Potential backdoor trojan

I've already followed the READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide instructions.

I've been having trouble connecting to Yahoo, and often get the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page." A post somewhere else said that this may be a sign of a backdoor trojan at work. Other items: The number lock key on my keyboard comes on and stays on when I boot up. When I close Microsoft Word, I often get an error message that says it must shut down items. My Norton Internet Securit is then shut down and a message come up asking for my permission to send an error message to Microsoft. Also, every now and then, a message come up saying that my computer has detected a new periphrial (?). The only option is gives me is to select "Okay." There is no option to select something else or even to close the window.

I could not get CounterSpy or PandaActiveScan to work. Attached are hijackthis.log, newfiles.txt, and runkeys.txt.

Please help!

 

Attached are
BitDefenderScan-2007-03-03.txt
and
AVGAntispywareReport-Scan-20070303-152236.txt

 

Initially, I didn't update my Java because I was unsure whether I needed to remove Java Web Start in addition to that three year old Java version. Also, TD AMERITRADE streamer recommended using that particular three year old Java Version (1.4.1_02) for best results with their product.

I uninstalled Java 2 Runtime Environment, SE v1.4.1_02, rebooted, and installed the new version as you instructed.

I rebooted again. I then attempted to use PandaActiveScan panda scan. From the safe mode, I went to http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan?. I then was brought to http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/activescan/ascan_2.asp. From the http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/activescan/ascan_2.asp page, I enter the country, state, and a valid email (a yahoo account). I then click on FREE Online Scan. Nothing happened except for the appearance of a message in the lower left corner of the screen. The message was a small, yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it. Next to the yellow triangle was the phrase "Error on page."

From the regular mode, I repeated the same steps at PandaActiveScan. This time, nothing happened. I do not even get the "Error on page" message.

Some other comments and things that are odd with my computer:
When I try to open the page http://web2.westlaw.com/signon/default.wl?fn=_top&rs=WLW6.06&rp=/signon/default.wl&vr=2.0&bhcp=1 from Internet Explorer, I get a blank, white page. I can open that page with Mozilla Firefox, however.

Just before following the followed the READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide instructions, I deleted Yahoo Tool bar, Yahoo messenger, and a third Yahoo program.

Please let me know what I should do next.

 

IE Privacy Keeper ( http://www.browsertools.net/IE-Privacy-Keeper/index.html )automatically cleans up the browser history once I am done surfing the net. I've been using IE Privacy Keeper long before any of the above problems occured and its always been my friend. Could it turn on me?

The inability to access certain page problems occured and/or got worse once I instealled Internet Explorer 7.0. I've tried disabling and uninstalling Norton and then accessing the noted pages with the same, no access results. It's odd that I can access westlaw.com from Mozilla firefox but not Internet Explorer. I've looked through my Restricted Zone and did not find anything related to westlaw.com or yahoo.com. I've otherwise pursued a misconfiguration theory, but could not find any problem.

My main malware concern was the message that came up saying that my computer has detected a new periphrial (?) and the only option is gave me was to select "Okay." The screen visual was a little unprofessional and seem something like a backdoor trojan would do to trick me into providing access. (I always rebooted instead of selecting OK) Also, I was concerned about the messages I was asked to send to Microsoft with My Norton Internet Securit shut down due to an error in Micorsoft Word. I thought that some local malware was causing Norton to shut down so that a trojan can complete its access to my computer. I've also had false information showing that Norton Internet Security was working (e.g., icon in lower right of screen) but it in fact was not.

I feel better now that my logs do not show any malware problem. I do appreciate your help in this matter. Thanks!

Should I keep AVG installed or, along with Norton, would it be my second anti-spyware running?

As for removing Norton, I'm somewhat dependent upon it since I don't know what it all does and am unsure what I could use to replace it's (i) Internet Security, (ii) AntiVirus, (iii) AntiSpam features. If you can give me a list and say "these items are just as good as Norton and essentially do what Norton does," I may then be able to finally move away from Norton. Thanks.