The kid likes anime and fan fic sites. These pages seem, as far as I can tell, to be portals to every worm, trojan, bogus virus-scan scheme, etc, that’s ever been devised, and whatever he picks up seems to deactivate the PCs restore-point function, in addition to gumming up the function of the browser such that it’s impossible to download removal programs.
I’ve reinstalled his entire system software a few times in the past year, but maybe there’s a better way. No one will buy the kid, that’s not an option.
Not in today’s economy anyway. You’d want someone with a work ethic.
I guess there’s always “Sorry kid–computer is for homework only. You’ll have to live without anime.”
Someone on a PC site described a similar problem, brought on by linking to a campus network, and concluded that Windows 98 was less vulnerable than XP, but I only have XP.
Have had Norton and McAfee in the past, but they were so cumbersome and gumbersome for the money that I don’t like 'em.
In truth, I hate PCs, but the kid is not capable of fixing or figuring out anything himself, and I’m completely unwilling to spend any money on a different computer.
We have Eset, which is pretty good. Its current version approves (or not) each time you connect to the net. So if you run a game that has an online version, it will check this as the program loads. You can set it to approve or reject the site, or the program trying to connect.
Having said this, a friend of my wife’s has a child who is games mad, and also an addictive downloader. The cr*p she has on her machine is just outrageous - and all because she knows nothing about it, and can’t oversee the child (who is old enough to know better, these days). Every year or so they need their machine overhauled, and generally my wife does it. It’s actually a good way of learning what is out there, if a little time-intensive.
Now, kid, you get one free ride. After that, when the machine needs overhauled, it comes out of YOUR pocket money. Understand? Now, think hard before you download. And run those anti-spyware programs.
He doesn’t seem to be downloading anything deliberately. I think these things just swim through in the process of having an open connection to certain websites. So, sometimes just reading a fan fic page, or watching a vid without doing an actual download is what causes it.
At the moment, the only thing I can think of to do is re-install the system from scratch (annoyingly time-consuming…have to reinstall printers, Firefox, everything, etc…) then download several anti-spyware thingies.
Trouble is, at the moment, the anti-spywares will download, but something about the latest malware (XP-Shield 2.1, it calls itself,) keeps the downloaded removers from running/opening. I can’t seem to bypass the death-grip the stupid thing has on the system without killing the whole system and starting over.
Related question: For my mac, I have an external hard drive which I can plug in and back up the whole system onto. (The mac program is called Time Machine, and you can leave your external drive plugged in for automatic back-ups, or just back it up when you want to.)
Then, when/if everything dies, I could restore from the hard drive without having to gather all the printer software, etc, and recover all my lost files.
Can something similar be done with a PC and an external drive? i.e…if I have to re-install the whole stupid thing, can I (once it’s fixed) back up onto an external drive which can then be saved to use as a “good version” for when the next PC brain worm co-opts the system?
Knowing I can’t totally prevent infestations, what might be the easiest way to restore normalcy often?
I bought my wife a laptop so that she wouldn’t have to use my computer. She can go anywhere in the house and spend money online with her credit card. However, her computer on the wireless network and basic home edition of Vista isn’t very fast, so she still likes to sit at my computer, play games and download all of the attachments that her friends send her by email. I would rather that she didn’t do that, but she thinks that I am being too protective with my computer. Everybody else does it, she says.
My computer was really messed up a couple of months ago. I was getting unwanted popups all the time. The audio was playing multiple radio stations at the same time (all in heavily accented English). I would think that I was off the internet, but when I would turn around, there would be an adult photo on the screen.
I bought the Norton 2009 virus protection package (good for 3 computers) for my XP and uninstalled the outdated virus protection software. Once installed, the new Norton antivirus program cleaned up all the problems that I was having (trojan horses, I guess), and I haven’t had a similar problem since. I suppose that your computer would need to be working well enough for this to be a workable solution, though.
There will be a day that you cry and cry and wish “The Kid” was there to download anything, including a virus or a trojan onto your computer. And then another day will come when you will have baby sticky stuff all over everything and you will be happy again.
I work in the library at my Seminary and we get a lot of computers brought to us with spyware and virus problems. Besides anti-virus software, we always recommend (1) use Firefox, which is a more secure browser than some of the others (Addins such as Adblock Plus, No script, and flashblock plus really help keep unwanted stuff away), (2) download and sweep with both Spybot Search and Destroy as well as AdAware. Spyware blaster is great too. They won’t solve all your problems, but they will cut down on some issues.
Kaspersky is Russian, as well as international, too, but then, if you can’t trust the Russians for your computer security needs, then just who could you trust?
Anyway, go online, anywhere and everywhere, and check Kaspersky out. In fact, Kaspersky keeps up on all of the latest troubles, 24/7.
BTW, Kaspersky does not make security software for Mac computers. I wonder why?
Kaspersky anti-virus is $60 on their website, $34 from Amazon. Yes, Amazon is always worth a look.
One can, of course, download, but that always sort of worries me when a computer is a little funky
to start out with.
Trouble is, at the moment, the channels that would allow me to run the downloaded Search&Destroy type thingies
are gummed up by some action, presumably, of the spyware…but we will try a few things. Perhaps I won’t resort
to a reinstall quite yet…
Again, I will protest that the web-crap seems to ride in, not on downloaded files, but rather merely in the process
of browsing, watching you-tube or similar vids, and reading fan fic pages. Yes, he should be studying Japanese–
we have a chapter exam on Wednesday–but at least I’m gonna ace it.
kinda..at step 3, you can use the ghost to completely reinstall the machine, windows and all. It’s like taking a snapshot of a machine, and then loading that snapshot (windows + everything have you loaded) whenever you want.
We have a “standard configuration” ghost image at my job, and whenever we get a new machine for a new hire, we just put the standard config on it..it has to os, plus all of the licensed business software people need. faster than spending a day loading a machine every time we hire someone.
Aha. May have to resort to that.
Am going to attempt Kaspersky when it arrives, but meanwhile, the evil has blocked all channels for effecting a quick fix, such as Spybot.
Can download them. Can’t launch.
Bizarrely, even attempts to google-search for Spybot fail. Clicking links causes redirects to Women’s Day online and junk like that.
Only way I could even get to the spybot site was to look up the url on my mac, then manually put the address in the pc’s browser window.
Then, I could download but, as I said, not launch.
Question for those on the know.
Is there a way to set up an Admin. account that would have strict permissions that would prevent this?
You might be able to run ClamWin Portable off of a USB.
fwiw, I finally got Spybot to lock and load, by booting in Safe Mode. There are still a few oddities not worked out, but
I’m seriously going to try to live with protection software for a while, and will thereby give Kaspersky a go.
Anyway…I think we’re on our way to tolerability.
What the kid will do when he’s on his own, I cannot say.
edit: Now running Spyware Doctor as well. Seems one is not adequate.
nevermind. screw spyware doc. It wants $.
It seems that Microsoft based computers can sometimes suffer when it comes to mixing security systems. That is, if you’re going to use, say, Kaspersky, for instance, then perhaps Kaspersky could work better as a “clean” install, after “uninstalling” any other security software.
BTW, I smiled when you mentioned that you reverted to a Mac, to get to where you needed to go!
So perhaps I should uninstall Spybot when the Kaspersky comes? Maybe.
Did the whole reinstall. The more I tried to fix it the worse it got, so now we’re clean, have re-loaded the Firefox and all that,
and have immunized with Spybot for now.
Furthermore, did backups onto an external hd before allowing the kid on.
Oh, I am so ready for you. not.
