"CommonName/CNBabe", is that my problem?

[Lunaray]

I gave my grandaughter a slightly used HP for her birthday (1.6 Pentium w/XP
Home Edition) and it didn't take long before she got herself into trouble!

Symptoms:
When she connects to her ISP (Quest/MSN) she can't open Internet Explorer,
instead, a bunch of garbage pop-ups show up, things I've never seen before.
Then I noticed some program in the notification area called "108 Search
Assistant", or something like that, so I went to Control Panel/Add/Remove
Programs and uninstalled it! Well this didn't work, now I'm getting errors
referring to "CNBabe", "BabeIE" and "winnet.dll". I can open Internet
Explorer only when her PC is off-line, if I try to open it when it's
connected to her ISP, it opens for about half a second and then closes by
itself. If I try to open Outlook Express, I get an error saying that it
can't find the server, even though it's connected. Over all, everything is
just a big mess and nothing works right anymore.

I did a search for "CNBabe" and apparently it is a nasty, malicious, spyware
program called "CommonName", that hijacks your computer! I found some
removal instructions but it's going to require manually removing lines from
the registry, something I dread!

Has anyone here had any encounters with this horrble program and if so, do
my symptoms sound familiar, is this most likely my problem?

I have a copy of "Spy Sweeper", I'll try that first!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Your PC is probably infected with viruses/spyware/malware.

Unexplained computer behavior may be caused by deceptive software
http://support.microsoft.com/?­id=827315

Download Ad-aware SE and scan your PC for the presence of sp­yware:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

Symantec Security Check
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym&plfid=23&pkj=YVXRORVWHFHMFNZMBBX

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

3 Simple Steps to Help Ensure the Protection of Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/athom­e/security/protect/default.msp­x

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

Utilize the following maintenance programs, at least monthly,
to maintain the optimum performance of Windows XP:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312&Product=winxp

How to Perform Disk Error Checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315265&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305781&Product=winxp

3 Simple Steps to Help Ensure the Protection of Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/athom­e/security/protect/default.msp­x

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I gave my grandaughter a slightly used HP for her birthday (1.6 Pentium w/XP
| Home Edition) and it didn't take long before she got herself into trouble!
|
| Symptoms:
| When she connects to her ISP (Quest/MSN) she can't open Internet Explorer,
| instead, a bunch of garbage pop-ups show up, things I've never seen before.
| Then I noticed some program in the notification area called "108 Search
| Assistant", or something like that, so I went to Control Panel/Add/Remove
| Programs and uninstalled it! Well this didn't work, now I'm getting errors
| referring to "CNBabe", "BabeIE" and "winnet.dll". I can open Internet
| Explorer only when her PC is off-line, if I try to open it when it's
| connected to her ISP, it opens for about half a second and then closes by
| itself. If I try to open Outlook Express, I get an error saying that it
| can't find the server, even though it's connected. Over all, everything is
| just a big mess and nothing works right anymore.
|
| I did a search for "CNBabe" and apparently it is a nasty, malicious, spyware
| program called "CommonName", that hijacks your computer! I found some
| removal instructions but it's going to require manually removing lines from
| the registry, something I dread!
|
| Has anyone here had any encounters with this horrble program and if so, do
| my symptoms sound familiar, is this most likely my problem?
|
| I have a copy of "Spy Sweeper", I'll try that first!
|
| Any help would be greatly appreciated!
|
| Thanks!
| --
| Ray