Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Has somebody gotten into my computer? Please help.

Mar 22, 2004 11:33PM PST

Hi All,
My computer runs W.98SE, at600mh with 126mb of ram using a DSL line. For the past 7 days my computer has made me sign into every site I visit.This sign-in proceedure only occured when I deleted all my tempory files via internet options which I have not done in several weeks. To my knowledgeI have not changed any of my internet option, options. On several occasions I have heard my computer chatter for 10 to 15 minutes while doing something else. I now find my home page changes every time I start and restart my computer. Has someone entered my computer to cause these problem? How can I correct these annoying problems so I don't have to sign-in to every site new I visit and have my home page remain constant? thanks so much for the help? bob k

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:Has somebody gotten into my computer? Please help.
Mar 23, 2004 12:09AM PST

Download Ad-aware from here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
Install by double-clicking on the downloaded file.
After installing but before running, update Ad-aware by using its Globe icon.
After updating, shutdown and restart Ad-aware.
Ad-aware is ready to scan and clean your system following these steps:

Under Ad-aware 6 > Settings (Gear at the top) > Tweaks > Scanning Engine:
"Unload recognized processes during scanning."
Under Ad-aware 6 > Settings (Gear at the top) > Tweaks > Cleaning Engine:
"Let Windows remove files in use after reboot."
Press "Scan Now"
Check option "Use Custom scanning options"
Check option "Activate In-Depth Scan"
Press "Select drives\folders to scan"
Select the active partition which is usually C:
Press "Next" to let Ad-aware scan your drives...
If it finds "bad" files and registry keys, press "Next" again
Right-click in that pane and choose "select all"
Press "next"
When it asks to remove all checked items, Press "OK"
Close Ad-aware, reboot your system.

pybot S&D
The download for Spybot S&D is available here: http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd

Install by double-clicking on the downloaded file.
Run Spybot S&D from desktop icon or Start menu.
Press "Search for updates" button to get list of updates available.
Press "Download updates" button.
Close all IE windows and close & restart Spybot S&D.
Press "Check for problems" button.
Have SpyBot remove all it marks in red by pressing "Fix selected problems"
Close Spybot S&D, reboot your system

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Has somebody gotten into my computer? Please help.
Mar 23, 2004 12:29AM PST

HI MARIANNA,
I have run skybot several times but problems still presist. However I do not have As-aware program installed. Is it necessary to have and run this program? Thanks, bob k

- Collapse -
Re:Has somebody gotten into my computer? Please help.
Mar 23, 2004 1:47AM PST

Hi Bob,

YES - you also should run ad-aware as it finds "other stuff" than SpybotS&D. Do NOT forget to update ad-aware before you are running it!

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Has somebody gotten into my computer? Please help.
Mar 23, 2004 6:44AM PST

Hi Marianna,
Ad-aware is very good. Am going to run it once again tonight along with other programs and will send a message on 'how all these programs worked' tomorrow about 11.00 am. Many thanks. bob k

- Collapse -
(NT) Bob, You are Very Welcome :)
Mar 23, 2004 9:46AM PST

.

- Collapse -
Bobby, In Addition To Marianna's Good Advice
Mar 23, 2004 3:13AM PST

....there are a couple of other programs which should help. I run them all to check for parasites.

CWShredder (Find the download link in the middle of the page, download to your computer, then simply double click on the file.)
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

The Cleaner (30 day free trojan detector)
http://www.moosoft.com/

Hope this helps.

Grif

- Collapse -
Re:Bobby, In Addition To Marianna's Good Advice
Mar 24, 2004 2:07AM PST

Hi, Marianna, grif, All,
Sign-in's and home page changes still occuring as stated in first post. I skyboted, Ad-awared and did all the above twice plus this mornings and still the above problems persist. Anything else I can try? Boy are these problems very, very annoying. Again many thanks for all the help. Bob K

- Collapse -
HijackThis
Mar 24, 2004 2:18AM PST

Download and run HijackThis - get it here:

http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/


Unzip, double-click "HijackThis.exe" and Press "Scan".

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log" button.
Click: "Save Log" (generates: "hijackthis.log")

Next, HijackThis | Config [button] | Misc Tools [button]
Click: Generate StartupList log [button] (generates: "startuplist.txt")

Next, go to the link below.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

and post your "hijackthis.log". There are the experts and they will tell you what to do.

Good Luck!

- Collapse -
Re:HijackThis
Mar 24, 2004 3:52AM PST

Hi Marianna,
WOW, 'Hijack this'; what a powerful program!!! I see 3 items that caused my start-up page to change. Will despose of them immediately. Some other say they have modified MS default commands and am uncertain about deletion. However, the forum site your posted gives me another very powerful site to check the above. Will get back to you in a day or two for results. Great!! Many thanks to you and All. bob k

- Collapse -
Re:HijackThis
Mar 24, 2004 4:00AM PST