Finally got my puter back

<span class="postbody"><font size="2">Last Friday I ended up with "malware bell" spyware <img alt="Angry" src="http://thetropicaltank.co.uk/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_angry.gif" border="0"><br>It some how got past my anti virus and spyware programs <img alt="Shocked" src="http://thetropicaltank.co.uk/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif" border="0"><br>By the time I managed to get rid of it , my puter was so screwed up I had to totally wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything ( not fun). Thankfully I wasable to save my files to my sons computer which saved me from loosing any of my pictures or music (most were backed up on discs anyway)</font> <img alt="Smile" src="http://thetropicaltank.co.uk/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif" border="0"></span>

Wow, that sucks! There's some nasty stuff out there just waiting to pounce on your 'puter! <img src="http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/images/smilies/zx11shocked.gif" alt="image"> I've gotten to the point of scanning my puters a couple of times a week. Paranoid, maybe..........but I feel better about it. <img src="http://www.ezboard.com/image/posticons/pi_sharpteeth.gif" alt="image"><br><br>Glad you're back!!! <img src="http://mmb.maverick.to/images/smilies/party5.gif" alt="image"><br><br>

<blockquote> I've gotten to the point of scanning my puters a couple of times a week. Paranoid, maybe..........but I feel better about it. <img alt="image" src="http://www.ezboard.com/image/posticons/pi_sharpteeth.gif"></blockquote><font color="#0000FF" size="4">I have my computer scanned EVERY DAY!! My anti-virus is set up to start scanning every morning at 6am. I can'tafford to get a virus on my computer. My CD-ROM drive doesn't work properly so I'm not able to burn any of my pics to disk and I have over 11,000pictures on my computer! Not to mention all the songs I have downloaded too. I'd hate to lose it all.<br><br><br>~Karen</font>

Karen, you MUST get an external hard drive back up for your computer. There's way too much that you will lose if something happens.<br><br>Steve

<strong>I agree w/Steve....<br>Karen, go &amp; buy a mobile (portable) hard drive. It's a great back-up device I use all the time... it's well worth it.<br>Prices vary depending on the amount of GB it holds.</strong>

<strong>Stay off the porn sites too. <img src="http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/laugh.gif" alt="image"></strong>

<blockquote> <strong class="quote-title">ziurtoys wrote:</strong> <hr><strong>I agree w/Steve.... <br> Karen, go &amp; buy a mobile (portable) hard drive. It's a great back-up device I use all the time... it's well worth it. <br> Prices vary depending on the amount of GB it holds.</strong></blockquote><p><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);" size="4"> Oh I know the thing you mean. Is it really simple for me to save all my stuff onto it? I'll definitely goand pick one up. I'd hate to lose all my stuff.<br><br><br>~Karen</font><br></p><br>

<strong>Yes. I guarantee you &amp; your family will love it.<br>It's light &amp; in a size like a checkbook. All you need to do is to plug the USB cord (usually supplied with purchase of the mobile hard drive) andtransfer/copy whatever files you want from your main computer. It's great for storing millions of photo files and tons of other stuff.</strong><br><br><br>

<font size="4"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Thanks Michael.</span><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">~Karen</span></font><br>

Karen,<br><br>Just click on "Hard Drives" or "Portable Storage Devices" to get some idea of what's available.<br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?ec=BC-EC5-Cat84&amp;pos=7&amp;whse=BC&amp;topnav=&amp;cat=31022&amp;eCat=BC%7C84%7C31022&amp;lang=en-US">http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?ec=BC-EC5-Cat84&amp;pos=7&amp;whse=BC&amp;topnav=&amp;cat=31022&amp;eCat=BC|84|31022&amp;lang=en-US</a><br><br>Doug

<font color="#0000FF" size="4">Thanks so much for the info Doug and thanks for the email Michael. I'm definitely going to invest my money into a portablehard drive. Better safe than sorry. <img src="http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif" alt="image"><br><br><br>~Karen</font>

Wow. An external terrabyte drive for $200 and change. Niiiiiice!<br><br>Dave, I'm really glad you got back up and running well. Malware Bell is nasty. I looked it up to be sure and it's an anti-spyware thing.<br><br>There is another way to help avoid spyware. Actually there are a number of ways, the main one being to run an active spyware programme that works similar to anantivirus, but looks for spyware. The down side to that is that, like a firewall, it takes a while to get it fully tweaked to where it "knows" whatto allow and what not to.<br><br>The easiest, cheapest way is to clear your temporary internet files and browser cookies often. I do so after every secure session, as well as after visitingsites that require passwords.<br><br>For MSIE, click on Tools &gt; Delete Browsing History, and the top two options are for deleting cookies and temporary internet files. For those who haven'tever done that or it's been a while, it may take a few minutes for it to fully clear. For Firefox, ALT-T-P will get you there fast, or click on Tools &gt;Clear Private Data, and be sure to tick the boxes for cache, cookies and authenticated sessions.<br><br>For those who are really vigilant, do a web search on how to tweak your Windows hosts file. You can block a lot of stuff using that.<br><br>Someone mentioned porn sites. We're all human and I think we're all adults here, so it's no secret that some people view porn. Occasionally I landon a site with tons of porn pop-ups and such (many that pop-up blockers aren't geared to snagging), which is all the more reason to delete my temporaryinternet files/cache, cookies, etc. In case anyone is wondering about covering their tracks by deleting browser history, that only gets rid of what traces areleft in that browser's history file. There are a lot of other little tracks that are left. I've made some money in the past, helping parents (or womenlooking to catch cheating husbands) find those little traces that are left in order to show where their kids (or husbands, or wives) have been on the internet.

<br>I was real nasty Kitty<br>It was one of those type that no mater if you click on the little red X or the cancel button it still downloaded <img src="http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/mad.gif" alt="image"> (normally I use the taskbar to close pop ups)<br>It was my son that brought it in from one of the game sites he visits<br>If you go to the Spybot forum, you'll see they had a very long process to get rid of it<br><a target="_blank" href="http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=26871">http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=26871</a><br><br>Most of my stuff was backed up on my second HD, I moved it all to my sons puter incase I really screwed things up. (this is the first time I've had to wipea hard drive <img src="http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/embarassed.gif" alt="image"> )

Ah, that's the trick they used. It wasn't an actual red X button. Some of those pop-ups that pop up on screen instead of in a new window, so thetypical pop-up blocker misses it, are done with nasty scripting. Most of the time I can get rid of them by clicking in another part of the window, away fromthe thing. I have my browser settings kinda snug so any time something tries to download, I get notification. I don't auto-download anything, even fromMicrosplat. IF anything like that ever happens again and you catch it mid-download, do a quick CTRL-ALT-DEL and pull up the task manager and use it to killproc(kill a process in action).<br><br>Now if I could use a similar trick to get the MEGA-loud tornado warnings that come from the National Weather Service to adjust their volume when they interruptwhat I'm watching. Hmmm... maybe I should log off and have some blankets handy instead heh