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Two Way Repairs and Photos by Cole
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Things that slow down your computer include:
When I first started writing this article I had no idea how bad my computer was infected with Trojans allowing hackers free access to my computer. Nor did I know how easy it is to pick up a destructive virus or worm even with lots of protection running. At this time I think that I have the temporary upper hand on hackers and Trojans. There are all sorts of ways of picking up Trojans and viruses when you are surfing the web, even on what you think is a legitimate web site. If you go to a questionable web site and it says you have to download a new version of software, chances are your computer already has a virus or a Trojan. It will not allow you to select no. You can also pick up malware downloading movie clips or music or while talking to your friends through an Instant Messaging site or by viewing or opening a malicious email message. Trojans can hide in your computer’s registry and send out small bits of information to a hacker’s computer. Once this Trojan starts sending out the invitations to any and all hackers, they can go right passed your electronic and software firewall and get right into your computer. There are several really good free software programs and I understand the paid versions are even better. However, never download free software from a web site that has not had their program thoroughly tested by a reputable group like Majorgeeks.com, PC World, CNet, or Shareware. There are a lot of so-called anti-malware programs out there that add crap to your computer or they scan it and reportedly find all sorts of problems on your computer. They try to convince you that you need to purchase their software to clean up all of these problems. Some of these programs are legitimate but be very careful and very leery as a lot are not. Everything that I am recommending below is free software. If you have outdated or inadequate protection software or you are not running protection at all here is what I recommend that you download from http://www.majorgeeks.com, or http://www.pcworld.com, or http://www.cnet.com or http://www.shareware.com: Software Firewall. I trust, use, and highly recommend: Zone Alarm Free version: Zone Alarm Free is simple to use. Download it, set it up and run it. In the set up you will need the Firewall set to maximum. Select the Firewall tab on the left then the Main tab located at the top right. Move the security levers of the “Internet Zone Security” and the “Trusted Zone Security” to maximum. To disengage the Internet there is a handy Stop button on the top left and a Padlock on the right. Use either to stop your Internet traffic if you think that you are being hacked. You will need to unlock Zone Alarm if you want to get onto the Internet or update files. You can disengage access to the Internet so that your antivirus software has a better chance of finding and deleting files without interference from a hacker. An electronic firewall or router is helpful but it does not keep out all of the bad traffic. It does keep out the common pings that beginning or amateur hackers use to see if your computer is available. Virus protection (use only one): I trust, use, and highly recommend: Avira Antivira Personal, AVG Antivirus Free Edition, or Avast Download one of these programs, update the Virus detection file(s) and immediately run a scan. Running more than one virus detection program will slow down your computer and may cause conflicts. When scanning your computer for malicious files any of these three programs will slow your computer down to a crawl and may take a couple of hours to complete the scan process. It will depend on how many total files are on your computer, the available RAM, the speed of your computer’s microprocessor, and how much junk is running on your computer. The best plan is to walk away during the time that the scan is running checking frequently to see if it found anything. If an infected file is found try to clean it. If it cannot be cleaned or it is a virus file, then delete it. Avira is an excellent program but it is only free to home users. It has found viruses and worms faster than the other two so it is my top choice. The only time can be a resource hog is when it is running a full scan. AVG works well but is a little slower on the gun when a virus or other malware pops up. It is my second choice and I use it on a couple of computers. A full scan might take a couple of hours or more. Avast is my third choice but it is a lot slower than either of the aforementioned at detecting a new virus though the full scan is quicker than the other two. Ad-ware, Spyware, and other
malware detection protection
I trust, use, and highly recommend: Ad-Aware 2007 Spy-Bot Search and Destroy (version 1.5) A-squared Free I recommend that you run all three at separate times as each one will locate files that each one leaves behind. Make sure that you update the detection files. SpyBot has an immunization process that you should run. This prevents some files from getting into your computer when you are surfing the web. I have read at several sites that it is best not to enable the Tea Timer, as it reportedly takes a lot of resources. Each of these programs take a good amount of time to complete the full scan, so again, plan on walking away for a while and check back when they are done. Delete any files that come up in the scan. If it is the first time for running a scan I recommend that you run it again until no more files are found. Run full scans on Ad-Aware and A-Squared. Each should be checked at least once a week for updates and ran every time you spend an hour or more online. Once the obvious things have been found it will take a lot more work to weed out all the other malicious files left on your computer. You are not safe yet. Some Trojans or viruses have many back up files or support files that will reload themselves every time the computer is started up. Some malicious files will kill or delete the good files your computer needs to run properly and put a bogus file in its place so I would highly recommend that you have your computer’s rescue disk nearby in case your computer stops working properly. Also, back up the registry in case an important file comes up missing or you mistakenly delete a good file. Then you might be able to run a System Restore and bring it back to working condition. Checking the running processes: I trust, use, and highly recommend: Hijack This – The latest Micro-Trend version Run this program but do not delete any files on your own if you have no idea what the files are and what they are doing. You should post a question on one of the many message boards where experts can tell you what files are bad and should be deleted. Majorgeeks.com is an excellent source. They have answered many of my questions and helped to resolve many problems just by reading replies to various already submitted problems. To post a new question you must become a free member. Or you can research the various files to find the ones that are bad. Clean up your hard drive of unnecessary
files: I trust, use, and highly recommend: CCleaner
CCLeaner will safely free up space on your computer’s hard drive by deleting unused Temporary Internet, temporary files, and most Ad-ware cookies. Run the cleaner so that it deletes all of the files it finds. When done run the Registry cleaner and delete all of the files that come up. Keep running the Registry cleaner until no more files come up. Again, it is best to back up your registry before proceeding with this clean up. One of my former coworkers claimed that he was able to free up 13Gb on his hard drive after just one pass of CCleaner. Finding more malicious stuff: I trust, use, and highly recommend: SpyHunter 3 Security Suite
It found a lot of bad files that all of the other free software missed but it will not delete any of it unless you purchase the full version. You can use it to locate the bad files in your registry and hard drive. Be careful and read up on any files that are listed as Trojans or viruses because removing a file from your registry may cause problems unless the infected file is replaced with a clean one. It does have an active scan that is like a firewall for programs. If it is active (a small icon in the bottom right corner of your screen) then it will ask you for permission to run any program that you select or any that come up on their own. Most of the time I have it turned off when I am running several applications, as it can be a pain. Also run it in the _ mode so that it can alert you of all processes attempting to run. It is a bit of a hassle but can prevent bad files from running and help you down more malware files. Warning: SpyBot does list SpyHunter as bad file. I choose to ignore the warning and uncheck it from the delete list. Port Monster
Besides blocking unwanted traffic in and out of your computer it also alerts you of potential Trojans running out of your computer’s registry. If a Trojan is found running on an Established connection block the port it is running on but read up on the Trojan before deleting any files. There might be several files you need to find to kill it. Port Monster checks all of your open ports. The only ones you should be concerned with are those that are Established. If you are not on the Internet and none of your existing programs are not set for automatic update then no outside connections should be Established. If there are any Established connections then you may have a malicious file still hiding on your computer and/or a hacker may still have connectivity to your computer. I have not been able to find any help from the people that wrote this program but I am willing to share the little that I have learned through trial and error. Email me at bill@billscommsol.com with your Port Monster questions and/or problem and I will see if I can answer it. If your question is beyond my knowledge and experiences I will tell you so and will attempt to refer you to a good source. If you want to see how secure your firewall and system are go to: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 and run Shields Up. It will tell you if there are any holes in your firewall. Ideally all ports should be running in the stealth mode. At this same site there are several other programs including some that are for sale, but I have not had the time to investigate them. Stop some spyware from loading onto your computerI trust, use, and highly recommend: Spyblaster
It does not have to be up and running to block malicious files from loading onto your computer. You should check to make sure it has the latest detection files. It will not block many tracking cookies so you will need to run Ad-Aware and A-squared Free to clean up those cookies. Typically tracking cookies are not harmful but they still collect and pass on data without your knowledge. If you follow my recommendations accurately you should be able to find the majority of the malicious files on your computer and it should run better. I did lose some vital files when deleting some bad or damaged files and had to use the Rescue disk that came with my computer to get it working again. Then I had to go to Microsoft and upload all of the available updates. If you have been successful in cleaning up your computer the last thing you should do is run the Disk Defragmenter. It can be found on your computer under Start, Programs, Accessories, and then System Tools. There are several other legitimate and good programs that you can use
to clean up your computer. I have listed
those that I have tested on my own computers at home and work. A hard lesson learnedOne of my children was checking their email and decided to open an email that came from one of those unknown people. It was a bad email message that immediately sent the computer to a web page that loaded a destructive virus onto the computer. It started running several things at the same time and slowly started eating away at the Icons on the computer screen. It hung up several programs so that nothing else could run. The Antivira virus scanner caught the initial destructive file but not before it could unleash several other files. Everything Spybot, AD-Aware, Antivira, AVG, AVG Antispy, and even Hijack this would not run. After several painful minutes of attempting to get anything to run I shut down the computer by hold down the On/Off switch for 5 seconds until it shut off. Then I turned off and disconnected router. When I brought the computer up I kept hitting the F8 key until it came up and asked me what mode to enter. I entered the Safe Mode. When the computer finally came up I found Spybot and ran it. I wrote down the names of the two Icons that came up that were not there before the attack then deleted them. I went into the registry edit mode, ran a search found and deleted every file that had the name of the two bogus Icons. Warning: It is very important that you know what you are doing or else you will delete important files that will not allow your computer to operate correctly. As fast as the virus was attacking the computer I was attacking it by deleting several of it files. I kept rerunning the same searches making sure that the files did not regenerate. After about 30 minutes Spybot found several bad files. Even though it was running so slowly I decided to let it continue until the scan was complete some 2 hours later. All of the bad files were deleted. I ran a Hijack This scan and it found three more files that were hiding in the registry. Once again I ran a complete search of the registry and found several of the copies of these files and deleted all of them. I ran CCLeaner and deleted every file that it found, including during the “Issues” scan. I physically checked any remaining files in every Temp found. Anything that had the current date on it got deleted. I ran an AVG scan and it found nothing else, so I turned off the computer, turned it back on and let it load. After about 20 minutes of the computer reloading I updated all of the scan files but noticed that some good programs were not running properly. I restarted the computer again, noticed that the programs were running normally again, and then ran several of the scans. About two hours later nothing could be found. Other than a few Icons missing, everything was back to working condition. It has been a few days and I have almost got all of the programs reloaded and updated after deleting them. I do not want to take any unnecessary chances. Other things to check: Typically your computer needs at least ¼ of the hard drive space to run some programs. If it is nearly full then you should consider deleting some programs that you do not use or really want any more. Go to the Control Panel and then the Add/Delete Programs and see if there are any programs, such as games, that you can delete. Be careful not to delete anything you are not sure about. You might wind up killing a program that your computer needs to run properly. Music and digital photos eat up a lot of hard drive space too. Save your music and photos onto a DVD or CDs and then delete them from your hard drive. If there are no files to delete then you might need to consider a larger hard drive, an external hard drive, or a newer computer with a larger hard drive. If you chose to purchase a new hard drive make sure it is compatible with your computer. If your computer is too old it is probably not worth adding a larger hard drive and would be wiser to upgrade to a newer computer. If there are too programs running at the same time or if you have too many programs trying to run updates at the same time it will bring your computers progress to a crawl. I have gone into all of my programs that get updates and set most of them for manual updates. I manually run all of the updates when I am done with what I needed to accomplish. If your computer is running and connected to the Internet 24 hours per day then you can schedule the updates for time when it is not in use. RAM If you have a lot of programs using up RAM space then it might be a good idea to add RAM to your computer. Make sure the new RAM is running the same speed or faster and is the same type of RAM as the RAM that is running in your computer. Larger RAM of the wrong type and slower speed might not run or will slow your computer down. If you are not sure have an expert tell you what kind of RAM you need, and to be safe, have them install it for you. Overall Although there is no guarantee that the programs I have recommended will clean all of the malicious files on your computer, at least they can give you a fighting chance. If you want to be as safe as possible when surfing the web I would recommend that you consider purchasing the program that you like. Or if you can afford to do so, donate money to those that write free software so they can afford to continue to help to keep us safe. If you choose to continue using the free programs remember to keep updating the detection or definition files and look for new versions (updates) of the same program. If you have any doubts or questions it is best to ask questions before deleting something. There is a lot of information out on the Internet but be sure you are asking an expert and not a novice or someone with ill intentions. If you email me I will try to help by directing you to as link that I trust. If the question is simple I might be able to answer it for you. I hope that my experiences and recommendations have helped you or at least help you to understand how vulnerable your computer is when you are on the Internet. I only know a fraction of what is going on and how to combat it. I am not an expert or an IT professional. 1 am sure there are other programs that are comparable to all of the aforementioned programs. I have not had the priveledge of using them. |
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