Curse

stratos_v2 · Jul 22, 2005, 11:48 PM // 23:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Algren Cole

I had offered to help in numerous ways. even as far as using remote access to clean his OS. Formatting bad for two reasons...

1) you lose all of your information

like teklord said, a lot of information can be backuped.
And afterwards chcked for viruses and other such nonsense in a controlled enveriment. (say a live-cd or something)

Quote:

2) hard drives were not meant to be wiped out...reformating renderes sections of your hard drive unuseable. It also causes corruption in Hard Drive sectors. Hard Drives that are formatted often die quicker than hard drives that are not formatted.

While your statement is true, you fail to put atension on the scope of the damage. Sure perhaps when i reformat a hard disk a few sectors will go bad. boohoo. a half a billion good ones remain.

and if i do this a lot my disk will surely die sooner. The avarage life expecancy of 20 years or so, will perhaps after numerous formats be reduced to say 10.
well Are you still using a disk from 10 years ago?

(And don't give me any "at my company we still use 10 year old scsi disks on our servers" because they are manufactored to last, and are not the type of disk your talking about)

PhineasToke · Jul 23, 2005, 12:58 AM // 00:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by stratos_v2

I would opt for the computer wipe or let someone with some knowledge in computers clean it for you.
also in the future it might be a good idea to do some of the following things.

use firefox or opera. These are alternative browsers that also run on windows and offer much beter standard security then IE does. (IE is short for Internet Explorer, the browser that ships with windows) firefox link opera link
I would opt for firefox, since it's safe, fast and doesn't have a banner like opera.
(Opera is commercial software, firefox is opensource)

If for some reason you don't want to use anything else then IE or you don't have the security clearance on your computer to install firefox or opera. (or whatever)
Then you should make IE a bit more secure. To do this you need to look under options or preferences of the browser, somewhere there it will list a few zones.
Now you want to put the internet zone on it's highest security setting.
I'm pretty sure this will break all sorts of woozy effects on all sorts of sites, but at least you will be safe.

also copy this file hosts.txt
into one of the following directories depending on your version of windows. (also useful for other Os'es since the list is pretty much filled with al sorts of sites i never need to visit)
Windows XP = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 2K = C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Win 98\ME = C:\WINDOWS
If you are uncertain which version you have, simply copy the file to each of those directories.

every time you want to go to a site. Like say guildwarsguru.com, the computer actually first looks up what IP number that name has. (because the internet works with IP numbers and not names)
The computer does this by querying a server called a DNS (Domain Name Server) however it also looks for a file called hosts on your own computer.
And if the hosts file has a rule about a certain website name, it will use that value.
So if for instance the ip of guildwarsguru.com was 67.15.63.192 but your hosts file listed it as 127.0.0.1 then your browser (and all other software) would try to find the guildwarsguru site at 127.0.0.1. And off course will not find it.
Now the file above lists a very very very long list of sitenames that only have spyware and commercials and viruses or whatever. (the crap of the crop) and redirects it to 127.0.0.1.
127.0.0.1 btw is a set IP in computer land, it is always your own computer.

more information about this file can be found here hosts file guide page

but really if you can just use another browser.

And while where at that topic, you might also want to switch email client.
As you probably have already heard, viruses and trojans via email are hot, and outlook is there prime target for abuse. So switching to a alternative e-mail client gives you a great way to protect yourself against viruses via email.
Take for instance Thunderbird (from the same people as firefox)
It's a opensource mail client that doesn't have all the security bugs that outlook has and has some nice features on top of that. thunderbird link

Now i also wanted to write something about switching away from windows all together but i'm getting a bit tired of trying to remember how windows worked, so i will simply conclude by saying that you should probably be using linux and the gnome desktop. linux link

The only down side is that not all games work on linux, but there already is a slight trend of also offering games for linux. (doom3,quake3,ut2k4,neverwinter nights,some more)

There are also some programs that don't have a equivalent on linux.
there is at the moment no full featured flash editor for linux. (there is a basic one though)
there is no graphical printing/publishing suite. (quark express, photshop CMYK stuff) (although there are some programs on the rise, but there still starting up)

for the rest everything is accounted for and then some more that simply isn't found on windows.
www.gnomefiles.com has a pretty good user friendly list of whats available for the gnome desktop.

For non-experts, this is like trying to stuff a Peterbuilt diesel in a Volkswagen. The fact that "not all" games and programs work is the red flag that will always handicap Linux. Great system for tweaks, bad for novices.

Time is money. You can make more money but you can't make more time, and time is the commodity that Linux takes from a novice.

Myth Osis · Jul 23, 2005, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sereng Amaranth

1) Right-click the shortcut icon for Guild Wars
2) Select Properties
3) In the Target field, add -password=***** (replace asterisks with your password)
4) Never type your password again

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!

Dont even need a keylogger to findout the pw..

I can see it now ....

"Yey I can see his desktop......., whats this a guild wars icon? I wonder if ......... omg he didn't ...... yes he did .... yippy skippy!!"

stratos_v2 · Jul 23, 2005, 03:21 AM // 03:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhineasToke

For non-experts, this is like trying to stuff a Peterbuilt diesel in a Volkswagen. The fact that "not all" games and programs work is the red flag that will always handicap Linux. Great system for tweaks, bad for novices.

Time is money. You can make more money but you can't make more time, and time is the commodity that Linux takes from a novice.

clear and utter bullshit, it's this kind of FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) that is stopping people for seeing linux for themselves.
There are many distro's that let people from all level of computer knowledge run linux.

and i don't know what distro you tried but all user friendly distros get you up and running in no time.
i would even say that installing programs under linux is far easier then under windows or even OSX. By simply selecting the program you want from a vast pre-defined list of programs and then pressing a single button to download&install&configure it for you system, ready to use for expert or novice.

Freyas · Jul 23, 2005, 04:45 AM // 04:45

Well, I'd say try the spybot/adaware/etc to see if they locate anything. If you don't have an anti-virus program, get a free scan from trendmicro.. If this doesn't find anything, my suggestion would be this: Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to open up the task manager, then click the "Processes" tab. Open up a browser and go to google, and type in each of the names that is in that list and do a search.

There should be several sites that pop up telling you what that process does- either saying "lsass.exe is a system process of the Microsoft Windows security mechanisms" or something like that, or saying something like "Filename: nvsc32.exe. Name: NvCplScan Description: Added by a variant of the IRC.BOT TROJAN!". If you find something that either is a known virus/trojan/keylogger, or does not come up with reliable hits, then that's something to investigate.

If you don't find anything suspicious there, then my recommendation would be to reformat, unless you're knowlegeable about configuring windows, in which case, you shouldn't need advice from forums to clean up your computer.

So: before just throwing out everything on your harddrive, reformatting, then installing everything again, a process that will take several boring hours at the least, I'd recommend seeing if you can easily find the keylogger just by locating the process, killing it, deleting it from your computer, and removing it from the applications to load when your computer starts(it'll likely still leave stuff in the registry, but that's definately not something a beginner wants to mess with). If it's found by security programs, they'll generally remove the offending program. If they don't find it, but you locate it under the running processes, kill the process, and if you need to, find someone with a lot of knowlege about computers to help you remove it. If all else fails, reformatting is pretty much guaranteed to get rid of it, but unfortunately, it's the least convenient of the methods available.

Also, be careful about what you download, especially for computer games. If a program is hosted by GWGuru, we'll have a link to download it from the site, not from the forums. I'd be very wary about downloading anything based on a post in the forums here, since there's thousands of posts a day, and only a few moderators- meaning that lots of people will likely see a post before we notice it and can take action. If you are looking for a certain program, as there are real GW utilities out there which are useful and not malicious, try to get those from a direct-download from a major fansite or straight from the developer.

Myth Osis · Jul 23, 2005, 05:34 AM // 05:34

With suggested browers for security Ill go with fire fox ..... /nods

Ive been using it for a while now (as recomended by numerous friends) Reasons.

Security.....
Built in popup blocker...
tabbed viewing.... (genus for forum viewers... somthing that IE7 is going to implement on release)
RSS bookmarks (another thing IE7 is going implement)

and for those of you that like the Irony.... check this

Algren Cole · Jul 23, 2005, 05:38 AM // 05:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by stratos_v2

clear and utter bullshit, it's this kind of FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) that is stopping people for seeing linux for themselves.
There are many distro's that let people from all level of computer knowledge run linux.

and i don't know what distro you tried but all user friendly distros get you up and running in no time.
i would even say that installing programs under linux is far easier then under windows or even OSX. By simply selecting the program you want from a vast pre-defined list of programs and then pressing a single button to download&install&configure it for you system, ready to use for expert or novice.

that's only if your distro supports a portage tree or apget style application retriever...granted most do. but that's not a built in feature of the linux or BSD kernel. I for one am with you....I can't stand windows and wouldn't use it outside of a necessity.

Aniewiel: the keylogger in this case is probably a process or application running on his system...I wouldn't be surprised if it was called "keylog.exe" or "keylogger.exe"...or some variation of...He should just look for it in his applications/processes window and shut it down/remove it. If it's not there I'll put together an application that will scan common windows DLL files for hooksets that shouldn't be there.

P.S.: The Gimp = Graphics Editor for Linux...it's not quite as good as photoshop but it's damn close...and it's free.

PippinTook · Jul 23, 2005, 01:07 PM // 13:07

They have a dmg calc. on the gw guru homepage. Ive used this many times and never had my acct stolen. And you don't have to download it.

quanzong · Jul 23, 2005, 02:03 PM // 14:03

Nobody uses Microsoft anitspyware or AntiVIR? I find those 2 programs the best, and if they cant get it out, I normally get stuff out by deleting unknown folders. And if that doesnt work I top it off with reinstallion lol.

Adaria · Jul 23, 2005, 02:13 PM // 14:13

I use Microsoft Antispyware, Scan Spyware and Trend Micro Offiscan for viruses. They work beautifully together. Scan Spyware does a better job than Microsoft Antispyware, I think, but Microsoft Antispyware alerts you if new programs have been installed and will ask for an OK before allowing certain processes to run on the system. I love it because it always updates and always autoscans at two AM apparently, which I may set to earlier to scan weekly at least.

I think the Dmg Calc with the keylogger is different. I heard awhile back about a version of the same program from a specific site that had a keylogger. I don't remember where it was at, unless that was something else completely. My boyfriend uses Norton to scan stuff, he found a keylogger in a supposed cheat program for GW listed here and posted the screenshots for all to see. Definately some hairy stuff out there...

PhineasToke · Jul 23, 2005, 02:32 PM // 14:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by stratos_v2

clear and utter bullshit, it's this kind of FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) that is stopping people for seeing linux for themselves.
There are many distro's that let people from all level of computer knowledge run linux.

and i don't know what distro you tried but all user friendly distros get you up and running in no time.
i would even say that installing programs under linux is far easier then under windows or even OSX. By simply selecting the program you want from a vast pre-defined list of programs and then pressing a single button to download&install&configure it for you system, ready to use for expert or novice.

How's this;

Consumer acceptance of Linux (percentage) is the equlivent of ONE kernel of corn in a silo. Keep telling yourself that Linux makes the world go round. We'll keep playing and working.

Algren Cole · Jul 23, 2005, 02:53 PM // 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhineasToke

How's this;

Consumer acceptance of Linux (percentage) is the equlivent of ONE kernel of corn in a silo. Keep telling yourself that Linux makes the world go round. We'll keep playing and working.

uhm...Linux DOES make the world go round. even the Microsoft LAN is powered by a linux backbone...contrary to what you believe...nobody with a brain is running a LAN Utilizing a Windows backbone.

Adaria · Jul 23, 2005, 03:23 PM // 15:23

My old HS is running a series of windows servers, and my dad's the one who operates and maintains them. There is nothing absolutely nothing wrong with them. Only when the damn people leave the air conditioning off during the summer so the servers fry due to being too hot, but thats beside the point.

And how about we not turn this into a Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac OS debate mkay? This is about a keylogger in a program correct? Unless the topic hs been lost already, then there isn't a reason for this to stay open anymore...