Virus info

[Bamawing]

What IS it with this country?

The desktop was JUST fixed. Badabing, we have yet another virus. Or 4, according to the safe-mode viral scan halfway through last night. Arrgh!

Twiga gave me a very wonderful present: Lilo, a notebook from an appropriate brand: Eee. Lilo is running Win XP and I have no plans to change that at this time.

Lilo also doesn't get along with our wireless router at home. *bangs head against wall* She works fine if I'm corded, or if I go to Mr. Bleck and use their wireless. Go fig, I guess.

I am now worried sick about poor Lil' Lilo acquiring a virus/malware/other icky stuff. It amazes me how little I knew about them. All I know is that they're annoying, bad ones will make your computer die, and you get them "online." I honestly thought that as long as I stayed off questionable websites and didn't open any suspicious emails, I would be fine... especially considering we have the anti-virus software that makes your computer run like frozen molasses until it's finished "scanning." I greatly dislike anti-viral software. but given the choice, I think I'd rather take it than the alternative.

Where is a good place to go to find out info on viruses and computer security? I'm not worried about George... he's my Linux Machine now, so I expect he's fine. I'm using him now (and seriously considering using him for all online purposes other than communicating with Twiga).

But yeesh, didn't know it got this bad. How can I combat this stuff?

[Uncle Matt]

I'm not sure whether it's just Germany.

I do know my own little corner of Cyberspace had a miracle quality though.

Before I left for the US, I had been with my ISP for 7 years. I haven't had antivirus software installed on my machines for at least five, and I've never had a single problem. I did once download a copy of AVG, just to see what happened, and after completely thrashing my machine for over 4 hours it found nothing. Not only that, when it had finished the scanning, it still noticably slowed down my machine.

I uninstalled it, deciding it was a waste of resources.

I think that my ISP had a good filtering system in place, because I never saw a twinkle of the email viruses that went around. Also, I locked down my router / firewall box (that I spent £150 on), and moved as far away from Outpoo Express* and Internet Exploder* as soon as I could. Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird are the new choice.

I'm dreading going and buying a new PC which, I've no doubt, will come pre-installed with Outpoo Express* and Internet Exploder*. I've also no doubt that I won't be able to un-install them either, which means that I'll no doubt pick up a load of crap within a few minutes

*Note: Names have been changed to avoid any legal problems

[Nick]

Banz,

Sorry to hear about the bugs.
As far as countering the current bugs is concerned, check out http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
It's a strong viral stomper.

Slightly off the topic though, You need to start thinking about HOW they are getting on to your machine.
Is it from browser, Active X, software downloads, P2P, infected network, usb sticks etc etc

[Bamawing]

That's actually right well on topic, Nick. I would be very happy to run a machine that doesn't have a squealing brick, even if it is on Windows. And that doesn't even COVER how Dan feels about it.

The problem is, I don't know. At all. It can't be a USB port, because we hadn't used any. Ditto with DLing... I didn't so much as DL Puzzle Pirates after this mess. Nor did Dan or I go to any sites of a questionable nature. I've deleted emails if I don't know exactly who it came from, and if it includes the phrase FWD. In fact, the only software we installed was Turbo Tax, and I'd be pretty darned stunned if that turns out to be the problem.

You couldn't get me to touch Outpoo* with a 10-foot pole, but we were both using Exploder*. Dan likes Exploder* for some reason, and he may be using Outpoo on this machine as well; I don't know. (I have tried to convert the man. He keeps muttering about how he likes things fine the way they are.)

I might could get him to ditch the programs if I coudl convince him that they were indeed the problem.

And I'd kinda rather that be the problem than the idea of an infected network. But that does give me cold chills. Could Deathstar II (our wireless router) be to blame for this? It might explain why Lilo simply refused to connect to the silly thing. (As aforementioned, she doesn't have any beef with any other wireless routers.) Or is T-Mobil in trouble somehow? (And if so, what are the chances I could find someone who speaks enough English to help with the problem?)

* Bamawing nibbles her nails and hopes for a response.

*See Matty's post

[Nick]

Is Deathstar II secure?
If not, any tom dick or harry could drop a nasty on to any computer on the network without you even knowing it.

When I fix buddies' PC's with viruses I spend more time working out the origin of the infection than I do getting rid of it.
You may want to try purging your temp directories and see what refuses to be deleted. That may give you a clue.   

[Bamawing]

I'll try that if Dan hasn't already reformatted. I'm with you (and another computer geek friend via email): I want to know why this is happening. Apparently just cleaning out the problem doesn't work, ya know?

Deathstar II *says* it's  secure, but I'm not sure if that means anything. Interestingly, there's not a "password" to log into the network, but a "key." The "key" is a number that is found on a sticker on the server. Doesn't seem really secure to me, but until now I thought I was just being paranoid. Is this "key" thing a European thing? We had a password back in the States...

[Uncle Matt]

My router back home had a password.

I concatenated two regular words, a random number and another two regular words. In total, it's some 35 characters long.

It's also set to filter on MAC address, so even if I told the entire world the password, the only wireless device that would be able to connect is my laptop. I also made up some random wireless network name, and hid it from public view, so anyone trying to hack in has at least five boundaries to overcome before they can actually get into anything.

Interestingly, when my mother purchased a laptop (and broadband from the same ISP I was on) just before Christmas, I was unsure as to whether it would need an antivirus package. I asked what she'd be doing with it, and she said "webcam, e-mails and not a lot else". Well in veiw of the fact that Windows has now got a "built in" thingy of some sort, I decided not to install one, especially since AVG slows down machines so much.

She lasted fine for 4 months, then my sister did something, and now it seems to be infected with lots of spyware, adware and trojans.

[Nick]

that reminds me of when Matty visited us.

Matt used his laptop to access the internet and all sorts and commented about the fact that we didn't have any security to prevent hacks ...... then I pointed out he was actually using the wireless connection for our friend who lives down the street 

What Matty says is quite right. Make the password or key strong. There is software out there you can download to bombard a network with simple made up passwords while you sleep in your bed.

[Uncle Matt]

It's true.

I can say the same for over here in the USA too. I'm sat outside the clubhouse next to the pool, and I can see over a dozen networks, and four of them have no security at all, and I've already connected to two of them whilst typing this post out.

[Bamawing]

I told Dan about all this, and he shook his head. He thinks it's the same problem we've had since before we moved into the apartment.

He calls it a "rootkit." I'm not sure what that is, but it's bad.

Dan's more than a little nervous that it's infected the hidden partition as well as the main thingie. This would explain why we can't get rid of the silly thing. He's now making noises about getting another computer if he can't get this one straightned out.

Squee, German keyboard. Eh. I needed to learn to touch-type anyway (I look at the keys like a bad girl.)

[Uncle Matt]

Are they AZERTY keyboards over there?

I know they are in Belgium.

Turned me from the 30 something wPM that I can usually do into a single finger typist.

It freaked me out so much, that I even brought over a British keyboard to America.

[Bamawing]

No, it's QWERTZ with a lot of wierdness in the punctuation keys. Dan's used to it now and says he prefers it. Dunno how I'm gonna feel about that.

[Uncle Matt]

Ahh.... An English keyboard?

As distinct from an American keyboard.

I knew that'd screw about with my typing too, so I brought an English board with me

[Bamawing]

We were warned to bring an American keyboard... for Dan to work with. A bit silly, really, when you realize that American keyboards don't have umlouts. I gotta admit, it would be nice to type umlouts whenever I needed to.

Dan decided pretty quick that he just liked Germans ones better.