Please help me... I am at the end of my rope.

[Kikinchikin]

I caught a download.trojan virus a week ago. Figured it was no big deal and it didn't affect me other than take me to the same site every time I click on explorer. Well 3 days later I logged on FFXI after not playing a game for a day and I get ATROCIOUS LAG. Not even an FPS, but an MMORPG. So I figure it's a bad day for the server and log off go to bed. Next day I get on CoD, its just as bad. My game flow has gone from perfect to crap so that I can't even kill anyone. So I go to my friend on TS and he guides me through the following process: Takes me into run-msconfig. Tells me to delete a bunch of startup things that aren't needed. So I do so, restart and come to play CoD again. It helps a great deal, but things aren't top notch. Then he tells me to screw around with my graphics etc on the game. Well I do that and it gets worse better fluctuates etc. So i get ticked and log off. The next day I get home and get on the net. No longer do I go to the same site anymore nor do i get a popup saying i have a download.trojan. However, I am still lagging horrendously in FFXI and CoD and I'm wondering why. I'm very pissed and I need urgent help because I have a CoD playoff match sunday. 3 people have told me I will have to reformat but I'm going to call up dell b4 i do anything. If anyone has any ideas or has had this problem, please share and help.

Oh yeah this is everything I've tried thus far.

Adaware spyware deleter
Spybot S&D
Deleting startups
Adjusting performance settings in CoD
Looking for a file using too much CPU time in the task bar
Restarting
Unplugging
Deleting history
Deleting internet files (it wont let me do this for some reason the time glass comes up and a moment later it goes not responding)
Running a Norton scan (picks up nothing now that the trojan is "gone")

I see only a few remaining options: calling comcast (maybe its an internet thing I doubt it tho), calling dell, asking more people or resorting to the whipe of the harddrive. Please help. :(

[Phaelon]

Alright, first things first, when you get a virus, it IS a big deal. When it happens you need to act fast, to prevent any information you have from being lost or given away. The biggest thing to realize is that this relaxed view on security with computers is why viruses run rampant on the internet and why there are spam zombies everywhere you look.

Go to http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html
Follow the link to YOUR anti-virus software, download the latest intelligent update to make sure your Virus definitions are the most current.
Shut down your computer, restart hit F8 upon boot, force the computer to go into Safe mode. Once in Safe mode run a Norton Virus Scan, Scan everything.
Then run a Spybot search and destroy in Safe mode.
Once that is done, you can reboot into regular windows and see how it functions.

My question is you figure this virus went away, HOw did you fix it? Did you follow the steps Symantec of McAffee provided for handling it? What Trojan was it?

Get this ingrained into your head, if you have a virus, FIX it right away. Did you know that that trojan might have sent your FFXI logon and password to some guy waiting to just cash in on your misfourtune and misguided path.

I am not tring to rag on you, but Viruses are a big deal.

So come back to this board with the Name of the Virus, if you can't find the name, then do the two steps I said.

"Deleting internet files (it wont let me do this for some reason the time glass comes up and a moment later it goes not responding) "
Depending on how long ago you did this, it could take 10 to 209 minutes to fully clear, click this option and let it set, it is actually doing this.

[Kikinchikin]

Name is Download.Trojan.

I tried running a norton in safe mode actually. thats what symantec suggested. didnt find a single thing. did nto try running spybot or adaware in safe tho. Not sure if that will make a difference or not. But yeah as soon as I got a free moment I followed its advice which is what you told me to do as well. Should have acted faster.

another thing, im trying to run adaware right now and it also gets the not responding thing at around 33000 files.

any other ideas?

[Phaelon]

You did what they suggest here?
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/download.trojan.html

If you did then the virus is gone, What are your virus definitions?

[Cyanide]

That trojan will download other trojans and install them on your system. It is very possible that you now have one or more other viruses on your system. If the person who infected you with download.trojan customized it, he may have modified it to download a virus of his own creation onto your system. If that is the case then Norton will probably not catch that virus.

If you really want to know what I think, you should uninstall Nortan AV. It's crap. People write viruses to corrupt and hide from Norton because they know that almost everybody uses it. You should go to www.grisoft.com and get their AVG anti-virus software. It's free and in terms of catching viruses it beats Norton and every other major AV program out there hands down. I ran a full system scan with Norton (the corperate version too) after updating my definitions and it found nothing. Then I got AVG and did a full scan with it and it found 2 viruses. The only reason to use Norton AV is because it is a little bit better about removing viruses for you, where as AVG will tell you what virus you have, then contain the virus, and you usually have to remove it manually. But I'd take that over having a virus and not knowing it any day.

If I were you i'd reformat the drive just to be 100% safe. If there is a customized virus on your machine it will be harder to catch than a more popular virus. I would not want to be typing in passwords or credit card info on a machine that has even a remote chance of having a trojan in it.

[Phaelon]

I disagree completely, but that is because I come from networks of thousands of computers. Norton is better than McAfees system and Trends system when it comes to Corporate edition. DO you want to know why norton didn't find your virus? I would bet a guess it is because you don't do Intelligent updates.

Norton releases VIrus defitions every day, however it only updates them with Live update ONCE a week. For every server I maintain, I have batch files that gather these intelligent updates and push them out every day.

AVG is horrible, I tried it, and the interface was bad, the virus definitions were way to layed back. I need definitions each day, I need someone telling me what is going on in the virus world, I get that with Norton. I get an email each day from them stating what is circulating, and everything about it, it prepares me when I go to work, with what I might deal with across multiple network platforms.

You said you used Corporate edition, and my question to you was did you have a parent server? The whole point of CE Norton is for a parent server to exist, for a single point of control over the environment.

Remember something about safe mode, there are very few viruses that can run in safe mode, this is not one of them. Running in safe mode and using Norton, mcafee, trend, panda, or avg is generally going to accomplish what you need. This trojan is not that bad at all. Most firms rate it low on security risk.

Here are the read outs on that virus.
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=100961#characteristics
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=100971
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/overview.aspx?lst=vis&idvirus=42846

[Cyanide]

Yes I used a parent server. AVG just works better for those of us not concerned with thousands of machines. The interface isn't a problem when you've only got a few machines (which is more than the average user has) to manage. I've set up AVG to test and update overnight on a regular basis. It catches everything I throw at it and everything that gets through my firewall gets stopped by AVG. I'm sure it's not the best solution in a corperate enviroment, but I've had too many, and heard of too many experiences where people using norton had viruses that norton did not catch and AVG did. That's why I use AVG.

[Phaelon]

To each his own. AVG missed a number of Viruses I had when I used it, mostly why I now use Norton. Norton misses little to none so long as you update it on a daily basis.

[Phaelon]

I find it comical how things that get through your firewall get stopped by avg, so avg now has firewall capabilities in it?

Firewalls don't understand that packets are viruses, they don't even look for virus fingerprints in packets on that matter. So my question would then be what type of firewall are you using that it identifies viruses.

[Phaelon]

If you say you are using a linksys or netgear or dlink I slap you.

[Kikinchikin]

ahhhh reformat is looking like the only option.

[Phaelon]

It is not your only option, is it a good idea? Yes to preserve your privacy and prevent others from stealing your usernames and passwords.

There are quite a few other things you can do.
1).Install Etherpeek, read your packets and decifier where they are coming from. If your computer is sending ARP broadcasts out 5 per second, something is wrong and there is something installed still.
2).Defrag, how long has it been since you defraged? I am not talking WIndows Defrag, Windows Defrag doesn't do crap, I am talking Executive software disk keeper disk defrag, The real stuff.
3).Did you check in computer management and make sure that in disk management that your hard drives are healthy?
4).Did you check in SYstem properties and verify that your hard drives are set to UDMA and not PIO mode?
5).Have you gone to www.blackviper.com and used his guide to disable services and "super tweak" Windows XP ?
6).Have you disabled themes, disabled system recovery, disabled active desktop?

All of these things try to squeeze more juice out of your computer. If you are really NOT wanting to format, then you need to sit down and examine your Network traffic and verify your computer is not still backdoored. If you can verify it is not backdoored, then you need to start repairing where the damage came from.

[Kikinchikin]

aha! i uninstalled kazaa and a bunch of other games I dont play at all and poof problem is fixed. I don't understand why kazaa wasnt messing me up before the virus hit, but my friend advised me to uninstall and it worked.

thanks for all your help :)

[Phaelon]

make sure to defrag man