desperate?

need help.......son has xp home..........system came with no virus protection or firewall compaq system he can get on the internet ok and we talk using yahoo messenger.......but he is unable to access any site where he can download an anti virus program... cannot even get into majorgeeks or when he does cannot download any programs that are spyware or anti vir programs. Do we have a problem?

 

have you checked the internet security settings within explorer. also, if you have a burner, id dl avast! antivirus, Ad-aware, and spybot S&D and install them on his computer to see if there are any malicious programs

 

reply

haven't tried that...........not a geek here.......according to him and control program computer has no virus program pre loaded he was able to download and has zonealarm now running but cannot download any anti virus programs from any sites first thing I wanted him to do was run a virus scan,,,,,,but he was unable........because of no program installed...........also unable to download and install spybot or adaware.........told him about aniti vir and he cannot download it also.......do we need help? I think so

 

I certainly agree with DanTekGeek's choices for programs.

In addition, as your son may be blocked from accessing any of the anti-spyware forums, you can download Stinger at http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ This is a tool that will remove many viruses just in case that's your son's problem. Keep in mind this is a virus removal tool. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for an antivirus program!

If he runs Ad-aware and removes all it finds; then he should reboot and run Spybot Search and Destroy and remove anything it finds. Then run Stinger. After that, install an antivirus program then go to the Microsoft update page and scan for critical updates and install them. To get to the update page while in Internet Explorer, select Tools > Windows Update.

After your son does all of the above, especially if he's still having problems, then he should download HijackThis and perform a scan and post the resulting log (WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO FIX ANYTHING FIRST!!!) to one of the forums that specialize in dealing with these situations, such as http://www.tomcoyote.com ... It would be a good idea for him to do this, even if all appears to be working well, just so he can make sure his machine is clean.

I hope your son's computer isn't infected with any type of malware; however, being realistic, I think it's highly probable that his machine is most likely infected. These days, spending any time at all on the internet without AV and firewall protection is almost a guarantee that you'll have problems.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

 

thanks for all the help, once again. I think he has probably downloaded some kind of rotten bug, since he is constantly downloading games, etc from sites all over. Could not believe that his computer came with no anti virus program pre installed. At least he says he cannot find any. Whenever things screwed up he would just go to system restore.......and from what he told me quite a few times. Hard to understand since he is in Georgia and I am in Colorado and he is in and out with a funny work schedule in the army. Going to send Anti Vir and spy bot and ad-aware to him thru yahoo messenger when we can both get together. Hope that will work okay. Realized, again that I forgot to log out yesterday. Hope I didn't upset the management, but I am old and decrepit. Don't log in a lot because of forgetfulness but always checking things out. This place and the people here are the greatest! Will try and get back to let you know what happens, but it may be awhile.