One hand tied OT, but not OT

Best I can tell it goes by the name of Spy killer. It popped up when I was trying to get adaware and spyware to tell me what was nawing on my machine. This guy dismantles those programs, literally before your eyes. As soon as the home page pops up it goes off and pops up again and then distructs.

Had my brouser captured where my home page was no longer but consisted of this indexed sheet of stuff to buy. Got around that by deleting all sorts of things but still had the problem of my net communications being re routed thru us.i1.yimag.com. This turned out to be a website in Pennslyvania for Yoga International Magazine. They were skimming my sites (and maybe keystrokes too) and it made the thing slow as molasses.

Tried to delete the spykiller (in the programs section) and it wouldn't go away. At 2 am today, I got up and found a function that shuts down programs when you boot up. Applied that and must have gotten it as things changed drastically. Now I can't get the net at all and my machine won't even shut down. Have to unplug it to get the Windows 98 screen off.

So what does this have to do with tractor talk? Everything as I can't do any tractor talking from my home for the time being and when I have questions to answer, after I get home and look to verify accuracy, I can't send out the answer. Have to wait till the next day or Monday.

There are some really mean systems out there to make your internet surfing a nightmare. At the rate it's going, the internet, as we know it today, has a very limited life.

Will keep you posted, but in the mean time, think twice before you visit a site, and if it takes a longer than you think time to get their home page, bail out.

Mark

Thanks

Mark

Tried to get tech support from microsoft, but needed some sort of user/member access something or other, and got nowhere. I figured if purchased a license (for XP) and registered online as loaded, would have access to tech support. Perhaps I figured incorrectly.

So thinking that "wks" was related to microsoft works, and knowing that Mom never purchased or had works loaded on her PC, I figured what the heck, delete any and all files/folders related to "wks", and that's what I did. Has been running ok since.

My sister, the corporate LAN wiz told me that she was going to have someone look into "wkscal.exe", but I haven't heard a word yet. I have no clue what it was or where it came from, but if I do a file/folder search on "wks" on my XP, doesn't exist. Just blew it away on Mom's PC. So much for her online McAfee through AOL.

Mark.

• Tech Forum on wkscal.exe program problem

You did what I was trying to do; find the source of the malicious code that was reloading crap every time I booted up.

I know these files are .exe and looked and looked under program files and all and couldn't fine them.

I also know that these viruses are deliberately hidden so you not only can't find them, but sometimes can't tell that they are adding to your memory.

Hiding them in wks is a neat idea (for them). Now that I think about it, I had a lot of NOTEPAD traffic.

I can still navigate my desktop, so I think I'll look in my notepad folder and see if any .exe files are there. If so..... ..... ...outta here.

Thanks,

Mark

Problem is, knowing when to let a cookie in.

Maybe you just turn them on, conduct your business, and turn them back off..... Geez what a pain.

Mark

One very important thing to keep in mind is that spyware (malware, keystroke logging apps, etc) are mostly targeted at the vulnerabilities in Microsoft Explorer. There are alternate browsers available for free. Yes, for free.

Personally, I recommend and use Firefox by Mozilla. It is a very nice browser with features only MS Explorer could dream of (like tab browsing). About the only downside to Firefox is getting all the plugins downloaded so your browser does not prohibit certain flash/media features built into many sites. Firefox can be downloaded, installed, and your Internet Explorrer settings imported within 5 minutes of clicking on the download link. It has a very easy install wizard.

Another very popular alternative is Opera. It is not for the casual internet surfer as the setup is slightly more complicated.

Both Firefox and Opera are CONSIDERABLY MORE SECURE than Internet Explorer. These companies actually addressed security holes as they developed the product ... not after it was released to the consumer like Microsoft did.

Give it a try once you have completely rid your PC of spyware,, malware, and any virus resident on your box.

Best of luck.

• Mozilla's Firefox

Mark

I would never say anything bad about Panda.

I run XP Pro with SP2 and Firefox. I have a hardware router/firewall, software firewall, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, & Shred-it. I have not had one spyware app make it onto my computer in months.

I had such a huge problem with spyware using Internet Explorer my PC was nearly useless. I spent roughly 24 hours cleaning and recleaning. I learned a lot about this malware. Some of it actually runs in your RAM. This means that you must (in some cases) reboot your machine immediately after "cleaning" it using one of the tools already described. If you dont reboot the malware rebuilds itself as soon as you launch Internet Explorer. The specific malware I am talking about are called hijack malware. These apps actually make registry change to your PC making your home page something like a porn or Viagra site. Talk about a pain to fix.

In my "real" job, I am a computer security and disaster recovery manager for a company in St Louis. This was such an eye-opener for me that I had to go and check out our corporate machines. WOW! Talk about a complete infestation. We've spent a couple months cleaning and immunizing machines. So far, the free tools have been very functional.

Best of luck to anyone with the spyware problems. I'd be glad to help if I can.

Thanks,

Mark

Protection from spyware:

1) Consider alternate browser to MS Internet Explorer. See my prior post - I prefer Firefox.

2) Always use spyware blockers and finders. Freeware includes Spybot S&D (general spyware protection - the best I have seen for free), Ad-Aware (pop-up and spyware control), HijackThis (for hijack malware - Caution: this is a somewhat complicated program to use. If you do not know or are not comfortable making registry changes, DO NOT USE this application), ShredIt (very good fixer). With any of these freeware apps, you end up having to remember to get updates to the software and remember to run the app at least weekly if you do a lot of surfing. Do a googel search for any one of these.

3) Retail spyware blockers - like McAfee & Symantec. I have not been impressed with these apps. They are less effective than the freebies and they cost money. I am sure there is a pay-version of good spyware protection somewhere but I have not found it.

4) THIS IS A BIG ONE - Create a user account in Windows that does not have administrative rights/permissions. Most spyware assumes the user account has admin rights. If your active user account (the one you are browsing with) cannot write changes to the hard drive, then most spyware is rendered ineffective as it attempts to execute on your machine. One word of caution, log in to make changes to your machine as the administrator but do not surf the web unless you are specifically downloading something you are certain is 100% safe. Otherwise log in as the user with fewer rights/permissions.

5) Keep up on Windows security patches at all costs. Do not fall behind. Even if you do not use Internet Explorer as your browser, installing Firefox does not remove Internet Explorer from your machine. Keep up on patches and security fixes. Yes, you should be cautious of service pack updates but that does not mean you should fall too far behind.

Bottom line: Get spyware protection, anti-virus (active) protection, firewall (software or hardware router and learn how to use it), consider alternate browsers. Do most of these things and you are light years beyond 90% of the home users and 60% of the corporate users who touch the internet. Never assume you are protected or unnoticed. Be paranoid when it comes to the internet - lots of freaks and criminals use it all day long.

Try this, its free, called spybot - search &Destroy. I use it, its good, and solved all of my problems.

Link

I will have to wait for my new stuff as she is dead as a doornail now. As I said, cain't even raise my network provider and get an open phone line.
Mark

They are both most effective as part of your startup routine (however, I would only use one at start-up, and the other occasionally). I don't believe one is more thorough than the other, however Spybot is a lot faster.

You should be able to find both at download.com - a very reliable site.

Mark

Mark

Mark

What I did was move onto WinXP. I just got tired of fighting Win98se.

XP works like win98se was designed to work. I have very few problems now what what does come up has been easyly fixed usually with a feature called restore, about a 10 min fix.

I've been running XP for a year now and had one small crash, my bookmarks. I didn't have XP set-up correct or that wouldn't have been a problem.

Only draw back to XP, it likes memory, 512mb ram and a fast CPU. Well that wasn't a problem as my old motherboard took a dump so it was time to upgrade anyway.

How good is XP comparred to win98se? I have two puters still sit'n with win98se for a year without being turned on. Huge difference.

I only have a 56k V.92 dial-up which I only get 28.6k at best, but with XP it's still twice as fast than my old system, partly due to my new V.92 modem and part due to XP.

T_Bone

My network provider tech assist tried to get me hooked back up to the network last night and couldn't even do that.

We talked, and the plan is to get a new hard drive, some XP and start over. Glad you like the XP.

I'd like to send my old harddrive somewhere so someone could analyze the sheer madness that was perpetuated upon me. But I did delete a lot of the stuff and it's a lot cleaner than it was.

You don't suppose that these "fix up up program" manufacturers have a dual line do you? One line creates problems for us and the other fixes um. Easy for them to fix them and look good doing it as since they generated the virus or whatever you want to call it, they know what is wrong and where to go and find it.

Otherwise it's some computer geeks (kids maybe) with nothing to do and want to make an impact on society.....so we know they were born.

Thanks,

Mark

Mark

Then, comuter went toast, got the XP box here, & it is a _constant_ battle to keep that down, & my inbox is full of garbage spam.

Best bet is to install the latest updates for your version of Windows, learn about turning off some open doors each version has, and getting a good firewall going if you need to. Also using anything other than Microsoft products seems to help, since the bad folks don't target those small markets. Mossilla for browsing, and some of the stand alone email programs do not get caught up in the spyware as bad.

It is human nature to foul up whatever we have it seems. Internet was free & unencumbered & lightly taxed & barely regulated. But with spam & spyware & trolls, all that will have to change - and cost us all bandwith & money.

--->Paul

Have you set-up a admin then set-up users for being on the net? This sets up the XP firewall. It also is easy to get rid of a hacker problem if one would ever exist as you just delete the current user and make a new user.

There is also anti-spam ware in Outlook. I have only received one piece of spam this year and that was from someone who I gave out my e-mail address too and they gave away my e-mail addy to another one of there many companys.

I installed XP service pack2 a couple months ago. I don't know how much that is helping but it brings along some new features, pop-up blocker, better firewall and ?

T_Bone