# Are these symptoms of a computer virus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213 "2004-12-05T14:27:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213/1 "2004-12-05T14:27:27Z")
I use Norton AV for virus protection and McAfee for a firewall. This is a Dell 8100 running Win ME. 1. When I open up Norton, it throws one of those red warning "X"s next to the Virus Definitions, telling me that they are 31 days old. However, today’s date is also written next to them, telling me that they are up to date. I have also run a manual update, and nothing new is available. 2. When I open up the McAfee console, and try to run an update, it tells me that McAfee cannot connect to the web, and tells me to check my connections. Obviously, I’m here, so… 3. If I try to go to [McAfee.com](http://McAfee.com) directly, I can make it to the main page, but I get the “Cannot find page” error if I try to go anywhere else from there. I’ve updated my virus protection, SpyBot and AdAware, and run them all from safe mode. Other than tracking cookies, they found nothing. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to waht might be going on here, and what I can do about it? Thanks in advance, j ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213/2 "2004-12-05T16:41:56Z")
- - - What browser you using?.. Also one thing you could try is shutting off cookies temporarily and trying to connect to McAfee. Don’t delete the tcookies, just turn them off and see if you get a different response. And the online virus scanners are worth a shot–microtrend housecall is one. ~ ---
**Author:** ![smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213/3 "2004-12-05T16:52:32Z")
I’m using IE6. I’ll check into the possible solutions you mentioned so far. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213/4 "2004-12-05T16:52:52Z")
I’ve had Malware disable Norton and Ad-aware. Do like **DougC** says and run the Trend Micro [House Call](http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp) and do a repair install on Norton. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213/5 "2004-12-05T17:04:11Z")
I had been using some version of Norton and it didn’t work. Check out AVG 6.0, there’s free download sites for it. AFAIK, I’ve got rid of whatever it was and haven’t gotten another. It did take several weeks of running AVG to finally beat the thing. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-symptoms-of-a-computer-virus/278213/6 "2004-12-05T19:41:56Z")
Certain spyware messes with your hosts file, preventing you from reaching certain sites. A quick and dirty fix is to find the file “hosts” (no extension) and rename or delete it. That should let you reach the antivirus sites – at least until the software catches on and changes things. If it’s you can also go to [this site of mine](http://www.siena.edu/antivirus/spyware). You can download antispyware tools and run them without the site being blocked.