Big Trouble

[dendill]

All I can say is thanks for you help so far. But its just not working. I do not now what to do.

[Stoo]

Try reading the replies properly and you'll fix the problem..

[nichomach]

If I meant Control Panel, I'd have said Control Panel.

Start Button, it's at the bottom left of your screen, Dendill. Click it. Go to "All Programs and click that. Click on accessories. Click on Communications. Click on Network Connections. In the window that opens, you'll see the different connections available to your machine. Right click on the applicable connection and left click on properties. The form that opens will have at least two tabs at the top. Click on Advanced. You'll find the button for Windows Firewall Settings.

[Zak33]

Nicho = patience of a SAINT

just for the record, if you havenet access, which you do Dendill cos you're here, can you download a firewall on the other PC and use a USB hard drive or burn it to a spare CD-R or even network cable it across...or EVEN use a digital camera as a USB hard drive.

In any case, down load something like ZONE ALARM (the free one) install it before accessing the net, and see whats trying to access the net.

[Howard]

Isn't this just MSBlast or one of it's variants?

A Firewall (Such as the XP one that Nicho is trying to tell you how to enable...) will sort it temporarily until you can run Windows Update for the patch

[nichomach]

I reckon it's likely to be Sasser (or a variant); same vuln, different exploit. The Norton Blaster removal tool might not nab that, but Stinger should - Sasser's on its kill list.

Oh...and thanks, Zak, but I thought I was getting a little...testy .

[Zak33]

no mate....you were good as gold. as was Stoo, who Moddedwith restraint and a compliant flexing of strength.

and as the bloke aint come back I guess its sorted.

I HOPE hecomes back to say THANKYOU.

If not...I shall thank you all myself.

[Thorsson]

You need Service Pack 2. Easiest way to get this is find a mag with it on the cover disk if you can find one. This turns on the firewall by default.

[Ferral]

First variation of this was the MSBlast, it was in all the papers and on the news early last year if my mind serves me correct. I installed Zonealarm off a coverdisc on my parents pc before I connected, I had just installed and got hit by it immediately (doh ! ) then had to reformat again to get shot of it. Its a bloody annoying thing, you would think the ISP's would have put some sort of protection up against it by now.

[iranu]

Read this

http://securityresponse.symantec.com...ybot.worm.html

Click start, open "Help and Support". Under pick a task click "keep your computer up-to-date with Windows update"

Install all critical updates including service pack 2.

If you can't get service pack 2 this way pop into pc world and ask for a free copy on disk at their service desk.

[dendill]

First I would like to thank all the people here for there help.

I have managed to deal with the virus problem. I have installed a firewall. The computer has stop shutting down, but I still get some odd popup windows showing up now and again. I have tried to use the FixBlast app but it keeps asking me to login as admin.

Q: I do not see any option to do this. Could someone advise me how to login as Administrator please.

[mariner]

For anyone who's interested, there are viruses, worms and trojans that;once on your PC, stay there, and no amount of reformatting and reinstalling will ease the problem.

The only answer is either scrub the HDD (quite a lengthy process, and sometimes necessary), or seek specialist help in removing the nasty that is troubling you. And yes, it can be done, and leave data intact. Best of all, it won't cost you a cent.

If anyone has what appears to be an insurmountable problem with spyware/malware, or a virus, worm, trojan, or pop-up -usually caused by any of the aforementioned- and does not wish to scrub their drive, help is at hand. Before I go any further, this will entail you carrying out detailed instructions in a precise manner. Holler if help is wanted.

BTW, on occasion it is sometimes necessary to reformat and reinstall, but you will be advised of this.

[dendill]

Any instructions on how to scrub the harddisk.?

[Ferral]

Dendill, you dont need to 'scrub' the hard disk.

If you are the only user on you're PC, you should have admin rights on it (remember when you installed XP and it asks for password for admin etc). Log yourself off and you should get the welcome screen with all available accounts, if admin is not there go into the control panel and select user accounts, click on you're account and change it from limited to admin and also turn off the guest account.

Then install the fix you have.

Secondly, to remove spyware and malware get a program called ad-aware, will remove all the muck from the system (its a free download at www.downloads.com). After that do a full system scan with whatever virus program you have but do it in SAFE MODE. Doing this in safe mode stops things from loading up on the windows boot and makes it easier for the anti virus prog to remove any viruses as they are not resident in the system memory.

[Nick]

And to add to Ferral's post, you can get into safe mode by pushing F8 just after the machine boots but before windows starts to load. You'll then get several different load options... select safe mode and go from there.

Oh, and get "Spybot Search and Destroy" as well, run that after running Adaware and you'll have a sparkly clean system!

[mr_anderson187]

jsut a quick scan through this thread, does indeedy seem like a blaster variant,

stinger is indeed a great program i use it all the time

although i am mifed, why has nobody suggested - when teh little one minute shutdown window comes up, get a command prompt up and type 'shutdown -a' (without the apostroheee's) and this will make it go away so you have mroe time to get stinger and run it,

also as a virus checker get spybot search and destry and ZoneAlarm's firewall

thomas