Has anyone else had malware / virus trouble lately? - Page 2  

But your frankly vague advice might as well be in another language, as per my comment about being computer illiterate. Wiping my hard drive honestly sounds absurd.

Plus, they don't even SELL manners anywhere! More bad info!

Not to mention, a bit terrifying to the computer illiterate. He says that as if you NEVER have anything of any digital value lying around on that hard drive.

In a worst case scenario, reinstalling Windows is pretty easy. Make sure all your files are saved on cd/dvd, and that you still have original copies of all your software. You should probably disconnect from the internet first, then load your copy of Windows and follow the prompts. Once you're done with that you'll need to reinstall all of your software; load your anti virus program before reconnecting to the internet. Go to the control panel to check your security status. Once online Windows and all of your software should automatically update themselves, though you may be prompted to restart your computer several times.

As always, I have an open offer to help anyone with any computer issues, free of charge. Just my way to give back to the Chud community.

Edit:
My IM and personal emails are listed on my profile should you need to reach me.

Hit me with a virus once, shame on you. Hit me with a virus twice, shame on me. Hit with me with a virus, every six months, boy, I don't know.

Hey, guys, I posted a link that shows you how to get rid of it in about fifteen minutes with no cost whatsoever earlier in the thread.

HAHAHA "Hey, as long as you're CONSTANTLY backing up your computer just WIPE EVERYTHING CLEAN!"
Perfectly reasonable.

Fwiw last time I got hit with this bullshit from here I did a system restore to a week prior, if that helps anyone. Just don't complain too much, you don't wanna hear the response, trust me.

Appreciated, but you posted it on the site we got the virus from. Do you see the fatal flaw in your plan?

You could always stop coming to the site for a while until they have it under control, as opposed to being a dick to people who are just trying to be helpful.

This won't end well.

You're right, Im a monster. I'll never kid around with Llamarama again, and hope that time will heal this septic rift I've created between us.

The healing begins.

I'm just saying, I'm no gay, but I'd give Llamarama and Agent Z hand release (no eye contact, though) for their help in this thread.

I didn't call you a monster, just suggested you don't need to be rude and snarky to people just trying to give you a hand.

Boy was I out of line!

It's not you, it's me.

Don't blame yourself, Kevin.

You're my third favorite grumpy old man on the site, if that helps.

These biannual very malicious viruses I get from CHUD is fast becoming a tradition.

It took every inch of my negative skills to fight the one I got yesterday. Even somehow kicked me off of the network, so I couldn't get online for awhile to get help.

It's Phil's fault, I take it.

Phil you still my dogg man fuck the haters

Fair enough. I have to admit to being out of touch with the offended board members in question. You know, I honestly thought that doing a fresh install was, if not common knowledge among pc users, was at least something that they had heard of and could relate to in a general sense. I sincerely didn't mean to talk down to or throw out martianspeak.

I think my point was punctuated with a push to inspire others to research the process, because it really is quite simple. On the pc side, for example, if one can back-up their prized files (photos, music, movies, etc etc) to an external hard drive, and insert a Windows operating disc in their disc drive, they are already pretty much all the way home.

Quite frankly, it kills me to hear of people shelling out a $100 for something that isn't as sure as basically resetting your pc to out-of-the-box status. So, for anyone offended or confused...or offended by being confused, please accept my apology.



Define "CONSTANTLY backing up" and this ordeal that you envision.

I literally download and produce close to a hundred hours of audio, video, and text a week. I backup as needed. It's as simple as dragging your prized file in question over to an external hard drive. That's it. Maybe a minute to transfer a two hour video?

Yes, if you don't save an extra copy of each finished prized file as it arrives, and let the backlog of files to be saved build up, of course it's going to be a nightmare when you get hit.

Let's say that I just backup files at the end of the week, which is actually my usual schedule. Even if a virus was to hit my system at this minute, I would only have less than a week's worth of files to throw onto the backup drive before jumping the proverbial ship. A matter of minutes, at the most.

You are going to save certain files anyway, yes? So, save them as soon as they are acquired and you avoid the stress of the losing a whole hard drive of precious files.

I don't understand what's so outlandish about keeping up with saving files that are to be preserved anyway.


Silly man, again with the assuming.

A good starting place for you.

Don't apologize, some of us just don't know what the fuck you're talking about. It's not you, it's me, also.

Jake you is my strenf.

When you're reformatting and installing the OS, how do you speed up the process of re-installing 50+ programs and dozens of computer games with layered patches? Also, how do you speed up the re-registering process for those various pieces of software? What about games downloaded from services where you have a pre-defined number of install licenses?

I'd like those tips for future reference (seriously, no snark, since I may be needing a reformat soon just due to "Windows fatigue.")

This advice might seem somewhat obvious, but I'm going to give it anyway because it works: get a mac. Haven't had a virus in 8 years.

Use an imaging program such as Acronis True Image.

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium and IE 8. Twice this week Windows Defender popped up to tell me that CHUD might be infected. I simply navigated away from the site with zero problems.

And I love the idea that Macs are magically immune to viruses. Get back to me when you've got more than 5% of the market share and are actually considered a worthwhile target for hackers.

Jacob, ever the voice of sanity and reason.

Also, Agent Z, no apologies needed (as Phil already stated but since you were replying to me, I also wanted to chime back). Just wanted to point out that the common board member here lacks the skills you mentioned. We have other skill-sets.

Magically immune? I simply stated that in all the time I've had a Mac, I've never once had to deal with those sorts of problems, which was a pleasant change from having to constantly update my antiviruses and reformat my hard drive.

That's cool, I'm not trying to turn this into one of those threads. I'm just saying that if hackers targeted OSX like they do Windows you'd see just as many problems.

I've been using a version of Windows since 1999 and never once gotten anything nasty on my PC that didn't come about from me doing something stupid.

I don't think that Mac bomb was hurled at your specifically Evi. I, like Singer, tire of the Mac line that is trotted out after a series of virus attacks. Singer was just pointing out the reason why Macs don't get attacked.

Or what Singer already stated while I was slow typing a response.

I have my Norton Antivirus set to check for updates AND perform a complete virus scan EVERY NIGHT at 3am. I don't download questionable shit on torrent sites or other peer-to-peer options.

I got this virus by sitting down at my computer, turning on the monitor, opening IE, selecting favorites, and navigating to CHUD. That's it. I had NOTHING else running at the time.

It's obvious now, but THIS is where the thread really takes a turn south.

And I love Macs, for the record.

Richard, did you think Jodie Foster was the villain in The Accused?

Well all know she was fucking BEGGING for it. Same as you, Phil.


BTW: STILL getting the virus warning/block just about every other time I refresh the page in the forum.

I saw the way she slipped that quarter into that pinball machine. She was asking for it.

And my post wasn't to rag on those who got the virus, but more to counterpoint the "I use a Mac and have never had so much as an obscene word show up on my screen" sentiment.

Yes, time and again I forget that the viruses I get from Chud are due to my personality defects. I'm sorry, maybe this time it is due to my indifference to Scott Pilgrim.

Apologize if this is an obvious question for the people with site issues, but are you guys clearing out the browser cache after you get hit with the fake AV warnings? The warnings are built into the code of the ads, and leaving the cookie/infected version of the site in there, tracking your IP, etc is probably the biggest problem you face at this point.

Also, so nobody panics, all these things really do is the internet equivalent of going to your house, opening a window and yell to every criminal on the net that this guy has beer in his fridge, 3 nubile daughters of age, and a safe with an easy lock. But they don't actually cause viruses until you go to their site or download a program. You'll be okay. But it is a pain in the ass.

Mine definitely are. Seriously, dogs learn faster than me.

That's simply not true, Justin. I outlined in detail what happened while I was doing nothing more than reading the site.

This all sounds vaguely familiar.

Seconded. The fake 'virus scan' program simply appeared while I was surfing CHUD; I didn't click on any link or anything similar.

Gah. Apologies. Reading is fundamental.

av/ave.exe's a bitch. One of the big exceptions.

Going off experience, last time this happened with the boards, it was an IE hijack, basically *just* to display the fake scan, which is usually what this shit ends up doing through a banner ad when it happens.

I do this for a living, though. Anyone gets infected, I'll gladly offer my sword whoever needs the non-Nortony tech support once I'm not at work.

Indifference to Scott Pilgrim? You DESERVE that virus, asshole.

Speaking for myself, I sincerely appreciate all of the offers for direct assistance from my fellow Chewers. Should I get hit again, I'll be taking you guys up on it.

This was close to that (on Firefox, though), but when Norton prompted me to reboot, Windows gave me the "Open With" dialogue box for just about every program I tried to open - Photoshop, Google Earth, Word, Firefox, etc. I got IE to open, had 45 minutes before I had to leave for work, and was too spooked to come back here to look for a solution. I went with the quickest, surest way to correct it.

Thanks for the offer of helping! All y'all. I probably won't be visiting CHUD from anything but my work laptop (Mac) going forward. You should experience no disruption of service.

Whenever I get those fake scan prompts, I ctrl-alt-del out of the browser and shut down the app from Task Manager. I never click "close", or "cancel" or whatever other prompt may pop up.