Do I have an unwanted visitor?

I hope I'm only being paranoid here, but with only knowing the basics about the PC, I have to ask this . I have WinXP, usually always try to keep my programs updated, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Window Washer, Z/A, Trojan Hunter 4 and Nod32, and I run the occassional scan disc and defrag. Recently I was looking up the side effects to a drug with my Copernic, and some sites I could get into, but about three said I was banned from the sites due to abuse. Naturally it blew me away being as I had never been on those sites before, then I noticed that at times it took a bit longer for some of my programs to open, longer than they ever should have. Since then I've done indepth virus, spy and trojan scans, but found only a few irritating cookies, and a few things on another drive that I don't feel would have anything to do with this, but I had their named changed anyway. When I had XP put on my PC, I didn't want to lose all my info I'd accumulated on my 98, so now I can either boot up in XP or 98. So even if my 98 had something, would I be wrong in thinking it would effect my XP?

Can someone actually be in my PC using the Internet with the protection I have? Or wouldn't any of my programs be able to see if anything else is going on? I do realize you can never have enough protection, but would there be anything else that could tell me if my paranoia is founded?

Thank you,

Kathy

 

Hi Kathy . Because of the protection you have , it is less likely to be infected/hacked/less likely to have unwanted visitor *but* the possibility still remains . You can be sure for 99% , never 100%

The sites you were banned may have banned a range of IPs , not just yours . In your computer , sometimes programs may load more slowly than previously but this will not always be caused by computer virus/malware .

My general suggestion is to check your firewall , ZA , make sure you use the very latests version . Also open it and check what programs have permission to come in/go out . Generally nothing should be allowed in . If you find a suspicious file , upload it to VirusTotal (www.virustotal.com) and post here for suggestion

Make sure all your security softwares (NOD32 , SpySweeper , Trojan Hunter ) are updated , use the very latest versions and are configured correctly.

Make sure your Windows is fully updated
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Hope somebody else can help more

 

Thank you so much HiTech! I never knew someone could ban a range of IP's, so just that in itself lets me breath a huge sigh of relief. I use to pay for Z/A Pro, but after updating the last time, it almost seemed to take on a life all it's own, and was constantly asking me about ok'ing things I'd never even heard of, but when it told me it had granted access to something I didn't know about, I just deleted it and downloaded the free version, so I'm ok there.
Some of my programs, plus windows, I have automatically check for updates, but when I update the others, I usually just go ahead and do all my programs. You do however bring up another good point. My Nod32. I never configured anything, just started using it the way I downloaded it, and I notice it updates itself everyday, so I hope I'm ok there.
Other than that, you have helped more than you know. I have a little knowledge re my PC, but I'm not a tech by any means either, so sometimes just having a little bit of knowledge can also be scary.

Again, thank you very much

Kathy

 

Concerning Nod32 out of the box settings. You may want to tweak them a bit for maximum protection. Fairly easy to do following Blackspears settings found here https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37509

 

Could well be a blocked ip address range but might be worth checking:

1. How about an online scan from KAV
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner


2. It might be worth checking a hijackthis log at:
http://www.castlecops.com/HijackThis.html

3. Anti malware scan - free ondemand scanner
http://www.ewido.net/en/product/


Paraniod but worth it for a good nights sleep .....

 

Thank you very much ThunderZ, I've often wondered if there were changes I should make. I will most definitely get that done this evening.

And thank you also Starfish, as far as I'm concerned, you can never have enough good sites, and now I can add the three you gave me.

This has always been such a great site for help for me as there is always someone who is willing to help.

Thanks again,

Kathy

 

@kathyhl
I'm not expert:

Couple of things I noticed:
You are obviously not a novice using a dual boot system !!
Spysweeper V5 onwards: if you updated there are multiple threads around where SS has slowed things down dramatically: check here:
http://www.castlecops.com/f163-Spysweeper.html
lots of knowledgeable users seem to have ditched the app for the moment.
Not everybody has problems.

Any pop-ups or redirects?

Superantispyware and Prevx both give free trials for detection and removal if you are still worried, easy to use:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
http://www.prevx.com/default.asp

Not sure if they run on W98
do you surf with both W98 and XP?
Maybe you need to check your W98 system: more likely to be infected.

 

Hi Longboard, yes I have updated my spysweeper, so thank you for the URL. I apparently need to do some reading re SS and had no idea. Actually I have to give credit to my tech for allowing me to have a choice of XP or 98. I never wanted to lose anything when I upgraded, so he set it up for me to just click on which one I want to use, and actually I do have the capability to drag and drop from one to the other, but of course can't run the apps in one if I'm in another. And no I hardly ever go into my 98 unless I need a program or information from there, and I never surf with my 98 as nothing is updated. I do however have my virus, trojan and spyware programs set up to check my 98 while they are checking my XP. When I just did an indepth scan, 98 was where I had 2 infections which I just renamed, but as I said previously, I didn't believe what it found could have caused the problems I was seeing. Bottom line, I started getting really worried when I had been banned from sites I had never been to before, then I started noticing a slow down on things I had actually noticed a short time before, but didn't think anything about it until I thought I might be infected. I have no pop-ups or re-directs....thank goodness. But I am going to be using the URL's you provided, so thank you so much for your help.

 

Some sites automatically ban address ranges because they use "Rate Limiters" which prevent DOS attacks of one kind or another. Some sites allow you to get round this by specifying the port you will use (usualy its 8080)
so to get on their site you would put

Code:

http://www.name_of_site.com:8080

Its worth a try anyway

 

That's pretty awesome to know Bez . I've copied and pasted what you wrote in a file I made quite awhile ago where I put anything new I learn about the PC. Thank you on behalf of my continuing education with the computer