John Bartow
john at winhaven.net
Thu May 5 10:02:29 CDT 2005
Steve, Sounds like you've run the gamut! In really bad cases (I've got two sitting here now) I run multiple Spyware detectors (after the initial Trend-Micro, MS-AS) and then manually remove the detections (if the free version won't do it). Panda, CA, X-Cleaner, Norton, F-Secure, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Webroot, CheckPoint(Zone Alarm), Aluria. Can all be run one at a time (or many at the same) so I just do that while I'm working on other things. Have you booted into safe mode and tried resetting the windows update settings as the administrator account? Also try the repair feature of IE. Turn off the software firewall and set the IE settings back to the defaults. (I'm assuming you're behind a router/HW firewall.) Try running the updates after that. Also try a registry optimizer on it if you have one. Systemworks or Vcom, etc. or try http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/default.asp if you don't. You could also download the updates from another PC using the Windows Update Catalog. I used to make CDs of all the updates once a month or so and then use the CD with dial-up customers. It was kind of putsy but better than waiting for dialup downloads (Thankfully most of my customers have DSL now!) Another possible issue - NAV 2005 has some major quirks about it. Up until 2004 it was my top recommendation for home users (or NIS) but I have run into many issues with it and unfortunately Symantec's answer always seems to come down to "uninstall all Symantec software and re-install". I would suggest uninstalling it. I suggest, if its OK with your friend, that you try AVG or another free for personal use AV. For home users I now recommend AVG/Sygate personal firewall and MS-AS (which I don't care for but hey, its free and it works pretty good). Anyway, there's my 2 scents... John B. -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 8:55 AM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: [dba-Tech] Compromised Internet Explorer? Dear Group, I'm working on a PC that belongs to my wife's best friend. I've gone through all the standard routines: Trend Micro Housecall on-line virus check, Windows System File Checker, update to Windows XP SP2, download and install Windows Anti-Spyware Beta, Gibson Research SpinRite 6, update Ad-Aware SE and run it, and even repair the Windows XP installation. My only concerns with this system are: 1) that Norton Anti-Virus 2005 doesn't start properly and I don't have the lady's installation CD; 2) that the ZoneAlarm Pro subscription expired almost two years ago; and 3) that the Windows Update site doesn't work. Regarding #3, When I get to the page that says that it checks for the latest version of the Windows Update software, there is a flurry of "activity" in that the progress bar in IE 6 goes all the way to 100%...but the "checking for latest version" screen doesn't go away. My suspicion is that IE itself is compromised. I used an XP SP2 upgrade CD that I have, hoping that it would take care of the problem. But after I ran Belarc Advisor and saw that a good dozen of the Windows security updates had NOT been installed, I went to the individual Microsoft KB articles on the upgrades and clicked on the links to get the security update...and each time I was directed to the Windows Update page where it doesn't go past the "Checking for the latest version of the Windows Update software..." stage. For what it's worth, this copy of IE is "branded" with the original ISP that the lady signed up with, ComCast. I see that logo in the upper right-hand corner of the IE window instead of the Windows logo. Something is stopping this PC from being updated in the normal way. I have also set the automatic updates option, but when I open the Security Center, it shows that the automatic updates option has not been configured. If I click on 'Turn on automatic updates,' I see this: "We're sorry. The Security Center could not change your Automatic Updates settings. To try changing these settings yourself, go to System in Control Panel. On the Automatic Updates tab, select Automatic (recommended), and then click OK." Needless, to say, that's how I tried to change the setting. If I go to System and look at the Automatic Updates tab, first of all it takes FOREVER for the Automatic Updates tab to actually show its information. Last night I waited it out. Several minutes went by and then I saw the Update information. It was set to Automatic Updates, but I wanted to change the time that it would check for updates. So I changed it to 11:00pm and clicked Apply. I had to wait another interminable time before I could click OK. We're talking 20 minutes or so in total for those two simple acts: click the Automatic Updates tab and Apply the new setting. Clearly something is compromised. If it's Internet Explorer then, what? Do I have to re-install Windows from scratch? I would recommend doing that to this lady since the drive is formatted as FAT32, not NTFS....but, like, I've spent way too much time on this already. Anybody ever see anything like I've described? -- Regards, Steve Erbach Scientific Marketing Neenah, WI www.swerbach.com Security Page: www.swerbach.com/security _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com