dadiOH said:
It would help to know what you have tried.
AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy are both free, both work well.
If you do get on-line, you can _also_ try
*
www.trojanscan.com <
http://www.trojanscan.com> (which has moved but is
still GFI),
*
www.pestscan.com <
http://www.pestscan.com> (scan only; very fast;
sometimes overly aggressive; links to manual removal instructions that
appear to be deliberately obfuscated by combining specific removal
instructions for several pests so that instructions are unnecessarily
complex), and
* Yahoo toolbar with spyware scanner (which does remove spyware but is also
somewhat prone to false positives -- I have at least two and am
investigating several more that I suspect are false positives).
In addition to
* firewall and
* real-time antivirus (avast!, AVG, and Antivir) and
* ad hoc backup antivirus (previous or F-prot, BitDefender, or Antidote) and
* possibly an on-line scan (Panda, Symantec Norton, etc..), be sure to
include
* a registry monitor (WinPatrol, WinSonar, Spybot's TeaTimer, etc.).
www.Pricelessware.org <
http://www.Pricelessware.org> or
www.PricelesswareHome.org <
http://www.PricelesswareHome.org> have links to
most of the products mentioned. Security recommendations are likely to be of
special interest to you.
Without intending any offense, if you've spent hundreds of hours trying to
get your PCs back on-line, I suspect you are going about it the wrong way.
Perhaps you could check to see if there is a local computer club in your
area that holds regular meetings. They can be a great resource for ideas and
even help. If nothing else, someone is likely to be willing to create a CD
or two with the core freeware security programs that you need to install
before you connect to the net again. Some ISPs, especially those supplying
broadband services, include a free antivirus, firewall, or other security /
privacy programs. For example, Verizon DSL provides McAfee VirusScan and
firewall for free; Earthlink provides a free spyware scanner; Microsoft
provides a link to a commercial antivirus and firewall package available for
free for one year..
With or without help, instead of compromising another system, perhaps you
should start over with a clean install on a new primary drive (boot drive)
and install a few core programs of known provenance from CDs, floppies,
zips, or LAN -- i.e., not by logging on to the Internet. If your library
supports it, you can use floppies for smaller programs and perhaps even CDs.
(My local libraries only allow writing downloads directly to floppies so I'm
limited to 720 mb. I can't even use a splitter on a larger program. One
librarian was kind enough to download a disk recovery program to a zip disk
once.)
After you have installed the appropriate SECURITY software (firewall,
registry monitor, hopefully antivirus), you can go on-line and obtain what
ever else you need from reliable sources. Start with the most recent updates
to your OS and the security software you already have installed.
Once you have a new working system, back up the new working system on
CD/DVD. I assume you have some kind of burner or tape backup. Copy
everything from your original drive to backup. TEST your backup!
Then salvage your files (your docs, your addressbook, your databases, your
email, etc.) from your old drive(s). If you need something right away,
salvage just that sooner but leave the rest until now. Once you have
recovered your important data and backed up the new pristine configuration,
the recovered data, and the original disk, you can overwrite your old
(presumably larger / faster) disk and make that your new boot drive.
A "new primary drive" does not necessarily mean a newly purchased harddrive.
Perhaps you have one on an old machine that you are not using or that you ca
n temporarily free (e.g., you have a known good backup). Perhaps you have a
friend who will lend you one for a few days (but don't promise to return it
that soon). This does not need to be a huge drive. Two gigabits will do (6
for DVD), although 10 - 20 would be handy.
As mentioned elsewhere, try HijackThis once you have a system that you can
at least marginally use. The forum where you post results has an excellent
reputation for helping people with spyware problems. You are more likely to
get specific help if you have already done as much as possible. Try the
on-line virus, spyware, and trojan scanners. They won't remove the pest, but
once you identify the problem, you can usually find a solution for it.
McAfee, Symantec (Norton), BitDefender, Trend, and several other vendors
have various specialized tools that are free to download and use. McAfee's
Stinger may be the best known. It is revised frequently to remove the dozen
or so most common virus infections.
Good luck. I find these problems frustrating.
BillR
