This thread is disturbing to Gail and not yet very helpful.
Let me put a better spin on it.
I repair peoples virus riddled computers daily, hooking them up to my
'unsecured' network without issues. In the past I have cleaned them first
before connecting them to the network, but more recently I have trusted my
virus scanners and automatic updates from Microsoft to keep me safe.
Occasionally one of my networked computers will flag an unsuccessful attempt
to infect my computer, but it is rare.
For Gail:
1) There is a reason his computer is being infected, and he needs to find
out why.
2) When you reformat and do a clean install of the operating system, the
boot sector will be overwritten, as well as any boot sector virus that might
have been there. So this is not the source of the 're-infection.
3) Windows 7 with the latest patches and a virus scanner is a VERY secure
operating system, so I am betting that the infection is a result of some
action that your son is initiating. Does he like file sharing programs to
download movies, MP3's, and contraband software? These are known to be
unsecure and provide an entry point for infections, typically through an
undocumented 'back door'. Norton and McAfee can help scan the streams of
data used in Peer to Peer (P2P) computing that may include a trojan. It is
best to use P2P software as little as possible.. and don't leave it running
all the time!
4) We might be able to give you more specific information if you can get him
to do this for you:
Go to http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/ (by Trend Micro) ,
download HijackThis and install it on his computer.
Wait until he is sure that he has been infected again, run HijackThis
and have it dump into a text file a list of all the software that is loading
on his computer when it starts each day. Cut and past this list to an email
for us to see... it will give us much more info to help track down his
unique problem.
These $300 'netbooks' are very popular this Christmas because of their
price and portability, but beware.. this is a VERY underpowered machine for
today's internet environment. Once you load the necessary virus protection
software, your netbook will become somewhat sluggish. If you try to run
several powerful programs together, it will be even slower. I recommend
these machines only for people who want to have a Windows computing
environment to carry with them everywhere they go. Don't load it down with
unnecessary programs or utilities, and you should get a few years of good
service from them. By nature, they will have a shorter lifespan then larger
computers, since they are more likely to be dropped or banged up.
Good luck to you Gail!
- Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "tjpa" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [CGUYS] STRANGE VIRUS?
On Dec 21, 2009, at 4:19 PM, db wrote:
Sorry for the bad news. It's unlikely that there is an easy or quick
solution to your problem.
Switch to a Mac and don't install Office. That will make him practically
invincible.
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
