Re: virus

• Previous message: Phil Weldon: "Re: Norton products problems"
• In reply to: chen: "virus"
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Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 09:09:32 -0700

chen wrote:

> i had the latest virus and now after it was fixed i still
> can connect to Symantec web page and my norton anti virus
> till won't do a live update. any suggestions?

Of course, who knows what "the latest virus really means", so giving you
specific advice is impossible. However, it sounds like your hosts files
are still messed up and you may also have spyware on your system.

Here's how to deal with that:

 1. In XP's Search preferences, set the files and folders handling to
Advanced, and then check the box that will make Search look in hidden
files/folders.
 2. Now enter the search term "hosts" without the quotes.
 3. You will get several hosts and lmhosts files. Double-click each one
to open it. When you do this, you'll get a Windows dialog box saying
that Windows cannot open this file, do you want to use the web or
select from a list to find the proper program. Choose "select from a
list" and highlight Notepad. Make sure the box to always use this
program to open this type of file is not checked.
 4. Now carefully examine the file. Lines that begin with a # are
comments and don't count. Leave them alone. Unless you know you use a
proxy server to get to the Internet or you added entries yourself, the
only uncommented entry that should be there is:
 
 127.0.0.1 localhost
 
If you see any other entries, delete them and Save the file. Make sure
you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the window if there is a
scrollbar. Do this for each file you found. Now you should be able to
get to antivirus and spyware-fighting websites. Continue your cleanup
by removing spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy from
www.safer-networking.org and Ad-aware from www.lavasoftusa.com. Be sure
to update these programs before running them. These programs are free,
so run them both since they complement each other. You may also want to
run the latest CWShredder from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn
index.html. Always read the instructions before running a spyware
removal tool. It is best to run antivirus and spyware removal tools in
Safe Mode.
 
Malke

-- 
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

• Previous message: Phil Weldon: "Re: Norton products problems"
• In reply to: chen: "virus"
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