Trojan horse

jelly baby · 05-12-2005, 13:41

Does anyone know how to get rid of this trojan horse thing, it's not a virus so the AVG can't fix it, it's killing the computer!!

slinky · 05-12-2005, 13:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by jelly baby

Does anyone know how to get rid of this trojan horse thing, it's not a virus so the AVG can't fix it, it's killing the computer!!

I got one of them last year. It did that much damage, I had to format all my computer.....................good luck

entwisi · 05-12-2005, 13:44

Which trojan have you got? There are loads of different ones. Do you have a firewall as well as AVG? Are they both fully up to date?

Ian

Bad-Wolf · 05-12-2005, 13:46

Get a Norton Internet securities package. It will cost about £30 and will take an hour or so to sort out your pc but it will get rid of your Trojan Horse.

You can get them from any pc dealer!

jelly baby · 05-12-2005, 13:47

It seems as though there are a few, iegator, istbar, surfairy, and a few from porn sites.I don.t think we have a firewall, what is this?

Bad-Wolf · 05-12-2005, 13:51

The firewall will stop your pc contracting a virus such as spyware etc and the trojan horse. These are also on Norton. Do not bother with microsoft windows firewall as it is crap!

I strongly suggest you get a firewall. Paricularly if you use internet banking or you could find yourslef in real trouble!

harwood red · 05-12-2005, 13:52

the only thing that worked for me was a system restore to a date before the trojan existed!!

Bad-Wolf · 05-12-2005, 13:54

That can work but be careful as you can lose an awful lot of valuable information!

slinky · 05-12-2005, 13:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by harwood red

the only thing that worked for me was a system restore to a date before the trojan existed!!

Yes I have done this before, on quite a few occasions actually. It does work, but sometimes the trojan wont even let you do this, that's how come I ended up having to format.

jelly baby · 05-12-2005, 14:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by slinky

Yes I have done this before, on quite a few occasions actually. It does work, but sometimes the trojan wont even let you do this, that's how come I ended up having to format.

I don't know how to format, is it difficult and oes it take long?

entwisi · 05-12-2005, 14:09

Right, just to clarify a few things,

Anti virus, this scans anything being downloaded to your computer for viruses. This can be in email or just normal file downloads. You should be updating your virus definitions weekly at least. If you are going to collect a lot of email it is good practice to do your AV first. It does not stop some trojans that come in via other means.

Firewall, This stops any unauthorised access either from the internet to your PC(Cracking, NOT HACKING) or from your PC out to the internet(Trojans/spyware). Whilst a correctly configured firewall will stop a trojan from 'phoning home' it will not remove one, this is a job for either your AV software or a specific removal tool. A good free tool is Zone Alarm although they will try and flog you their pay for version with lots of bells and whistles the free tool is perfectly adequate

Spyware, this is software placed on your computer generally without your knowledge that monitors your useage etc and send this data back to its owner. this can be used for marketing purposes etc

Malware, similar to spyware but tends to cause you more severe problems, sort of an invited virus. In order to remove spyware/malware you need another tool. unfortunately there isn't one tool that can deal with them all so you end up with two or three to get a clean scan . Have a look at Spybot, ad-aware for two options.

Back to Jelly-baby's problem. If you have a few different trojans then you are in the position of two choices, either choose to use system restore to a point before they infected you and risk losing a few things or do a complete system rebuild. If you need to back stuff up before you do this there are plenty of good tools that can help you do this even if your PC is so riddled it won't run properly. Let me know if you need to go down this route.

Ian

jelly baby · 05-12-2005, 14:14

Thank you Ian, I will speak to hubby when he comes in and we shall discuss our options.
We may be in touch.

entwisi · 05-12-2005, 14:15

Realisitically a full rebuild is looking at 2-3 hours minimum for someone who knows what they are doing. then you have to reinstall all installed programs and any data you backed up before you started. You also need to make sure you have all the drivers and tools to reinstall before you start or you can end up in a right pickle.

Personally I wouldn't recommend a newbie doing a full rebuild as it can be quite daunting and if you forget to do certain things then you can end up back at square 1. (e.g. if you 'forget' to install all your AV and firewalls before you go online it takes on average 25 SECONDS for a windows XP pc to become infected again)

Unfortunately there are few computer shops I would trust to do this either. They are quick to delete stuff without your consent and to be brutally honest a lot are run by 'enthusiastic amateurs'

gazlivy · 21-07-2006, 13:26

you can easily remove trojans using hijakthis free download of the net do a system scan only post results and i will tell what to remove

Diesel · 22-07-2006, 10:29

Check my post in the Virus thread, a lot of so called trojans, as Ian has already stated, is just spyware, malware and adware. These can include xxxdialers, new bars in your internet explorer, funny shortcuts on your desktop etc. The problem is, some of these programs fiddle with your Antivirus software installs, so they can be a right ****** to remove