THERE IS A VIRUS GOING AROUND THAT IS IMMUNE TO ALL VIRUS PROTECTION (MCAFEE, NORTON ETC). WELL IT GOT MY MAIN COMPUTER. DO NOT OPEN ANY PROGRAMS THAT POPUP OR TRY TO DOWNLOAD ONTO YOUR DESKTOP SYSTEM. YOU WILL NEED TO ENTER SAFE MODE AND DELETE THEM WITHOUT OPENING THEM. PLEASE BE CAREFUL. I LOST EVERYTHING ON MY DESKTOP SYSTEM. THANK GOD I HAVE MOST BACKED UP ON MY LAPTOP. PLEASE UPDATE YOUR VIRUS PROTECTION AS THERE IS A FIX IN THE WORKS. THIS VIRUS HAS NO NAME YET AND IS NEW TO THE SYSTEMS. JUST BE CAREFUL.





THANKS GMC2500HD..

I am an IT business owner. You need to run several things to be safe.


1 If you have Cable or DSL get a linksys router (VERY IMPORTANT). It will move you from a Public IP address to a private (NAT)


2 You need to run a firewall like sygate (monitors in/outbound activity VERY IMPORTANT!).


3 You need to run a good anti-virus like mcaffe or norton and it NEEDS to be UP TO DATE (VERY IMPORTANT).


4 You need to run a program called regprot. It shows you whats trying to implant itself into your registry and allows you to stop it real time.


5 You need to install and run spybot (VERY IMPORTANT). It needs to be updated and run weekly.


6 You need to run a pop up blocker called popupcop (CRITICAL).


7 If something does lodge into your web browser you need to get hijackthis.





Later this week I will post a small blog on how to speed up windows XP by a factor of 3X. Its simple and takes 5 minutes worth of changes to your system. Your computer will love you.Edited by: problemchild

PC, I have all the latest software and virus protection on both my systems which are suppose to be bullet proof, guess not. haha

Thanks PC


I have about half that crap and will research the rest!

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Problemchild, thats great info, specially for some of us tech. challenged. Cant wait for the post on speeding up XP. SPEED IS GOOD!!!!! ( Now if you can tell me how to increase the torque on XP, I'd really be impressed!!)http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Clown.gif


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Does it affect Macs?

Does it affect Macs? Not very likely

the virus is actually a worm variant, very nasty and not your run o' the mill virus. this variety is beginning in your browser or similar (pop up, etc). all you have to do is view the web page associated with it and it is yours. i have been looking at this one over the weekend, there is really no way to tell right now other than being cautious about where you visit or ads you click on. some versions can also email themselves from mail applications.


beware

Well I was lucky enough to get it and it has not been fun. I have been working on my computer since it hit and I am still having fun with it.

If your drive gets infected and the AV is killed this is what you do. Get a computer thats current with AV software and has a usb port. Buy an external usb hard drive rack (about 39.00 dollars).


Take your infected drive out and put it in the rack. Plug it into the running current computer (that you dont care about). Then scan the drive from the current running computer (should be drive D or E). It will find the virus and kill it.Edited by: problemchild

problemchild,

With all that stuff you might as well have a virus cause it won't have any performance left. You'll need the 3x fix just to get back to square one.

Hoot none of those things will slow it down. And without them you WILL get infected.


There are other ways but these are the best and cheapest.


Remember this is what I do and do well.

I have Trend Micro protecting my computer. It is catching 2 or 3 worms a week. So far so good. (knock on wood) I do believe it slows things down a little. I am looking forward to the 3X upgrade. Later! Frank

The only thing I could see that PC left off his list is make sure your software is up to date. Microsoft releases patches for vulnerabilitites and general fixes once a month now, easily obtained from the Microsoft Windows Update site and the Microsoft Office Update site. MacOSX is known to have some vulnerabilities since it is built on BSD UNIX. The LINUX kernel is also known to be vulnerable, hence the creation of the SeLinux kernel.


Some good reading at www.cert.org (http://www.cert.org) one of the leading groups in computer security.


http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/home_networks.html


http://www.cert.org/homeusers/HomeComputerSecurity/

Norton sure as heck slows your computer down. Do some research.Edited by: hoot

Egads.....


Hoot then take norton and all software off your computer. See how long it runs.





No good deed goes unpunished.........





See off topic for XP 3x speed up post

Got an iMac a couple of months ago and it is sooooo awesome!!! NO POP-UPS no freeze ups, just fast and easy!

Well I took PC's advice and installed those programs he was talking about with the exception to sysgate and popupcop, already have one of those. I just wanted to say that they both work great and the registry program is working, found that out today, kind of neat. The hijackthis program is cool to. Will need to figure it out, but looks fine. Computers are up and running again and I think all is well. Was the rapidblaster worm and McAfee told me it hit a few other systems as well. No definition but is fixable now.


Thanks PC and everyone else be careful.