So yeah, the last few days some bizarre stuff's been happening to my internet. Firstly MSN Messenger (6.0 with the third party Plus! upgrade) totally reset itself, claiming I needed to associate a Passport with my Windows Account - MSN now insists every time I sign in to give all my e-mail and password, which I never had to do before now. Furthermore my internet has been running painfully slow - I may only be on a 56k, but it runs damn good for a 56k (usually at 48.0-49.2k) and sharpish enough - now Google just simply won't load and other sites which used to be snappy aren't. Furthermore, folders titled 'Access to this key is denied' have been popping up in my My Documents folder and on the Desktop containing folders such as 'Microsoft' and 'Macromedia' - why's this suddenly happening, is it connected etc. I can't think why my net is doing this, it's not as if I've done anything out of the ordinary...

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"So... Graham Andrew Rutland [Gee_4ce]... well, it says here that Graham and Andrew mean... strong and manly!" - My girl Naomi whilst consulting a big book of names...

Might want to run a good virus and syware check. They can slow you down and cause som wierd stuff as well.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Hmm... come to think of it some weird Windows XP type looking toolbar came up and when I opted to pemanently close it it was called 'Desktop' - other than that I can't think of any other potential spyware... any utilities I can use to root the swines out?

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"So... Graham Andrew Rutland [Gee_4ce]... well, it says here that Graham and Andrew mean... strong and manly!" - My girl Naomi whilst consulting a big book of names...

Sybot: Search and Destroy and Ad-aware are to handy programs to have.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Even as I'm running virus checkers etc. these folders keep popping up - and it all stems from when MSN reset itself - why are these folders popping up (all called 'Access to this key is denied) without my say-so?

[EDIT] The virus check is done - nothing found. These folders are 0 bytes in size containing folders such as 'Microsoft' 'Certificates' 'CTL' etc and can be deleted sometimes and other times not (in use) - is someone using them as an entry point? I'll virus scan them and see.

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"So... Graham Andrew Rutland [Gee_4ce]... well, it says here that Graham and Andrew mean... strong and manly!" - My girl Naomi whilst consulting a big book of names...

[This message has been edited by Gee_4ce (edited January 19, 2004).]

Yep, you gots spyware. It's happened to me too. Get ad-aware 6 and it'll get rid of it (hopefully) all. Try and see if www.excite.com works, and if not use msn.com for searching for Ad-Aware..

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<Glyde> but.. you can't pick pickled peppers, even if a pickled pepper picker could pick pickled peppers!

Sounds like some really nasty spyware - or Windows is simply fudging.


Its at times like this Im glad I dont run Windows any more...

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The future is here, and all bets are off.

Jesus! Thanks for that... I'm scared now but at least I'm on the case - I think some investment in a proper *** firwall is in order - any recommendations?


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"So... Graham Andrew Rutland [Gee_4ce]... well, it says here that Graham and Andrew mean... strong and manly!" - My girl Naomi whilst consulting a big book of names...

Firewalls are useless if your on a diaup. Spyware comes in over port 80 anyway, which is ALWAYS going to be wide open.

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The future is here, and all bets are off.

You should surf more consciously instead.

Use a more secure browser|browser setting, a more secure mail client, don't download all attachments to mails, scan things you download, be aware of spyware etc.

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Of war, we don't speak anymore

It's not your Internet, it's the world's. =P

...Must . . not . . take . . crack . .at . .. IE . .

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The future is here, and all bets are off.

Please don't. One post per thread about how you don't use/like Windows/Microsoft is quite enough.

Good luck getting that stuff worked out, Gee_4ce.

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." -Isaac Asimov

[This message has been edited by Bobbert006 (edited January 19, 2004).]

Just use Adaware and other such programs regularly and you'll be fine.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Spybot is great because it blocks most spyware ever installing. I also religiously block any cookies that are found by spybot or adaware...so its rare that either one finds anything on my computer anymore. Neither one will detect the coolwebsearch hijack or any of its variants though.

Spybot, Adaware, and Zone alarm are your friends.

Firewalls are NOT usless in dialup. they help alert you to trojans and such. they've saved me many times.

Spybot's spyware blocking rocks, its great.

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"In the memory you'll find me. Eyes burning up.
The darkness holding me tightly.
Untill the sun rises up."