newbie running mcafee on windows 2000

[Uncle Scotty]

I seem to have spyware on my laptop on which mcafee is installed.
Between the time I got the laptop on the internet and the time I
downloaded and installed mcafee, I started getting these annoying
popups, which don't seem to do anything harmful, but they are
incessant, popup like crazy and take forever to close all the ones that
have popped up since the last time I closed them all.

I've done two deep scans with mcafee since noticing these popups, and
it doesn't seem to catch the program that is doing this, so I cannot
get them off my harddrive.

I thought that Mcafee was supposed to catch that kind of stuff, and
when I contacted Mcafee for support, they told me- needless to say-
that the only tech group that trouble shoots these kinds of issues must
be paid for! I said but it is your crappy software that I paid for
that cannot find the offending virus, so why should I pay you?? No use.

Any help here on how to get this problem cleaned off my computer, other
than reinstalling win2000?

Thanks, Scott

 

[Danny Sanders]

Did you get the Mcafee Virus software or Firewall software?


Sounds like you got the virus software and you need a firewall.

See:
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

They have a free firewall.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

 

[DL]

An AV app v.often cannot detect/remove malaware, for this you need seperate
apps;
You dont mention which version of McAfee you are using but if it doesnt have
a Firewall, ZoneAlarm is free.
The below is from an earlier post;

-----------------------------------------------
If you are using any version of Sun Java that is prior to JRE Version 5.0,
then you are strongly urged to remove any/all versions that are prior to
JRE/JSE
Version 5.0. There are vulnerabilities in them and they are actively being
exploited.
It is possible that is how you got infected with malware.

Therefore, it is highly suggested that if there are any prior versions of
Sun Java
to Version 5 on the PC that they be removed and Sun Java JRE/JSE Version 5.0
Update 7
be installed ASAP.

Simple check, look under...
C:\Program Files\Java

The only folder under that folder should be the latest version...

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_07


http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp



For non-viral malware...

Please download, install and update the following software...

* Ad-aware SE v1.06
http://www.lavasoft.de/
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
http://www.lavasoft.de/ms/index.htm

* SpyBot Search and Destroy v1.4
http://security.kolla.de/
http://www.safer-networking.org/microsoft.en.html

* SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html

After the software is updated, I suggest scanning the system in Safe Mode.

I also suggest downloading, installing and updating BHODemon for any Browser
Helper Objects
that may be on the PC.

* BHODemon

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=3550&file=11&evp=245a87539eea8ed6904332b4b8b8442d

For viral malware...

* Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go
through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in
Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's web
site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot
the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or
you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have
downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe
Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to
run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal
Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more
comprehensive PDF help
file. http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm

Additional Instructions:
http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm


* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[Jim Howes]

I seem to have spyware on my laptop on which mcafee is installed.
Between the time I got the laptop on the internet and the time I
downloaded and installed mcafee, I started getting these annoying
popups, which don't seem to do anything harmful, but they are
incessant, popup like crazy and take forever to close all the ones that
have popped up since the last time I closed them all.

If you are getting popup text message boxes, only when online, and along
the lines of

Message from user FOO on BLAH

spam spam spam spam blah blah
obligatory badly splet missage
bekos spammerz kannt spel

+------+
| OK |
+------+

then it sounds like messenger spam. In these days of WinXP SP2 and
major consumer ISP's blocking inbound SMB packets, I thought that this
was still rare.

You can prevent this by stopping the messenger service (Start, Control
Panel, Administrative Tools, Services), select Messenger, right-click,
Properties, STOP, and set startup type to 'Manual'.

While this will stop messenger alert messages, it is no substitute for a
firewall.

Messenger is a service which is enabled by default on Win2K. It is
unlikely to be of use on a small network (although I do use it in some
circumstances on the company network). As an unnecessary service, it
should be disabled, period.

If, on the other hand you are seeing pop-up full-blown advertising
including graphics, annoying flashing/moving images, etc. You have
almost certainly been hit by some drive-by download. Have a look at
Spybot Search & Destroy from www.kolla.de, and AdAware SE Personal from
www.lavasoft.de
Don't PAY for anti-spyware tools. Many anti-spyware tools that are
advertised and need to be paid for are ineffective, and in come cases,
actually spyware themselves (so called 'Ransomware').

Jim