Will that cause the computer to run properly and with its normal speed????
(nice hit on my signature too by the way..lol)
Adam,
Well, there MAY be other reasons for the symptoms, but when you say "every time
she gets connected to the internet, the computer slows to the point where she
can't even open internet explorer...", this screams of malware saturating the
dialup link, and pinning the CPU. And if there's no router involved, I'll give
3 to 1 odds that malware is in there somewhere.
And if the malware can be removed safely, I'll bet you'll see a significant
performance gain.
I'll warn you - if the symptoms are as severe as you stated, and the problem is
malware, you have a bit of work ahead of you. My sister's computer was like you
described - I removed around 500 pieces of crap from it, and it took me 3
passes, and 2 good days of work. You may be luckier, or not, but the results
will be worth it.
You may definitely gain by starting with a router, so you can connect a clean
computer (properly firewalled please), download to that computer, then copy thru
the router to the infected computer. Get all tools downloaded, before
installing any. Most install easily, so downloading is the challenge. And a
router to connect the two is the key.
The key to the cleanup will probably be HijackThis and log interpretation. You
would probably be best off using two free services, simultaneously.
# BBR Security Forum. <
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/security>
# SpywareInfo. <
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=227>
<
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/interpreting-hijackthis-logs-with.html>
This will require an Ethernet adapter in each computer. That's not a bad thing
though, getting rid of any directly connected (internal or external) modems is
the first step to preventing modem hijacks (which is one possibility for what's
happened recently).
<
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/ics-is-ok-but-you-can-do-better.html>
I may have to co-opt your sig, it's perfect for a security argument. ;-)
