Software - - Important update on virus

Ed_L · #1 02-01-2003, 11:44 AM

I sent a few messages to individuals to let them know I had received a virus. I just found out that the e-mail I sent had an attachment with it. I did not put an attachment in the e-mail. I hope I didn't infect anyone else's system. Now what do I do???

Ed

DJ Dubovsky · #2 02-01-2003, 08:37 PM

My e-mail from you didn't have anything attached to it.
DJ

platscha@cs.com · #3 02-01-2003, 08:51 PM

Ed, that is sort of how the worm gets around, it attaches itself to your email to anybody you email, it may be that it did not get contained as you thought.
If your computer starts doing just little strange things, that is a sure sign, first mine wouldn't shut down, then a couple of days later it wouldn't come on, then one of my programs wouldn't boot up, and on finally the safe mode starting coming up, that was when i took it in and found out i had a "worm"

T Paul · #4 02-01-2003, 09:02 PM

Ed,

If you think the W32.Sobig.A@mm worm has infected your computer here are the instructions on how to remove it:

Symantec Security

Hope this helps....

~T

Ed_L · #5 02-01-2003, 09:58 PM

Thank you for the link T. I think I'm in good shape now (fingers crossed). By the way, I like the new avatar!

Ed

T Paul · #6 02-02-2003, 11:29 AM

Thanks Ed!

~T

Ed_L · #7 02-03-2003, 01:26 PM

Possibly my computer is infected after all. It passed the tests, but it's doing some wierd things today. There are quite a few files I don't have backed up, but most are. I was backing up files, and my files were being saved to CD, when all of a sudden, everything froze. This happened three times, and all three times, I had to shut down by holding the off switch in. I decided to run another virus scan with AVG, and it scanned about half of my C: drive, when it froze again. This is becoming a real learning experience. So if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know why.

Ed

dcarr · #8 02-03-2003, 07:30 PM

Ed
Check your msconfig and see if anything new was added to the startup. Perhaps something was loaded and is running and causing this disturbance. Also check out Trojan Remover and Ad Aware. these 2 programs check for spyware and trojan horses hidden in your system, they can also cause freezes. Adaware is free and trojan remover is a trial. I would also advise a registry checker or scanner to see if anything was added to your registry. Although adaware and TR will check reg files, sometimes it's not enough. I'll try and find out some more for you. Keep us posted if you can.
Debbie

Ed_L · #9 02-03-2003, 09:51 PM

Thank you Debbie. Knowing what little I know about computers, I can use all the help I can get! I downloaded the Trojan Remover, and ran a scan. It found nothing. After restoring my computer to an earlier restore point, everything seems to be OK now. My brain's on a roller coaster!! One minute I'm pretty sure I'm OK, and the next, I'm expecting the machine to blow up!

At the present time, I'm feeling good about it, so I think I'll go to bed feeling that way. Thanks again.

Ed

platscha@cs.com · #10 02-03-2003, 11:15 PM

But. . . . it is acting exactly like a worm does and as far as I know the only way to rid it is to wipe your hard drive, I really recommend taking it somewhere and having them check it and do it for you. My friend went through the same thing and kept thinking it was ok the next day only to have something else go wrong and she waited until it zapped everything in her computer and she had to get a new one it was so damaged by the worm
Like I said before, I am less than "know anything" about computers but this is what I was told.

d_kendal · #11 02-04-2003, 12:33 AM

yes, that would definitely be the smart thing to do. reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling windows isn't hard though, so it's faster just to do it your self (just make sure you have *everything* backed up!!!) there's a couple free programs you can use for reformatting. one is the Ranish Partition Manager it's freeware and can do any kind of reformatting, partitioning etc. that you could want to do with your hard drive, but it's a DOS program and it's not completely intuitive, so read up on it first if you're going to use it. another one is from Maxtor, it's called MaxBlast Plus II (it will only work if at least one of your hard drives is a maxtor but I think I remember you saying something about having a problem with a maxtor drive Ed) it works quite nicely for formatting and partitioning. I've used both, but if you're new to partitioning, go with the Maxtor (or another alternative is PartitionMagic by PowerQuest) which is easier to use.

- David

Ed_L · #12 02-04-2003, 08:58 AM

Thanks for the replies. So far, so good. No other problems *yet*. I'll keep a sharp eye on it though. If it starts acting wierd again, I'll talk my son-in-law into doing the dirty work for me.

Ed

CJ Swartz · #13 02-04-2003, 09:06 AM

Since AVG anti-virus CAUGHT the worm, the worm shouldn't be the cause of the new problems. If there is any new program added in the last few days, it would be good to check to see if that is the cause. My computer sometimes freezes while doing things because of a lack of resources -- when I'm running several programs plus visiting the web, and haven't re-booted in a while. The freeze during the virus-scan worries me, though -- have you been able to complete the scan after re-booting?

Ed_L · #14 02-04-2003, 01:36 PM

After I set it to an earlier restore point, everything seems to be working OK again. I ran another complete AVG test, and a Trojan Remover scan since then. Everything ran to completion, and nothing was found. The only thing I've downloaded in the past month or so was the Trojan Remover, because of the problems I was having. But I slept good last night, and expect to do the same tonight.

Ed