Viruses

[TLOSpyrogirl]

Ever been infected before? What did you do? Did you fix it yourself, get a friend or family member to fix it, or was your computer so shot that you couldn't fix it at all, and you couldn't even wipe it? Do you even MAKE viruses (or antiviruses?)?

 

Most viruses are pretty easy to fix. Just start up in safe mode, download or start your favorite antivirus, and run a scan. Not so hard, right?

Unless, of course, you're infected with Conficker or some sort of virus that shuts down safe mode...then, it's not so easy. That requires more advanced techniques, such as using registry keys and command prompts. And sometimes, it's just too late.

 

I got infected with Vista Total Security 2011. That was easy to remove. I got it from deviantart's ads. One is infected. And by the way, how surprising, there's more in there, because idiot devi admins don't know how to pick a good advert company. ' 'Oh, well we don't have audio or video ads!' Okay, then why did I get a state farm ad every time I clicked another page!?

[/rant]

 

I also got MS Antivirus once. Wikia. I don't blame them, though, because they're actually TRYING to keep viruses out of their ads.

 

And after I installed google chrome and malwarebytes, I kept getting alerts of my computer blocking a hacking attempt/trackers from virus sites/etc on babydow, this forum, and a few other sites. So I downloaded Adblock. At least I don't have to deal with ads anymore.

 

And also, once I was on fanfiction and I got redirected to lyricseasy.net. No viruses. I nearly escaped a virus once there, though, because they had an ad called 'test UK', but I exited out of my browser, as my computer hung for a second and I was suspicious. Apparently, I narrowly escaped a rootkit. I think that was my fault, though, because I didn't know how to clear my cookies then.

 

Anyway. Post your virus misadventures here!

[saphirekestrel]

I think I can totally relate to this. Just the other day I was going onto deviantart and suddenly got redirected to this strange site (which I can't remember the name of). All it said was that the page was downloading. I tried to end it with task manager but the internet froze for a moment.

Luckily enough windows security essentials popped up and said it had detected a threat on the computer. It asked if it was supposed to remove it and I was like "YES PLEASE". So apparently it got removed and the computer is fine, thank goodness. The thing itself is labeled as some nasty exploiter of the computer. I'm still not sure about whether the computer is totally safe right now .... but it's working all right. As long as it work all right until near or after finals, I'll be okay.

 

EDIT: I also feel like I'm afraid of going onto deviantart again for a bit. Serves me right I suppose. Right now I've just been clearing my history, including cookies, every time I log off so the websites don't get me (yet).

Edited November 10, 2011 by saphirekestrel

[Wolfsong442]

My mom got the google redirect virus over the weekend. It was hell to remove. I tried system restoring, running malwarebytes...whatever I could think of. I'm still not sure how we did get rid of it. >.>

[saphirekestrel]

Perhaps it was never gotten rid of....

Haha that reminds me of my old computer. We have a windows xp at home and one day it just crashed. Couldn't get anything to pop up on it besides the main screen (but with no icons on it). We took it to get fixed and the person who cleared it out found at least 5 viruses on the thing. It was a miracle it managed to pull through that long.

Of course then the hard drive died about a year later and we had to get that fixed too....

[TLOSpyrogirl]

>.< Oh god, I hear the redirect virus is awful.

[Infinis]

The only time I got a virus was on this computer I'm on now. 38 of them or some such. :|

 

And all I did was a full system restore followed by a complete system scan with my antivirus. >3 Kill ALL the things!

 

I haven't had any virus issues since.

[spyro76]

I'm the only person in my family who doesn't have computer issues. I can count the number I've had on one hand. I have my mouse stop working once because there was a bad update to the driver and printers are the bane of my existence, but I don't consider them worthy of the term "computer" anyway The only we currently have is amazing, it's wireless and actually works, plus the drivers for it were already on my system or it just doesn't need drivers

[Maiden]

Luckily for me my Mom buys Norton, and I get one of the free installs. I can't tell you how many pop-ups I get from Norton saying that 'intrusion attempts' have been blocked.

 

At work, the computers have AVG Free and Malwarebytes. We'd get viruses on them from everything: ads, downloads, even pictures on MySpace. (Back when MySpace was in style. ) We had one girl that kept downloading and installing IMVU (which she had no business using at work anyway) and after three of the computers got viruses from her downloads she was banned from the internet and had to use a computer with no browser installed. I don't know how the viruses were removed, we had to send the towers to our IT person at the main office.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

IMVU is a virus. And I hear the customer service is terrible. IMVU is nearly as bad as brothersoft, or should I say BOTHERsoft, AKA the #1 virus download site!

[spyro76]

Brothersoft is where my parents' computer guy gets everything he installs on their computer. I tell them he's a moron, and they're only just starting to realize it. Brothersoft hasn't ever caused me problems though, and I've definitely used it a few times.

[libby2999]

My dad fixes it. I dont know how to yet as I just got my laptop. But im carful about what I do.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

Yeah, well, aside from most likely having illegal downloads, they make fake accounts on safeweb to promote their site and idiotic Norton ain't doin' nothing about it. In fact, they've marked the site as Safe. Yeah, right. Google detects at least seven trojans...and google doesn't even do download tests.

[Tiki G]

I've gotten a few Trojans here and there but nothing serious as far as I can remember. But I've always been really careful as to what I download. If it is a site I've never heard of, I will research it to see if it really is safe or not.

 

However, everyone else in my family just likes to download things all the time without a care in the world, then they come crying to me when their computer 'isn't working right.'

 

I remember one time a friend of my sister's asked me to help her with her computer because it was really slow so I said "Yeah, sure, why not?"

Downloaded a few antivirus programs and ended up finding over 9,000! 200 of them. I spent hours on that computer getting rid of them all, deleting old and temporary files, defragmenting, updating, etc. It ran as good as new when I was done with it. When I finally handed her the computer back I said "Learn how to use a computer and never ask me to fix it again."

 

I refuse to fix computers for people anymore. It just pisses me off. >.<

 

 

I haven't had any virus problems with my current computer. Although when I woke up earlier, it was telling me that The Sims 3 Pets was a virus. I was like "WTF?" O.o

Edited November 10, 2011 by tikigurl91

[canobiecrazy]

I think I can totally relate to this. Just the other day I was going onto deviantart and suddenly got redirected to this strange site (which I can't remember the name of). All it said was that the page was downloading. I tried to end it with task manager but the internet froze for a moment.

Luckily enough windows security essentials popped up and said it had detected a threat on the computer. It asked if it was supposed to remove it and I was like "YES PLEASE". So apparently it got removed and the computer is fine, thank goodness. The thing itself is labeled as some nasty exploiter of the computer. I'm still not sure about whether the computer is totally safe right now .... but it's working all right. As long as it work all right until near or after finals, I'll be okay.

 

EDIT: I also feel like I'm afraid of going onto deviantart again for a bit. Serves me right I suppose. Right now I've just been clearing my history, including cookies, every time I log off so the websites don't get me (yet).

Get adblock plus. A malicious ad causes this redirecting and downloading of malware. Adblock Plus prevents all of this, and helps pages load much faster.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

Yeah, I second that. ABP is awesome. They even block the ads in gmail.

 

You know...I actually love having viruses blocked, especially when it tells the name of the virus. I love learning about viruses. Most people don't like having malware blocked, but me....

 

Devi...I ought to forgive them and start playing there again...but I'm sick of them. All the bad pics they aren't doing anything about, viruses, and I hear you can get banned for reporting too many pics...(WTF). If deviantart was everything it was now minus the viruses and with better admins, I would TOTALLY join.

[DarkLadyNyara]

Yeah, I second that. ABP is awesome. They even block the ads in gmail.

 

Thirded. I love ABP so very much. I've never had problems with viruses, even when I was using windows. Partly because of Adblock, and partly because of running a decent anti-virus.

 

My roommates once got a nasty one on their computer, though. We ended up having to download the removal tool onto a flashdrive from a separate computer to get rid of it.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

What was it called? Was it just a generic trojan?

[DarkLadyNyara]

I honestly don't remember- it was a while ago.

[TheDarkCynder]

I have never had a virus, unless I had one on my really old computer which I used when I was about five.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

Oddly enough, when I was young...like, seven or eight...I never even payed any heed to viruses. I didn't even know what a virus WAS. I just went to the first thing google pulled up. And now, when I'm virus-conscious...I get viruses or blocked viruses at least once every two months!

[Princess Artemis]

The only virus my computer actually caught was part of the payload for Blaster in 2003. At least, that's all I remember, I'm sure there are some others hiding in archived files and tracking cookies and other things. My parents got the whole payload and I was paid by my sister's boss's wife to get rid of it off their computer. I do remember getting zillions of attempts at Sasser through the e-mail, but it never hit my computer.

 

I'm the family go-to person to clean up viruses off their computers. I am not so very fond of this job, as a big reason I'm careful with my computer is so I don't have to clean up viruses!

 

Anyhow, I'm in the midst of switching to Linux, though it is admittedly taking a while. I should just do it and get it over with. Anyhow, I adore the virus and web security on Linux : )

[TLOSpyrogirl]

billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money

and fix your software!!

 

Whoever made Blaster, I love you.

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

I've never gotten a virus on my laptop... Wait that's not true. I got one once--- a Trojan Horse. It didn't do anything upfront though, and I didn't catch it until my dad went through my computer and ran an antivirus. I don't know how I got it.

 

My uncle managed to get a virus that plays random sound bytes whenever he's connected to WiFi. Sometimes it's commercials but other times it's songs that are so bad they're funny. My dad defraged his laptop for him and it's not as bad now. I don't know if it showed up again.

 

I also had a jumpdrive that got corrupted, I don't know if it was a virus or just bad design. But I had to rewrite an essay that was due the next day thanks to that.

Edited November 16, 2011 by HawktalonOfRiverClan

[CrypticAsterisk]

I get viruses on a daily basis. Small ones, though. They don't do anything as long as I catch them.

 

Now, I have had my fair share of hard drive crashes and computer failures, but thanks to my tech-smart dad, none of them were too bad. Well, unless you count the time my hard drive crashed and I lost everything. X_X

 

Also, I often wonder, why on Earth do people even make viruses?

[Kamoodle]

I had a horrible virus attack over four years ago. This was before I got any anti-virus protections or a better firewall. I remember I was watching the Angry Video Nerd on Gametrailers, which was my usual activity, when all of a sudden I had windows popping everywhere saying I had a virus and my PC went nuts. After that, my computer kept being forced to do a reboot 30 seconds after I got on as according to the caution window I received. It seemed the virus did indeed attack the most vital organs (not literally) or the main files on my PC, including my svchost and one other file I forget. This event occured at the time when I used to have both XP and Windows 98 in the same machine. My Windows 98 was kind of a temporary haven but not a great one as it was slightly affected, too.

 

The horrible time lasted for a couple weeks before I visited my sister's so my brother-in-law can fix it. More like start everything up from scratch unfortunately. Good news was I had the CD he gave me before that was needed to re-install XP and I did have my flash drive needed for my leisure files I still have now. As soon as XP was installed and everything was good to go, my brother-in-law installed AVG, ZoneaAlarm Pro, SuperAntiSpyware, one or two backup programs, and other important programs.

 

Since then, I have not had anything horrid like that again. I don't have AVG anymore as my computer has Microsoft Security Essentials but I still have ZAPro and SuperAntiSpyware. Also, my Firefox has AdBlock, which is a huge help. It is too bad firewalls can't work together; that would be so helpful if we can have dozens of firewalls but that's wishful thinking.