Serious Virus Blocking My Virus Checkers

anno1664 · 9 October 2008 at 11:54AM

I have AVG, Ad-Aware and Spybot virus checkers on my PC. Whenever I go to update any of these, they come up with the Microsoft Window saying, site cannot be found. I have run each checker as they stand now and they are finding no viruses
If I try to go to the sites direct, the same message appears.
If I try any other virus checker sites the same message appears
If I delete the Virus checkers and then reload I get the same problem
Any normal site (eg, this one) loads up normally
From a thread on here I tried doing an online scan, but again I get the same message
I spoke to a Techie guy in work and he showed me how to ping the sites, to see if my computer was talking to them. When I did this, I noticed each site had the same address number, which happens to be my own number.
When I try a normal site that works, it comes up withe sites own unique number.
I am running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
Has anyone else had this sort of trouble
If so how did you repair it
I am at desperation level and am close at completely wiping my hard drive and starting again. But I do not want to go down this route. I would hate to have these hacker b****rds beat me.

superscaper · 9 October 2008 at 12:02PM

Have you tried running the scans in safe mode?

anno1664 · 9 October 2008 at 12:44PM

No. I will try that tonight when I get home.
Thanks for the reply

Reluctant_spender · 9 October 2008 at 5:25PM

Try this programme, it's free and quite powerful for a standalone - Before you click save change the file name to something other than that presented - money for example. That way if the virus you have should not block it.

Please download DrWeb-CureIt and save it to your desktop. DO NOT perform a scan yet.

Reboot your computer in "Safe Mode" using the F8 method. To do this, restart your computer and after hearing your computer beep once during startup (but before the Windows icon appears) press the F8 key repeatedly. A menu will appear with several options. Use the arrow keys to navigate and select the option to run Windows in "Safe Mode".

Scan with Dr.Web CureIt as follows:

Double-click on launch.exe to start the program.
Cancel any prompts to download the latest CureIt version and click Start.
At the prompt to "Start scan now", click Ok. Allow the setup.exe/driver to load if asked by any of your security programs.
The Express scan will automatically begin.
(This is a short scan of files currently running in memory, boot sectors, and targeted folders).
If an infected object is found, you will be prompted to move anything that cannot be cured. Click Yes to All.
When complete, click Select All, then choose Cure > Move incurable.
(This will move any detected files to the C:\Documents and Settings\userprofile\DoctorWeb\Quarantine folder if they can't be cured)

Now put a check next to Complete scan to scan all local disks and removable media.
In the top menu, click Settings > Change settings, and UNcheck "Heuristic analysis" under the "Scanning" tab, then click Ok.
Back at the main window, click the green arrow "Start Scanning" button on the right under the Dr.Web logo.
When the scan is complete, a message will be displayed at the bottom indicating if any viruses were found.
Click "Yes to all" if asked to cure or move the file(s) and select "Move incurable".
In the top menu, click file and choose save report list.
Save the DrWeb.csv report to your desktop.
Exit Dr.Web Cureit when done.
Important! Reboot your computer because it could be possible that files in use will be moved/deleted during reboot.
After reboot, post the contents of the log from Dr.Web in your next reply. (You can use Notepad to open the DrWeb.cvs report)

Anthony2oo5 · 9 October 2008 at 6:41PM

If the above dosnt work, or even before trying it try this.

Open Notepad,
Click File, Open
Browse to this location "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\system32\drivers\etc\"
At the bottom of the window click the drop down box and change it from text files, to all.
Look for a file called "hosts"
Open it and paste the contents here.

Reluctant_spender · 9 October 2008 at 6:56PM

Or an automated solution to the advice above -

Download HostsXpert.zip

Extract (unzip) HostsXpert.zip to a a permanent folder on your hard drive such as C:\HostsXpert
Double-click HostsXpert.exe to run the program.
Click "Make Hosts Writable?" in the upper left corner (Only If available).
Click "Restore Microsoft's Hosts file" and then click "OK".
Click the X to exit the program.

Note: If you were using a custom Hosts file you will need to replace any of those entries yourself.

Anthony2oo5 · 9 October 2008 at 7:00PM

lmao, Have you got an archive of solutions or something?

Reluctant_spender · 9 October 2008 at 7:37PM

Anthony2oo5 wrote: »

lmao, Have you got an archive of solutions or something?

Yes, I have a good range of canned speeches.

anno1664 · 10 October 2008 at 2:45PM

I opened HostXpert as requested and then opened the host file. This is what it says

# Copyright © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
#
127.0.0.1 localhost

Any suggestions before I go down the Dr webcure it route

Sorry for not posting earlier I had a problem in work

Anthony2oo5 · 10 October 2008 at 4:47PM

Hang on, you said you ran the HostsXpert in post 6, THEN pasted the contents.

Obviously its going to be fine, its just been cleaned. Would have helped to do it the other way around so we could have seen if that was actually the problem.

Anyway, try accessing AV sites now and give us the news.

If it doesnt work, go to Start > Run type cmd press enter

type ipconfig /flushdns and then try access AV sites.

anno1664 · 10 October 2008 at 6:00PM

Before I installed HostXpert I checked the etc file and it was absolutely empty. Once I Installed HostXpert there was a file called Hosts, which I opened with Notepad, copied and then posted here.

One thing to note which may help.
When I ping www.avg.com from my computer it comes up with the domain number 127.0.0.1, which is the same number in the host file
When I ping the same address on my computer at work it actually comes up with the correct domain number which is 77.67.44.203

Hope this helps

Serious Virus Blocking My Virus Checkers

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