Fun w/ Viruses!

I am posting from an alternate computer rigt now, as my regular computer is completely thrashed by a worm I downloaded. It killed my Windows and I have to completely wipe and reinstall. My friend was able to bootup a Linux Live CD and backup all the s**t I needed before we wipe the system.

I contracted the virus through Shareaza downloading an AnyDVD 'crack' for the latest version. Mind you, I am running AVG Free on my system AND I specifically scanned THAT file before attempting to open it. Here is what the bugger did to my system:

-Deleted All .mp3 and .com files on my system.

-Deleted a ton of registry keys and changed a ton more

-Disassociated .exe files. (Making it so I could not open ANY .exe files, including notepad or any program with .exe)

-Removed CTRL+ALT+DEL so I could not get into task manager

-Removed the option to get into control panel

-Added various files and programs throughout my comp.

-Disabled all sorts of Reboot s**t so I couldn't go into safe mode or log off or clear pagefile or memory.

-If I DID try to open up a .exe, it would give me a lovely popup saying the hackers name, and a picture, and a French Flag, saying 'Cyberbob33 Bx The French Hacker' etc. Here is a link to the Symantec website telling all about it. It is a variant of the W32.Nopir.A worm. Nasty litte f**ker.

Anyway.....My friend said that Panda Antivirus software is the best protection available...and he has used it for years...says it is better than Norton by leaps and bounds. I was wondering if you guys know anyting about Panda or similar. I used a 30 day trial a couple of months ago and was impressed...just wanted to get a second (or third opinion) before purchasing. It is $50 per year with multiple daily updates. The website is www.pandasoftware.com. Norton has given me problems before, so I am seriously considering Panda. What do you guys think?

WOOYAY!

Bad call. Its generally something that I'VE done that messes up my computer. That'll learn ya, my warez munching friend.

Yep indeedy I have learned....AVG blows.

Bad luck there :sad:

Perhaps a stupid question, but does this thing remove .mp3 files even
if they're on different partitions? Don't wanna lose all those goodies.

I'm using Nod32, Zone Alarm and Ad-Aware (and FF of course), and that's worked fine for me so far.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I would believe it does...but I can't confirm that...as I have only 1.

Perhaps a stupid question, but does this thing remove .mp3 files even
if they're on different partitions?

Yes. It would infect the entire system, since it would have to go through the registry or some other database of the system to find the files on the current partition, and, obviously, those listings are separated by partitions. Not to mention a virus this nasty would probably try to spread its self ... unless the writer had a specific target in mind, such as wares people.

AVG does blow. I had it on my laptop, I hadn't had a chance to put anything else on. Opened my laptop to my schools (unprotected) network: BAM. virus' up the ass. AVG just sat there with its thumb up its ass. Of course, there's always cooperate level virus scanners (some of which severe all out side connections when anything is detected to prohibit any spreading of the infection)

I've noticed things Norton can't scan as well, but I'm decently protected for now. I have a pesky dying HDD problem at the moment. Need to find an identical logic board to swap with, since, the thing stores data and spins fine.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

AVG is poor in that it has completely missed things in the past. Though
perhaps unwisely, because have never had a big virus that trashed
everything, I've kept with it because its free

www.free-av.com

Works fine for me.

Otherwise I'd opt for Avast Antivirus, but that doesn't seem to have multi-XP-account support.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

AVG... is crap, I have no clue why when I ask people about it they reccomend it to me :/

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Signature? What signature!?

It is my experience that no AV program is 100%.

It seems to me that at least 50% of any virus acquisition is entirely on the head of the person whom got it. I could be wrong of course, and truly it wouldn't be the first or last time either but... If you have a virus, STOP crying about it, What you need to do is STOP getting them in the first place.

Now, I am not referring to worms that just arrive via the net connection, but just virus's.. The ones you seek however unknowingly by going to sites that have them.

I have been lucky I suppose. In all the years on line I have had only one virus and a couple worms/trojan's. This, with my borrowed/taboo practices.

Right this moment, I am running ZERO AV programs.. AND am virus free. :/

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The best things in life, aren't things.

only [...] a couple worms/trojan's.

I envy you, I really do. I turned zonealarm off for 30 freaking seconds
and got piled over by no less than 150 spyware/trojan surprises. I haven't
had any serious viruses, though, and that's something to be thankful
for.

Perhaps the "Router Firewall" is the most understated protection in the world then. :/

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Well, as of now, I will be behind a router so... :smile:

Orpheus said:
Perhaps the "Router Firewall" is the most understated protection in the world then. :/

Don't router fire walls tend to interfere with some things? Blah, iono.

Doesn't Windows XP have an antivirus? How good is that thing? It should be worth something, since Microsoft itself supports it.

For the past time, I've been using Trend Micro PC -cillin for an antivirus -- it has a popup message on it. It comes up if your computer is idling, and catches something. For some reason, I have some kind of crap called " dial porndial.x" trying to get into my computer every freaking second, since whenever I leave my computer be for longer than 3 minutes (idling time) I get that message!

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it

I got a similar virus the other day and had to wipe everything. Couldnt
acces task manager and the computer was being generally slow. Im
supprised my computer lasted as long as it did with out any anti-virus,
firewall or service pack 2 for xp. Well i did have my Router Firewall
but that had allmost all of the ports opened and forwarded anyway.

This time im not taking any chances, ive installed the full norton
suite(apart from being slow it does the job), SP2, microsoft
anit-spyware and have clossed all the prots on my computer.

Also...I just noticed....it deleted all avi files too.

I didn't care so much about the mp3s....

the .com files totally f**ked my windows, but I reinstalled Windows no prob....

but now....I just noticed that on all my backup discs, that the virus had deleted my .avi's as well....and that is seriously f**king weak. I had many many custom avi files that I had created for videos, and all sorts of stuff......but now I have Panda running....nothing is going to touch my computer ever again.

Why doies everyone always tout AVG as the best free anti-virus...

Its a peice of crap.... hell even Norton is better than AVG...

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Signature? What signature!?

In all the years on line I have had only one virus and a couple worms/trojan's.

Don't kid your self.
You've had hundreds, they just don't do much of anything except take up space.

Just because you never knew it was there doesn't mean it wasn't there.

Don't router fire walls tend to interfere with some things?

Only things that go THROUGH the router. Which of course you can set up how you like. If there are certain programs that you want to host through or something (e.g. Steam) you can find out what ports it needs and forward them through the router. Easy. (it's all well laid out in any router's manual)

Doesn't Windows XP have an antivirus?

... I guess you could call it that ... seems to cause more problems then it fixes though

Yes, some of the most invaluable protection you can have is a HARDWARE firewall. Hardware, obviously, has to be physically changed or circumvented through software means. While software can just be all sorts of funked with. Only with software could you send snippets of ASM to be stored in memory and executed. (You can open a remote shell this way ... only if the software is poorly written and they don't check/clear their overflow)

nothing is going to touch my computer ever again

So, you're locking your computer in a vault and chaining it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah...that was really gay of me to say...but...I was just trying to sound tough so virus' would hide.

Dark Tree said:
Yeah...that was really gay of me to say...but...I was just trying to sound tough so virus' would hide.

Worked for me, had me pissing even as I read it.. Actually, I piss often so thats not a really good indicator. :heee:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

You have my sympathy...

I use McAfee Virus Scan and I have never had a virus get past it :razz:

I've never had a virus get past AVG, but then again, I try to stay out of trouble. Only had one major virus problem, which AVG found, and was my own fault anyway for not having antivirus installed when I was infected.

One important thing to note about AVG free is that if it picks up a virus in a scan, it doesnt do anything about it. You have to go into the logs and tell it to clean the files. Still, its free, and better than nothing.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

McAfee automatically deals with it for you lol and updates manually and stuff so i'm happy and it's only ?30 per year :razz:

McAfee automatically deals with it for you lol and updates manually and stuff so i'm happy and it's only ?30 per year :razz:

habboi said:
McAfee automatically deals with it for you lol and updates manually and stuff so i'm happy and it's only ?30 per year :razz:

McAfee is not worth a double posting and must I remind you guys that a virus scanner running full time eats resources faster than Bit Torrent downloading several movies?

Get a decent hardware firewall, and stay away from the s**t sites and you can use those resources elsewhere.. LIKE MAPPING.. :heee:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

and stay away from the s**t sites and you can use those resources elsewhere.. LIKE MAPPING.. :heee:

he could buy the pr0n movies?

$loth said:
he could buy the pr0n movies?

Dude, if only you were old enough.. I could send you one of the sweetest college video's you have ever seen.. :eek:

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The best things in life, aren't things.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Orpheus</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting $loth</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

he could buy the pr0n movies?

</DIV></DIV>

Dude, if only you were old enough.. I could send you one of the sweetest college video's you have ever seen.. :eek:

</DIV></DIV>

This coming Orph!? O_O
Whoa... I'm taking a picture of this post :razz:

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it

must I remind you guys that a virus scanner running full time eats resources faster than Bit Torrent downloading several movies?

Not really. If you let it initially scan your system there's no problem. Not to mention, if you have a constant connection on-line then you should have it running. No questions.

But, I have Norton running right now and Bit Torrent take at least two times as much resources. Mozilla takes more resources (around 25,000 K when in use), so does steam (usually 30,000 - 46,000 K+). OpenOffice takes around 65,000 K. Instant messengers (not trillion) usually take around 8,000 - 10,000 K.

Not sure what you're doing but your anti-virus shouldn't take more then around 7,000 K. Which is not much. If it is taking more then that, that means it's actively scanning your system which means, either a) it's retarded and wont stop scanning your system or b) you don't regularly go through and do a complete system scan. Because otherwise it just lays back and gets called only when files are accessed and it's fairly efficient.

Also, you can turn features off in MSConfig that you don't use (I suggest keeping script blocking on) and that limits the amount of executables running. But even if you combined all the programs that make up the anti-virus it's only usually around 10,000K. Which is pretty low.

Perhaps you're just shifting blame to what you want to blame ... or you checked your system properties while your anti-virus was actually doing something.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Call it what you will but, every time i attempt to have a scanner running full time my system slows down. Remember, I actually go through the trouble to turn everything off after a format. My machine has nothing running but the things I cannot shut off, either through my lack of knowledge or the fact that they cannot be turned off.

Be that as it may, I have nothing scannable now as far as virus's go, at least as far as it is within my scope to determine.

In the end, it boils down to preference. I prefer to run my machine bare bones and with every resource I can salvage.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

In the end, it boils down to preference. I prefer to run my machine bare bones and with every resource I can salvage.

So, why are you running Windows?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
So, why are you running Windows?

Because DOS conked out on me years ago.. f**kIN QUITTER..

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I use Windows
I use IE
I use Windows Media Player
I use Microsoft Messenger
I use Hotmail
I use Microsoft Office
I use Microsoft Visual Studio

and I love it. :arse: