Genealogy Chat

Maurice, You still haven't said what Operating System you are using. Cheers, Horatia

I think I am due for a smack! Looking at the top of the screen it says 'INTERNET EXPLORER!' so I must be using that , sorry, If you want me again, I am in the duffer's corner now, Maurice

Maurice, Right to save me posting links for programmes that may be unsuitable for you - what Windows Operating System do you have? XP Service pack 1? XP Service Pack 2? 2000? Me? 98 SE? Cheers, Horatia

If you look at the scan results of the avg7 it will tell you exactly which files were infected - just go to the scan centre and click on the report there. Mine were from teenage son downloading music. Those smilies are awful, they install such a lot of spyware that I got rid of them.

Maurice, Smileys!!! A certain smiley programme that I know of installs spyware on your PC! Which programme are you using to surf the net with if not Internet Explorer (it's name is very descriptive!) MSN, Firefox, Mozilla or Opera? It sounds to me as though you have some spyware on your PC. I'll be back later and post some links for you to download some good anti spyware programmes, but at the moment I am sitting waiting to make a last minute bid on e-bay - I'll be back soon (promise)! As to how you got the virus or whatever it was - it could have been picked up from a website or came as an e-mail attachment. Cheers, Horatia

I am at a loss to know how I got the virus in the first place. I have not downloaded any music. I have never used Internet Explorer as I don't know what it does. I always use 'Google' as a search engine.The main sites would be Ancestry (uk only) Genes, 1837,Family History,CWGC,1901 census, Amazon (uk only) Ebay (A lot). A friend once told me that if you get a 'Pop up' saying so and so is trying to access your computer,immediately shut down. I always do this it has happened to me about 3 times in the last year. My wife does play with 'Smiley's' on her Emails - some of which are animated and play tunes. We were warned by an 'expert' not to have anything to do with something called 'Hotbar' but we did notice AVG flagged up a couple with the name Hotbar in also 'Smiley's. Does this count as downloading music ? The Trojan virus hda.exe was in the middle of the uninstall section of C drive. I know this because when I ran the Norton Scan as soon as the 'infection' showed I stopped the scan to look at the list of files currently being scanned. Maurice

Oh wow Brenda, that must have been awful. Ive deleted mine and then done another scan with avg7 with the system restore off. I guess it makes sense. If you have system restore you are still holding on to the bits containing the virus unless you clear that too. Nice to see you home.

Hi Horatia Thanks for the advice. If I had used an IT guy with any common, he might have done that for me. I try not to think that I could access it all in safe mode, so it was once retrievable. I'll know better next time.

Hi Ebeneza, Often when you have had something like this it is still on your PC in a system restore checkpoint. The usual advice when ridding yourself of any nasty beastie is to turn off your system restore, make a fresh checkpoint then turn it back on. If you use Outlook Express it is dead easy to back up your address book - it will easily fit onto a floppy disk as will your Favourites. You can also print your Outlook Express Address Book out. Just highlight the entries you want to print (Hold down the Control Key to highlight multiple entries) and then print. Cheers, Horatia

Hi Folks I'm back. Want to guess what the problem was? I had AVG7. It detected the little beast all right, but only deleted a copy. Downloader managed to put my boot sector out and although I now have my data back, I have lost three years worth of emails and my address book. Be afraid, be very afraid, and unlike me, do some backups!

I was recommended avg7 by a certified microsoft engineer when I lost my whole hard drive to a virus. I still put on the mcafees cos Id paid for it. When I started getting more probs someone on here suggested avg7 and thats when I dumped mcafee in favour of avg which is free anyway.

Maurice, Do you know how to update your Norton? Because as good as AVG is I can't believe that a fully updated Norton wouldn't have been able to prevent these infections. Do you have any spyware scanning programmes on your PC? If not you should. Happy to recommend some if you wish? Do you use Internet Explorer? If so, do you know how to configure it to prevent spyware installing? Do you frequent dodgy free music websites? Lots of nasty viruses and spyware can be picked up on these Peer to Peer File Sharing Programmes. Before blaming the software we use, it might be best to consider our computer savvy and if we are doing all we can to protect ourselves. Cheers, Horatia

I had so many problems trying to renew Panda antivirus that it needed an engineer to sort it out. He put me on AVG and it's been brilliant since. I'm still getting emails from Panda but just delete them unopened. I am really impressed with AVG.

Dear all. I made an executive decision to uninstall the AVG, as it seemed logical to return to the original Norton set up that has worked in the past with no problems. Everything is now working properly on the Emails and the Norton is loading by default as it should. I am very grateful for the time and trouble you have all taken, I just hope that many other people out there have benefitted from your 'Expert' knowledge, on their behalf thank you. I am now left in the dilemma as to which is the best to continue with in the future. I have just paid (in Oct and Nov 05 £50+ to Symantic (Norton) for continued updates for 12 Months, so it seems a waste not to continue. Having said that, I am most impressed with your AVG answer. I think I will switch to that, if the problems come back. I hope someone from Norton is reading this. Regards Maurice

Its probably because the avg7 also does a email scanner, and as Horatia said, there is a conflict. You could turn off avg7's email scanner if you want, but I think its precious and has saved me opening many a virus infected mail. It also scans your outgoing mails so you cant pass anything on. Try switching off your Nortons temporarily if you have decided to keep avg7 instead. Or just clear the avg7 program.. Im so pleased it sorted the trojans though. You can also get a free firewall at Zonealarm.

Maurice, You are definitely NOTsupposed to have two Anti Virus programmes running - they will conflict with each other. Decide which one you want and then uninstall the other one. When you say you can't receive messages in Outlook do you mean Outlook Express or Outlook? They are two totally different programmes even though they are both Microsoft. Outlook comes with Microsoft Office and Outlook Express comes with Internet Explorer. Are you getting an error message? If so what does it say? Cheers, Horatia

Now have added free trial AVG - thank you and it has removed several Trojans! One problem now is that I cannot receive emails via Microsoft Outlook. Would Norton antivirus interfere as it is still on my computer? Perhaps I should remove free trial AGV now it is done its work. Any advice? Maurice

What I love about avg7 is that every day it updates automatically. With my old paid for Mcaffees it seemed to be a couple of weeks before it updated itself. A couple of weeks is a long time in virus infection!

Free AVG 7. Go for it! Norton is not what it claims - just expensive and repetitive for about 3 months before sub renewal is due with constant reminder messages popping up.

OK, I have just looked up Norton System Works and they do have a 2006 version so it is still a modern product! I must have been thinking of my cousin. He has a version of Norton on his PC that dates from the year dot!!!! ;-) Cheers, Horatia