New to Spybot S&D and need some advice.

[smurf667]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Spybot and these forums, so please bare with me, I don't even know if I'm posting in the right place or not.

I was pointed to spybot search and destroy after installing PCTools Spyware Doctor. I came online to see what the general feeling was about that program, before spending any money on it, and found that many people disliked it and were advising spybot instead, as the better program and also being free.

I'd already done a scan with Spyware Doctor and it came up with an alarming number (to me) of 57 infections of spyware and Trojans of 3 different types of threats, which is why I did an internet search to get info on Spyware Doctor, and got pointed here.

I installed and ran Spybot Search and destroy, which indeed did find 7 infections, and dealt with them.

Out of curiosity, I ran Spyware Doctor again, but it STILL was showing that there was 2 threats and 37 infections on my PC, those being Trojan-Downloader.Murlo (23 infections) and Hijacker.DosProp_Toolbar (14 infections), all in the registry. Which has got me completely confused, as Spybod S&D said my system was now clear.

Which program do I believe, or do I disregard both? If Spyware Doctor is telling the truth, then why is Spybot S&D saying I'm clear?

Help please, because as well as being confused by it all, I'm now wary of even going on the internet.

I'm running XP Pro SP3 and Internet Explorer 8 if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Pete.

[tashi]

Hello smurf667,

Do you have an anti virus program installed, if so has it reported anything remiss? How is the computer running. :)

Best regards.

[smurf667]

Hello smurf667,

Do you have an anti virus program installed, if so has it reported anything remiss? How is the computer running. :)

Best regards.

Hi Tashi,

Thanks for the prompt reply, yes I do have an anti virus program installed and running. It's AVG 9 free, and no it's not reported anything a miss at all, either before or after I installed your program and the other one. Oh and the computer seems to be running ok to me, both before and after running both programs and dealing with the threats, though in the last week or so, I had noticed that even at idle, and not doing anything on the net, that the lights on the network were flashing a large amount, as if there were a lot of packets that were being sent and received by my computer.

One thing of note I can mention, but wether it has any bearing on the problems or not I don't know, but you might. I play The Sims 2 game a lot on my PC, but it was crashing back to desktop a lot and has been for the last month or so, I even uninstalled the game then re installed it to see if that helps, but it didn't. I haven'yt played it since using Spybot S&D, so I couldn't tell you if it was still happening.

The reason I started looking for trojans etc in the first place was because my hotmail account had been compremised in my opinion, as all of the people on my contacts lists were being spammed from my account, and I was getting a really large amount of failed delivery notices for emails I had not sent, on a daily basis, this started last Thursday.

As soon as I noticed this, I immediately changed ALL security data and passwords for all the sites I belong to and of course also in Hotmail and yahoo too. It was then that I started questioning if my PC had been attacked, and the predicument outlined in my first post began.

And before anyone asks the obvious question, no I haven't paid for the PCTools Spyware Doctor, so it can deal with the threats that it detected.

If required, I can post the full details of what Spyware Doctor has said - The registry keys it claims that are infected, if that will help.

Pete.

[tashi]

Hello smurf667,


If required, I can post the full details of what Spyware Doctor has said - The registry keys it claims that are infected, if that will help.


If you would like someone to take a look at the system, please see this FAQ which also includes instructions on posting a preliminary DDS log: "BEFORE you POST"(READ this Procedure BEFORE Requesting Assistance) (http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=288)

Then start a new topic in the Malware Removal Forum (http://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?f=22) and copy paste the log into it, an analyst will advise you as soon as available. :)

Cheers.


Edit: silverboltb's posts split off to own topic. :) http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=58711

[smurf667]

Hello smurf667,


If you would like someone to take a look at the system, please see this FAQ which also includes instructions on posting a preliminary DDS log: "BEFORE you POST"(READ this Procedure BEFORE Requesting Assistance) (http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=288)

Then start a new topic in the Malware Removal Forum (http://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?f=22) and copy paste the log into it, an analyst will advise you as soon as available. :)

Cheers.


Hi Tashi, I've taken your advice and opening a new topic on the malware forum, thank you for your advice up to now.

Pete.