PCTech Forums

Hi! Got rid of WToolsA at long last and yesterday, as I was picking up my email, got infected again. Fourtunately, I ran Norton at the end of the day and it told me, and so, I did the same thing I did to get rid of it the first time. But I'm wondering, with a firewall, and with SpywareGuard and SpywareBlaster installed, how come I got infected again and there was not a peep of warning? Is there something I have to do to get those programs working?
Thanks!

You really need to watch what you open in your emails and where you go on the internet. Heres a alittle something I have on my website to protect your computer. Make sure you read the Education section.
*edit
ooops didnt give you link my bad



Also if your email is a POP3 client try installing Mailwasher, it works great I use it myself.
D/L here:

Thanks for replying Geekgirl! I went to the site. Lot's of good info. I have Norton antivirus (it told me I got the thing again), and a personal firewal. also, as I mentioned before, Spywareguard and SpywareBlaster (I thought they were supposed to prevent re-infections), wht I didn't have was the washer. I installed it. (Thanks!)
I have a question though, what to do when Windows Update tells you you don't need any updates and whon't give you any (it tells me that every time I go), it says I have their latest (????)

Like Geekgirls said above...

Spybot
http://www.download.com/redir?pid=10289 ... 89035.html

and Ad-Aware
http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10045 ... tag=button
Are 2 very good apps to run regularly.
Ad-Aware ,you should check for updates everytime you start the app.

One of our Mods here on the Forum posts when Updates are available so checking in here would be a good thing.

Again...be carefull as to what you open.
You can disable the VIEW PANE in your E-mail Client so they don't open and you can also just set the TIME that it takes to open to say 20 seconds,that will give you plenty of time to delete it before it opens.

Cactus

I also strongly recommend MailWasher.net. The nice thing about it is it checks your mail before it even comes to your system. You then have four options. Delete, Bounce, Blacklist or Process the mail. Very handy tool. SpywareGuard is a program that simply tells you when your browser has been hijacked and has nothing to do with email. One thing to be aware of and seems to be a serious problem now days is when you go to some websites a box comes up to download a plugin. Many of us think it is something that needs to be done but it is actually spyware. Always read carefully what it is and determine if it is something you need. Daniel

Thank you all for your useful suggestions! But I must ask a little more information about how to disble the view pane of my email or put a delay on it. My email has been messed up quite a bit through this ordeal of the adware invasion and I really fear to mess it up even more! So a few pointers please (remember, I'm in diapers still in comparison to you.)
Thanks!

P.S.
I do have and run Spybot and Ad-Aware and they both gave me a clean bill of health after I got rid of the stuff the second time. But I also wanted to put the word out that those things sometimes come to YOU, you don't necessarily go anywhere and catch them, they come in the emails. Just in case someone out there, new like me, didn't know.

A good Anti-Virus Program will nab the Trojans as they are downloaded from your server. I still believe in disabling the "Preview" Pane because there could be script (Viruses) that evade an AV Client.
I wish folks would take a more serious look at .
brad

So brad, what sets Panda ahead of Norton in your opinion?

The technician that worked on my computer when my nightmare started (and messed it up really bad, motivating me to seek help elsewhere, in other words, here, uses Panda and wanted to sell me on it. I have Norton, but Norton is not catching too many fish for me, in fact, it let all this happen to me and not a peep!) So I go into my email client and how exactly do I disable the view pane? I don't know much and can damage much, that's why I ask. Thanks!

Thank you GeekGirl for giving me the pointers! And Brad, I will visit that Panda link and see what is all about, although I've been told they're all about the same. I still will take a look.
Thanks!

I followed your instructions and it worked fine! My view pane is gone. I have a new problem now. I got infected with DSO Exploit once and was able to get rid of it using hijackThis. Got it through email again but my HijackThis expired so I went and downloaded DSOStop2 and now my computer crashes when it boots! Go figure. . .
I've got to solve this. I had to do a hard boot when the machine froze and gave me a blue screen talling me the system was busy and waiting for Windows to respond. I thought that software got rid of the problem. It must have stopped the loading the the parasite without removing it and now I have a war in there again.