Just a friendly (or not so friendly) virus reminder....

[Silverleaf]

Greetings,

This is a bit odd, but I thought I'd post the details of it to help fellow gamers avoid some critical problems with their system. I recently started getting pop-ups here at Subsim with Firefox 3.0.5, and when I'd run AVG 8.0 it would capture a couple freescan.htm files, place them in the Virus Vault and I'd reboot to finish the job.

I kept getting them.

So, phase two, install a spyware product - given that AVG's Free spyware software is no longer supported. I knew of a few good ones, but the best on the market is SuperAntiSpyware. Yes there may be "better ones" out there - but when you include free updates, auto scan AND removal, well it can't be beat - and it's totally free.

So, installed and bang, it found 5 items AVG Spware missed. Reboot, delete good to go right?

I kept getting them.

Sent an email to AVG and a couple other companies I deal with regarding my problem, even included a log file and all pertinent information. They gave me something to try, removed it, rebooted.

I kept getting them.

Searched online, no exact fix, no exact description fit my problem. On a whim, I started searching my older computers because I remembered something in the back of my cerebral cortex about Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer incompatibility issues. 7 hours later I was down to one last full manual scan of system files, going through anything that looked suspicious and if that didn't work, well...

12 hours later before I prepare for "How R.S. lost his sanity" - commonly known as "Reinstall Time"....

I come back online to check email, and in the midst of doing so I have a popup again. I just glance in the upper left hand corner before AVG captures it and asks me what I want to do with it when I see it. The rat fink that's been causing all sorts of problems for the last 4 days.

Internet Explorer itself.

I use firefox, have not, will not use I.E. on threat of death. So why is it firing pop-ups that nothing can stop?

I open I.E. and start checking options - under "Allowed Popups" I have a listing of 27 links. All 27 turn out to be viral in nature - and because I.E. was allowing them, they couldn't be stopped because AVG/etc. didn't have full access to do so.

I did not give them access!.

So after firing off a final report to a few services I:

ran AVG, rebooted
ran SuperAntiSpyware, rebooted
used my 2nd favoritie uber-utility RegSeeker, rebooted.
ScanDisk, rebooted
Reg Defrag, rebooted
Defrag, rebooted

Started up Firefox and ... and... no pop-ups !!!!.

The system is flying..and I'll make this bold as a plea/reminder to everyone. After I checked everything one last time:

I made a Backup System Restore point - so in case I have an issue in the future, I can pop back to this ultimate awesome point.

So after all that - if you experience the same thing, please check your old - still installed browser's pop-ups and security settings - don't allow any pop-ups, set security to max, turn off active X etc.

Windows Xp still uses I.E. for some services - therefore you need it even if you don't use it.

I'm not sure if Vista does this - if so Be Careful

Save yourself the same headache I just experienced.

Cheers and Merry Christmas...