Keep getting !!!!!! site up ....

MimiJane

Interesting, I also get this message up in Spybot (DSO Exploit) ... often wondered what it was!

I'll download Spyware Blaster (if it's free!) ... don't go away, I may well have some questions  ;)

Cheers,
Mimi

callmeroy

Yes, SpywareBlaster is free.

Donnie

So, Mimi...What happens when you click on Free up RAM now.

MimiJane

Mmmmm, don't think I ran the ram program properly last time ... didn't realise there are various settings you have to deal with before launching. Don't really know what I'm doing here, but attempted it anyway. How to you know how much ram space to free up, etc.??

Suppose it will take a while to see if it's stopped freezing on me so we'll see.

StrikeEagle

Wouldn't it just be easier to get some more Ram rather than using a Free Ram proggy?

Anyway regarding the !!!!!! popups, I would download this proggy: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~avg102/hijackthis.zip

Finds stuff Adaware + others cant find, because it uses alternative methods.

Press the Scan button once the program is running. Then press the savelog button, and put the file in C:\hijackthis.txt
Close the program.

Then simply open the hijackthis.log file in notepad/wordpad/word and paste the results in the forum. We can then have a look for anything suspicious.

MimiJane

Can't seem to download this, but just had the !!!!!! site up again (after I left the computer on for a few hours) and it's a https://www.trafficswitcher.com file. When I closed this down and then tried to go back into it to get more info., I was prompted to give a network password (?) before I could enter and couldn't get back in.

As Fran suggested, I attempted to "retrict" this file by typing it into the security "blocking" box and was told that I couldn't do this because the file was in another zone. Confused ......

Donnie

ReleaseRam should help to ascertain if memory usage is a problem, without having to fork out for extra RAM.

SpyBot's Tea 'Timer would have popped up a box when'if 'trafficswitcher' attempted to change your registry settings, allowing to to select 'deny'.
Which 'firewall' product are you using? If you are using Broadband, this becomes all the more important.

MimiJane

It doesn't look as if the ram is a problem ... none has been released since install a few days ago.

At the moment I have the Zone Alarm firewall installed, though I'm not sure if I had one at all when the site first started popping up as I deleted a lot of programs when Windows slowed down so much to see if there was a problem since downloading anything.

Thinking about it, a family member did tell me a yellow box containing a message appeared a few days ago about someone trying to get into the system, but they said the box disappeared and I couldn't find it again.

Hope the above helps!

Donnie

I would recommend doing a manual 'free up' of RAM with ReleaseRam as soon as Windows has completed it's opening.(Keep it running in the Taskbar, so you can see when RAM is running low. When it does, you can perform a manual 'frre up' before things start slowing down)

Using SpyBot, go to Tools and then 'Browser Pages' and look for anything unusual. Personally, I have changed ALL of my search and browser pages to about:blank.(SpyBot has a utility there to do this for you)

Again, look in 'System StartUp' within SpyBot to see whether there is an unusual entry there.(Clicking on the entry and having the 'more information' box open, SpyBot will show up possible intruders hidden within your registry.
Copy the filenames in the information box into the 'Windows File Finder to see if any of these files are contained within your 'puter.

The fact that SpyBot was popping up all sorts of boxes on your computer probably meant it was protecting you from these nasties.

Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this one soon.

ABH_3

I'm just going to jump in here and sugest a few ideas.

To the OP you mention that as soon as you start Word your system slows down. In which case, I imagine you have "Find Fast" the indexing service enabled on your computer. If so, you may wish to cancel it. Due to it being a drain on your resources.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=158705

As regards getting rid of spyware\dialers\trojans et al. Use the trial version of this: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/ once you have used it. You can uninstall it and use the freeware product.

Another option for you is to give the people on this site the address of the !!!!!! site involved. As chances are there will be a guaranteed uninstaller available from somewhere.