Do I have junkware or a virus? NEED HELP!!

[apaxfrenzy]

Ok, here's the deal. I thought I was rather familar with spyware/adware/viruses/crap but, I guess not. I have Norton '03 Pro, freshly updated, and it wont find anything other than W32.HLLP.Handy and it wont even get rid of that. Anyway, that's not causing the problem because this is new...

Anyway, here's the deal... whatever is running in the background is smart because, I can't get into Task Manager, Msconfig or the Registry Editor. Once those apps are open... *POOF* they immediately close.

Does anyone know what this is and how I can get rid of it?

Also, what's a equal virus scanner to Norton thats nice and light? I know there are other options out there just as good as Norton and McAfee if not better because I haven't really considered Norton useful.

Thanks for the time and help everyone!

Godspeed.

-dave

btw

WinXP Pro SP1 with fresh security updates
Norton '03 Pro
DSL connection

 

[jackschmittusa]

I use AVG anti-virus, it's free at:grisoft

Have you tried booting from the Norton cd and running it there?

Do you use Ad Aware and/or Spybot?

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, start by disabling System Restore to bail all the System Restore files, so viruses can't hide there (or be hidden there by Windows itself ).

The virus you mentioned is very old news, so something is amiss with your antivirus setup if it was able to take hold. If Norton is set to come pandering to you, asking if it can delete or clean or what would you like done with an infected file, that needs to change. Have it automatically attempt to clean, then silently delete if unsuccessful. Enable Heuristics at maximum and enable scanning within compressed files, every other bell & whistle it's got, and of course have it update itself automatically, which for Norton I believe means every day. At work we have the defs update every hour, and every 15 minutes on servers, to give you a feel for the environment I'm coming from

Here is McAfee's info on your pet virus: http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99881.htm Since it's not a late-breaking one, your Norton should be able to nail it right out of the box as jackschmidtusa suggested (boot from Norton CD and see if it can nail it). Otherwise, try the Panda online antivirus scanner linked in my signature, it was particularly recommended to me by someone who has used several online scanners quite a bit.

Bigger picture: how did it get in, and is that door still open? McAfee points to running an infected .exe as the main vector, with Kazaa as the usual method of infection. If you or someone else is running Kazaa on the system, I'd suggest you stop. Also use the Symantec online port scanner linked in my signature to do their Security Scan, and see if your system is talking to computers on the Internet. If it is, by golly, make it stop A $45 Netgear RP614 cable/DSL router and free ZoneAlarm basic firewall software are a good combo for stopping outside stuff from coming in, and inside stuff from getting out (at least without your express permission). ZoneAlarm will also protect your computer from infected computers that are "inside" your router's perimeter defense, like if you had an infected computer on your home network trying to infect any other computer it can reach.