I don't know what to do!

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Earlier in the week my IE was getting redirected and I got some pop-up telling me my comuter was infected and I needed to buy a certain "virus removal" program.

 

I called a repair service that I found on line that also happens to be located a few blocks from where I live. I figured if all else fails I could go knock on their door.

 

The guy at the service remotely logged onto my computer, did a lot of updates, reparticioned things- started working on my laptop (another computer that I have)  which seemed to be running fine, eventually installed Norton 360, said things were ok. (I'm leaving out a few details but that's generally what happened.)

 

Norton found some things and said it took care of them. I ran norton several times. The second time it found some more things. After that everything was clean.

 

I did /do get some messages saying their was an internet attack but Norton blocked it.

 

The service now said they were busy with other things and couldn't help me anymore for at least a week! They give me a long list of tasks to complete, most of which I don't understand- that's why I called a service.

 

I'm still having trouble. I get internet redirects. My service won't/can't help. The guy tells me it's my fault, I shouldn't have opened up my word files for at least a week after the virus was removed- he tells me this after things stop working, not before.

 

I'm running Norton in safe mode again.

 

I don't know what to do next.

 

Please help.

 

John

2

Turbo gives excellent advice for which I rc'vd from this board some months back and it helped immensly.

 

Norton isnt always enough, no security is. 

 

If you have vista you will need to right click malwarebytes to open it next time and run as adminstrator. And as Turbo said make sure you update it before each use.

 

You can use it because it doesnt run live you update it manually as long as you take the free version.

 

I wonder tho' before these people loaded norton did they fully remove any other security you had?

 

You dont want to run live ware with norton.

 

Once you run malwarebytes...you must hi'lite and check what you want it to rid of or it wont.

 

Those pesky pop up viruss are bad and if you click anything in the pop up box it will go live on you.

 

Its best to use task manager to close ie or your browser or if not just power pc off immed then virus scan after.

 

Dont believe anything a virus pop up says unless its your onboard security (norton labeled).

Good luck.

 

 

3

Thanks for the help, Turbo and Artfreak.

 

I'm a little scared to start downloading malwarebytes and going at it on my own mostly because I know I don't know what I'm doing. That's why I hired the "expert." But if I can't find appropriate experienced experts to pilot my computer I may have to give it a go myself.

 

I did a few things today. I let my "expert" know how I felt about his work. One thing he said that I needed to do was reset my router. I have Verizon FIOS. I didn't know how to reset my router so I called Verizon. Verizon checked my router remotely and said that there was nothing wrong. They said routers can't be involved with this problem. We reset it anyway. Did my "expert" give the right advice?

 

I called Norton, yes, I used a phone and actually talked to someone. I got connected right away and it was a bit strange at first, she was surprised that I got her number and had a token number, I just got it from the Norton site. There must be some crossed wire at Norton.  After the strange beginning she seemed helpful. Listened to my problem, said their were malware problems that had to be removed by hand. For a fee Norton could do this and guarantee the results for a week. It's a better deal than my "expert" so I may go that route.

 

I ran a full norton scan in safe mode, it took a while, didn't find anything.

 

I went to the Norton customer help and we launched a remote session. The tech checked my computer and said he didn't see anything wrong. I showed him then attack reports I keep getting. He told me not to worry about that. He tried to generate the Internet Explorer problem but it seemed to work for him. I took over and managed to get it to re direct me. He played with the IE settings and cleared temp files and such and that seemed to fix the problem at the moment. I couldn't get it to break again right away. He seemed to think it was fixed. Still, sometimes when I exit IE it reports an error.

 

I read something about resetting IE if you get errors. Is this something I should do? Is there any danger in doing it?

 

I would think Norton would be interested in finding out what my problem is if I still have one and so far I'm kind of liking the company so I'm willing to work further with them, especially since I don't know what I'm doing and this stuff is so complex.

 

Thanks again for the advice. I'll update my thread to see how this turns out.

 

Tt does bother me that there doesn't seem to be a way to go after the ip address that are trying to attack my computer. Is there no place to report this kind of thing?

 

John

4

I have no idea what reset ie is? I agree reseting your router prob hasnt a thing to do with this, unless something else is happening youve not mentioned like losing  your net connection.  As to reporting attacks...well the net is big place to catch, and norton does have a thing to send suspicious files too. (ive not done it)

 

I can only say if you are uncomfortable taking care of any of it alone then you do what you have to do.

I will say that unfortunatly having others do it is costly and not always helpful, i am not comfortable with handing my pc  remotely over to anyone.  Maybe maybe a trusted friend.

 

You dont have files that are privacy sensitive do you?

 

I swear I had more trouble after norton comando'd my pc remotely I hung up the connection and never looked back.

This board however has helped me more then any route id tried.

 

Malwarebytes is very safe to use and very helpful but do whatever you must. (IF you download malwarebytes from the link in this thread) look close cllick download on newest version in green on right , not on the other security it mentions on left spyware doc..)

 

There are other browsers out there popular ones: firefox you can download but if you have a virus none of this will work.

 

If you have tool bars of various sorts on your browser (ie8) like yahoo or google or any add on ones it can make your browser have issues...while someone is working on it Id ask them to remove extra tool bars from ie.

 

Honestly malwarebytes may run once and hellp if you click what it finds and hi lite it and dont want to delete it click it and say quarantine then post here to ask if to be deleted.

 

A hint when downloading anything read the fine print and make sure boxes to take add on crap like tool bars are unclicked. That goes for all downloads.  Wont cause virus just drags pc.

 

It would help folks here to know what system you run (xp, vista etc...) There are folks here who would talk you thru what to do on these boards if you keep posting to them.

 

Good luck to you, Im sorry this has been such a pain.

 

 

5

artfreak,

 

<< I have no idea what reset ie is?  >>

 

Internet Security has on one of the TABs behind Tools / Internet Settings / Advanced a [ Reset ] button that deletes all temporary files, disables all add-ins and resets all changed settings back to defaults.

 

It is a powerful tool when all else fails and should not be used unnecessarily. It may indicate that the problem is with one of the add-ins and so using the classic techniques for reenabling them a bit at a time can spot the actual cause.

 

Just as background since the rest of your advice is admirable -- no-one should be frightened of running Malwarebytes and by pasting the report into a message here can get more help .

6

Earlier in the week my IE was getting redirected and I got some pop-up telling me my comuter was infected and I needed to buy a certain "virus removal" program.

 

I called a repair service that I found on line that also happens to be located a few blocks from where I live. I figured if all else fails I could go knock on their door.

 

The guy at the service remotely logged onto my computer, did a lot of updates, reparticioned things- started working on my laptop (another computer that I have)  which seemed to be running fine, eventually installed Norton 360, said things were ok. (I'm leaving out a few details but that's generally what happened.)

 

Norton found some things and said it took care of them. I ran norton several times. The second time it found some more things. After that everything was clean.

 

I did /do get some messages saying their was an internet attack but Norton blocked it.

 

The service now said they were busy with other things and couldn't help me anymore for at least a week! They give me a long list of tasks to complete, most of which I don't understand- that's why I called a service.

 

I'm still having trouble. I get internet redirects. My service won't/can't help. The guy tells me it's my fault, I shouldn't have opened up my word files for at least a week after the virus was removed- he tells me this after things stop working, not before.

 

I'm running Norton in safe mode again.

 

I don't know what to do next.

 

Please help.

 

John

7

huwyngr: thanks :) I didnt know that. I did however do all that by hand manually each item on my own LOL.

8

>

Internet Security has on one of the TABs behind Tools / Internet Settings / Advanced a [ Reset ] button that deletes all temporary files, disables all add-ins and resets all changed settings back to defaults.

 

It is a powerful tool when all else fails and should not be used unnecessarily. It may indicate that the problem is with one of the add-ins and so using the classic techniques for reenabling them a bit at a time can spot the actual cause.

 

Just as background since the rest of your advice is admirable -- no-one should be frightened of running Malwarebytes and by pasting the report into a message here can get more help .

 

First I'm not sure I understand the reset you're talking about. Is it found by going to Tools on IE, then Internet Options, then Advanced settings then hit the reset buton?

 

If that's the right reset, is there any danger in hitting it? What's the worst thing that could happen if I do?

 

Thanks,

 

John

9

what_now

 

<< First I'm not sure I understand the reset you're talking about. Is it found by going to Tools on IE, then Internet Options, then Advanced settings then hit the reset buton? >>

 

Precisely !  I was answering artfreak's query to you about the ie reset you referred to:

 

<<  I read something about resetting IE if you get errors. Is this something I should do? Is there any danger in doing it?  >>

 

I quoted what Microsoft says next to the button when I said << [ Reset ] button that deletes all temporary files, disables all add-ins and resets all changed settings back to defaults. >>

 

I can give no gurantees but I've used it and all I had to do was to go into IE / Tools / Manage Addins  and enable any that I wanted and if the error crops up again as I enable them one by one then I know that one needs removing or altering. And if you don't use the default settings that you get when installing Windows / Internet Explorer then you may have to alter those but I normally keep them.