Cannot Connect to Install Search and Destroy

[KB3NRY]

My parents have a virus that is apparently effecting their DNS and directing or blocking their internet access as it wishes. It seems to be specifically blocking anything related to Spybot such as this forum and safer-networking.com.

Anyway, I downloaded then setup to a flash drive to install on their computer, but the setup will not complete. When I click install, at the very beginning of the install, I get the following error:

"Error Sending Request
A connection with the server could not be established"

I would've though that a program that is often installed on infected computers would not need internet access. Anyway, is there a way for me to get around this. I do not know how to get rid of the problem otherwise. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Tom.K]

You should uncheck this checkbox in components list "Download updates immediately".
Note about your flash drive: Some viruses can infect flash drives when they are connected to an infected computer. Flash drives support autoplay, but they should not run even with autorun. If the icon of your flash drive looks diffrent, you should scan your flash drive for viruses and to explore it after cleaning (if viruses are detected) using right-click > Explore (not Open or AutoPlay).

[KB3NRY]

Thank you very much! That solved the install problem. BUT after it is installed, it shows up in my programs but when I click to run it I get an hour glass for a few seconds and then nothing ever runs. When I first installed it I had an icon in the bottom left tray, but could not open it to do anything. Now I can't get it to open at all.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

[drragostea]

KB3NRY, this is a malware infection or possible a virus. I'm betting it is more of a malware infection because not does it restrict access to sites, it disables security programs from starting up. What you'll have to do is rename the Spybot desktop icon and run it again.

[129260]

1.) try changing the name of the spybot icon to something like "sd.exe" Then try to launch the program.

2.) Try booting into safe mode and run spybot from there. Don't know how to boot into safe mode? See this page.

Let us know if that helps you, or if you experience any more problems.

[KB3NRY]

Thanks for the advice.

I tried renaming spybot in my programs, there is not spybot.exe but a SDMain and SDFiles. I tried renaming both of those and it still would not run. A black box pops up quickly and then nothing runs. It does show Spybot.exe in the task manager. But I can't find Spybot.exe in the folder inside Program Files.

I tried running in Safe Mode as well and it did the same thing.

Any other advice. Thanks again.

[KB3NRY]

I will add that this is Windows XP and it will not even allow a System Restore.

[129260]

you visit the malware removal forums. Because this computer shows signs of high infection, i recommend you go to the malware forums immediately.

If you decide to do this, please read this first, before posting a new thread in the malware forums. They will help you get your system back.

[KB3NRY]

Thanks for all your help and advice everyone.

I would love to go to the malware removal forums and get help to fix this, but my parents don't want to take the time and don't want to take any more of my time so I think they're taking it to someone to have it fixed. I would've like to do it myself and feel like they're paying someone to do something that I could do if given enough time, but thats the way it goes. Thanks again for all your help. I've learned a lot! If anything else comes up, I'll let you know. Thanks again so much.

[129260]

Well, i am glad you learned alot. Sometimes people prefer computer stores to fix it up, and thats perfectly fine. Come back anytime. Good luck!