computer question: getting rid of some tricky spyware

Factual Questions
1

There’s some spyware on my parent’s computer that I cannot seem to get rid of. I’ve sweeped it with AdAware and Spybot. Nothing happened. In frustration, my dad purchased a spy sweeping program from a computer store. Again, it hasn’t caught this thing. Or things. Here are three things I’ve noticed, in what I consider to be the order of annoyingness:

  1. We have DSL, so even when we’re not on AOL or IE or Netscape, we’re still logged in. Consequently, we can get pop-ups while we’re using other programs and not even working on the internet.

  2. Every so often, when I click a link, it goes to a page where it says “please wait while your page loads.” It usually takes about 20 seconds and, in that time, an ad comes up. This entire page is NOT a part of the original site. Some program is inserting an ad page in between the two pages I wish to view.

  3. This one is the worst of them all. It’s a program called Virtual Bouncer that, every so often, pops up and asks to be downloaded. It claims to check for spyware on the computer and one time I decided to say yes to it. My actual spyware checker went crazy, saying that Virtual Bouncer IS spyware and for the love of God don’t download it.
    But here’s the best part: If you click “no, I don’t want to download it.” It says “Error, press Yes to continue,” and asks you again if you want to download it. The “more info” button has a certificate that absolutely promises the program to be genuine. The only way to get it off the screen is to right click, close it. This is a truly evil program masquerading as legitimate software and it keeps coming up! Several times a day!

Get these things off! Gah!

2

Maybe this this article will help. It tells you how to remove it via the registry editor if you are desperate.

3

Your best bet is to download hijackthis, run it, save the log and post it on a board dedicated to the logs (spywareinfo is down, but there’s computercops.biz or newbie.org).

Or you could e-mail it to me and I’ll take a look.

4

Once you get the bad stuff off, do not hook back to the DSL until you go get a router / switch. Even if only one computer is hooked to it, the safety worth the less than $100.

Nothing will protect computers from opening bad email.

Get Firefox or Opera to use as the run around browser. safer than IE.

Keep a good virus protection pgrm up to date.

Set all Browsers up so that they request permission before downloading anything.

Get ZoneAlarm and set the same way. Also so that only the pgms you select can act as servers or send TO the net.

Good luck.

5

What protection would a switch provide?