Re: Networking to a machine know to be infected with a virus

From: Mark Pewsey (news_at_pewsey.i12.com)
Date: 09/09/03 

Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 09:43:42 GMT

In news:%23OmGwRkdDHA.3448@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl,
Philip Herlihy wrote:
| Here's a puzzle: A friend has an old W98 machine which he is sure
| has a virus infection. (Hardly surprising, he's never put an
| antivirus on it, despite my pleading.) He's a good friend, so I
| (still) want to help him get his data back, if possible.
|
| Trouble is, the floppy doesn't work, nor does the CD drive. Network
| or modem is the only way in or out.
|
| I've considered asking him to do an online scan via Symantec or McAfee
| websites, then download the specific removal tools. Alternatively I
| could put an Antivirus, definitions-file and firewall on an FTP site
| and download them from there onto the machine. However I don't think
| it's that socially-responsible to allow his machine to spray more
| viruses at the world while he's online. So, I've been considering
| connecting by cable to (gulp!) my fully-patched XP Pro machine with
| the latest AV and definitions, and scanning it as a mounted drive. I
| use a workgroup rather than a domain.
|
| Is this madness? If not, what precautions should I take? I've
| thought of running the W98 box as a user with low access rights on my
| XP box, and setting the firewall to distrust that machine. Any
| comments?

If all you want to do is scan his system and clean it up why not just
remove the hard drive and fit it in your machine?

There is no risk to your machine, unless for some reason it boots off
his drive (very unlikely, especially if you plug his drive into your
secondary disk controller).

That way you can scan it easily, and then copy across any anti-virus
software you want to give him (license limitations being observed of
course).

Put the disk back in his system and let him scan it again once he as
installed the a/v - just to be sure, and to make sure any registry
checks, boot sector checks etc, are made.

Mark 

--

Relevant Pages

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