I Have A Virus On My Computer - Could It Be From This Website?

[Guest AutumnE]

I came on here the other day and I have/had a virus on my computer. I went to my earthlink virus/adware detector and it said it came from the glutenfreeforum. I supposedly deleted it but its acting the same way. When I try and do a search on google every page I open from my search results is advertisements/spam.

Does anyone else have this? How did you get rid of it?

[codetalker]

What is the name of the virus and/or the symptoms?

[mamaw]

We have nortonantivirus & I haven't had a problem...... We get instant updates ...

[jerseyangel]

That's terrible! Sorry that happened--I wish I could offer something, but I don't understand these things ver well.

I also use Norton Antivirus.

[zansu]

I use AVG and haven't had any problems.

[celiac3270]

There's no way you're getting a virus from this site.

I use various virus scans, firewall, and spyware protection... and none of those have ever complained about the board. Not to mention it would be terrible for Scott being that he actually has a business behind the board and site.

So it's either that it's a virus from elsewhere that somehow masks itself as being from here, or more likely, it's just a harmless cookie from saving your login information here, which shouldn't show up as a virus.... I have no idea why that would happen, but it's definitely not from this site.

To echo the others, what anti-virus software?

---------

As for getting rid of any virus, if your current program isn't working, try a few others. AVG is the best _free_ one available for starters.

[Guest AutumnE]

Thanks Everyone

Well, I do not run earthlink firewall regularly when I am surfing, I know thats not good but it slows it down so much since its such a pain having to approve everything and I have dial up. I ran errornuker, adaware, and earthlink virus scan.

But when I left the site and went to google (my homepage) and typed a search it would state for example wikipedia and I would think I was opening that website but it would send me to another search engine. I ran my initial scan on earthlink (wished I would of saved the results) and it stated virus from gluten free forum, however I think now that its adware instead of a virus. I deleted it and its not shown up again but Im still having problems.

We do have avg but my husband said it wasnt updated, but I think he is going to try and update it again to see if he can and if it will take care of it. It doesnt bug him but it bugs me since Im always doing searches on various things.

I was very surprised if it had a virus from here and had to explain to my dh that it is a legitimate message board and not one where you would have to watch out for a hacker. As of now all those virus scans have run over and over again with it not clearing up the problem. We do need to reformat but not till football season is over and I get a few things saved on celiac disease. The odd thing is also is its not coming up as a virus or adware at all anymore but its obvious were still having problems

[2kids4me]

We use Norton as well - automatic upsdates and no problems from here.

Norton has updates once or twice a week - if you havent updated in the last 14 days - you should know that there have been a bunch of new viruses and updates.

It may seem as if it came from this site but it is actually a weakness in the browser:

A vulnerability in the web browser may create a weakness in the computer security providing an opportunity for some websites to download malicious code

Use a firewall to block unsolicited requests for outbound communication

Do not accept or open suspicious error dialogs from within the browser

Spyware may come as part of a "free deal" offer - Do not accept free deals

November Microsoft Security Bulletins Released

Microsoft has released a number of Security Bulletins addressing vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. A patch has also been released for the XMLHTTP vulnerability that has been known to have been exploited in the wild

Open Original Shared Link

[celiac3270]

I see... if it's supposedly adware, then they could be misinterpreting a cookie, perhaps? But that wouldn't be a big deal at all; after all, I guarantee you you could visit the 10 most legitimate sites you can think of and end up with SOMETHING... that they consider a tracking cookie... they're not very malicious, though, and they would never change your search results.

Could you tell us what search engine they're redirecting you to? Many years ago, before I got smart on security, I had some issues with a "WhenUSearch" search toolbar... if we knew the culprit we might be able to help.

[Ursa Major]

I had an issue with something that downloaded itself during a search last year, masquerading as a new Internet Explorer toolbar. It was impossible to get rid of, not even my computer support person could get rid of it, we had to reformat the computer. There was no other way. It would hijack all searches, and even hijack my homepage. And since all programs (adaware, anti-spyware, whatever) didn't recognize it as being separate from Internet Explorer, and it wasn't a virus, running those to try to get rid of it was useless.

It is a big mistake to turn of your firewall when surfing the net, more speed is not worth the headache of having to deal with problems after. But that one sneaked in despite having a firewall, under the guise of being a legitimate IE upgrade.

I don't recommend Norton any more. The 2003 version was excellent, and tested on top of all the anti-virus programs. Norton 2006 tested on the bottom of the heap. I got it in the spring this year, and had nothing but trouble with it, not the least of it being, that it thought it was the boss of my computer, and would constantly override my settings. I uninstalled it and got my money back. I doubt that the 2007 version is any better.

One excellent free program is Avast. Even professionals use it to protect their computers. Once my current protection (Kasperky Suite) runs out in 2008, I won't renew it, but rather get Avast. Kaspersky updates the anti-virus database every few hours, once or twice a week is way too little to be safe. My nephew in Germany, who is amazing with the computer (and will study information science) said that after he uninstalled his Norton 2006 (which came with his new computer), and got Kaspersky, the virus scan found several viruses that Norton let through, because they were new, and Norton hadn't updated for those yet.

[Felidae]

I use Norton Antivirus too. But, I also use Ad-Aware to delete annoying stuff (non-viral) that Norton doesn't catch. Also, what I find helps is deleting the cache and cookies everytime I am finished on the internet. I know this sounds kind of extreme, but it has eliminated annoying toolbars, etc. You can find the item that has infected your computer and try to manually delete it. I have had to do this before. Pretty much you can get annoying infecting junk from any website.

[Ursa Major]

You can find the item that has infected your computer and try to manually delete it.

Sure, often that is possible, but not always. With that toolbar I mentioned, every time you thought you had deleted it, it would pop back up the next time you started IE. It wasn't possible to delete, two computer experts tried it (I paid them to do it), and it couldn't be done.

[Scott Adams]

Our site does not contain any viruses or bad tracking cookies. It does use cookies but not the kind that would create any issues.

Take care,

Scott

[Guest AutumnE]

thanks so much Well I found out its a worm! this is the name of it-

W32.Bobax.AF@mm

Pain in the butt one that can be in email or google search, the google search is how I think we got it. Not a huge problem as it didnt really mess up anything other than being annoying but it's a pain to change so Im leaving it up to my husband

We updated avg and used adaware and it didnt detect it and earthlink didnt detect it. Im having dh look into avast.

Have a good night everyone

[celiac3270]

This might help a little, if you haven't already looked it up:

Open Original Shared Link

It also has removal instructions so you can do it manually if you can't catch it via some anti-virus program (see the "tabs" at the top where it says summary and click removal instructions or something like that).

[plantime]

I used to have Norton. Then a virus came out that attacked Norton, and my cpu had to be wiped. It ate my soundcard, though. Now I use System Suite.

[Guest AutumnE]

Thanks dessa and celiac3270

I looked it up a bit but I'll save it for dh, I think he is going to tackle it tomorrow. That would suck having it destroy your sound card. Im thankful this is all we have.