Unwanted website

My uncle, using Vista on a laptop, has been having an issue with an unwanted website appearing and asked me to visit. He has had Norton 360 installed for 3 months and doesn't remember it updating itself or scheduling any scans - why is this? My TM Pc-cillin that I've used for years with great success sets this up automatically.
A friend told him to install anti-spyware stuff like Adaware SE and Spybot SD etc. but I believe that these are now unnecessary with these superior antivirus/spyware packages like Norton, is this so?
Unfortunately, he searched the internet for these software, and installed similiarly named equivalents, which i was appaled at, as i know that some of them are cons and provide further problems.
Anyway, I did started the quick scan, and he called me ~3 hours later to say it was still going, and found 2 risks and still fixing one, i told him that it sounded that it had stalled, and to stop and reboot laptop, and start again.....

ANY FURTHER IDEAS?

By the way, I DO NOT recommend NORTON, as I once installed it and had anissue, and then tried to remove it and it wouldn't allow me, so I had to reformat my HDD - I learn't my lesson the hard way.

 

Hi smurph!
Welcome to MajorGeeks!

It will be easier if one or the other of you will communicate with us directly about the computer. I fear what may happen if I start giving you instructions to give him. Whichever of you wants to work on the computer should also report to us.

Normally the antivirus program will give a sign that it is updating. If it hasn't been updating ever, then something's wrong there.

Your assumption that extra programs are no longer needed now that there are security suites is wrong. Unfortunately, there's no one program yet that can get everything. The security suites are an effort by some of the larger companies to offer complete security protection which has taken them into directions in which they weren't specialized. The main achievement so far is that they use a lot of resources. We still recommend single programs (antivirus, firewal, antispyware) that work well together. Those companies which stay in their main area have been providing better protection.

It sounds probable that in the process of trying to help his computer, your uncle has installed rogue programs on his computer For us to help you, we need for you to work through the instructions in the READ & RUN ME FIRST and post the requested logs back here with your next post. The instructions are not too lengthy or complicated and this gives us a lot of information to work with so we can better advise you.

Thanks.
abri

 

Thanks abri
I will doing this on the PC, although not immediately, maybe a while before i re-post.

Also, his wife uses limewire for d/l of music, is this a safe method?

Your advise how to remove Trojans, but how can i tell which are present?

 

Hi smurph!
Limewire has gotten a lot better and we don't ask people to remove it anymore. Alot of the trojans use similar methods and so different ones can be gotten rid of with the same tool. Much of what we ask you to do is general cleaning with tools that pick up a lot of common forms of malware and then we have you run some diagnostic scans so we can look at what has not yet been fixed and apply more specific tools and programs. The different viruses have many names according to which company identifies them for you, but the file names are what we are looking for when we look at your logs. We then remove specific files to remove the complex. It's a worthwhile process to go through because your involvement in it generally leads to you learning a lot about what's in your computer.
abri