Computer parasites

I was doing some stuff on the computer with updates. By the time I was done, I had all kinds of pop up adds and my homepage was changed. So I went to the uninstall or change a program option and deleted most everything with todays date on it When I was done, all the junk add were gone and my search engine and home page were reinstalled. I think when I got the Java update, I got all the parasites. Windows has so many vulnerabilities. My IPad and my android phone don't seem to pick up these hitchhikers.

 

I always install everything in advanced mode so I am presented with the option to not install "sponsor" programs.

 

Fortunately, this is not a Windows thing. It's the software people that add a bunch of add on crap and it's set to automatically install if you use the "express" install. Just do what Grizzly said and always choose advanced or custom install, and carefully ready anything, especially if there's a check box in front of it and it's checked. Android and Apple stuff has to go through and be approved before you can download from their markets, which Windows is rolling to as well, but there's so many places to get for Windows software/freeware.

 

Yeah I know. I try to be careful. I have a full home firewall suite, spyware scanner and AdBlock plus running and yet I STILL get crap at times. Lately something keeps changing my Firefox default search engine to Yahoo. I have to keep manually changing it back to Google. WTH?

 

I don't know what you are running for anti virus, but check into Avast. It's free and if you register (takes an email address) it lasts a year. I've never gotten an email from them and have used it on several computers. That software has a boot time scanner that if it finds something, it will suggest you run a boot time scan. That can take anywhere from a couple hours to I've had one take over 12 hours, depends on the machine specs and how much stuff if on your hard drive. Doing the boot time scan, if it finds something, it will require input from the user. I've always chose delete, but to be on a safer side, I would suggest to choose the fix all option. I have had one case were when I did the delete all, some stuff required for booting was gone, and well it made getting it back to running more difficult.

While firewalls are good, they don't stop a lot of the crap that's out there. I was recently turned on to a site, www.opendns.com. What the site does is a lot of monitoring of your network. It requires you to change the preferred DNS servers in your router. One of the features (it's free as well) is that you can block sites and anyone trying to access that from your network, they will be denied. For example, if you don't want someone going to www.xxxsex.com you can block that out. I've been told by my IT guy, you can even limit search words. He did it with his kid so he couldn't search for porn. Something to think about and try. Just a small piece of software to put on your computer just to update the site what your IP address is, as I'm on a static IP.

If you need help, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

 

I use ESET Smart Securty on both our PCs. Its a full antivirus, personal firewall, anti-spyware suite. I also have strong firewall enabled on our home router, and I deliberately had Verizon set up my FIOS fiber terminal to provision internet on CAT5 rather than coax, so I could bypass the crappy Verizon router and use a much better DLink unit that I bought myself.

Its not a lack of protection. Its just something I downloaded had an option in the advanced setup that I probably missed that changed my browser search settings.

I have OpenDNS as the backup in my router settings.. I used to use them exclusively but I dont find it to be the fastest one anymore on Verizon's network. Right now I use 8.8.8.8 as primary DNS.




Thanks for the help... i do this stuff for a living too

 

My computer stuff was all self taught. I'm actually an electrician and work on cnc machines, but I use a computer quite a lot. I have some friends that call me with something goes wonky on their comptuers, some pay me, others don't, so there's a priority when they are both wanting something done.

 

Im the same way, I took some computer classes over the years but they were just credits as they were so far below my level. Heck, when I was at university they even had me teaching several of the one-off public outreach classes like "how to use the web" and "word processing" "beginning programming with c+" etc, mostly attended by the elderly wanting to email their great grandkids.

 

As long as you were getting paid I guess.

 

Yeah, they filed it under the work study program.

 

I just had my computer lock up on Monday afternoon, Norton had been popping up with treat blocks all day. My computer tech guy walked me through fixing it over the phone, had to do some safety scans, and turned out my Java was out of date, so he told me to uninstall it and do a new update... had the same thing when it finished installing... went back and uninstalled it, and reinstalled it paying attention this time... no more pop ups, home page back to normal, and search engine back to what I use.... really erreks me all the crap the add to different programs "you have to have" to use your computer.

~Nathan