Author Topic: Computer problem= Help Requested.  (Read 24478 times)

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Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #550: September 14, 2020, 10:49:22 AM »
Is anyone familar with the internet browser called BRAVE ?

I have it on my iPad after hearing good reviews on another site. Have not installed it on my PC yet. The main nuisance on my iPad is that it doesn't integrate with the password manager app I use. Other than that, it seems fine.

Online Natsinpwc

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #551: September 14, 2020, 11:05:16 AM »
I don’t have any of those messages. However the past few days I have been getting logged out periodically. On both the MacBook and IPhone.

Offline DCFan

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #552: September 14, 2020, 11:17:36 AM »
I have it on my iPad after hearing good reviews on another site. Have not installed it on my PC yet. The main nuisance on my iPad is that it doesn't integrate with the password manager app I use. Other than that, it seems fine.

I used to use Mozilla but when they dumped their CEO because they found out he gave to a pro-life (or was it pro-male/female marriage??) organization 10 years prior I dumped them and went to Chrome.

Online varoadking

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #553: September 14, 2020, 11:49:16 AM »

My primary browser is Chrome, though I have the same issue in Edge.  Computer is maybe 5 or 6 years old, running Windows 10.  This started maybe 3-4 weeks ago...

It's really random which sites are blocked...no real rhyme or season that I can determine...

Online varoadking

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #554: September 14, 2020, 11:53:03 AM »

Another odd thing...about the same time, my browser would close when I was trying to save an internet picture to my hard drive...

Offline DCFan

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #555: September 14, 2020, 11:56:25 AM »
My primary browser is Chrome, though I have the same issue in Edge.  Computer is maybe 5 or 6 years old, running Windows 10.  This started maybe 3-4 weeks ago...

It's really random which sites are blocked...no real rhyme or season that I can determine...

So check to see if there are any Windows updates available and then run your antivirus (I use Windows Defender);

Click on the Windows logo in the lower left corner
Click on the wheel with the cogs - Settings
Scroll to the bottom and click on Update & Security
Click on Check for Updates

After any updates are installed you may or may not have to restart.  Once that's done run your antivirus.

Offline dracnal

  • Posts: 1696
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #556: September 14, 2020, 12:49:36 PM »
**NOTE: The links and software below are good and valid as of 9/14/2020. While they will likely be good for some time, I don't have any control of them, nor am I affiliated with them, so I can't guarantee they will be good in the future. Please open a new post if you have computer questions or issues, just to be safe.

So check to see if there are any Windows updates available and then run your antivirus (I use Windows Defender);

Click on the Windows logo in the lower left corner
Click on the wheel with the cogs - Settings
Scroll to the bottom and click on Update & Security
Click on Check for Updates

After any updates are installed you may or may not have to restart.  Once that's done run your antivirus.

This is all good advice. With Edge and Chrome it likely isnt the browser but could be a protocol issue an update will fix. To get a good scan with a third party tool it may be worth using rkill first. It  doesnt clean anything but kills known malware processes it finds running. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/ - the download from bleepingcomputer itself will work fine. When that finishes, it will pop up a window saying what it did. Don't worry about the info - just know that if you haven't seen a window yet, it's still running.

Once it's finished running, go to https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/thankyou/ and download the program. Both rkill and mbam will prompt you to save the download without clicking on anything. If it doesn't show up after ten seconds, then you can click on the 'if your download didn't start, click here' thing, but don't click any other videos, advertisements, download buttons, etc. They're most likely going to be leading to advertising at best, annoying greyware junk that will slow your computer at worst.

With malwarebytes, you don't need to give them your credit card or create an account or sign up for the premium trial. Just look for 'no thanks,' 'free is good,' type of responses on any window. MBAM will update to the latest definitions when you start it and then just hit 'scan now' and let it run. When it finishes, you can see the list of things it found. It will almost certainly find things, but most of them are more annoying than malicious. Anything listed as a PUP should be cleaned but isn't a threat. It's just something someone is using to harvest marketing data from your computer to make themselves richer at the expense of slowing your machine down a tick.

Anything listed as Trojan is absolutely a threat and you should write down which ones, if any, were found and post them here.

That's a fair amount of info and steps in one post, so I'll stop here if you have any questions; that helps keep it from getting really confusing.

Online varoadking

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #557: September 14, 2020, 01:54:03 PM »

Thanks...^^^...I'll get busy...

Online varoadking

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #558: September 14, 2020, 02:47:27 PM »

With malwarebytes...

Anything listed as Trojan is absolutely a threat and you should write down which ones, if any, were found and post them here.

Not sure you want me to post all 2,197 items...the vast majority being Trojan.  I saved the file of just the item listings and it took 226 pages in WORD...  :hysterical:

Short answer...this certainly seems to have worked!  I am in Tire Rack, and was able to log into my account...etc.  How often should I run malwarebytes?

Outstanding!  Thanks for that...  :clap:

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #559: September 14, 2020, 02:57:45 PM »
Not sure you want me to post all 2,197 items...the vast majority being Trojan.  I saved the file of just the item listings and it took 226 pages in WORD...  :hysterical:

Short answer...this certainly seems to have worked!  I am in Tire Rack, and was able to log into my account...etc.  How often should I run malwarebytes?

Outstanding!  Thanks for that...  :clap:

If I were you'd I'd be changing passwords for any sensitive accounts. Most of those trojans were probably just 'aggressive' advertising, but maybe not all. 

Online varoadking

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #560: September 14, 2020, 02:59:40 PM »
If I were you'd I'd be changing passwords for any sensitive accounts. Most of those trojans were probably just 'aggressive' advertising, but maybe not all.

Sounds legit...thanks...

Offline dracnal

  • Posts: 1696
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #561: September 14, 2020, 03:19:18 PM »
If I were you'd I'd be changing passwords for any sensitive accounts. Most of those trojans were probably just 'aggressive' advertising, but maybe not all.

MBAM is usually pretty good about differentiating malicious from shady advertising. That said, yep - any passwords you have stand a REALLY good chance of being compromised. I would change email password first as most things you submit a password change request to will send you mail asking you to click a link. In the relatively unlikely chance that someone is camping in your mail account while you change things, it's just a big extra headache.  I would also -seriously- consider turning on two factor authentication for your email, at least for a few months. I know it's kind of a hassle, but the odds that whoever got your password also cloned your cell phone are very very slim.

That really is an insane number of things tagged as malicious. I'm guessing that a lot of it was multiple hits for the same item - registry changes, file associations, etc. - but that's still definitely an ugly number. I wasn't going to suggest this as a first step but it's worth running a rootkit scan. In English, a rootkit is a way for folks to access your computer that tends to be harder to notice and bypasses any actively running security measure.

This is a link to the Kaspersky scanner, TDSSKiller. The catch is that Kaspersky is a Russian company and the NSA is NOT a fan of theirs, due to potential links to the government and no guarantee they aren't helping state hackers access your system while killing non-government programs. Normally, in a case like yours, I would get a new hard drive and start from scratch, but that's because I'm typically working on business owned computers, where a replacement hard drive and my time spent is absolutely worth it compared to the risk of a compromised machine.

If anyone has a free alternative to Kaspersky that's effective, please feel free to post.

With all that said, https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tdsskiller/ will get you a clean copy of the program rather than a shady link or advert site. For convenience, and because bleepingcomputer is reputable, just get the .exe version. Same drill - install it, run it, reboot when it asks you to, wait for it to finish and note any results it may have found. If it does find anything, it's worth running it again until it comes up clean. Once that's done, run MBAM again. Might be overkill, but leaving a drive in play with that many infected hits is enough to make me more paranoid.

Offline dracnal

  • Posts: 1696
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #562: September 14, 2020, 03:22:56 PM »
Not sure you want me to post all 2,197 items...the vast majority being Trojan.  I saved the file of just the item listings and it took 226 pages in WORD...  :hysterical:

Short answer...this certainly seems to have worked!  I am in Tire Rack, and was able to log into my account...etc.  How often should I run malwarebytes?

Outstanding!  Thanks for that...  :clap:

Short answer since the other is way too long - glad it helped, please run a rootkit scan, and you can usually get away with running MBAM monthly. It's not likely to find a ton doing it that often, but it does help keep the junkware from bogging your system down. That said, I typically run it when I'm suspicious of something (random popup, misdirected search, etc) rather than on a scheduled basis. It's been a while since I used it on my own machine, but I have to routinely ask my kids to install and scan when they're seeing weird behavior.

Offline DCFan

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #563: September 14, 2020, 03:28:11 PM »
If anyone has a free alternative to Kaspersky that's effective, please feel free to post.

I like ccleaner.com (crap cleaner).  It's free and I believe it's UK. And as I posted earlier I use microsoft defender. I don't like kaspersky (for the reasons you mentioned) nor do I like things like Norton and McAfee which are huge hogs of resources while they're running behind the scenes. It's just the wife and I (no kids or grandkids in our equipment) and we learned ages ago not to click on things that are sent our way. And then we have Lifelock for the unthinkable. :mg:

Offline HalfSmokes

  • Posts: 21606
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #564: September 14, 2020, 03:28:53 PM »
MBAM is usually pretty good about differentiating malicious from shady advertising. That said, yep - any passwords you have stand a REALLY good chance of being compromised. I would change email password first as most things you submit a password change request to will send you mail asking you to click a link. In the relatively unlikely chance that someone is camping in your mail account while you change things, it's just a big extra headache.  I would also -seriously- consider turning on two factor authentication for your email, at least for a few months. I know it's kind of a hassle, but the odds that whoever got your password also cloned your cell phone are very very slim.

That really is an insane number of things tagged as malicious. I'm guessing that a lot of it was multiple hits for the same item - registry changes, file associations, etc. - but that's still definitely an ugly number. I wasn't going to suggest this as a first step but it's worth running a rootkit scan. In English, a rootkit is a way for folks to access your computer that tends to be harder to notice and bypasses any actively running security measure.

This is a link to the Kaspersky scanner, TDSSKiller. The catch is that Kaspersky is a Russian company and the NSA is NOT a fan of theirs, due to potential links to the government and no guarantee they aren't helping state hackers access your system while killing non-government programs. Normally, in a case like yours, I would get a new hard drive and start from scratch, but that's because I'm typically working on business owned computers, where a replacement hard drive and my time spent is absolutely worth it compared to the risk of a compromised machine.

If anyone has a free alternative to Kaspersky that's effective, please feel free to post.

With all that said, https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tdsskiller/ will get you a clean copy of the program rather than a shady link or advert site. For convenience, and because bleepingcomputer is reputable, just get the .exe version. Same drill - install it, run it, reboot when it asks you to, wait for it to finish and note any results it may have found. If it does find anything, it's worth running it again until it comes up clean. Once that's done, run MBAM again. Might be overkill, but leaving a drive in play with that many infected hits is enough to make me more paranoid.

We use google titan for gmail- a bit of a pain but not too bad. There are a ton of different devices that do the same thing. Absolutely worth the money

Offline dracnal

  • Posts: 1696
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #565: September 14, 2020, 04:32:50 PM »
I like ccleaner.com (crap cleaner).  It's free and I believe it's UK. And as I posted earlier I use microsoft defender. I don't like kaspersky (for the reasons you mentioned) nor do I like things like Norton and McAfee which are huge hogs of resources while they're running behind the scenes. It's just the wife and I (no kids or grandkids in our equipment) and we learned ages ago not to click on things that are sent our way. And then we have Lifelock for the unthinkable. :mg:

CCleaner is a great tool, but also one that the government has banned on their machines for.. reasons. That's one I routinely run (once a month or so) on all my personal machines and routinely use for work. The key with TDSSKiller (or any rootkit scanner) is that they're looking for something that the vast majority of programs, including Defender, will never catch because the rootkits literally put program hooks into place that do the old Ben Kenobi jedi mind trick - 'These aren't the droids you're looking for...'

Offline dracnal

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #566: September 14, 2020, 04:34:51 PM »
We use google titan for gmail- a bit of a pain but not too bad. There are a ton of different devices that do the same thing. Absolutely worth the money

Yeah, with as much of everyone's info is digital and widely accessed from computers, phones, at work, at a friend's place, etc, the extra peace of mind really is worth the step of entering a code.

Offline DCFan

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #567: September 14, 2020, 04:54:15 PM »
CCleaner is a great tool, but also one that the government has banned on their machines for.. reasons.

Well ain’t that a kick in the tail. Thanks for pointing that out.

Online varoadking

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #568: September 16, 2020, 04:45:46 PM »
I went ahead and bought a 2 year license for 3 devices, drac...this Malwarebytes program is terrific...  :thumbs:

Offline Mathguy

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #569: September 16, 2020, 04:59:47 PM »
Glad to hear it.  We have had no problems when using Malwarebytes

I went ahead and bought a 2 year license for 3 devices, drac...this Malwarebytes program is terrific...  :thumbs:

Offline dracnal

  • Posts: 1696
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #570: September 16, 2020, 05:42:29 PM »
I went ahead and bought a 2 year license for 3 devices, drac...this Malwarebytes program is terrific...  :thumbs:

That's great! It's been a part of my toolbox for many years now. Definitely a very nifty program.

Offline Mathguy

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #571: December 02, 2020, 12:34:33 PM »
Does anyone know a good user friendly website to setup a personal website ?

Offline imref

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #572: December 02, 2020, 12:37:47 PM »
Does anyone know a good user friendly website to setup a personal website ?

https://wordpress.com

Offline dracnal

  • Posts: 1696
Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #573: December 02, 2020, 12:44:28 PM »
https://wordpress.com

Yep.

** If you want to go the easy route, buy a domain and website package at GoDaddy. You can get it cheaper ala carte, but it's not -that- expensive in the grand scheme of things for the convenience.

Offline Mathguy

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Re: Computer problem= Help Requested.
« Reply #574: March 04, 2021, 06:55:08 AM »
Well, it's time for a new laptop.  I've had this one longer than I've been married.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to look for ?  Or to avoid ?