Virus?

[TheSternMystic]

So, my internet has been behaving very oddly. Norton Antivirus doesn't come up with anything, I'd like to scan using their internet scanner, incase the Antivirus installed on my computer has been compromised, but it seems my access to certain sites, like Symantec Security Response, is blocked. Personally, I'd like to wipe the hard-drive and start over, family members are not so keen on the idea.

 

I've done some googling to see if I can get any info on viruses that cause this sort of behavior, except that it seems those sites are blocked as well.

 

Anything you guys could recommend to help? Maybe you'll have better luck with google than I.

 

Thanks.

[Coolzero101]

boot up in safe mode with networking then remove the blocked sites from your lmhosts file and you should be able to do what ever you need to.

[Ste]

In cases like this, its nice to have alternative Anti Virus programs on a portable device in case you cannot DL any such tool off line.

On My USB flash, I have

AVG

Spyware Blaster

SpyBot S & D

Adware SE Personnal

HiJackThis

CDShredder

[TheSternMystic]

Thanks for the replies,

 

What's the lmhosts file?

The search function is also disabled, as is the ability to Defragment the hard-drive.

[Symeon]

Here is the path to your host files if you are using WinXP.

 

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

 

You should find

 

hosts

lmhost.sam

 

Open these files using notepad, making sure that you uncheck the box to always use this program to open, and check to make sure that there are now addresses or urls that are not remed out "#" or excluded from the code.

 

I always like to keep clean host files on at thumb or hard drive so I can just copy and paste over the hijacked ones. I you have another computer that you know is not infected you could try this method instead of having to edit the files.

 

I sounds like you have it pretty bad though so back-up as much as you can and be prepared to reinstall.