Cerek,

Rest mostly well assured that Avast will stop things like this from happening again. It's realtime scanner works great -VS- Virus and Malware. I wont say your are gauranteed set for life and Avast wont stop less insidious adware and tracking stuff. An anti-spyware program like SpyWweeper offers additional real time scanning and excellent removal... so I hear. I mention this more further down this post.

I would get ZoneAlarm ASAP to stop any already existing buggers from sending information out.

For a small fee I hear and have read that Webroots SpySweeper is the best anti-spyware. I plan on picking it up soon and I have seen it recently at Best Buy, Staples, and Circuit City for only 20 bucks. PC magazine gave it editor's choice. Obviously it is not perfect, but no AntiSpywar software is!

PC Mag review

excerpt from review:
Good Luck! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-19-2005, 10:06 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

I am suspicious as well. There is alot of crappy fake software out there that does exactly this. These worthless hunks of code may have a smooth presentation, but its bullcrap and worst on the inside.

One thing that makes me particularly suspicous is the name "Adware Away" Sounds like they are counting on the name recognizion of the reputable "Ad-aware" to fool people.

Stick to big name reputable freeware in the anti-spyware arena and use google to thoroughly reveiw any new freeware that comes your way.

[ 02-19-2005, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

Cerek -- PM me with a good email and I'll send you Popup Killer. It's really handy for getting rid of browser windows without having to touch them. And it can generally kill them by title or URL -- quite handy, actually. It won't fix the rest of it, but it may help you get those annoying windows out of the way.

I just wanted to clarify that the Service Pack 2 firewall will not protect you - it still allows outgoing connections, simply blocks port scanning and programmes connecting in. One of the most common ways for your computer to be infected is a worm running on your computer that connects outside to download a virus. Change it! Either Zone Alarm or Kerio spring to mind.

You also need to change your browser. Really. Either Firefox or Opera, they're both ultra-secure compared to Internet Explorer. All your problems will go away once you switch...

If you're going to pay for a virus checker, get NOD32 - I understand its the only one never to have failed a VB100% test. If you want a free one then you can't go wrong with either Avast! or AVG.

By staying with Internet Explorer you're fighting an uphill battle - everytime you clean your computer, more crap will get dumped on. You need to make a clean break and switch.

I don't have time to write out all the links for those programmes, but they're all listed in the website in my sig.

Oh, and "about:blank" is simply Internet Explorer's way of telling you that it has no homepage set - this is what I have mine on and it is not a problem and not caused by spyware. Its when your homepage is set to www.buy_viagra_here.com that you have to worry ;)

[ 02-20-2005, 06:05 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

Microsoft is giving away free downloads of their new antispyware cleaner. It's free thru July 31. But right now it might help. The friend who told me about it said it found things Ad-aware had missed.

Cerek, buddy. Get off the net, and rebuild your pc!

Asking for info. How long were you on the net 'un-protected' before you got hit?

Another forum I frequent is trying to say less than 5 minutes.

In the future. Use the other non targeted web browser, Firefox, or full blown Mozilla. Get yourself a free (insert zone alarm) firewall. If you work for a good intentions employer that has pc's on the net, ask for the employee take home firewall/anti-v software.

In my experience, I have seen this exact same situation you describe, except Norton firewall popped-up with "Immediate Alert, Malware intrusion, shutting down ALL Comm ports". All comm ports were then shut down, and nothing else was allowed, and the malware was left open to be DELETED, without any futher mess.

Moral of the story, If you run windows, and internet exploder, without a firewall, YOU will be infested!

Sadly, you are so far beyond, your only recourse is to save whatever you think is importatnt, and re-format 3 times prior to installing a brand new fresh install of your OS. 3 times re-format is minimal, 5-7 is better, best yet would be to buy a new HDD, and take a hammer to the other one.

In lab results, a HDD has been brought back to boot, and file restoration, after the owner formatted it once. So, if you think a one time is sufficient, remember what you just experienced.

Now; your registry is where your main infestation is harboring it's next assualt. From the registry malware can piggyback an IE string and dispatch all of your personal information back to the malware site. This may or may not happen based upon what you have been hit with.

<span style="color: lightblue">Non-targeted? Perhaps. But that isn't why it's safer. Firefox, et al, are safer simply because they purposely dissallow a few key problematic things: ActiveX, remote webpages accessing local files, *anything* accessing the browser itself, popups/unders... all of those things that let spyware install itself. Meaning that even if they end up targeted (which may or may not happen depending on what it takes to become so), they will *still* hinder the spread of Bad Stuff^TM.

The same applies to using alternatives to Outlook/Outlook Express. Active Scripting = email attachments can be run without your permission or knowledge, thus installing Bad Stuff^TM onto your system. Use alternatives (which purposely don't use Active Scripting), and you'll need to run the apps yourself (manually) to have anything happen. Which takes it all back to matters of common sense.