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The Popup Nightmare! Invasion of the Browser Snatchers! Written by: Dan Daily
Hi Gang! Recently I was accused of planting a Popup menace in someone's computer. He accused me of not living by my word of no ads. Fortunately, the offended computer was here locally so I went over to take a look. (on the clock, I might add.) What I found was almost unbelievable! This poor machine, only a month ago was a hot rod and now was almost unusable. I found 6 viruses and 7 adware/ malware programs running. What do you do when this happens?
Let's Go! .
First, the Symptoms: Let me qualify this by saying, John's (name changed) computer doesn't run any anti-virus software. He felt it really crippled the performance of his machine. He also surfs porn occasionally. (a huge source of malware) His computer would not recognize the homepage he had set for it. Every time he booted it up and clicked on Internet explorer, a product search page was the home page. A malware program had stolen his home page and made it impossible to keep it reset. Next, he had popups from hell, like nothing I've ever seen. Even when not on the Internet! Sometimes it would just keep popping until he got a "too many windows open" error from Windows, and it would freeze. He was getting "run time" errors galore and Internet Explorer would error and shut down. Me, armed only with my Danny's Gold CD, felt very queasy to say the least! I honestly didn't think I'd be able to fix this thing at all; short of a complete reformat of the hard drive. I've NEVER seen anything like this mess and I've seen a lot!!! Today? She Purrs like a Kitty Cat...
How Did I Do It? The first thing I did was what I didn't do. Didn't do? Yeah, panic! What ever you do, don't panic! I will say this; in this case, without the "Danny's Gold" CD, it would have been impossible because trying to use the Internet was impossible. The popups would pile up faster then you could count and IE would give the "too many windows open" error and that was that. Talk about "Out of Control Popups!" Those who aren't members would probably have to reformat. That might be their only option unless they had a reliable Internet connection that's still working. Even limping is good enough, as you will see...
First Things First The first thing I did was install "Popup Stopper" from the "Danny's Gold" CD. "Popup Stopper," I reasoned, would control the popups enough so IE wouldn't error out and still function. I was quite correct: You know the "bleep" sound you get when "Popup Stopper" stops a popup? Honest to God it sounded like a machine gun! Really!!! But, it did do it's job. The machine gun would finally run out of ammunition... Wow, was this thing a total mess! Unbelievable... I reset the home page to my start page (http://www.dannysdailys.com/start.html) and rebooted. Sure enough, when I fired up IE, she went to a product search page. ... And the machine gun!.. ... Oh boy...
The Next Step Having Internet Explorer, at least working, allowed me to get online and go to "Housecall" to have the computer checked for viruses. Click Here And boy did he have viruses! Six of them! Most of them were labeled "uncleanable" by "Housecall." I told it to clean them anyway. One thing about "Housecall" you may not know, even it it can't clean it, by double clicking on the virus line itself, "Housecall" will go to detailed instructions on how to remove it. I printed each set and had quite a pile of paper I can tell ya! And, it's in "microprint!" I needed my glasses... Had John been using Outlook instead of AOL for his email, he would have had a hell of a lot of people who hated his guts! Pushing AOL again? Hey, the truth is THE TRUTH!
The Result? Once the viruses were cleaned out, I rebooted and went back to "Housecall" to verify the machine was clean. It was. ... I was starting to get some hope... It should be noted however, "Popup Stopper" still sounded like a machine gun and the home page still wouldn't set. So, this action had nothing to do with a virus at all. The viruses he had were Password Stealers, email Trojans and more things then I can even remember.
Spy-Bot Search and Destroy The next step was to install "Spy-Bot Search and Destroy" Click Here from the "Danny's Gold" CD. (a new addition) "Spy-Bot" found four malware programs running in the background. The neat thing about "Spy-Bot" is the immunize button. When you press it, it immunizes your computer against ever getting these same malware nightmare programs again. It won't protect you from new ones, however.
The Result? Well, the machine gun popups were gone, but the home page was being very stubborn! It wasn't giving up without a fight... Now I was stymied. "Hmmm, I thought, maybe "Spy-Bot" has a new update." I reopened the "Spy-Bot" program and clicked on the "Update" button and sure enough! There was new pattern file it automatically downloaded and installed.
I Ran it Again: This time if found THREE MORE malware programs running. I turned to John and said; "Moderate Porn Surfing???" He blushed... "And you BLAMED Me!??" He turned red as an apple...
The Nightmare Endeth This time the computer took it's homepage without a problem and it was FIXED!!! It's important to note, "Spy-Bot Search and Destroy" is a free program. Obviously they take great pains to keep it up to date actively! If this program EVER bails you out, I expect you to go to their site and donate some money!!! That's what keeps them going and you will avoid the 250 dollar service call John paid!!!
Epilog I must say, I felt pretty good about myself after the computer "woke up" from this nightmare. More importantly; this is a great illustration of how bad the Internet has gotten. It also serves to illustrate; that no matter what they throw at you, there are people, me included, who care enough to take it on. Why? No other reason other then we love you. No other reason! John only paid because he accused me of doing it! And speaking of that; don't blame others for the things you do or allow. Own up to it and do something about it! Don't, cry about it; crying solves nothing! Besides, being humble might just save you some money!
Conclusion Would an anti-virus program have stopped John's problem? No... Should he run one? I don't know... Would constantly updating Windows (seemingly every day) had stopped his problem? I don't know... I do know; stopping at "Housecall" regularly and running "Spy Bot" regularly would have.....
Your Computers Security! Learn it, Know it, Live it!
I hope this helps you on your road. Your Road? Yes, Your Road To Computer Sanity Danny
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