Phyzbiz
2009-06-04, 10:15
She did it again. Downloaded something, clicked on something that is making her laptop not able to access specific sites nor run or update certain programs.
First of all, this is my personal desktop that is fully functional and able to access this safer-networking site. Hers' I can't because the browser is "unable" to find or connect to this site. So, here I am trying to clean up her mess. At least she is still able to use her laptop for her college courses.
Several weeks ago she complained that every time she used a search engine to look up something for school, she was being redirected to a commercial or advertisement site and not to the link that she wanted. I asked her if her McAfee updates were current, she said no. The automatic updates were unable to be performed because the computer could not connect to the McAfee(dot)com site required for the updates. I tried to access that site on her computer and I got the usual message that the site was not found, or I typed in the wrong address etc. Since this is a paid subscription service that I had purchased for all of my computers, I contacted McAfee via a "chat" room to find a work-around to enable the updates. This was accomplished by modifying the "hosts" section of the drivers area. Now I was able to update the anti-virus program and run a scan on the laptop. A trojan virus named [I]DNSChanger!g[I] was detected and repaired (removed).
Next, I tried to run Spybot 1.6.2 on her computer, but when I try to open the program it does not open at all. I can't even download any updates for this program as it tells me that an "Error retrieving update info file!" has occurred. I open up her browser and try to go to this website, but as I mentioned earlier, the browser cannot locate the site, etc, etc. I even tried to download the program onto my computer and transfer it via flashdrive in an attempt to circumvent whatever is preventing this anti-spyware program from running. No such luck. As soon as the installation program gets to the downloading section, an error message appears:"Error sending request. The server name or address could not be resolved."
Short of reformatting her laptop's hard drive again, (3 times in less than 2 years) or purchasing an expensive commercial anti-spyware program, with unknown results, what are my choices in regaining full functionality in her computer?
Rather than include all of the computer data that you will or will not need, I will patiently await your response and request for that information. I know that you will ask me to download a certain program to run tests on it and provide you with the results.
In advance, I thank you for any assistance which you may be able to provide.
First of all, this is my personal desktop that is fully functional and able to access this safer-networking site. Hers' I can't because the browser is "unable" to find or connect to this site. So, here I am trying to clean up her mess. At least she is still able to use her laptop for her college courses.
Several weeks ago she complained that every time she used a search engine to look up something for school, she was being redirected to a commercial or advertisement site and not to the link that she wanted. I asked her if her McAfee updates were current, she said no. The automatic updates were unable to be performed because the computer could not connect to the McAfee(dot)com site required for the updates. I tried to access that site on her computer and I got the usual message that the site was not found, or I typed in the wrong address etc. Since this is a paid subscription service that I had purchased for all of my computers, I contacted McAfee via a "chat" room to find a work-around to enable the updates. This was accomplished by modifying the "hosts" section of the drivers area. Now I was able to update the anti-virus program and run a scan on the laptop. A trojan virus named [I]DNSChanger!g[I] was detected and repaired (removed).
Next, I tried to run Spybot 1.6.2 on her computer, but when I try to open the program it does not open at all. I can't even download any updates for this program as it tells me that an "Error retrieving update info file!" has occurred. I open up her browser and try to go to this website, but as I mentioned earlier, the browser cannot locate the site, etc, etc. I even tried to download the program onto my computer and transfer it via flashdrive in an attempt to circumvent whatever is preventing this anti-spyware program from running. No such luck. As soon as the installation program gets to the downloading section, an error message appears:"Error sending request. The server name or address could not be resolved."
Short of reformatting her laptop's hard drive again, (3 times in less than 2 years) or purchasing an expensive commercial anti-spyware program, with unknown results, what are my choices in regaining full functionality in her computer?
Rather than include all of the computer data that you will or will not need, I will patiently await your response and request for that information. I know that you will ask me to download a certain program to run tests on it and provide you with the results.
In advance, I thank you for any assistance which you may be able to provide.