Databaseben, I sent you a message below

[glee]

Here's a couple of things to ponder:
1) Configure it properly so as not to do anything without permission,
or
2) UNINSTALL RealPlayer.

If you need to have a player to view Real file format files, uninstall RealPlayer
and try RealAlternative:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

Another option is to replace it with RealPlayer Enterprise, a version of RealPlayer
designed for corporate use, where their background processes and advertisments are
not permitted:
http://forms.real.com/rnforms/products/tools/red/index.html

Fill out the form, use any company name you like ("Black Hills Mountain Women"
sounds good to me), and submit, then download when you get the link for it, AFTER
uninstalling the current version of RealPlayer.

 

[DatabaseBen]

yeh, something is suspicious about
that realsched/real player.

i think that a pop up blocker might
not be a bad thing to get installed.

for me i have disabled that realsched startup
and have not received anypopups. but i do use the
new ie7, avant browser
and spyware terminator
w/clam anitvirus plugin and
msdefender.
so issues like pop ups, etc are
a thing of the past for my pc's.

also it would be such a bad idea
to try out different antivirals until
you get the ones that work best
for your particular pc.

further, it wouldn't be a great loss or a
bad idea to uninstall real player for now.
and see how your pc functions for
a couple of days.

but it is your computer and i beleive
that you should do what ever your heart
desires with it. I'm only here to provide
some suggestions based on my experience.

if you do decide to unload that realplayer
and install the other programs mentioned above
besure to make a restore point first.

then be sure not to have duplicated / triplicated
antiviruls running as well; as this will bog down
your system. So if you want to try out
that spyware terminator, then be sure
to disable what you already have beforehand.

basically, i think we got you back up and
running again......

before you know it,
you'll become a computer expert.....

let's see "MtnLadyBlackHills1986, MVP"

(sounds pretty good to me....)


"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986"

 

[Guest]

DatabaseBen and Glen, I'm addressing this post to both of you.

I thought you both had excellent points. One thing I do have to bring up is
that I am handicapped and earn very little money from my part-time job. Much
as I would love to try (and possibly buy) a lot of these different
anti-virals and anti-spyware software packages, the bank just says "no" right
now.

BUT I keep a running log on Notepad on my computer of all the posts on
topics I put on here for help with. That way I can find posts giving the
names of softwares to try and useful links. I know I'd NEVER find my topics
again in the several hundred pages of this enormous forum! When my cash flow
is better, I will take a look around. I do have AVG on my computer at work
and know it is an excellent program.

I agree with you both that an advertiser or someone tagging along with Real
Player is the cause of my getting those Trojan Horse Downloaders.
Ironically, I never would have switched to Real Player if Microsoft hadn't
messed up the area in Windows Media Player 10 so you could no longer get
information for commercial CD's you wanted to load in your Library from the
Internet. The area I used to go to quite a while ago is now "grayed out" and
even their "support" information is out of date and gives info for the old
way. So when I decided I didn't want to spend a couple years manually typing
in all the information, I went and downloaded Real Player....

Another irony... You both suggested implementing a pop-up blocker. After I
had removed all my toolbars, I later decided to just put the two I use most
back on - Yahoo and MSN. I had my pop-up blockers activated in both those
toolbars, as well as in IE, when that Real Player pop-up appeared later.
Spooky.....

I have decided to take both of your advice and uninstall Real Player. (I'm
going to do it tomorrow morning when I'm more alert to what happens when I do
- have part of a day off work.) I'm hoping it will be like photo programs.
Whenever you install a new one, it takes over your jpegs, gifs, etc. from the
previous photo program. I'm hoping, with Real Player gone and all my audio
media in My Music, that it will revert back to Windows Media Player. I would
think all the song titles, CD titles, and artists would be retained. The
genre might change but that's no big deal to me. If Real Player (or someone
with them) somehow manages to destroy my media, I have a backup of all of it
on my other hard drive.

In that case, I would take Glen's suggestion and would go ahead and check
out how much the professional Real Player costs. If I could afford it, I'd
get that. If not, I'd go with with the Real Player alternative. But I would
wait a little while after uninstalling my present Real Player before doing
anything.

Glen, I wanted to tell you that I'm going to type out all those "Add-ons
that have been used by Internet Explorer" that you were interested in,
tonight on a notepad sheet and then copy them to the forum. That way, if
Microsoft pulls that "log in number" on me again, I won't lose everything but
will just re-copy it again. I will put it over in my other topic, where you
requested it. I hope you find it of interest.

My, you have some "heavy duty" security software, DatabaseBen. I don't
think anything could get through that! The only free item you have seems to
be the new IE version 7. I'm sure you've seen all the posts in here of
people screaming about it. I also notice one poster keeps putting the same
links in these topics, about reading up on IE 7 before installing it and
other links with information about IE 7. I think I will copy those down and
read before I "jump in" and then end up back here in trouble again! Ha!

My, I am flattered that Glen thinks I could sound like a business and
DatabaseBen thinks I could become a computer expert! I loved those comments!
I might "squeak through" as a business but a computer expert I'll never be.

Since I can't send any personal emails or personal mail here, I'll just take
a chance with "the powers that be" here and waste a little bandwidth with a
poem that describes me. I hope they don't mind. I don't know the author of
it, just that I got it off a very nice ecard site called "Angelwinks Site".
I hope you enjoy it. I'll get back to you about what happens when I
uninstall Real Player, OK? Here's the poem that fits me:

Do You Remember When....

A computer was something on TV
in a science fiction show
A window was something you hated to clean
And ram was the cousin of a goat.

Meg was the name of your girlfriend
And gig was your job that night
Now they all mean different things
And that mega bytes.

An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano.

Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for awhile.

Log on was adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider's home
And a virus was the flu.

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash
But, when it happens...they wish they were dead.

Good night and again, thanks to you both for all your help.

Sue

 

[DatabaseBen]

hello mtnlady,

need to slow down a bit
because i think may be going off in a tangent.

firstly, you discovered the original problem
which was due to that toolbar and you have
disabled it.

the toolbar was likely installed automatically
with another download. So it might be possible
to unistall the toolbar and or the original
program. But disabling it may have been
all that was needed.

secondly, in regards to buying real player - unless
you have a need for lots of music then
there is no real reason to buy a copy of
it. The freeware is ok, but of course it
comes with strings attached, like the pop ups.
Pop up from them are not dangerous, only
a nuisance.

My suggestion to temporarily uninstall it
was see if maybe there were other
softwares on yous system that activates
your antivirals warning system.
But there is no
reason why you can't reinstall realplayer
again in a day or two.

Just be sure to exclude
any additional software it is offerring
at the time of installation. And be sure
it is the "real" one, so go to its parent site
and download it from there. And when it
is installed check your msconfig for unwanted
entries. Actually you should check msconfig
everytime you install any software.

thirdly, the software i mentioned is freeware
and you don't have to pay for them. But it
is your choice if you want them or not.

fourth-ly, there is music that comes in different
formats. The real player is one kind of player,
i-tunes, rhapsody and of course the one from
microsoft windows media player All of these
are freewares too.
----------------------
you provided a highly detailed listing of your
ie plug-ins and it does provide some indication
of what you have on your system and where
you have been..
But I didn;t see anything out of the ordinary.
"And" they can be disabled as well.

If your media player is disabled, then
it might help to enable it and it might
work again. However, it can be downloaded from
microsoft.com as well. Do you have a
windows setup cd? If so, is it SP1 or SP2?

In any case I think you are in good shape because
you may not have actually installed a trojan. But if
you did then it may have been contained from
further contaminatin.

the above are suggestoins for fine
tuning but here are some sites that will
be of interest to you....

go here and use for 90 days or 1 if you decide to uninstall it
http://www.windowsonecare.com/purchase/trial.aspx/?sc_cid=mscom_wscdownloads

go here and read the section for home users
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

go here for media player
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/10/default.aspx


"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986"

 

[DatabaseBen]

Not to distract you from my prior post
but here are the sites for those softwares
i suggested. When you get the time
later in the week and after you
focus on the other things mentioned to you
take a look at these:


http://www.spywareterminator.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx?mg_ID=10001

i did notice that norton addin from the listing you
provided to the other responder. but
not sure if this is used to do an online
scan at norton or you had it/have the full
version installed on your pc.

anyways... take it one step at at time
"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986"

 

[glee]

Just a few quick points:

- RealPlayer Enterprise is FREE....it does not cost anything. All you need to do is
include the name of a company on the web form you fill out prior to downloading and
installing. It is designed for the corporate environment, where the ads and pop-ups
that come with the commercial RealPlayer are not permitted.

- I did *not* recommend implementing a third-party pop-up blocker. The built in
pop-up blocker in IE should be sufficient for your needs. The pop-ups you receive
(even with a number of your blocker simultaneously enabled) may be due to the one of
your installed toolbars (Advanced Searchbar). See my reply to your other post in
this thread.

- AVG Free Anti-Virus is OK, but far from excellent, and I would not suggest it for
use as primary protection.....their paid version is better, but I would not rely on
their free version except as a backup AV. (Additionally, using AVG Free at work may
constitute a violation of their license agreement, which states for single, home use
only).

- Spyware Terminator, used by Ben, has never been on the list of trustworthy
anti-spyware apps, and was for some time actually on their rogue anti-spyware list:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
due to its parent company's connection with producers of spyware.

With all due respect to Ben, and while the utility is no longer on the rogue list, I
suggest you stick with only the products on the Trustworthy list:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#trustworthy

- After some use of Windows OneCare, also linked by Ben (including my being in its
early beta testing), I do not recommend its use at this time. I suggest you use
other tolls, as described on the Trustworthy list, and here:
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm

Good luck.

 

[DatabaseBen]

ok, i can understand your position

but lets keep this simple for the o.p.

your making a simple notification brought
to mtnlady's attention into a big mole hill

keep it simple, resolve the immediate issue/threat
and move on with life.....

as for now, the o.p.'s issue was identified and resolved
by her self and because of some help from us.

to me this ticket is closed...

 

[glee]

Her issue was not identified and resolved, IMHO. There may still be some work to
do, and easy enough to check, which is why I asked to see her HJT log elsewhere in
this group.

I am not "making a mole hill" (though I think you mean mountain ;-)) out of
anything. She disabled all her add-ons temporarily. That does not really resolve
anything. "Resolving only the immediate issue" is doing the job halfway. Better to
run a quick and simple check or two, than to load the system with extra background
software as you keep suggesting. How is that "keeping it simple?"

The rest was clarification on incorrect statements, such as that RealPlayer
Enterprise costs money, when it is in fact free.

To each his own.....

 

[Guest]

To everyone here, thank you for your concern about my problem (fear that I
had a Trojan Horse on my system). As I said in my post at my other topic,
I'm sorry I accused NTREGOPT of being involved with Trojan Horses. As an old
saying states (I'm paraphrasing), "there is nothing more dangerous than a man
(or a woman!) with a little knowledge". Anyway, I think I will re-install it
again. But I am going to keep a close eye on my start menu in msconfig on
any program I load. I did end up un-installing Real Time Player, as
recommended by DatabaseBen. I see no harm in leaving it un-installed a
little while, as I got all my CD's logged. Unfortunately, what I had hoped
would happen (that the music files would revert back to Windows Media Player)
didn't work. So I guess I use Real Player. I'll decide later what version I
want to use, but I will NOT allow any toolbars, newsletters, or attachments
of any kind. (That goes for all new programs I may install in the future.)
Ben, regarding Windows Media Player, I might have not expressed myself very
well. I did not un-install it. I still have a few things like video clips,
etc. sent by friends that are set up for WMP, so I think I'll just leave it
be.

As I said in my post at the other topic, I am more than willing to learn and
will read the various links posted in both of my topics (who but me could get
two topics going on the same subject? LOL). I'm pretty sure that my problem
is solved and I know what to watch for in the future. But Glen, I will do
your HijackThis log. It is not that big a problem for me, and I'll read the
links about what to do before running the program tomorrow or Friday. Then
I'll run the test on Saturday. As I said in the other post, I don't like to
do something like this after a day of work - I'd rather do it when I'm
mentally refreshed. Another reason I wanted to run this test for you is to
hopefully "lay to rest" some of the disagreements over on the other topic.
It appears there has been some "disagreeing" coming close to fighting. I
imagine that happens at this forum, as it does at about every other one, but
it's too bad. One thing about both of you guys is that you can "agree to
disagree" and still show respect for each other.

Ben, my security software has quite awhile to run yet but I will read your
links and check out the different types of software as I have time. It
doesn't hurt to keep an open mind.

Again, thanks to everyone but special thanks to DatabaseBen and Glen. You
guys have been terrific in your helpfulness and concern! This forum has
been a "godsend" to me more than once, and it's a great place for a layperson
like me to come for help. However, I'll probably be lucky if Microsoft ever
LETS me come back again. With this post, between the two topics, tonight I
found that there are 50!! posts. OMG - I had no idea what I would start!

To Ben, so many thanks and "may the force be with you"! :^) Glen, thanks
to you also and if I can pay you back by running one test, it's a small price
to pay! :^)

Sue (who knows - maybe MtnLady Company someday or a Microsoft MVP! ;0) )