NIS2010 - unknown infection XP PRO

Hi

 

OS - XP PRO SP 3 (all patches & updates)

NIS 2001 - 17.1.0.19

 

I suspect I might have some sort of trojan, virus or other nasty.  It might have come onboard while browsing but I'm not absolutely sure.  I do recall seeing a redirect from a webpage (very quick) and when I tried to close the browser (IE 8) I was asked if I was sure (small dialog box).  This may have been incidental though.

 

Symptoms

 

When I open IE the home page appears unchanged but another instance of the browser opens onto some stupid IQ test site.  This does not happen every time but always initially and regularly thereafter.  It appears to happen with FF too but so far only once ... then again I am not using it as much just now.

 

I am getting a regular (about every 5 minutes) alert that someone from Luxemburg (spelling??) at IP 212.117.174.172 (always the same) is trying to access (??) SVCHOST.EXE whenever I am online.

 

Discussion

 

I've used NIS forever and it's brilliant ... saved my **bleep** far too many times to count.  I suspect the problem was self caused either by me or my son who tends to click everything in sight :)  It's never wise to click anything that is asking a dumb question.

 

My concern is that my system is compromised.  Perhaps my PC is sending out info to a hacker and or the hacker is trying do more harm as evidenced by the clockwork efforts to get into the system.

 

NIS scan comes up clean but this may be a false reading.  Lots of malware taget AV software so avoid detection.  I've emptied my temp folder and deleted my browsers cache ... no joy.

 

Help Required

 

I'm not sure where to even look here.  All help gratefully received ... :)

 

Mike

Australia