More techie help pretty pretty please!

7 Oct 2004

We have norton antivirus, zone alarm firewall and adaware all up and running and have bt broadband. For some reason the pc keeps disconnecting from the internet. I have had the line checked with bt and no probs there so can anyone shed any light on this. Very grateful for all advice received so far. I am still learning confused

7 Oct 2004

I had the same problem a while back. Do a scan for worms and trojans (I run the same programmes you mentioned together with another wormhunter) Sometimes one detects something the other hasn't picked up. Do a system clean up and defragment. If that doesn't sort it go back to a restore point when all was working fine and then repeat the scans, cleanup, defragment etc. This should do the trick.
Hope this helps
Byeeeeeeee xx

7 Oct 2004

Can you explain in plain english please xxx

7 Oct 2004

I'll try.
To keep your comp running smoothly you've got to maintain it 'cos otherwise it gets all clogged up with junk on the hard drive.
If you don't already do it, then for starters click on start, go to all programmes, click on accessories, system tools and then disc clean up. After that finishes go through the process again but this time click on disc defragmenter.
This should restore the speed of your comp. If it doesn't sort the problem then it's probable that you've picked up a worm or trojan from somewhere on the internet so you'll need a programme to hunt it down and zap it.
Try the steps I've suggested first.
A Restore point is created whenever you turn your comp off. You can go back to a previous date when everything was working fine but if you've got programmes you've downloaded since the date that you choose to restore to you may lose them so it's a good idea to burn a disc with any of these programmes you don't want to lose. Don't worry too much 'cos you can also "restore" from a point in the past back to a more recent point.
You'll see the "Restore" option in the same sub menu where you found disc cleanup and disc defragmenter.
Hey! I'm no comp techie by a long way and there will be plenty of those folk out there who will know shit loads than me so WHERE ARE YOU ALL? The lady needs you're advice!
Hope this helps
kiss

ES xx

7 Oct 2004

Couple of other things to try....
In Internet Explorer click on "Tools" then "Internet Options", click on the "Connections" tab and highlight the name of the connection you are using. Then click the "settings" button and then "advanced". Make sure the "Disconnect if idle" box is unchecked.
Right click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and select "properties" Click on the "hardware" tab and click the "device manager" button. Scroll through the list until you find your modem and double click it, in the window that pops up select the "power management" tab and uncheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

8 Oct 2004

Thanks for advice so far guys :boo: . How do I check if I have a trojan?

8 Oct 2004

Do a google for trojan finding programs. there's quite a few out there, or try .
I'd say try a scan. It's an online virus checker and I'm sure it does trojans as well. It'll probably ask you to download some software into your PC (latest version of Java and the program for the scan) but it's perfectly safe and shouldn't cause you any problems.
TBH I'd go for it being a hardware or a driver problem (as per Sussexguys post) so that should be your first port of call.
Norton may be a lot of things (one of which is bloody intrusive which is why I don't like it), but it's virus database is usually pretty good as long as you do regular updates.

8 Oct 2004

Hi Redbird,
Will not be a modem problem as you use broad band, what do you have between the PC and the telephone socket, is it that horrilble green thing that looks like a frog?
John

8 Oct 2004

Quote by Horous
Hi Redbird,
Will not be a modem problem as you use broad band, what do you have between the PC and the telephone socket, is it that horrilble green thing that looks like a frog?
John

No. That's frogster!!

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: lol

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted:
bolt

8 Oct 2004

Hiya Redbird
I don't know if you've sorted the problem yet but the problem I had sounds similar in that I was getting disconnected from the web about every minute or so and then automatically reconnected. It was a bit like the page was refreshing regularly (I don't know if this is happening - you don't say.
The steps I outlined in my original reply to your post sorted it, and all has been running smoothly since. You MUST get a worm and trojan hunter 'cos they're picked up in particular from so-called "Adult sites" and in the end your hard drive gets fucked by them.
Do a Google search for internet worms and trojan horses and you'll find suitable programmes to find and kill them. You may have to subscribe to the one of your choice but it's money well spent.
Hope this helps honey.
PS Does anyone know if PC World's healthcheck does anything other than run the windows disc cleanup and defragment programmes and a virus scan and spyware scan?

11 Oct 2004

Ok call me stupid, but what are trojans and worms? I thought if I had spybot, adaware and norton antivirus that they would pick up things like that. I have had a look at some of the other downloads being suggested but wouldn't know which was one was the best.

11 Oct 2004

If you have norton antivirus it should find any viruses (trojans worms whatever!) on your computer straight away and a box should pop up telling you what one it is and the box wont usually go away until the virus is gone. (make sure your virus defenitions are up to date and that should sort the virus thing!)
As for the disconnecting from the internet, maybe this could be a firewall problem (too many firewalls!)
I would go through all the above mentioned programmes and check that you only have ONE firewall active/running otherwise they could basically be contradicting themselves which could explain the disconnecting internet! Maybe!!
Hope that helps!! Also bear in mind of youre running windows XP (not sure about the other operating systems firewalls) check the windows XP firewall too, and remember 1 firewall only!!

11 Oct 2004

Symantec (Norton) have just upped the price of Norton Antivirus from to Now that's a bit off if you ask me.
A free alternative that's just as good:

11 Oct 2004

Quote by Redbird
Ok call me stupid, but what are trojans and worms? I thought if I had spybot, adaware and norton antivirus that they would pick up things like that. I have had a look at some of the other downloads being suggested but wouldn't know which was one was the best.

Some of them yes Red would be picked up, depends how they infect. A trojan is a program pretending to be something else, like the trojan horse. Normally they come in email, often cleverly hidden pretending to be a Microsoft patch, or a copy of your email to so and so that failed to deliver. Run them and you in a whole heap of trouble, however your trusty AV if up to date should catch them. This is because they are a file, so can be scanned.
Worms on the other hand don't tend to start out as a file, just a little network packet that exploits some bug in windows or similar software. They get your computer to immediately do something bad, liked code red (an old one now) that exploited a bug in IIS to replace your default web pages with a page saying you were hacked. There is no file involved (at least initially) so nothing for the AV to scan.
For worms firewalls and having all the latest windows patches is the best defence. More modern worms make changes to the PC and download a file using FTP in the background, this is run on next boot doing even more damage. Worms spread very fast as there is no human interaction needed to get infected, once infected then your computer starts sending the worm to other PC's. Eventually the network traffic is so heavy the internet slows down and IT managers have a very bad day...
There you go, a quick worms and trojans 101, if I screwed up at all sure my techy counterparts can fill in blanks smile

11 Oct 2004

Quote by fruity1976
If you have norton antivirus it should find any viruses (trojans worms whatever!) on your computer straight away and a box should pop up telling you what one it is and the box wont usually go away until the virus is gone. (make sure your virus defenitions are up to date and that should sort the virus thing!)
As for the disconnecting from the internet, maybe this could be a firewall problem (too many firewalls!)
I would go through all the above mentioned programmes and check that you only have ONE firewall active/running otherwise they could basically be contradicting themselves which could explain the disconnecting internet! Maybe!!
Hope that helps!! Also bear in mind of youre running windows XP (not sure about the other operating systems firewalls) check the windows XP firewall too, and remember 1 firewall only!!

Norton Antivirus won't detect trojans and worms because they're not viruses as such. Also you can run more than one firewall without problems.
I run Norton Antivirus, Zonelab firewall and windows XP firewall all together without problems. Last night after I'd logged off I ran Xoftspy which is a worm and trojan hunter and it found (as well as the usual data miner tracking cookies) a worm called Troj/AnaFTP-01 I don't know what it was lurking around intending to do but if you don't find and erase worms and trojans and they start to build up in your comp, you'll eventually end up with the kind of problem you've described, and worse.
After cleaning up using Xoftspy I ran NoAdware which found another 2 data miner tracking cookies which Xoftspy hadn't picked up.
It's ESSENTIAL you have programme(s) like these to keep your comp free of trojans and worms otherwise you're going to have problems.