Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[artfreak]

Hi

I run xp sp3 nis210 current version 32 bit machine.

We surf on a limited user account on our machine, we were on youtube and a music band forum (maybe clicked a link there?) was having no issues then when I went to empty cookies / hist the screen flashed the page slider moved about on its own fast and when I tried to log out it went to user sigh in screen of xp and put p/w dots up like it was doing it itself but wouldnt work to sign in.

I cold booted twice tried to safe mode but couldnt then it was okay again...I ran scans with norton, mbam, superantispyware.

All clean. Ran on both sides (admin side and limited).

It runs fine now???

Could it of been over heating?  Or could a bug of not got lose because I rebooted and we had been using a limited side?

Thanks for input .

[Dieselman326]

Was your browser open when you tried ti empty your cookies? Its best to use CCleaner to empy your cookies and temp files. If your screen was having white dots all over it then that means your gpu is overheating and or on its way out. Why are you askinh in here when this has nothing to do with Norton?

[Phil_D Norton Fighter]

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Dieselman326 wrote:

If your screen was having white dots all over it then that means your gpu is overheating and or on its way out. Why are you askinh in here when this has nothing to do with Norton?

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artfreak mentioned "p/w dots" = "password dots" in the user login screen.  Nothing was said about white dots.

If artfreak felt that this may have been an intrusion attempt, then this is the proper place to ask the question.

• Check the NIS security history to see if any events were recorded.

[artfreak]

yeah we do tend to empty cookies in open browser on occas' I do use ccleaner too just do that at end of day.

Phil is correct I am asking if it was an attack virus or something or since scans were clean could of been a graphics card or something overheating. No tower noise. I appreciate your clarification of my post Phil thanks :) Nothing really out of ordinary on history of norton I just checked. Just wondered if it sounds familiar to anyone. I guess Im wondering if I run on "limited user side" can virus' maybe not fully unpack themselves and with reboot go away or doesnt it work that way even on limited side? Thanks again.

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter · Accepted solution]

Hi artfreak,

I'm not sure what, if anything, you encountered here but running as a limited user does prevent almost all malware from being able to install itself on a system.  There are some threats that now will run in a limited account, but they are rare and are much easier to remove than malware that is allowed system-wide access via an administrator account.  If this was an attack you experienced it is certainly possible that it tried and failed to install due to insufficient privileges.

[artfreak]

thank you "SendOf Jive" :)

I always wondered if limited user helped really (read it somewhere and just did it).

I do want to know tho' Is it smart not to run ccleaner until you scan for issues in this situation and should scan for limited side be ran on admin side or limited.

I use to always run them on admin side of my xp machine but once it caught stuff on limited side, after Id run it on admin side, and I thought maybe you had to do them seperate.   I think it was superantispy and ccleaner that made me think it.

Thanks so much by way :)

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

Hi artfreak,

A single Norton scan in your Administrator account should include all files on your machine, so a separate scan in the limited accounts should not be necessary.  If you observe the scan in progress you should see the Documents and Settings files from every account enumerated during the course of the scan.  I think you are correct though, about some other products scanning by account only.  Seems to me that Spybot Search and Destroy might do that - I know it only checks cookies for the account used to do the scan.

For more on the advisability of using limited accounts:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/05/the_importance_of_the_limited.html

[artfreak]

thanks SendOfJive :) awesome info I do appreciate it .