MIKE TO THE RESCUE

This last week, has brought me close to throwing my office computer out of the window. (on top of yours, Anne J ) Well, that was until Mike from MJR came to the rescue. You see since my laptop was disposed of because a part couldn’t be sourced to repair it, I have been using my office computer, which I share with my husband.

Somehow we got some malware on it, (a nasty little bug) and it created havoc for us. I spent a total of about 6 hours trying to fix it, but the problem didn’t quite resolve 100% – until Mike gave me the clue – 90 seconds later, problem fixed! If you want to read the whole sorry saga, please click here:

Apparently, for several weeks John had noticed there was an update message from a program called ‘Internet Security Suite’. He finally mentioned it to me, and I immediately got suspicious. The message he was seeing didn’t look quite right, the alerts that he was seeing certainly didn’t look like they came from a reputable company. For instance he was seeing alert messages, with flashing words saying things like ‘you have 14 infected files. Click here to correct’.  And when he did click the link he went to a website with 3 options to purchase their so-called Internet Security Suite. Three options to pay between $19.95 and $89.95.  But immediately you could tell it wasn’t a reputable company.  The grammar had mistakes, the site looked really dodgy.  So of course, we didn’t go ahead and purchase, and tried to uninstall the program.

Well, that’s where the frustration started. There was no program to uninstall. There was a shortcut on the All Programs menu, which could be deleted…- but it kept coming back each time the computer was re-started. The alert messages kept appearing.  My Avast! Internet Security had intercepted some instances where this Internet Security Suite was trying to activate something, but it couldn’t seem to get rid of it. I then used a really good program called Malware Bytes. I did a deep scan – which took 4 hours to complete. It did pick up the rogue program, and removed it.  And then I used a great little program called CC Cleaner to fix up the computer’s registry. (just means it tidies up little lost files and things that aren’t quite right)

But, that Internet Security Suite program had effectively disabled Internet Explorer which my husband uses to go on to the Internet, and is also used by iTunes. (I use Firefox, so was blissfully unaware of any problem).  I looked all around the Internet Options, and found a strange item that had been added to a section concerning how the computer connects to the internet, which I removed. However, it still wasn’t working. So I called trusty Mike. I explained what was going on, he was familiar with this problem. And as I have mentioned previously – sometimes there’s just a little tick somewhere that causes a problem … and sure enough. Going into one more section of the Internet Options – that awful program had put a tick in the option:  Proxy Server … un-ticked that and no more problems.

All that agonising all gone!  So how that program got onto our computer is anyone’s guess. Even though my hubby is pretty aware when downloading things from the internet, because of the generic name of Internet Security Suite, he may not have been alerted to anything sinister and might have allowed the program to be downloaded. Or it might have been something hidden in a program’s Terms and Conditions  – which nobody reads. Who knows, but I wanted to share this long story with you, to remind you, keep vigilant. Keep alert. And maybe you’ll avoid the hassles we’ve had this week. And always, remember, our members are encouraged to call or email me if you’re suspicious of something, a couple of minutes checking on something might save HOURS of agonising!

I mentioned a couple of programs in this story, here are the links to these free programs, if you’d care to have them on your computer too. Oh, and don’t worry, there’s no adware, or spyware or anything hidden.

Use these links, to download the programs from the cNet website; it’s free and you won’t be prompted to pay. Just use the Download Now buttons, don’t be tempted to add any other programs, which you don’t need just now.

CC Cleaner:     http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

Malware Bytes:  http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

If you’re not sure how to do this, I’ll summarise the steps here.  In a nutshell you get the program from the Internet, install it onto your computer, then open the Program and scan your computer. Let it find any problems, then allow the program to fix the problems.  Here are the steps to get the programs.

1.       Click one of the links above.

2.       Click the Download Now button to get the file from the cNet website onto your computer.

3.       NOTE:   If using Internet Explorer, you will probably need to do a couple of extra steps. It’s most likely not going to allow you to get the file straight away. As part of Internet Explorer’s security, it checks first to be sure it’s okay to get the file from the Internet.

4.       When you click on the Download Now button, in most cases an ‘Information Bar’ will be displayed towards the top of the page. (it’s just a narrow little message, so look carefully for the words starting with… To help protect your security ….. when you’ve found that, you’ve found the Information Bar.

5.       Click on that Information Bar, then click on Download File.

6.       A new window will display.

7.       Click on Run – the file will then be downloaded on to your computer.

8.       On the next window that displays, click on Run (yes a second time).

9.       Your program is ready for you to Scan your Computer.

I hope that helps get rid of any little gremlins lurking in your machine.