Help me, my dear god.

[SpuD]

Something just completely ****ed over my computer, and I dont know what, more and more programs were being installed by the minute.

my add/remove list is full of things like "Bargain buddy, CashBack, Daily Horoscope, Time Synch" etc...

I dont know how this happened, i havent installed ANYTHING today, my computer was adware free earlier today, I did not accept to download anything, the only sites ive been to today are cnn.com, somethingawful.com, penny arcade, and here.

I tried running ad-aware and that didnt get rid of most of it, what the **** do I do, i canteven remove most of the programs from my add/remove list, and I dont want to reformat.

I have 5 searchbars that appeared on IE..... homepage was changed.

im getting popups like mad

OMG!! looking at this post, most of the words are underlined with links to shopping networks.

 

[blahblahblah]

1) Download Adaware and Spybot
2) Restart your computer in safemode (F8 just after your bios screen)
3) Run adaware and spybot
4) Manually go through you computer and delete any files and folders you find suspecious.
5) Restart again,
6) Rinse and repeat until everything is gone. It may take you several tries and several hours. Be patient

PS - If in safe mode and you press Ctrl-Alt-Del and you see some spyware programs still running, try and end them. If they refuse to end (ie claiming it to be a critical process) you may have to reformat. That only happens on the worst of spyware. You may be lucky.

PPS - Do you have a firewall installed on your computer? If not, take a look a the free version of zone alarm.

http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-2092-10306241.html?tag=lst-0-1

 

[ailevation]

:| What you get for looking at gay porno.

 

[psyno]

Malicious ActiveX maybe, or a trojan...

Spybot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
SpywareBlaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Be sure you update all three before you even try to clean. I would run your favorite virus scanner too.

Additionally, Spybot and SpywareBlaster have some preventitive tools. Use them.

Finally, use a more secure browser, like Mozilla, Firefox, or Opera (my personal favorite).

 

[Hazar]

 

[RTFMy]

Same thing happened to me, I used ad-aware and spybot, it kept saying that it found the spyware and removed it, but it didn't.
I also scanned for virus's and nothing.. Looks like your gonna have to reformat

 

[Death.Trap]

*makes desperate love to NIS*

Norton Internet Security is pretty damn nice. I've only had like 2 viruses since I got it. (probably from something I purpsoefully dled though*)

 

[XtremesT]

Do all the things that the people have said before.. and if you still have problems, you might want to check out this site http://computercops.biz/forums.html the people that are there in the forums are very helpful... If you still have problems with this, you might want to download a program called Hijack-this, run it, and post the log that it gives you on that forum to get it analyzed by people who know what they are doing. And If worst comes to worst.. reformat. Good Luck P.S. It also sounds like you have a Browser Hijacker... if thats any help

 

[psyno]

Don't be rash. If the above programs fail, then do as blahblahblah said:
hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager, order the tasks by name or owner, and pick through them. If any look suspicious, google for it's name. It might take a while, but you'll probably be all right. I've only met exactly one system that I couldn't heal without having to format, and even that one probably could have been solved with more patience.

 

[Skull]

1) Download Adaware and Spybot

He said he already has Ad-Aware, BUT, download the newest version from www.lavasoft.com (do not use the updater in the Ad-Aware program itself) That might help you!

 

[switch]

Adaware and spybot sometimes cannot find spyware,
download this: http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html
Post the log here, and I will help you delete the things that have been missed.

 

[X|Rolando]

Gotta recommend firefox http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

And of course, uninstall those "bairgan buddys" from the uninstall menu, and check if you have any software like divx that might have installed them.

I hope something here helps.

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

Get a hold of the following programs:
Ad-Aware SE Personal instead of Ad-Aware 6
Spybot search & destroy
Spywareblaster
Spyware Doctor
Spy Sweeper

Good luck mate! Spyware is spooky.

 

[lePobz]

Get a hardware firewall and make sure it's enabled - some adware installers are transmitted to random IPs and use an overflow error in Windows to get them installing - others use an IE exploit to automatically install - most adware clients leave doors open and openly broadcast invitations for other software clients to invade...

It's all easily stopped by:-

1) blocking ports you don't use (preferably a hardware firewall, software firewalls will do but can be brought down easily if you're a target

2) installing a realtime virus scanner (mcafee do a good one) and keeping it's definitions up to date.

3) keeping the operating system patched with fixes to exploits

As others have suggested, software like Adaware are useful for cleaning up infected machines, but you should take the above precautions first otherwise you'll only get infected again.

 

[Rocketman9mm]

how do you set up a firewall to block malicious things, but still allow you to download stuff and play games or chat online, or auto-download maps and stuff?

a similar thing happened to me the other day. but since my disc is brand new and was practically empty at the time i just reformatted. I was thinking about getting a firewall but i'm afraid it'll stop me from being able to do what I do cuz I don't know much about things like setting certain "ports" to what etc...

 

[Kristafon]

I HATE BARGIN BUGGY
I WANT TO KILL THAT DOG
get this-
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/default.shtml.en
you should be fine then

 

[Reaktor4]

how do you set up a firewall to block malicious things, but still allow you to download stuff and play games or chat online, or auto-download maps and stuff?

a similar thing happened to me the other day. but since my disc is brand new and was practically empty at the time i just reformatted. I was thinking about getting a firewall but i'm afraid it'll stop me from being able to do what I do cuz I don't know much about things like setting certain "ports" to what etc...

Its pretty straight forward actually, at least with zonealarm. You almost never need to deal with ports themselves (or anything really technical), just have to give certain programs permission to access the internet. By the sounds of it you think its much harder/awkward than it actually is. And using the internet without a firewall nowadays is asking for trouble so get za asap.

 

[blahblahblah]

I just want to add for the best results, you must use a software and hardware firewall. Most routers include a hardware firewall. For a software firewall, I recommend zone alarm becuase it is simple to use while being very effective. For a download link to zonealarm, see my post above.

 

[sublidieminal]

If your using IE you should raise the bar on cookie security. Thats where it all comes from.

 

[SpuD]

It got so bad I had to refomat, i went in via safemode and tried removing it all, they just came all right back. Nothing I could do would stop it.

I wasnt doing ANYTHING DIFFERENT that what i normally do, didnt download/install anything. I had the latest version of ad-aware, everytime i ran it, it found 300+ files, and every time i would delete them, they just kept coming back.

It slowed my computer to a crawl.

This shit should be illegal, I did not agree to anything.

 

[lePobz]

SpuD - you need to install the firewall before you plug in your internet connection.

Blahblahblah - A hardware firewall blocks all ports you dont need/use - why would you need a software firewall behind this? It's not like it has to block any other ports that the hardware firewall doesn't - the only good reason for ZoneAlarm behind a hardware firewall is to grant/deny internet access from applications you have already installed.

 

[blahblahblah]

Blahblahblah - A hardware firewall blocks all ports you dont need/use - why would you need a software firewall behind this? It's not like it has to block any other ports that the hardware firewall doesn't - the only good reason for ZoneAlarm behind a hardware firewall is to grant/deny internet access from applications you have already installed.

Exactly. That way if you some how download/install one of these programs you know immediately what is going on. SpuD could have accidently downloaded some trojan by accident, but a software firewall would have notified him that something was up. The hardware firewall would just sit and let it happen.

Anyways, it is a free piece of software that takes 5 minutes to set up and adds another layer of security to your computer.

 

[psyno]

Yep. It also helps to protect you from other computers within the network.

 

[AntiAnto]

That happened to me too. I scanned with Spy Sweeper and Ad-Aware, they found something like 578 spywares, deleted them, but they were still on my computer and programs were still installing. So I formatted. I think this is what you have to do.

 

[SpuD]

SpuD - you need to install the firewall before you plug in your internet connection.

I have a hardware firewall and 2 software firewalls.

 

[bosox188]

That happened to me too. I scanned with Spy Sweeper and Ad-Aware, they found something like 578 spywares, deleted them, but they were still on my computer and programs were still installing. So I formatted. I think this is what you have to do.

I don't think they could get rid of them then because the programs were running. You should scan in safe mode that way the programs aren't running and it can get rid of them. But I would reformat if that doesn't work.