help with spyware-type thingy (1 Viewer)

[Lundy]

Recently I've had this happening when I'm on the net.

Random words are turning into links for some 'ntseach' site. I ran a virus scan and adaware, got rid of everything that came up, and this is still happening.

 

[anti]

I trust you have the latest definitions for adaware so I won't suggest that (lol). However you can run a deeper scan - I don't have adaware here at work so I don't know the exact settings, but essentially make sure you scan anything at bootup and the registry (it's custom scan -> deep scan or something like that). This tends to flush out more obscure adware.

Try spyware s&d : http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and
hijackThis!: http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

They both pick up things that adaware miss (but it goes both ways). With hijackThis you may have to google some of the results (look for dodgy names, then google the executable). (What hijackThis does is search your registry for strange values, things running at startup etc)

If everything above fails, google ntsearch adware / spyware and there are some programs specifically for removing it (but I haven't tried them).

Oh, one other thing - after running all the spyware programs and removing entries etc, restart your computer before running ie again. If they still appear in your registry etc, there's probably a virus which keeps attacking you on bootup (I guess.)

 

[Lundy]

Ok, thanks a lot

 

[sunny]

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html

CWShredder for NTsearch/CWS.

 

[shiny]

You can see what programs are doing to your computer by going to start, run, msconfig. Clicking the startup tab will give you some suss programs and you can track them down in regedit, and delete their entries.

It won't get all of them, but I've done that and the gay things have stopped for me.

 

[r0wlzii]

Hmmm, looks like you'll have to reformat.

run->command->format c:/ ->y + enter

 

[sunny]

Don't be stupid.

 

[r0wlzii]

I wasnt. Spyware is deadly. I'd reformat.

 

[sunny]

NTsearch is easily and safely removable with 3rd party tools.

 

[r0wlzii]

Format is an easy and safe way of removing spyware also, probably more effective than your suggestion.

 

[sunny]

Format is an easy and safe way of removing spyware also, probably more effective than your suggestion.

For a person that may not even know how to remove spyware from their computer, telling them to format it would

1) Be too much trouble
2) Maybe cause even more downtime
3) Effective, yes. Slow, troublesome, time consuming, a general hassle, also yes.

 

[equiski]

Format is an easy and safe way of removing spyware also, probably more effective than your suggestion.

Why don't you just hit it with a sledge hammer and buy a new computer? Thats really effective too.

 

[Lundy]

er....I managed to get rid of it by using the software anti suggested.