james said:
I have xp home. I cannot access some websites and cant
seem to install nortin antivirus on my computer. Actually
let me be more specific, i cant access work websites to
check my email and even the intranet site. the sites work
fine from other computers, just not mine. i even get a
error message when trying to do windows update. error
number 0x800b0001. Im lost. any suggestions?
If you can't install NAV, your computer may already be infected with
viruses and/or other malware. Not being able to get to certain websites
may mean that your hosts files are also compromised. Here's how to deal
with this:
1) Take the infected machine off the Internet and any lan immediately.
2) From a different, clean machine download Stinger
(
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/) and run it in Safe Mode. Stinger is a
limited virus checker, but its advantage is that it is standalone and
doesn't need to be installed.
3) Hope that Stinger cleans up the machine enough to be able to
reinstall your av or install a new, current one. Update its definitions
and do a full scan.
4) Continue the cleaning process by removing any spyware with Spybot
Search & Destroy (
http://www.safer-networking.org) and Ad-aware
(
http://www.lavasoftusa.com). These programs are free, so run them both
since they complement each other. You may also want to run CWShredder
and HijackThis from
http://aumha.org/freeware.htm. Although CWShredder
is no longer being updated, it will still clean older variants of the
CoolWebSearch malware. Be sure to update these programs before running
them. Always read the instructions before running a spyware removal
tool. It is best to run antivirus and spyware removal tools in Safe
Mode.
5) Make sure you are running a firewall.
6) Go to Windows Update and apply all security patches for your
operating system. Do not install drivers from Windows Update.
And here's how to check your hosts files:
1. In XP's Search preferences, set the files and folders handling to
Advanced, and then check the box that will make Search look in hidden
files/folders.
2. Now enter the search term "hosts" without the quotes.
3. You will get several hosts and lmhosts files. Double-click each one
to open it. When you do this, you'll get a Windows dialog box saying
that Windows cannot open this file, do you want to use the web or
select from a list to find the proper program. Choose "select from a
list" and highlight Notepad. Make sure the box to always use this
program to open this type of file is not checked.
4. Now carefully examine the file. Lines that begin with a # are
comments and don't count. Leave them alone. Unless you know you use a
proxy server to get to the Internet or you added entries yourself, the
only uncommented entry that should be there is:
127.0.0.1 localhost
If you see any other entries, delete them and Save the file. Make sure
you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the window if there is a
scrollbar. Do this for each file you found. Now you should be able to
get to antivirus and spyware-fighting websites.
With all that said, if your company has an IT Dept., you should contact
them immediately because they need to know your computer is having
problems. They may want to deal with it themselves.
Malke
