My good friend Andre has asked me to explain his absence.
His computer has been badly infected. I'm not sure exactly what's the cause, but he has now reformatted his computer and is in the process of installing all his software to get back to normal.
Im sure you will join me in wishing him luck!
Perhaps we can use this thread to help each other keep ourselves as protected as possible.
I recently had a major problem on my work computer (fortunately not the development computer I use at home)
It happened when I clicked Cancel on a pop-up which offered a download.
WRONG option.
CORRECT: ALWAYS click the little X (close) at the top right corner to close windows you dont recognise.
WHY: These evil (and VERY clever) people add code below the CANCEL button which goes ahead with the download.
Within seconds of clicking Cancel, I was bombarded with ads, and the computer was completely unusable (unless you are prepared to close a pop-up ad each time you type a word!)
I used a combination of Spybot and Microsoft Antispyware to get rid of the problem.
Both are free and can be downloaded.
It took a week of rebooting (a mixture of Normal and Safe Mode) , re-running the scans and clearing the threats. They kept re-appearing, but not so frequently.
Reformatting scares me to death, so I didnt rush into that. I'd be heart afraid of losing some data.
I have a feeling that over the week period that new definitions were added to Microsoft Antispyware to pick up on the stuff that was causing me the grief. In the last scan, 3 threats (with multiple instances on my computer) were found. I took the option to clear the threats, and fingers crossed, have been OK since then.
My advice.
If you DONT have antispyware of some kind on your computer, Download Microsoft Antispyware (or similar)
Choose "Enable real time protection"
Its an overhead on your processor, but an overhead worth suffering.
You ALSO need to be running an Internet security program. I use Norton Internet security. It has Anti-Virus and Firewall protection.
Its another BIG overhead on your computer speed, but you MUST have security when you go on the net.
Ive even made up my own oxymoron = Internet security
