Brilliant Digital (altnet) keeps showing up

[scott]

I ran Microsoft AntiSpyware software a few times and time
after time Brilliant Digital (altnet) still shows up. Can
someone please help me to remove this spyware?

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Have you tried running a scan in safe mode?

 

[Sue S]

Hi guys,

I have had the same problem. tried running a scan in safe
mode and the registery entry still exists. This is even
though the result indicates that it has been removed.

I have tried to manually delete the item manually from
the registry and it wouldnt allow me to do this either. I
think Altnet was installed as part of Kazaa, which was
deleted from the pc some time ago.

I have another pc that didnt have kazaa and that one
doesnt have altnet on it.

I have also tried some other spyware programs and where
it has been found it is also unable to delete it.

Any other solutions, other than formatting and
reinstalling windows would be appreciated.

Regards
Sue

 

[Bill Sanderson]

This stuff can be cleaned manually, although it is quite difficult.

The posts with the most information generically on such cleaning procedures
in this group are those from Jim Byrd. He is posting in response to
specific bugs, but the general procedures and tools in his links are more
generally useful I believe.

I don't have a lot of direct experience with cleaning these resistant bugs.
In the cases I have worked on, working at a safe mode command prompt level
using the attrib command to remove everything except index.dat from the
Temporary Internet Files folder was a primary part of the fix--but each bug
is different. Use all the tools you can find that show where things start
from and disable those you can't find and verify through copyright or other
information the source of. If you can't find a given item in a startup
entry that's a good clue--keep looking! The Silent Runners.vbs script is
an excellent tool, as is MSCONFIG, and lots of others.

And, if you can, by all means submit a Tools, suspected spyware report from
the machine--this'll give Microsoft more data points on your particular bug.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Bill, will do a bit more investigation.

-----Original Message-----
This stuff can be cleaned manually, although it is quite difficult.

The posts with the most information generically on such cleaning procedures
in this group are those from Jim Byrd. He is posting in response to
specific bugs, but the general procedures and tools in his links are more
generally useful I believe.

I don't have a lot of direct experience with cleaning these resistant bugs.
In the cases I have worked on, working at a safe mode command prompt level
using the attrib command to remove everything except index.dat from the
Temporary Internet Files folder was a primary part of the fix--but each bug
is different. Use all the tools you can find that show where things start
from and disable those you can't find and verify through copyright or other
information the source of. If you can't find a given item in a startup
entry that's a good clue--keep looking! The Silent Runners.vbs script is
an excellent tool, as is MSCONFIG, and lots of others.

And, if you can, by all means submit a Tools, suspected spyware report from
the machine--this'll give Microsoft more data points on your particular bug.




.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

If cleaning yourself seems either beyond your depth or likely to take more
time than you can devote, using Hijack This and posting the log in a forum
devoted to such things is the way to get the job done expeditiously. The
name is perhaps confusing, but this app basically creates a list of startup
items from your machine and logs them in a form that allows the folks in the
forums to suggest which items to disable to remove the spyware processes
that are hard to kill.

You can get the application here:

http://www.aumha.org/free.htm

and use the links in the text to the right of the download link to locate
both a tutorial in its use, and a forum in which to post your log. Don't
latch onto an existing thread--post in a new thread--the subject header you
used here should be effective, I'd think.