DIGITAL NIGHTMARE ON ALL STREETS - Got Computer Problems? Read This (10/16/2008) Heath Weaver Heath Weaver Some of us saw this coming before it happened, others were taken unaware. With the US and Several European as well as other countries in financial quagmire, the financial crunch has been bringing out the scammers, spammers, thieves and con artists of all kinds. Even before this world economic downturn, computers in our homes and offices have been subject to "PC Wolves in sheep's clothing" (as stated in a previous article). however, due to the lack of money flow lately in almost every home and business, the scammers and con artists seem to be thinking up new and inventive ways of making money off of us unsuspecting coin holders, no matter how much or little coin that we may have. - they want it! When it comes to the computer world, that little box sitting on a desk or in a corner somewhere in our homes or office, the scammers have a 'doorway' into our homes our minds and our wallets, a doorway that doesn't even require them to come knocking on it. When you connect to the internet and start browsing (with an unprotected computer) you open the door yourself, and there are thousands of thugs, pranksters and thieves just waiting for you on the other side. In the real world, we can look out the window and see who is knocking on the door, and if we know it's a bad person, at least we can call the police, or like any true "good ol' West Virginian", grab our guns. But, in the computer world, it's not that easy to see what's on the other side of the 'door', and there really are no police available to call. OK, avoiding any more parables for this story, I'll get to down to the point. There are Viruses, Spyware, Adware, Botnets, Trojans, Password Stealers, Keyloggers, Screen Capturers, Packet Sniffers, and malware of every sort, standing right beside 'Phishing' and fake websites. The kind of software we don't want on our computers, and the kind of websites we don't intend to browse to. The computer gets infected from browsing a website, getting e-mail, downloading software we want to try, downloading/listening to music online, looking for a purchase or auction item, and basically just about everything we want to use the computer for on a normal basis while online on the internet, and yes even while the computer is sitting dormant not being used, (but turned on and connected to dsl or cable). The BAD software can come to us in many shapes and forms as mentioned above, and with the nature of search engines and the internet in general, the bad websites are around every blind click of the mouse. The bad guys, writing bad software, and making bad websites, are doing what they do to either make money, steal your identity, or take control of your computer. We all know the reasons people have for stealing money... The reasons for stealing identity are varied.. but the biggest reason to steal control of your computer, is to allow the bad guys to use your computer as a tool in their crime sprees, so that when/if the computer gets 'caught', the blame goes on your computer and not theirs...moreover, using hundreds or thousands of other peoples computers, gives the bad guys a more powerful resource to do their dirty work, and many times it's all about money.. the love of money...But sometimes, though very seldom, the bad guys are just pranksters and want to do damage to your computer, just because they can. So, how do we prevent our computers from getting infected? How do we prevent browsing to a bad website? How do we keep from getting our credit card numbers and personal information/identity stolen? How do we stop those pesky popup windows of all kinds of advertisements and even porn? Well, it takes a small arsenal of software defense, and some additional knowledge to truly make your 'online' experience a safe and happy one. The store shelves and word of mouth from friends tell us to go out and buy the latest greatest, big name brand, "internet protection suite", and all our problems will be solved. However, as many have found out, that sometimes after doing that, that is when the problems just begin. The big name high prices software is not always the best solution. Back in the good ol' days, (not so long ago), the big names became big names on the market because they were the only solutions out there, to a relatively small problem. But today, the problem is much larger.. and the big named companies seem more focused on making their software more expensive, or just showing you a new and 'improved' latest version, but not actually more productive or precise then ever before. I will intentionally 'neglect' to mention any big antivirus company names in this paragraph.. but there are 2 very very popular antivirus programs that many people seem to be using. The latest versions of these software packages truly require the latest version of computer hardware to run efficiently on, otherwise with older computers (even a couple of years old) the machines become slowed down, and sometimes almost unresponsive. Moreover, these big named software packages can hardly do the job they are 'supposed to be' intended to do. In fact, the two programs in mind, are very susceptible to getting infected themselves and provide very little protection against the latest malware. People still buy them however. Then after installing and updating these antivirus/internet protection suites, and scanning their computers, they may or may not find any 'trouble' that can be fixed, yet still have problems with the computer afterward. Why is this? Well, this is because one company or one program of any sort, simply is not enough to keep our computers clean and safe. So many people go out and buy yet another software package, like a spyware removal program, run it and find problems...fix them...and still get popup windows, sales pitches, spam e-mail, pornography popups, and other things showing up on their computers. I've seen some home user's and even business computers get into an awful shape, some to the point of no return, when it comes to cleaning them up. The key is to prevent all of this from happening BEFORE there is ever any infection. I know some people personally, that do not check the oil in their cars unless the oil light comes on, and by then (many times) it's already too late, the damage has already been done. And this seems to be the state that many computers are in right now. Going to the computer store and looking around, I see a handful of programs costing anywhere from $29 to $129 that promise to clean up the computer and keep it safe. Yet I know these particular software do NOT remove certain spyware, adware, spam or prevent 'phishing' of personal information. Over the years of working with my own machines and with those of others, I've come to learn through trial and error, what software works and what doesn't, and what is worth buying and what you can get for free, some of the best software out there is actually free. Yet some of the free software is actually malware, or simply fake. See previous article Beware Of PC Wolves... When it comes to choosing what software to get to 'do the job right', without knowing what's good, the choices are in the hundreds and trying to pick what actually works can be a daunting task. Therefore I would like to share some knowledge, and give a few very good tips to follow to help you have a good relationship with your computer. (Rather than wanting to throw it out the window, or smash it with a hammer) So the rest of this article lists the software I want to mention, with links to the websites where you can download it, and I will share a few tips on how to use this software properly, while also trying to save you some money - and headaches. To begin with it is STRONGLY recommended to do a full system backup before proceeding...I will not get into all the different types of backup software out there nor how to use them, but I will give a link for one of the best...it's under $30, and is well worth every penny and much more. Acronis True Image Home 2009...don't bother with a trial, it won't do the backup, you need to buy the real thing. www.acronis.com Acronis true image will backup EVERYTHING if you use the CD Media, you can backup to CD/DVD, a network drive, a USB drive or other types of media and remote locations, backing up to an external USB drive is recommended for this first backup, otherwise CD/DVD is a good choice for those who have cd/dvd writers. It's optional if you want to back up or not, it depends on what is important on your computer. It's very unlikely that the following process will cause you to lose any data, but I mention the backup 'just in case' you should, and for liability purposes of this article, just do a backup if you think you should, if you really don't care what could be lost, then proceed without the backup. Next: we need to clean out the bad stuff. During this process, do not go out visiting any other websites, just follow the process. Lets go get some good and free antivirus programs. Yes I say that in plural, because it may take more than one. The first one to use is AVG Antivirus, avg is known to scan for the latest 'in the wild' viruses, and keeps pretty up to date. You can get AVG by Grisoft at this website    www.avg.com If you already have an antivirus like Norton or McAfee, and are having still having computer problems...before you install AVG you will want to uninstall either of the two programs first. Install and run AVG, and tell it to scan your computer...reboot the computer if needed then do a live update of avg, and scan the computer again, after doing this lets go download the next antivirus program. Lets go get a trial version of Kaspersky (pronounced kas-sper-skee "it's Russian") Antivirus, get it here antivirus.comodo.com After downloading comodo antivirus, uninstall Kaspersky..rebooting if needed...and then install comodo...tell comodo to live update first, and then scan your computer...remove anything it finds, do a boot time scan if requested...you can optionally place files in a virus vault if you don't want to delete them. Now, go get yourself a free copy of 'one of' the best antivirus programs available.. AVAST Antivirus by Alwil software. you can download it here avast.com Before installing Avast...we first need to remove Comodo...so uninstall Comodo and reboot if requested...After rebooting the computer, install AVAST Antivirus. During the install of avast antivirus, it will ask you if you want to 'Schedule a boot time scan'... answer YES to this...since many new viruses have a way of hiding from antivirus programs, avast will scan the system before 'windows' loads into memory. This is a good way to root out any persistent viruses. Finish the installation of AVAST and reboot...during the reboot process, windows will notify you that avast has scheduled a boot scan, and you will be asked if you want to bypass this by pressing any key...DO NOT press any key...let the scan take place. As with the previous scans, these can take quite some time to do. The whole cleanup process can take all day long, it all depends on how fast your computer is, and how many files you have to scan. After avast has done the scan...tell it to update it's virus database if it hasn't told you that it has done so on it's own...and rescan the computer with it. The standard interface for avast is quite unusual, and due to the unusual interface, it has not become the most popular program in the US...however it is one of the best antivirus scanners available... and it is FREE to use and register. (for home users only). Because of the unusual interface, you may need to hover your mouse over buttons, or click around to find out what button does what, but you can tell it to rescan the computer again. Later, you can choose a different 'Skin' for the program if you like, some make it much easier to navigate in. Ok...all done scanning with avast? good...now lets start removing other types of malware. Spyware and Adware are many times not listed as trojans or viruses, and are therefore ignored by many antivirus programs.. yet we want to get rid of those too.. so lets get some free adware and spyware removal programs. Lets start with Adaware...you can get adaware here www.lavasoft.com   There is a free version to download on this page. Unlike the previous installs...you won't have to uninstall Avast, in fact...I recommend leaving it on your computer for good, and not worrying about re-installing your old antivirus if you have one, even if you paid good money for it, if the other antivirus scans found something, then your old paid program, obviously wasn't cutting the cake very well...right? Ok...install Adaware, and tell it to do a live update...and then do a full system scan...if it finds anything...make sure it is checkmarked and tell it to remove whatever it finds...if for some reason adaware will not update...then just proceed to the scan... remove anything it finds...if after doing this you need to reboot... do so...then if during the previous scan you could not do a live update...try to do the update again...if you can update now...do the scan again. the only reason you may not be able to update is due to some malware blocking the update process. Ok after finishing with adaware...lets go get another malware scanner. Malwarebytes Antimalware scanner www.malwarebytes.org As before...install this program and do a live update...then tell it to scan the computer and remove anything if finds...reboot if needed. Now after finishing with malwarebytes...lets go get Spybot Search & Destroy, here on one of these 'mirror sites' safer-networking.org Just like before...install the program...tell it to live update... and then scan the computer...remove anything if finds. By this point in time...your computer should be responding much better, and you may have removed hundreds or even thousands of infections, or you may have just found a few, it all depends on what you were running before, and what you do on the internet...but I can guarantee for 90%+ of computer users, you will have found at least something hiding on the computer...you may even find that some rogue antivirus or spyware scanner that you previously used was in fact malware itself and was removed (see previous article "PC Wolves in sheeps clothing") In most cases, we are now done cleaning up the malware (viruses, trojans, adware, spyware) from the computer(s). At this point we aren't quite finished...now we need to clean up and sweep out the left overs. Lets start by cleaning up a lot of 'junk' files that have accumulated...go get yourself a free copy of CCleaner www.ccleaner.com Download and install ccleaner..during the install you have the option to NOT install the yahoo toolbar...it's your choice... install ccleaner and tell it to run...this will clear out any browser cache you have...remove temporary files, and clean out a lot of other garbage...be sure to checkmark the settings as you see fit before pressing the run button...you may or may not want to keep things like browser history, or windows media history etc...choose as you like...if you're not sure what to choose...just use the default settings...and press run. This program is pretty fast and can clean up from a few megabytes to several gigabytes of junk files from your hard drive. After doing all of this cleanup on the computer...we now need to defragment the hard drive. I recommend NOT using the standard microsoft defrag program built into windows...it's very basic and not very intuitive to organizing your data on the drive...and besides that...defragmentation is something you want to do on a regular basis to keep your computer running well, and many of us tend to 'forget' to defragment the hard drive...therefore I would like to recommend a VERY good defragmentor that you can setup to run on a schedule...a set it and forget it type program. IOBIT Smart Defrag www.iobit.com Install Iobit, checkmark your C:/ drive and use the dropdown to select "defragment and optimize" and tell it to begin the defrag. This can take a considerable amount of time to do...once this is finished however...you should notice a speed increase in your computer. After this has completed...there are a few tweaks I would recommend. First I recommend that your computer has the minimum of 1 gigabyte of chip memory, any less on a computer running Windows XP or higher, simply is not enough to get the full speed from your machine. Next I recommend increasing your paging file size for the windows virtual memory file. I recommend setting this to a custom size with the minimum set to 4096 and the maximum as well to 4096...this is a permanent swap file setting. If you have enough chip memory...I recommend first setting the paging file to either another drive, or to none...before doing the first defrag with iobit...afterward setting to 4096. Sytems with little memory may not be able to run properly without the paging file turned on...but turning it off first and then defragging...and turning it back on to maximum size of 4096, will give you a defragmented swap file...the standard swap file cannot be defragmented, as it is locked...so following the above procedure is an optional tweak for an extra boost of speed. For those with more than one hard drive...set the swap file on a seperate drive other than what your c: drive is on...this will give you optimum speed. Finally if you're low on memory and the computer still responds slowly, you can turn off some unneeded features in Windows. Setting windows to the standard classic theme, in your desktop theme manager will give you more memory, thus more speed. Then, turning off other uneeded features like mouse shadows etc. will give the processor more free time to do what you need it to do, rather than waste cycles on "nifty look and feel". this will give you another speed boost, and increase security slightly. Next and most important...I highly recommend using the FIREFOX web browser www.mozilla.com With Firefox web browser, you can browse the internet, without worry of active-x controls installing malware on your computer. Moreover, firefox has some advanced phishing prevention features that will let you know if the website you are going to is a bad one and let you avoid it, as well the download features in firefox allow you to virus scan every file you download. GET FIREFOX - BY ALL MEANS. You can import your favorites from Internet Explorer to Firefox's "bookmarks", and still have all of your favorite websites ready to click. Once you use Firefox...use it for everything...only use IE on websites that absolutely require it...otherwise with using Firefox your computer has a much better chance of NOT getting infected again. Finally but not least important...update your Microsoft Windows... keep doing the updates until there are no more updates left to update. After all of this...set IOBIT defrag to a schedule...at least once every few weeks...and at most once per week. If you follow all of these instructions...and your computer is "back to normal" I recommend NOT using any file sharing programs...like Kazaa, Limewire, Morpheus, Shareaza or any of the like...get away from programs like AIM/AOL Messenger, MySpace Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger / MSN messenger etc., and switch over to a program like Skype or Pidgin...with Pidgin, you can message back and forth to almost any other type of messenger, inluding AIM, yahoo, msn etc...and not get infected...and to boot... if you use multiple messaging programs...Pidgin will condense all your buddies down to one program. Well that's about it. If you follow these procedures, and find that your computer is in much better shape...and those pesky popup windows are now gone, be sure to backup the computer again, now that it's all good...back it up. All of the above can take you all day if you have the time...or a few days if you don't...but it's highly recommended. I hope that anyone reading and following this advice...finds their home computers or business computers in much better shape, and your experience with your computer is a much better and safer one. If after following the above procedures, you are still having severe problems, and you are running a local business that relies on your computers, I may be able to help you out...My number is in the phone book. Notice: I do not fix computers as a business...but due to the overwhelming amount of calls I receive, asking me to fix computer problems, I'm thinking about starting a business...but I need help with that...any suggestions, or anyone interested in a partnership, please contact me. I would need someone to run the business while I do all the work. I share all of the cleanup information given in this article, because most of the requests to fix a computer are directly related to malware...and I simply do not have the time to clean up everyone's computers, and I feel it would be somewhat unethical to charge money for what free software can do for you, and you can do yourselves. Finally on the last note, some computer problems are not due to malware...slow computers can have other issues relating to hardware. I hope this helps anyone who reads it...if you know anyone that you think would like this article...I encourage you to print it out and give it to them. Share the knowledge, just as I have. Now if fixing the economy were so easy? Hmmm maybe a 'malware' cleanup there? alas I digress.