I'm willing to bet Ted Zieglar was right. Do you have a router between your
computer and the highspeed connection? Are you running a firewall? If not
it only takes 30 seconds, in some estimates, to get a worm, virus, or other
malware from the internet. If you are using a router/firewall, then you've
probable contracted these problem programs because you're not using the
right protective programs and protective computer habits.
I'd start by running your anitvirus program to scan for viruses. Then I'd
run Microsoft's Antispyware, also known as Defender. If you're fairly new
to computing you should probably let MS's Antispyware run in the background
all the time to protect you from new spyware. Then run Lavasoft's Ad-Aware
and Spybot Search and Destroy. No one antispyware or adware program gets
all the bad stuff so run those three. You can also protect yourself from
further spyware trouble by runing Spyware Blaster to block spyware from
coming in through your browser.
I have links to all those programs on the Downloads Page on my site plus a
description of one of my experiences cleaning malware from a friends
computer on my Security Page. Good luck,
Jim W.
http://www.gatorgrad.com