I didn’t want to bother th busy Dopers before but I’m at my wits end with this computer now.
In the past few weeks or so, my computer has picked up some serious adware or something. Half of the time I try and check my Hotmail and everytime I type in a web address I get the familiar looking 404 page but saying this…
You cannot access this site due to following reason:
Your computer was infected by Spyware or Adware Software.
This is dangerous software which disclose your personal
and transferred data and/or display unsolices advertising.
You can use this ADWARE/SPYWARE REMOVAL tools in
order to solve this problem and prevent futurer infection.
On top of that my computer has viruses that I cannot seem to remove, I’ve ran AVG, Norton 2004/5, Mcafee, Spybot search and destroy, Ad-aware and Spyware blaster with certain viruses or exploits always returning.
You have probably been hijacked (e.g. some for the CoolWeb Search or CWS variants require separate software to remove fully). There is no reason foir this to come up on so many websites, and the real Hotmail doesn’t do this kind of scan on lyour machine.
For example, some virus or spyware can add a line to your HOSTS file, and you computer will think (wrongly) “I don’t need to look hotmail up on the DNS server. I already know where hotmail is.” Unfortunately that HOSTS entry may be sending you to a fake hotmail page run by a khacker.
WHATEVER YOU DO, NEVER RUN ANTIVIRUS OR ANTISPYWARE SOFTWARE YOU DOWNLOAD FOM SUCH A WARNING PAGE. Always get your downloads from the known legitimate site for whatever software you want to use. Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D offer fully operational free versions on their site and NEVER license other sites to do this sort of web-based “detect and distribute”, so you’d just be begging for a trojan or worse that is pretending to be security software. A multi-megabyte program, deliberately installed and run by you, can do lots of lasting damage that you might never completely clean up without reinstalling the OS
Yup. You’ve been hijacked. The homepage is a dead giveaway. Read this thread
Download Ad-AwareSpyBot Search & Destroy AND CWShredder
from the authentic websites (linked above). If they don’t fix your problem, generate a log with CWShredder. There are many sites where you can post the log and have knowledgeable people look it over. Google for “CWShredder log” or “CoolWebShredder log”
1: get NAV or AVG for viruses, forget McAfee.
2: Must have a new, fresh install of ad-aware. Uninstall the old one if you have to.
3: ctl-alt-del and google each and every one of the processes and services. If it isn’t crucial to you, shut it down. If you aren’t sure, and nobody lists it as a risk, leave it.
4: reboot into safe mode without network support. It’s f1 or f5 or f8 during boot-up, never can remember. MS keeps certain things and functions inaccesible if you aren’t in safe mode.
5: Once in safe mode, check the processes and services again. If you see any wierd ones, right click on it and shut down the whole tree.
6: run ad-aware. run your AV program. Rinse and repeat.
That should kill just about anything. If you want to see something really messed up, go do a search for “temp” and check out that absolutely useless secondary web cache that you normally couldn’t see, let alone clear. It’s like your own computer has been programmed to collect evidence on you. What joy!
If that does it for you, for the love of God disable IE and Outlook and use Opera or Firefox. You’ll get hit far less frequently. Lots of folks hack Microsoft stuff because of their enduring hatred for ol’ Bill. An ounce of prevention and all that jazz.
If that doesn’t do it for you, I guess you’ll have to blow it away.
Everyone’s forgetting the key issue here, I think. You probably have the auto-restore function still enabled, as I’m guessing you’re running Windows XP. Turn this off, then run your anti-virus and adaware software, and then the problem shouldn’t return.
If you don’t know how to turn this off, www.symantec.com’s virus documentation will tell you in its virus description pages how to do that. I seriously have to go to bed now or I would have posted a link, but I’m nearly falling over. Good luck!
