Re: Help please!
From: Phil Weldon (notdisclosed_at_example.com)
Date: 03/27/04
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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 04:23:44 GMT
Well, starting completely over, including reformatting your hard drives
would certainly get rid of a virus, but it would be sort of like cutting
off your foot to cure an ingrown toenail without a second opinion. There
are lots of users who participate in this newsgroup who can help you, but
first you will need to give some information. Search this newsgroup for
posts by David H. Lipman and Veronica Loell, as well as those by Andrew Z
Carpenter (who posts a FAQ daily.)
#1. How do you know you HAVE a virus?
#2. Do you have an antivirus program installed, is it set up to run all
the time, are the virus definitions up-to-date (as in the last few days)?
#3. What is the name of your antivirus program and EXACTLY what is the name
the antivirus program uses to identify the virus?
#4. Have you tried the publisher's website of the antivirus program you
use?
If you don't have an antivirus program, you can use online scanning
available at antivirus program publisher websites.
Unfortunately, with so much malicious software prowling the internet you
need several forms of protection, some of which, if you do not already have
installed, must be before you can rid your system of certain types of
infections and other malware.
What you will need to be relatively safe:
A. Have ALL the security updates for your operating system installed.
B. Have a good antivirus program installed, set to look for virus-like
activity all the time and to scan new files and incomming information, and
with up-to-date virus definitions (you can set antivirus programs to
automatically check for definition updates each day.)
C. Have a firewall (not just the one that is part of Windows XP),
software and possibly hardware to check incoming and outgoing data on your
connection to the internet (this will catch remote attempts to control your
system, and prevent exposing your data hackers.)
D. Have a program to track down trojans and spyware that you may have
unwittingly installed from a malicious website.
E. Have a program to block ads.
F. Have a way to use your brain (much more powerful for some tasks than
any computer) to eliminate unsafe practices (such as opening email that is
obvious [to a human] of no possible good intent, using removable media that
is of uncertain origin without a virus scan, setting your computer BIOS to
write-protect the boot sector of your hard drive, using the NTFS file system
exclusively, setting up your profile on your system as an ordinary user
(and with a good password) so that anyone else who may use your system
can't take certain actions, setting up an administrative profile (with a
good password) that is the only way to do things like install new programs
and change security settings.........
That's a lot of words, but if you break it down into bits and take it one
step at a time it's not so difficult.
I use Windows 2000, Norton Systemworks 2004, Norton Personal Firewall, a
Microsoft Wireless Network Base Station with DNS and NAT, Spybot Search &
Destroy, Lava-Soft Ad-Aware, and Magic Mail Monitor. Results: no
infections since 1992, no ads, no successful intrusions, and it takes only
2 minutes of my time each day to dispense with an average of 50 spam
emails.
Others may get equally good results with other products. Spybot Search &
Destroy is free, Ad-Aware is free, Magic Mail Monitor is free, and Norton
Systemworks 2004, Norton Personal Firewall, and a network base station with
DNS and NAT together cost considerably less than your operating system
alone, or about two months cost for a DSL connection.
-- Phil Weldon, pweldonatmindjumpdotcom For communication, replace "at" with the 'at sign' replace "mindjump" with "mindspring." replace "dot" with "." "Steve" <stevedennis@shaw.ca> wrote in message news:1182501c413ad$d1b88fa0$a601280a@phx.gbl... > To start...I am a rookie at best. Unfortunately, I seem > to have caught a virus. I want to start over so to > speak. I would like to "delete" everything that's going > on in my pc and re-install all of the software. So, a > couple of questions if any kind soul can help: > > Q1: How do I initiate the process (I have Windows XP > with all of the necessary disks)? BTW, I tried system > restore and it doesn't go back far enough. > > Q2: Is this the right thing to do? Should I do a > complete system reinstall? > > Q3: Should I get a pro to do this for me... i.e. is this > in one of the "....for Dummies" books or will I likely > make things worse? > > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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