Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:29 pm Post subject: looks like i have been hacked!!!
ok on msn a few friends have been telling me that im sending out some weird and wonderful things to them, honest i havent been!!! but when i have signed into msn after a while im getting a pop up that tells me that im signed up on another computor and do i want to reconnect?
i have the firewalls turned on, i have avg that scans everday if i dont do it myself, and still it finds no viruses or anything at all according tothat im totally clean. i dleted and then reinstalled msn thinking that might stop this happening,, nope that didnt work, so ok i know that i need to change my passwords for everything i use but not until i have got rid of this thing on here, help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joined: 21 Oct 2005 Posts: 5734 Location: In UR base snifin all UR pantys
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:40 pm Post subject:
If it's saying you're signed in somewhere else, then odds are that your account is signing in somewhere else, it's just not actually you doing the signing in.
If you've checked your machine and it says your clear then you probably are (it's not 100% guaranteed, but good enough). So the next thing to do is go change your password for your MSN account. Check to see if the problem continues - you can still change it again later if your machine needs some "surgery".
I'd recommend changing it to a seemingly random combination of letters and numbers (although it's good to have some kind of "mental keyring" which helps you remember it). Something like the last three digits of someone's phone number, followed by some punctuation mark(s), then their initials.
Joined: 19 Feb 2006 Posts: 15892 Location: Perth, Western Australia (GMT+8hrs)
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:33 am Post subject:
It's probably worth also running AVG's Antirootkit. It's available free from their site: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/us/crp/0
Antirootkit scans for keylogging programs. These aren't detected by most scanners because they aren't technically spyware and they aren't a virus, but they can be inadvertently installed if they're tacked onto another program, or disguised as another program.
ie. Someone else could use one to see what keys your pressing on your computer.
You might be able to do a registry restore in dos-command, to install an old registry backup...
I've discovered that loading-up your computer with any combination of the best firewalls and AVS's, still doesn't keep out the attacks, so I just don't bother to add any protection to the hd... And every few months this PC takes a hit, which most of the time, just applying an old registry backup fixes it... But sometimes the hit is so bad that I am forced to format-C, and reload... is why I load spare hard drives when I have any spare spare time.. I have this desk-drawer so full of spare loaded hd's that I couldn't squeeze another in... I maintain backing up my files and treasures.. I've got all my choice of downloads and install CD's all on one single CD... When the OS takes a fatal-hit, I simply pull out the sick hd, and install a preloaded replacement, then add my files and pix... Takes about ten minutes total... To hell with firewalls and AVS's!.. they only suck-up the Ram, waste money, take up drive space, and give you shields like wet tissue... Essentially you are you only best security... Try to stay out of the websites run by bullies and assholes, and you won't get dragged through this mess... Look at me.. I'm telling the world that demonracy and religion is shidt at best, and the idiots are sending me a dozen virus emails per day... If I don't recognize an email as a friendly, I just don't open it with the PC... I either delete it right off, before opening it, or I mark it "suspect", and open it in the iMac... When a serious bug gets opened by the Mac, a pop-up reads, "Operating System doesn't know what to to with the program".. and I safely delete the attack email...
The very best way to visit crazy people's, and bully's, websites, and to open suspect emails, is to have an old iMac on the floor near your computer, just for this purpose... If the Mac takes a hit, which is extremely rare, all you need do to repair the Mac's OS, is drop-in the system's CD, click the mouse a few times, and leave... and when you return the thing is loaded with a fresh OS... Update it if you must, but that's just a three hour waste of time, pain in the butt... Just get it working, and use the Mac for your bug and bully view-box...
If I had your PC's problems, I would suspect that the PC has been infected by extreme trojans, and maybe even key loggers... Obviously someone is messing in your computer if you are getting those messages... I would save my treasures, and format-C, disconnect the battery for an hour, and reload the system to a newly created partition... Then virus scan all my CD's and floppies before opening a single one... Then download all my preferred softwares to a CD, and virus scan the CD before installing anything... And before I visit the web sites I was visiting, where that infection might have originated, I would run a search on each web page title, to read what others are saying about each web site... I would do my search by adding the phrase '..damaged my computer's operating system", to the name of each web site I visit... Some people believe they can go into "warez" sites and the like with absolute immunity, just because they have a stupid little firewall and AVS installed... They forget that "warez" is on the cutting edge too... Those hacker kids can shut-down your useless firewalls and AVS's at the click of a mouse... I had one site shut-down BlackIce, Spybot, and Norton, before they hit the OS hard, killing it... A lot of those German hacker sites are merely pretty fronts and come-ons, to entice you in, so the kiddies can play "destroy the visitor's computer" for fun, sport, and peer-points... It's their version of WW3 and 4... It's how they have fun... If they could click the mouse to have your PC detonate in your face, the hospitals of the world would be full of faceless people waiting for face transplants...
The first thing to do after a reload, is install by floppy or CD, "Tiny Personal Firewall" from Older Versions, then go into Advanced, and block Everything from connecting to the Net, except your browser.. and for the browser I would install SeaMonkey by CD, and just forget about IE and OE, except for downloading stuff from microsoft.. but everything you need from microsoft you can find in other sites... I avoid microsoft!.. Too many times I did reloads, and went into microsoft, and got my PC's OS seriously damaged... I don't touch microsoft web sites anymore.. but if you are running XP or Vista, you have no other option, to get the thing initiated... Seems they've built a foolproof key system, that records things to your installation CD's...
Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 1072 Location: near Dallas, Texas, USA, planet Earth
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:00 pm Post subject:
Obvious? I don't know that it's obvious at all.
To misapply an old quote, "Sometimes a banana is just a banana." Another fair fit is "If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail."
What you've posted is a great solution, if the user is technically competent to do so, although I'm surprised you didn't also insist she learn how to program in C and do some low-level customization as well. I'm not convinced that the OP is qualified to do this, although she might have a very patient and qualified neighbour who would be willing to do this. And I wouldn't necessarily put a lot of faith in a retail service such as GeekSquad; if she doesn't have a friend/neighbour willing to do this, she would have to pull the trigger on professional services, starting no doubt around at least $100/hr.
I personally still believe that MSN was just misbehaving. She could start simple, and dump MSN in favour of Trillian. Or Pigeon (formerly Gaim). If she's still seeing the issue (or rather, her friends) then we know it has nothing to do with MSN (the software package, not the protocol).
Is it not possible that her few friends are the ones who have been compromised? For all we know, her diligence isn't shared by her friends.
But hey, if you want to play the paranoia card, stop using Windows, period.
Make backups. Install Linux (Ubuntu is a great choice, Fedora 8 is another). Or even just boot from the Live CD each time; if a hacker can't write to the disk (Live CD), he can't infect it.
Still not happy with this solution? Then she could run with OpenSolaris x86.
Still not happy? I suppose she could try out one of the less popular operating systems for x86 such as BeOS. The trade-off is she might run into various interoperability issues or missing functionality.
Still not happy? Then she could chuck her PC (after making backups) and get an iMac.
If she's going to start throwing money at the solution, she might as well stick with a fixed cost, and not the slippery slope of professional consulting.
OK.. I sort of sees how you think and write... I'll try to do the same as you do... I hopes you can handle a mirror vision version of you without you messin' yourself...
..My grandfather, who had a grocery store back in the 1930's, in mid-Canada, told me that he would occasionally find the odd dead black tarantula in his banana bunch orders.. and once he found a live one... Sometimes a banana which is just a banana is a very dangerous-someone's home...
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Quoting: "What you've posted is a great solution, if the user is technically competent to do so..."
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Define "competancy"... Or.. for some, "pullups" help them learn how to use the potty... For others, they just get fed-up with the yucky daily messes, and they up and try the next thing... We learn by doing, and by trying new things.. like how we go from crawling to walking.. from paddling to swimming.. from learning how to switch-on the PC to learning how to format its hard drive and reload it... It's too easy to format a hard drive, and reload it... At first it's a scary thing... Trying it is how we learn the computer... But you are right that you should protect her like you protect your mindless little baby from the world, if she's a dolt.. but she's sounds intelligent.. I really do think she could handle a format and a reload, if she has the CD's, and the boot floppy.. it's almost as easy as putting in a music CD into a player, and hitting the play button... She will enjoy the experience if she seeks out new things to excite her... But I bet she will have some problems in getting the thing reconnected to the Net... She'll probably need a friend to guide her through it... Thing is, once we learn the format reload thing, we can save ourselves that $60 to a "$100 per hour serviceman bill".. and in a couple years we can do everything that needs be done to maintain a PC working in good order... Everyone needs to start somewhere...
But if her PC is a brand-new one, and she has never done any of this computer schtuff.. it would be better for her to somehow get a hold of an old desktop PC, and a set of W98se CD's and floppy, and start there with the formating and lessons... You can get old working PC's for ten dollars at garage sales... And some schools have "computer libraries, where the public donates computers, and the school's computer courses fix them up, and they lend them out for a year, free... Usually they are W98 or W2k... It's easy to get a cheap W98 CD, but still difficult to get a cheap W2k CD...
You've really slapped me about another's possible "competency"... You give the feel like you are an extremely overly protective parent... probably in your 40's..?
How did your kids turn out with all that extreme over protection..? Do they make you proud..? Don't tell me.. I don't need to know... Your "banana" comment sounds to me like someone "making a mountain of a pimple"... Surely you know if humans prescribed to that attitude since we began, that we would still be living in caves, and still munching on our dead...
People just gotta get up on their own two's, and do learn to do things on their own, or they will never learn to do the things they need to learn to make life easy...
Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 1072 Location: near Dallas, Texas, USA, planet Earth
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:28 am Post subject:
Look, unless you plan on standing beside her when she tackles this task, you're basically telling her, "Here's the rope, there's the tree, be careful you don't hang yourself." But hey, that rope is quite powerful and utilitarian, right?
Unless you've worked in a computer support role for any length of time, you have no clue how easily people can shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to computing. Yes, even people who think they're sufficiently competent. Classic is "It just suddenly stopped working," "What did you do just before it stopped working," "Nothing, it just stopped," and after a little digging, you find out they haven't been exactly forthright, that they actually DID do something to cause the problem.
And once she's messed her computer up to the point that she can't get on this forum to ask you for more sage advice, she'll be in pretty rough shape.
Sure, it takes almost no skills to install Windows from media. Assuming you HAVE the media (and many people don't, especially with how hardware is sold these days). But as surely someone with your mad skillz should realize, rebuilding a Windows machine to the point just prior to where things started going wrong is a non-trivial challenge. If you're just interested in backing up pics and doc files, then it's straightforward. But if you have any number of apps, some of which you've downloaded (freeware/FOSS), some of which you no longer have the original media (could be buried in the back of the garage), and knowing that bits and pieces can be scattered everywhere (DLLs, registry, some apps in non-standard locations), it turns into a right royal pain in the @$$.
Do we even know whether her Windows machine is sitting behind a separate firewall router? If not, then as soon as her reinstalled Windows environment is connected to her ISP so she can get all the patches installed (courtesy Windows Updater), within the first 2 mins of connectivity she'll have been bombarded by bots and script kiddies, some of which may have already been successful in installing a trojan.
At any rate, I'm trying to be as helpful as you are. However, I'm not terribly fond of the personal attacks.
You want to help her? Take it away. Knock yourself out.
Whoah!.. It ain't a "Hangin'" there feller... It's just someone erasing a buggy hard drive.. then recording a CD to it...
And this bit, Quoting: "However, I'm not terribly fond of the personal attacks."
Hey suckie!.. You threw the first bananna...
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If the lassy has any questions.. there are a bunch of us in this forum who do our absolute best to make it an easy thing to do and learn... Go for it.. Hit us with your hardest questions...
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 590 Location: Shropshire, England, UK
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:48 am Post subject:
It could be that MSN is automatically logging you in when you connect to the internet and because you havent realised, you click on the MSN icon to connect and low and behold it says you are already connected in elsewhere.
The quickest way to prove this is if you press CTRL+DEL+ALT keys altogether which will bring up the 'Task Manager' window. Click on the tab that says 'Processes' and look down the list for a program named 'msnmsgr.exe'. If this is showing in the list it means that MSN is already running on your computer and would explain why it is saying you are already logged in.
Do you have any clues as to how to maintain a computer..?
Download the following softwares:
CCleaner, Free Registry Repair, Cacheman Memory Restore, Easy Cleaner, Spybot S&D... These softwares are Safe for all Windows operating systems...
[Do not use Easy cleaner's duplicates cleaner]
[Do not make playful-changes in options.. These are powerful-tools, not toys.]
ok guys i have just read through this list of instructions but it seems what i have done has cured the problem, a simple thing of doing a virus checker over and over again and then once cured it all changed my password!! thank god i didnt have a clue what any of you are on about as i would have been better off trying to get on msn with my toaster after following your instructions!! lol
thanks for the advice but you totally lost me on it all
I just can't get the Windows CD to load in either slot.. and it's supposed to be a "state of the art toaster"..? All it does is melt the CD's...
I hopes you try the maintenance set of instructions... It will strip out hundreds of megs of garbage that the hd holds.. and make your PC run faster and glitch free...
If you seriously want to try you hand at maintaining a PC.. I, and probably the others, will do our best in guiding you through it, one easy step at a time...
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