z-connect and internet connection problems

MattyC69 · May 4, 2009

Hey all, this is my first post and I'm a bit of a noob, so please bare with me.

Some background: I have multiple DSL accounts which I change over to for different purposes (gaming, streaming etc) and so I have 3 dial-up accounts on my desktop which I connect to through my router.

About a week ago my internet connection started to act rather strangely. Every now and then the "connected" icon in my taskbar would just vanish and I would be automatically disconnected from the internet. It didn't happen often so I just assumed it was a glitch and went on with life.

Recently it's gotten a whole lot worse, with my connection not being able to stay connected for longer than a few seconds (I'm typing this message offline, as Ill have to reconnect just to post it). It's damn frustrating and I've been on the phone with my ISP asking them if it's a problem their side, or if it's the actually DSL line. Finally I decided to google search (should've done that first) and I only got about 3 hits (1 of which was this site). The other 2 weren't helpful at all. Well, I did what the post here said (I downloaded Malwarebytes Anti-Maleware) and ran it in safe-mode and it found about 21 mals and viruses (sp?).

I was happy and restarted, unfortunately the problem is still here, and this strange connection "Z-Connect" keeps adding itself to my network connections, even when I manually delete it. There are also a few strangely named exe files in my DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS FOLDER (dfghxjxs.exe etc) which I'm sure weren't there before.

Please if anyone can help, or provide some insight into what it is I'm dealing with.

To recap: I can connect to the internet via my dial-up connections (DSL accounts) and even browse, however it only lasts a few seconds before the icon in the taskbar literally vanishes, I am disconnected, and not given a Windows Prompt to reconnect.

Thank you!!!
Matt

chaslang · May 8, 2009

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Malwarebytes is not everything that we ask you to run. You need to complete all of our instructions and you must attach the logs to get help.

Please follow the instructions in the READ & RUN ME FIRST link given futher down and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

If you have problems where no tools seem to run, please try following the steps given in the below and then continue on no matter what you find. You only need to try the TDSSserv steps if having problems getting scans in the Read & Run Me First.

TDSSserv Non-Plug & Play Driver Disable

If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going.

Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not.

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

After completing the READ & RUN ME and attaching your logs, make sure that you tell us what problems still remain ( if any still do )!

Helpful Notes:

If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode, you can run the steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:

Starting your computer in Safe mode

If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes and Spybot ( links are given in the READ & RUN ME) onto another PC and then burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.

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z-connect and internet connection problems

MattyC69 Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member