dumb and desperate!

homealone_2

i am an avid internet user, probably 18 hours a day min as a housebound disabled agraphobic. i know nothing of the things that go wrong or how to fix them.i was connected to a free security package i downloaded with some difficulty last year but kept getting this thing called trojan pop up. my gaughter who is now at uni was going out with this young man who was here when i had yet another virus flash up and once he heard me so upset he offered to help. i dont know exactly what he did or how but at the end of it he said he had downloaded norton and i would have no more problems. problem 1. they are nolonger together and i keep getting a message saying norton will expire in 14 days press for more info, which i keep doimg but am not getting very far. i am assuming it was like a free trial that he did early this year and my time is now up???? problem 2 keep getting many!!! different obscore messages coming up like winfixer 2005 who keep offering their services and i cannot even begin to figure out how to get rid of that plus another one which reads;

ebayTBDaemon.exe.Bad Image

The application or DLL C:\program Files\ebay\ebay Toolbar2\siteuk.dll is not a valid windows image. Please check this image against your installation diskette

now what the hell is that about???? problem 3 i had something i cant remember as a n internet provider then on advice of a helpline my 14 yr old son called he followed instructions to use moxilla firefox? when i called wanadoo to ask for help they said they knew nothing about firefox so got son to get me back on wanadoo to connect which seems to be working?? now for the biggy as a complete novice that has problems following even the basic advice should i take pc to the pc health clinic who can maybe rid me of these messages and set up a security provider or is such an expensive and hard to organise trip unnecessary and someone out there feels they can get me through these probs on msn or something as none of which are as bad as i think???? i have also been advised to unplug entire thing and put in start up disks and start afresh although i dont think i have them. thanks everyone for your patience in reading this and am grateful for any advice offered, remembering how little i know????????

davet_3

wow, where to start!

You really do need someone honest and trusted to sort this out for you. I would usually try and help someone but you have so many problems and, no offence, seemingly little pc knowledge, that trying to suggest fixes could only make things worse. Do you know anyone who could have a look for you.

I suggest initially running a full virus scan, full spyware scan, do you have a firewall if so check what activity is happening there then go through the installed programs list in the control panel and make sure you recognise anything, removing anything that you KNOW is unecessary including the ebay toolbar. Don't worry about firefox, it's just another internet browser (i'm using it now), it's not a serious problem.
Main thing is to firstly ensure you're computer is secure, then delete any unwanted programs and downloaded files then defragment the hard disk.
Once you have a smooth running clean system then I suggest removing Norton Antivirus and installing AVG antivirus which is free (http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01)

Hope this begins to help in some way,

Dave

brummybloke

you should be able to down load free anti virus programs like AVG from downloads.com
so do that first but dont install it.

next thing is to uninstall norton by selecting uninstall ( dont just delete it by selecting delete you will cause problems).

next , install AVG and then run it, AVG is like norton but is free and works just aswell and doesnt expire.

you also want to get yourself a firewall, this blocks peoples attempts at 'hacking' your computer and will also have things to stop those annoying pop up messages that seem impossible to get rid of.

once you have got the anti virus (AVG) running and it has scanned your pc, it will remove any nasty things on there.

it should also block most new nasty things that try and get on your pc.

you then want to down load ad-aware ( from downloads.com or search google for it).

install ad-aware and run that.

this gets rid of all those pop ups and messages telling you to click here as you have won money and other silly things.

what version of windows do you have? windows xp has basic facilities for pop up blocking, firewall on it.

i suggest you also go onto the microsoft update page and update all of your drivers, update all the things you have just downloaded ( ad-aware, avg and a firewall).

this should sort most of the urgent problems out.

just remember to update your free software ( there are options within the software to look for updates) and then once updated , run them as they will now look for the latest viruses that may have got onto your pc.

as for your grand daughter no longer going out with the nice boy who put norton on? sorry, cant help with that one.

Chippy_Minton

homealone wrote:

ebayTBDaemon.exe.Bad Image

The application or DLL C:\program Files\ebay\ebay Toolbar2\siteuk.dll is not a valid windows image. Please check this image against your installation diskette

now what the hell is that about?

That's just an error indicating that the eBay Toolbar isn't working properly. Either uninstall it altogether (Start - Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs - select eBay Toolbar - click Remove), OR if you want to keep it (it's a toolbar within your browser) download the latest version from that link and install it again.

homealone_2

just wanted to say thanks to not only reading my predictament and trying to help. i immediately got rid of the ebay message and feeling quite pleased with myself thought i would have a go and tackle downloading an upgrade of norton. spent 6 hours doing it and still not got it quite right but most of it done. now just need to tackle the rest of it, but thanks for making it so easy to understand your advice

homealone_2

just wanted to add that i only had reply from chippy at time of writing, have now seen other replies and wish to thank them to. i had the avg thing when i first got computer but didnt get on with iy very well which is had the norton downloaded. hope i havent wasted my £44.99

windym_2

Can I also suggest that as you are on the internet for sooooo long, you maybe install something like CCleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com it will clean all the cr*p out of your temp files etc. Very easy to use and install.

brummybloke

homealone wrote:

just wanted to add that i only had reply from chippy at time of writing, have now seen other replies and wish to thank them to. i had the avg thing when i first got computer but didnt get on with iy very well which is had the norton downloaded. hope i havent wasted my £44.99

£44.99??? please dont tell me you paid that for norton internet security 2005?

windym_2

brummybloke wrote:

£44.99??? please dont tell me you paid that for norton internet security 2005?

Dont make him/her feel any worse! :eek:

Chippy_Minton

homealone wrote:

problem 2 keep getting many!!! different obscore messages coming up like winfixer 2005 who keep offering their services and i cannot even begin to figure out how to get rid of that

See Remove WinFixer.

Also have a peep at the What Security do you use? sticky. Don't install everything mentioned; some of the more popular free anti-spyware progs you should try are Spybot Search & Destroy, Microsoft Antispyware, Adaware SE, CW Shredder and HijackThis. Install and run just one at a time and see if it fixes your problems.

homealone_2

looks as though i made a fool of myself because yes i did pay £44.99 for downloading norton security......... did say i was dumb at all this. now you all know why i tend not to touch anything on the technical side. wish i hadnt bothered installing it now anyway, after taking 9 hours to do a full scan it dealt with 8 files and left me with 2 saying i had to deal with them myself (how would of been nice).
i did however do as suggested by a microsoft help person install messenger plus and then uninstall it and that seems to have got rid ofthe pop up message rambling on about what minimum specifications i needed.
however, i have spent in total 14hours over last couple of days just getting the basics done that probably should have taken 10 minutes, so feeling pretty low at moment nad very stupid. for something that is such an important part of my day i wish i knew more about taking care of it. completely unrelated but my last disaster, namely a lap top is now a doorstop but i wont even go there!!!!
thanks again for all your help folks, when feeling up to the challenge i will try and work through the post telling me how to uninstall winfixer 2005. after several tries and a rather pathetic email to them begging them to stop sending it i feel rather worn out for now, but i will definitely look through it, for now am just pleased with myself when i see the norton pop up display each time i log on saying all installed programmes working properly