow would see the start of a huge move on Sept 19th...Probably downwards... I said at least to March 6th 09.. last week... see what happens next !



I do have one question with relation to my Internet Marketing... I have a website... and when my brother clciked on it the other day, He thought that it there may be something wrong with it..and may have caused his computer some harm...BUT I think its whats called a philshing prolem... although I thought that I had resolved this some time ago .... I am a bit reluctant to give you the link incase it does have something wrong with it.

I just wondered can you catch a virus just by clicking on a website...

IF so I would be concerned that someone had got into my hosting account and sabataged it as I am not aware its anything that I have done.

Ok if your actually not going away I will sort out something for next week.


Thank you again

Dowsp

[fenzodahl512]

I just wondered can you catch a virus just by clicking on a website...

Yes.. If the website developer intentionally put malicious code inside their website..

I do have one question with relation to my Internet Marketing... I have a website... and when my brother clciked on it the other day, He thought that it there may be something wrong with it..and may have caused his computer some harm...BUT I think its whats called a philshing prolem... although I thought that I had resolved this some time ago .... I am a bit reluctant to give you the link incase it does have something wrong with it.

Phishing is not related with malware, however, it is a computer security threat.. Its simply a website created to mask the real original sites to confuse user in order to gather crucial informations such as username, passwords, etc..


The best way to deal with it is to contact your webhosting company and give them the detail of the pishing website.. Give them the link to the phishing site too.. Tell them the details about the pishing sites.. Ask for their advices on what to do with your webhosting account..


I'm not sure about Internet Marketing, but as analyst, here's some tips that maybe useful for you..

Keep it short, simple, and precise..


Anymore questions?

Edited by fenzodahl512, 08 March 2009 - 08:13 PM.

[dowsp]

Hi Fenz

Thank you for your advice / explanation.

I will look into the Philsing and website problem again...

My computer had been running ok and Id been online about 8 hrs..

The just a few minutes ago , I just had 3 webpages open and all of them closed for no reason. BUT NOT shut down or restarted..

I recall last night, I had been online and fell to sleep...when I woke up my Computer had rebooted and was not online...


my Computer had prior to that been running OK.

I just wondered if there may be something that occurrs at a certain time that effects the computer..

such as maybe it is trying to do a windows update or something that attempts it at a set time,

I say this as my AVG antivirus updates automaticaly at 8 am every morning if I am online.. otherwise I usually have to update it seperately.

otherwise It may be just a one off.. or there may still be a bug/virus... Or I did something that I was not aware about..


Maybe I need to observe things over a few more days.

Lastly.... Now the PC is running a lot better overall..

I should really consider making a backup copy of my harddrive on an external hard drive.

I have a 160 gig external drive... and already have made some copies of some important folders and files that is on my pc..

My Laptop has a hard drive of about 34 gig...

What I am not sure however is what if there was some viruses when I made the copies.

IF I make a FULL back up now and there was some viruses on my machine prior to making the copies... then
IF I copy the FULL hard drive now, I may corrupt the copy.

I assume that I could run a Antivirus on JUST my external drive, to ensure that it is as clear as possible BEFORE
i MAKE A full COPY of my PCs present drive...

The only problem I have is how long i may take to copy the whole hard drive... I assume at least 4 to 6 hrs.

Can I also ask is it possible to copy a whole hard drive on to a thumb drive... and How fast could that be done.

I ask this as when I was at a Internet seminar a few weeks ago, What I thought was a trusted person for the event who was a Certified Microsoft engineer, for some reason asked if he could make a copy from a cd onto a thumb drive using my machine.. I trusted him to do it.... BUT thinking about it since, I do not know why he could not have done this on his own computer.

I left him on my computer when I went to Lunch for 30 minutes.

I hope that he has not some how taken a copy of my drive...

I know some thumb drives can have quite a large capacity.. maybe 16 to 30 gig..
but I am unsure how much he could copy in 30 mins.. This was when I was running the computer in safemode networking at the time I developed the 1st stages of my problems. I had also been on a hotel wirelss networkinternet connection.

[fenzodahl512]

Maybe I need to observe things over a few more days.

Good idea.. Then report back to me here..

IF I make a FULL back up now and there was some viruses on my machine prior to making the copies... then
IF I copy the FULL hard drive now, I may corrupt the copy

Backup is always good idea, however, you don't have to backup everything.. Just choose the important stuff..

Can I also ask is it possible to copy a whole hard drive on to a thumb drive... and How fast could that be done.

You don't have to copy the whole hard drive.. Just copy what's important only..

However, if you insist to backup the whole drive, there are a lot hard drive cloning/backup programs nowadays, and I'll list some of the free ones.. You just need only one of them..

http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp
http://www.paragon-s...s/download.html
http://www.runtime.o...veimage-xml.htm


And finally, no matter how big the compression ratio on these stuff, always remember, to backup a 30GB of data, you'll need 30GB of free space..



Anymore questions?

Edited by fenzodahl512, 09 March 2009 - 01:40 AM.
typo..

[dowsp]

Hi Fenz

Thanks for the comments.

I had thought that It may be best to have had a Full copy if possible... and all I was asking was if I had already saved some files to my external hard drive ("E DRIVE ") that I wanted to use to save copys, is that IF the pre files had some how been infected , was could it then infect any new material that I go on to copy on that drive..

I would assume so.. There for I am wondering if I should run a Anti virus checker on my "E Drive" when I install my external drive to my laptop.

As for the Thumb Nail... No I was just curious if it was possible for someone to copy my 30 gig Hard Drive onto a 30 gig thumb drive (IF they exist ) and Could they have done it in 30 minutes..while in safemode (I am doubtful if it could be done in full in that time but what do I know ! ... :-))



I have JUST Noticed that I THINK that I MAY have that same Icon back on my lower desktop of my Laptop that I acidentally clicked which sparked off the virus problem that I have just had.


I PREY that I am Wrong... and that is a real correct Windows Icon..


Its a small icon image of a Red shield with a white cross 'X' on it. saying that it is "Windows security alerts"

IT MAY BE REAL BUT I LOOKED on GOOGLE under windows security alerts and all I find is warnings of a Virus.

http://www.google.co...c...earch&meta=


It reminds me of what I THINK I accidentally clicked on and I am too wary to risk clicking it to find out .

I have included an attachment Gif if what I see, and some other comparisons that I found in a google search.

I wonder if you could confirm if you think it looks like a FAKE or a REAL windows security icon.

Thank you

Dowsp

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[dowsp]

HI Fenz

I have Just found this... and It does show the actual Icon that I can see on my Lower desktop


http://www.ttcsweb.o...enter/index.htm


I am not sure that I fully understand what it is suggesting though !

something about it being a side effect after one has after a security centre was installed on ones machine.

One of the side effects of this new emphasis on security is an icon in the system tray :


and a regular reminder about security related vulnerabilities. e.g. the anti-virus software has not been updated or the firewall is not configured properly. This article provides a guide to remove the icon from the system tray and disable the constant reminders.

WARNING:

Removing the icon from the system tray and disabling the constant reminders can expose your machine to various security risks.
Users will have to manually inspect and update their computers if they disable the Security Center alerts.
UPDATE : There is a simpler method to remove the security center. As such the orginal article has been removed.
As admin, Start --> Run ; type "services.msc" and press enter. This brings up a list of Windows services that you can start, stop and configure.
Find the Security center, double click on it and change the Security Center from Auto start to Manual. Select OK and close the services dialog box.
Restart. Security Center won't run at all.
Alternatively, with the security center running, go into the control panel, click on security center to bring up the Windows Security Center. To the left of the dialog box, under "Resources" click on "Change the way Security Center alerts me" and there you can tell the security center what to monitor when it is running.

[fenzodahl512]

Ok.. First of all, from your screenshot, it looks indeed infected..

But, please show me the current screenshot of your Desktop please.. List all icons that you can see.. And click on the red shield with the X mark on it, and send me the screenshot of the Windows that appears too..

[dowsp]

Hi Fenz

I will send a screen shot to you of my desk top.

Can I also ask is this not explained in the last message I posted

--------------------------
I have Just found this... and It does show the actual Icon that I can see on my Lower desktop


http://www.ttcsweb.o...enter/index.htm


I am not sure that I fully understand what it is suggesting though !

something about it being a side effect after one has after a security centre was installed on ones machine.

One of the side effects of this new emphasis on security is an icon in the system tray :


-------------------------

BUT I just want to make double sure that you are telling me to click on the RED Icon that I am Very wary of doing...

My main reason as Last time it totally messed up and slowed down my machine and I was unable to acess it in normal mode..

Would it be any better if I clicked on it in safemode ? although to get online id need to be at my brothers.

[dowsp]

Here is a copy of my desk top..

Ok.. First of all, from your screenshot, it looks indeed infected..

But, please show me the current screenshot of your Desktop please.. List all icons that you can see.. And click on the red shield with the X mark on it, and send me the screenshot of the Windows that appears too..

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[dowsp]

I clicked on the Red Icon and it does seem it is the same as what you see on this link.

http://www.ttcsweb.o...enter/index.htm


I am attching a screen shot.

Ok.. First of all, from your screenshot, it looks indeed infected..

But, please show me the current screenshot of your Desktop please.. List all icons that you can see.. And click on the red shield with the X mark on it, and send me the screenshot of the Windows that appears too..

Attached Thumbnails

•