HELP, I have a computer virus

[jeter]

I have a nasty computer virus and no matter what I do I can't get rid of it.

I always get this pop up that asks "Hey dude, do you want to see some girlies?" Or something to that effect. Then I have to press okay. But I alway close the window. Usually that makes it go away for a few days.

But lately it does it everytime I am logged on. And now porno pics just pop up out of no where. So I just log out and log back in.

I have tried to restrict sites. That hasn't worked. I tried to restrict any sites with nudity - and I would have to put in a password for EVERY friggen even sites with NO NUDITY web site I visited. I tried stopping all the cookies.

But nothing has worked. Can someone who knows anything about computers help me out here?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Download Adaware6.0

It will isolate the spyware that has planted this program on your computer.

and quit surfing porn..it planted a toolbar on your browser.

[Syncronaut Seven]

7. I just downloaded & ran Ad aware

Marvelous tool! It found about 114 data miners and other unwelcome pests. I've been plagued by pop-ups for months, all gone now. I'll miss the girl with the whipped cream & cherries on her breasts though :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. So why didn't you save it to hard drive?

Glad it was helpful

[foo_bar]

2. if there was a DU Lounge FAQ

this would be #1:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

[MrScorpio]

3. It's simple

BUY A MAC!!!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. You may also want to try Spybot at the same time...

...I've found that using both Spybot and Adaware will kill just about any virus on your machine. Both are free to download, install and use.

Adaware:
<http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/>

Spybot:
<http://www.safer-networking.org/>


By the way, most people use these programs as backups to their normal anti-virus software.

[Pale_Rider]

15. As a former Ad-Aware user ...

... I'm really impressed with Spybot and its immunize feature. Its caught and prevented several webpages trying to download spyware such as Avenue A.

[eileen from OH]

5. If you have Windows XP

Go to Start
Click on Control Panel
Click on System
Click on System Restore

This will let you pick a date PREVIOUS to when all this stuff happened and take you through it. It will NOT affect files or things you've done since that date within programs, but will restore your system to the way it was before all this shit happened.

eileen from OH (who has been saved by this feature several times)

[jeter]

6. Thank you so much eileen

I'll try that.

Just so you know. I don't surf for porn. I remember exactly when it happened. I was googling some actresses name (Bridget Moynahan) and clicked on a site that turned out to be a porn site.

That's not to say that I have never visited a porn site. It just so happened that this came about very innocently.

God I hate those porn sites. I swear, only magazines for me now.

;)

[desi]

8. Continued: If you're not running W XP

And if it is in fact a toolbar you can isolate it by: ctrl-alt-del and it will show you the name of the program running. Then go to Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and delete the program. It will probably put you thru the third degree asking you why you want to delete it and telling you why you shouldn't....delete it..good luck.

[jeter]

9. eileen, I just did that.

But it didn't take me through anything. A pop up comes up saying "Status: Monitoring" and then there is a bar with minimum and maximum and at the bottom - an okay or cancel button.

I press Okay and nothing happens after that.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. I was just ribbing you about the porn!

Really use adaware...it will be gone and done with! Promise!

[Liberal Veteran]

12. jeter, can I make a recommendation?

Get Mozilla Firebird and make it your default browser. It is fast, stable, works with damn near every page I have ever been to and it has a lot of security features that are lacking from IE such as popup blocking and tabbed browsing.

I switched a couple of months ago and haven't regretted it at all. The only problem of course is that it won't work with Windows Update, but you can fire up IE once a month or so to visit Windows Update if you want.

[jeter]

13. Well I just checked through my programs and didn't

see anything unusual on that list. Maybe its named something normal. I don't want to erase something that turns out not to be this program.

[Liberal Veteran]

14. I do agree with the others about Ad-Aware...

...a lot of the nasty things come in as ActiveX controls that can cause the behavior you are seeing. They won't show up in Add/Remove Programs, but if Ad-Aware says it's trouble, you can let it delete it for you.

Also if you really want to be sure you don't have a virus go to this site and it will scan online for you:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[Pale_Rider]

16. In addition to spyware checkers ...

... also considered installing a personal firewall such as Zone Alarm Pro or Kerio Personal Firewall.

http://www.zonealarm-pro.com/

http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

I run ZoneAlarm Pro which has eliminated 100% of pop-ups and pop-unders on my system. Also it eliminate annoying banner ads. Completely configurable (though can be a pain). Kerio has gotten very good reviews and I'm looking to install on my wife's laptop soon.

[Booberdawg]

17. And here's one more

I run SpySweeper for parasites from this site in addition to Adware. I just loaded it a couple nights ago and it did indeed find a few parasites even though I've had Adware running.

http://doxdesk.com/parasite/

on edit: you DO run a virus checker, don't you?

[cosmicaug]

18. Virus checker

If he doesn't have a virus checker, one of the many online ones out there would be fine to do a check right now. However, he still should have an antiviral program installed (Adaware, Spybot Search & Destroy and --I'm guessing--SpySweeper do not have that functionality).

Something that can be had for free and which works as well as anything else (if not better) can be found at http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php (they do ask for an e-mail address so that the system can send you a key but they won't spam you as far as I can tell --I use this program).

HTH