Help! Virus? Server?

BreakinEven

Hi guys,

Am after a bit of help after exhausting my (limited) IT knowledge spending 4 hours trying to fix my laptop.

All has been working fine but suddenly all profile apart from my other half's are unable to get very far on the Internet, esp sites that require you to log on.

The messagee I get is along the lines of "you are not logged on as administrator. This installer requires that the user be logged in as an administrator. Please log out and log back in as an administrator and then restart the installer". This shows in the little box at the bottom as beig from my ISP (o2). I click to close the box and it then boots me out the Internet.

My partner has never had this happen, where as I can't get on virtually anything (only use 6-8 websites anyway - all 'green' status with McAffe and am very careful with emails).

I have run McAffe, Adaware and Spybot both in normal and safe mode and found nothing. There are no restore points to use.

I've got a man coming to collect the laptop later to have a look but now I can actually get on the web from another machine I am not sure if it is a hidden virus.

Any ideas?

aliEnRIK

Try Malwarebytes
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
UPDATE and FULL SCAN
if it finds anything then post the log here

BreakinEven

That would be an option if it would let me onto the Internet for longer that a minute lol!

Think I will have to wait for the man. I will download that for future use though thanks. I'll make him work for his money ask him if he sort McAffe for me as it came loaded on the computer (Dell); it asks you to register the product, put in all the information and it says it already registered to that machine.

It also blue screens randomly (once in a blue moon) then restarts fine.

His to do list is growing....

aliEnRIK

I would suggest against paying for mcafee
Its an awful anti virus package

theres plenty of free, very good firewalls and anti virus programs (Only ever use ONE anti virus and ONE firewall at once though)

BreakinEven

Well a quick chat with a friendly techie at work has found the problem.

Part of the o2 installer is dissapering up it's own a*se looking for updates. Seeing there is no uninstall option for the o2 software (which I now know also involves a lot of junk I don't need) it has been turned of the 'run registry (?!) until I can find a way of removing it permanently.

He has also recommened getting rid of McAffe, and some of the other anti virus software I have been using. So, what is the best free virus/spy/malware protection to use with Vista? Avast?

Sorry to be such a thickie but my techie knowledge is non-existant when it comes to problems.

aliEnRIK

Free firewalls are SUNBELT, COMODO and ZONEALARM
Free anti virus packages are AVG, AVAST and AVIRA
I recommend SUNBELT
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/home-home-office/sunbelt-personal-firewall/
(Starts off as a trial then goes top free version (which is fine))
and AVIRA
http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html

Malwarebytes (Link already above) as a secondary SCANNER
and SPYBOT (Which you already have, but remember to IMMUNISE as well)

If you want to be really safe I recommend using FIREFOX browser
http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html
with the NOSCRIPT plugin (Stops anything nasty from attacking your drive on dodgy sites, but you must UNLOCK legit sites for them to work)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
and youll need FLASH plug in etc ~
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:7

aliEnRIK

How does O2 work? Does it NEED its own software to run? or can you just use the net as normal (without having to LOG IN etc)

BreakinEven

The IT guru says not so I am going dig the disc out and see if there is an uninstaller on there.

I've a gut feeling that this will also solve aminor niggle that I get.

Thank you so much for your help. I'm fine with computers until something goes wrong. I'll be later to let you know if I succeed.

aliEnRIK

If you goto CONTROL PANEL and UNINSTALL PROGRAM, it SHOULD be on there. I dont think the disc will be of any use to you.

Reluctant_spender

If you end up diving into the Registry, then I recommend the following free program to back that up;

Backup Your Registry with ERUNT

• Please use the following link and scroll down to ERUNT and download it.
  http://aumha.org/freeware/freeware.php
• For version with the Installer:
  Use the setup program to install ERUNT on your computer
• For the zipped version:
  Unzip all the files into a folder of your choice.

Click Erunt.exe to backup your registry to the folder of your choice.

BreakinEven

aliEnRIK wrote: »

If you goto CONTROL PANEL and UNINSTALL PROGRAM, it SHOULD be on there. I dont think the disc will be of any use to you.

Thank you you genius :beer: McAffe is gone, all required anti-virus, anti-spy/malware and firewall are in place.

However, it seems that there is just no removing the O2 Broadband Assistant so will have to keep turning it off when I log on. There is just no uninstall option, obv they think you will never leave.