It sounds like you could use some good advice from Shenan
Stanley. The following is attributed to him:
"Please Notice that if you use AOL, you should at least
upgrade to 9.0 or
greater before doing any of the fixes. I know you can
get AOL 9.0 at almost
any convenience store, gas station, super market or other
retail outlet in
the world, so this should not be a problem. Also, if you
are using AOL 9.0,
you will not be able to perform the first step in this
list. You should
look
into another solution, such as ZoneAlarm, for a firewall.
Turn on that firewall...
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/home/using/howto/homene
t/icf.asp
Make sure you have all the updates (critical) installed
from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(Scan for updates, Review and Install)
Get rid of the spy/ad/mal-ware..
(Yes - using MORE than one of these..
I recommend at least the first three. Also..
UPDATE the definitions for them before using.)
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.net/
Lavasoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de
CWSShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
Hijack This!
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/
I also like "The Cleaner" and "SpywareBlaster"
and "SpywareGuard".
-
http://www.moosoft.com/
-
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/
The first is a PAY product, but useable for 30 days - it
has found and
eliminated problems in the past the others did not. The
latter two are
prevention mechanisms. SpywareBlaster is a FANTASTIC
free product, I
suggest
getting this after you cleanup and keeping it updated as
well....
And Assortment of Others:
http://spywareinfo.com/
ALSO - Be sure to IMMUNIZE after you clean up.
SpywareBlaster and Spybot
Search and destroy both have these features - use both!
After you cleanup your PC somewhat of spy/ad/mal-ware,
verify your antivirus
software is updated and run a full scan of your
computer. If you have no
antivirus software - get one NOW! Grisoft AntiVirus:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size
it stores to about
80 to 120MB (seems to be an optimal size for the normal
user)
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet
Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the
"Amount of disk space to use:" to something between
80MB
and 120MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to
"Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click
OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or
more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer
- Re-open Internet Explorer.
Uninstall any software you do not use often/ever. (If
you have something
installed but never use it, uninstall it.) If you go
through Control
Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and see things you seldom if
ever use, it is to
your advantage to remove it.
Also, if you are tired of Web Page Pop-Ups/Unders.. You
could try the
Google Toolbar.
http://toolbar.google.com/
Stop loading applications at logon.. run MSCONFIG and
look under the startup
tab for things you DON'T want to startup! Search the
Internet with Google
to discover what things are safe to remove and what
things may even be
malware infecting your computer.
Better control your email and lessen the amount of time
you spend dealing
with SPAM:
SpamBayes
http://sourceforge.net/projects/spambayes/
or
Spamihilator.
http://www.spamihilator.com
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