Re: Unknown Trojan\Virus??

From: SpamCop (spamcop_at_austin.rr.com)
Date: 09/02/03 

Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 02:50:26 GMT

"Alex" <ALEX_A_HARRIS@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote in message
news:02e601c370ce$7c4ab2f0$a401280a@phx.gbl...
> I havent recieved attacks on my firewall for months
> nortan 2002 so I bought nortan 2003 to see if that would
> do anything...but still nothing. then yesterday I found
> that my GUEST user was logged on and I went in and saw
> that recently that a file transfer program was used and
> The firewall was set to off and the antivirus was off. on
> other users when i go into firewall settings it first
> shows everything as off but then it all flicks to on as
> if its being forced to by somthing. before I have
> noticed files such as Holiday pictures in canada had been
> removed from the computer but the strange thing was that
> the pictures which have people in were left. more and
> more things keep happening.. somthing has definetley
> managed to patch its self onto the firewall settings are
> changing all over.It seems my only hope is to format the
> harddrive :'(

Alex,

First, it's very normal that your system is attacked daily and many times a
day. It's quite unusual when you are not. There are so many hackers out
there scanning the net trying to find there next victim. One common thing
that some viruses will do is to try and disable your firewall. But for that
to happen they first have to get into your system through an email so that
makes me wonder, are you smart enough to run a firewall but foolish enough
not to run an anti-virus program? Is that virus program current? Most all
anti-virus programs only come with a one year susbscription meaning once
they expire, you are unprotected again.

If I were in your shoes, I would start off by formatting your hard drive and
starting over. If you haven't already, you need to go to click on your
Windows Update icon or go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and let it
scan your system for necessary updates. Next download all recommended
Critical Updates. Not to be confused with Recommended Updates. After the
updates are installed it will likely require you to reboot. Do so and run
Windows Update again. Keep doing so until there are finally no more updates
to install. Next, right click on My Computer or go to My Computer off of
your start menu and then click on View System Information. Click on the
Automatic Updates tab and choose the best option for you. If you have a
broadband connection and leave your computer on all the time, then choosing
the option to automatically download and install updates at a specific time
is the best choice. If you don't have or do either, then choose for it to
automatically download updates and to remind you to install them. That
option will leave you with an icon in your tray that looks like a globe and
will constantly flag you to install the updates. Don't be like so many
foolish people and ignore this. You don't have to install the updates the
exact moment you get notified but don't wait until you have a problem
either.

Next, if you don't have an antivirus program runnining or is current, get
one. Don't pay $49 at the store for Norton Antivirus, but go to
www.buynowcds.com and take advantage of the under $10 price with free
shipping right now. I recommend not getting just Norton Antivirus but
rather Norton System Works which includes Norton Antivirus. The One Button
Checkup feature will find and fix problems of all kinds and help keep you
from having to format and start all over. Do the same as above but with the
Live Update feature and make sure that all updates are installed. Make sure
that Live Update is configured for express operation and automatically
starts. I don't know why they don't make that the default setting, but they
don't.

Good Luck!

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