Adventure Game Studio

Sometimes I'll be surfing the net and I get this official looking microsoft window message pop up. I suspect this is some evil spam type advert.

So, is it weirdly genuine? If not, isn't there any way of stopping it from interrupting me? I was just on a site when this came up and chucked me off the net page I was on!

(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b37/manicmatt/weird.jpg)

So I press cancel and this window comes up:

(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b37/manicmatt/dodgy.png)

So i close the whole thing down as I don't trust it one bit.

but you know, I really DO have some kinda trouble with my internet!

Dude, don't press cancel. It basicly does something too. Maybe the red X is save, but you'd rather get a good antivirus program. And don't download this stuff. It gets on your PC and keeps conecting to some nasty site where you should buy the full version... And you can't delete or uninstall or anything becouse it gets somewhere  in the Windows folder and messes it up. Just stay away.

Sounds pretty dodgy. I f it's a pop-up don't trust it.

I clicked on everything manic. It's all good, click, click! Destroy your life!

Gah.. Why does the internet have to be such a pain to use sometimes? Really annoying...

When it comes to security online you can never research too much to find out if a program is good or bad. I've just been through the same problem myself and I couldn't even get my computer to boot most of the time. I just had too many valuable files on my main drive for a format, so I found alot of "trusted" program trials. Scanned all computers (just in case) for about 2 days straight (Yea.. Some of those thorough programs take their time!). After that I made some backups and made a fresh format/install. Annoying, but I guess that's just somethings you have to go through every now and then. Or perhaps just consider the sites you frequent.

Ohh well..

I wish you good luck with this issue..Ã,  ;)


- Steph

Yes... myspace seems to be a wet sponge for evil crap.

But I must persist for the sake of my music!

It's the first time I've had a pop up message that looks like a real one before!

Yeah i think I have a good anti-virus program, recognise the icon on the bottom right hand corner of the screenshot?

Helm makes me laugh. Again.

The problem is not the spyware scan program but IE ... remove that "Genuine Advantage" spyware NOW! Go for Opera or Firefox. I just discovered the IETab extension that mean you never need leave firefox again! Also, I worked out how to make it emulate Opera's "g something" quick adderss bar google search...

I've thinking about switching to firefox for a while now, but when I went around a friend's house he viewed my myspace page and what is normally a black blackground on white text was now white text on a white background. (Which I've changed to prevent it for other people surfing)

But is this common on firefox? Will I find incompatibility issues with other sites?

Also, what is a "IETab extension"?

Internet explorer Tab. It allows you to, with the click of a button open a tab in firefox using the IE rendering engine. And no, i have yet to actually see an incompatible site, and I've been using this for ages.

Quote from: SSH on Thu 01/06/2006 13:00:20Also, I worked out how to make it emulate Opera's "g something" quick adderss bar google search...

That works by default...

Yikes, that's a new low in sleaze. even for pop-ups!

I'd recommend Firefox. It's very few and far between that a pop-up manages to make its way through. And overall it's a much more useful browser.

Yes, it's blatent advertising of some crap spyware program that tries to scare and/or trick you into downloading and installing it... Been looking around for some info on it, but most of it's bad. Typical Ã, comments are as such:
-----------------------------
SystemDoctor 2006 is a rogue "anti-spyware" application typically spread via drive-by downloads. It detects ridiculous false positives, and uses alarming language which may goad the user into purchasing the application.

Recommendation:
It is strongly recommended that this spyware be removed from your system immediately.
--------------------------------

Ã,  For a good detailed read of these types of programs that claim to rid your computer of "spyware / adware", when in fact it IS spyware / adware / malware, I suggest go and take a look over here:
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2006/01/antispyware-conspiracy.html
Ã, That site is run by the same guy who openly exposed Sony's Rootkit spyware a little while back.

For good, and trusted, and for even free utilities in which you can scan for and remove most known spyware / adware crap, I suggest the following:
Spybot Search & Destroy: Ã, 
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/Ã, 

And Ad-Aware Se Personal: Ã, 
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/Ã, 

For a good, and free, anti-virus program I might suggest AntiVir:
http://www.free-av.com/antivirus/allinonen.html

And for a good, and free FireWall, I might suggest Sygate:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3356.html

Ã,  Of course everyone has thier own preferences. But these are a few of the programs I use myself with good results and I feel confident in them.

Best regards.

The only site that doesn't work with Firefox to me is the windows update site, for obvious reasons :P. I was used to IE and wouldn't want to change, even though I knew the advantages of Firefox. When my computer got messed up I became paranoid about security and switched to Firefox, I've been using it since.

I just noticed how awful the spelling is next to their check boxes. Shorcuts?

Barbarian, i didn't really know what the hell this doctor program was supossed to fix exactly! Figured it'd detected IE's mess. Yeah I use Ad-Aware myself, thanks. I got symantic anti-virus and zone alarm firewall. I just need an anti-bullshit program and I'd be safe. Ã, ;D

(If I ever type spelling mistakes and someone wants to call me a hypocrit only do so if my spelling mistakes are written somewhere important, okies!)

Wow, quite a few of you use Firefox! Yeah I think I'll be switching to firefox then!

hypocrite, I think!

Quote from: Guybrush Peepwood on Thu 01/06/2006 14:33:43
The only site that doesn't work with Firefox to me is the windows update site,

With IETab, it automatically opens windows update in the IE rendering engine and yet still in a FF tab... you can also add other sites that use IE instead automatically.

For my 2 cents, this SystemDoctor actually made my sister switch to FireFox permanantly.
(Mainly because we can't figure out how to get the $^*%!ing spyware crap OFF of the computer.)

Never had any problems. Some pages do load differently in FF, but usually that's because they were written for IE's non-standards-compliant quirks, and not through any fault of FF. That, and a couple of heavy-media sites don't like FF. (On that note, anyone know how to get Yahoo Music to work in FF? Will the IETab do it?)

HoN

Is it possible to use firefox AND keep IE as a back up?

Yes, in fact you pretty much have to.

Ah, because IE is imbedded so much into Windows?

Yes.

Okay, I've got firefox running.

It seems slower than IE, with all the images not being there for a moment before popping up, but then I think I'm having problems with my internet provider, AGAIN, the same problems as last time! (Google and yahoo cannot be found in either IE or firefox, but everywhere else seems fine)

At least, I think it's my internet provider. The "medical" program that they supply (NTL) says it's not my connection, but an error with the browser. What, both browsers?

Oh, and I just went on a website that was gonna be about xmen 3 and then a pop up came with the EXACT message as before about errors on my browser that could occur, the only difference being it said "firefox error" instead of "internet explorer".

So I DIDN'T press cancel, I clicked on the x. Whoops. Should I bring up the task manager in the future to shut the bloody thing down?

Im not sure how correct I am, but there is a chance the virus got in because of poor security, either on your virus scanner or through some fault of IE and it can now see you are using FF. The virus is porbably not coming every time you see the message, so it will no longer be the fault of the browser you're using?

I suggest a full virus scan, and in future, anything that offers you anything via an internet explorer, or firefox popup is not to be trusted.

Oh hell, just...

1. Download and install Spybot Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Let it install Teatimer too, so you'll always know if something new is added to computer and nothing would be installed behind without you knowing it.

2. Download and install CleanUp!
http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/

3. Run Cleanup!, remove everything

4. Restart computer, tap F8 during boot and from menu, start windows in safe mode

5. Run Cleanup! again

6. Run Spybot S&D and remove everything it found

7. Start > Run > msconfig
Uncheck everything suspicious from startup... for example,

c:\winstall.exe

may sound important, but is simply a virus. No programs reside on disk root!
Also, look out for strange names, such as cjBZjhh72 and adv.something or someAd

Don't be afraid to disable something too important, just stay off from RunDll lines (there could be few). Other useful things are most likely one or two video card and soundcard configuration lines.

There's nothing critical you could mess up. If you still somehow do, just restart in safe mode again and enable these again.

8. optionally, use other anti-adware and antiviruses aswell, to make sure you got em all.

Then restart computer in normal mode and pray.

Thanks thanks thanks!

Oddly Yahoo started working yesterday by itself...

Anyway I did all that just to be sure, and remembered that I already have spybot S&D and teatimer, but it's just dormant.

It found things that Ad-Aware couldn't. Including... WINFIXER!! GRRR!!

There were no dodgy looking things in msconfig, fortunately.

So, how do i config Spybot to come on everytime I start up my PC without the program coming up on my screen.. as in I want it to just silently appear on my bar at the bottom alongside Symantic and Zone alarm.

Cleanup deleted over a GIG'S worth of temp files!!!!! I don't get that, I already thought I'd deleted the files not so long ago, there must be some other temp folders I don't know about on windows.

At one point I was using Spybot, AdAware, MS AntiSpyware and a couple of other lesser-known aps I can't remember off the top of my head. All of them found stuff the others didn't. No one method is foolproof, although MS AntiSpyware (now called Windows Defender) is probably my personal favourite.

I think i will try that Windows defender as yesterday i had a visit from the system doctor again (and pressed Alt-F4- thanks Squinky!) and now maybe by coincidence I can't load up yahoo or google, the two most frequently visited sites i go to.

Either I get that damn page not found screen or it says "done" when it's a blank page.

All this and that one new email i have is probably Amazon spam!

I updated search and destroy and found this nugget on my computer:

"Product: ErrorSafe
Threat: Malware


Description
ErrorSafe pretends to be an antivirus programm. It mainly appears in connection with a Smitfraud-C infection and is praised on a blue screen. Having installed the software one has to accept an insufficient Privacy. There is no button to deny this privacy. A scan with ErrorSafe reveals several problems that allegedly need to be removed urgently in order to rescue the computer. At this point the user is requested to buy the whole program for an"

The info is cut off.. I DID see a blue screen today prior to the system doctor popping up! (Which i might add when I closed off the advert I lost my place on the net GRR!!)

If I can get a search site to work I'm gonna check out what a Smitfraud-C virus is. heck, this site didn't work half an hour ago, SOMETHING must be wrong!

AdAware/SpyBot/ZoneAlarm/Firefox.

This has proven, for me anyway, to be a fairly safe combination.

I don't have any Anti-Virus software. I never bought the level of hysteria generated by Anti-Virus software manufacturers, and since a majority of viruses are spread through E-Mail, once you don't open any suspicious e-mails (AnNa KoUrNiKoVa NuDe!!!) you should be fairly safe.

Every time I update SpyBot, I run its immunization procedure and it blocks any new threats that have been added to its database.

Its been a long time since it found anything on my system.

Regarding SpyBots tea timer function, I think this only works with IE. :/

EDIT: btw, how many user accounts are on your PC? My brother got stuck with the Trek Blue Nuke Error trojan/bot/thingie and everytime SpyBot cleaned his system and rebooted his PC the TBNE would just replicate itself from his wife's user account. It took a rollback to factory settings (Dell PC's have this feature, a hell of a lot more thorough then a Windows XP System Restore, but it deletes EVERTHING that wasn't on your system when it left the factory.) before all was right with the world.

The only things I use are Ad-Aware and Firefox. No firewall, no anti-virus software. This is due to the amazingness of having SP1, meaning that very few SP2 viruses work on my computer.  :)

- Huw

I just got the one account. Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that there is now nothing wrong with my computer, as NTL have just got back to me with a personalised message (not) saying they're having connectivity problems across the country.

So much for their "broadband medic" that told me it's my browser at fault and not the connection. I think the problem lies with the fact that it seems to test your connection by loading up their own website, which is just a daft and limiting way of looking for problems.
Why not check the connection on the page I was having trouble loading up?

At least, I hope it's them and not me!

Still eh, if this had not happened, you guys wouldn't have got me on firefox and helped me find out that I have winfixer AND errorsafe living on my computer!

:= Have a larry icon! It's the first time I think I've used it, so I'm using it for a special occasion, having handy peeps on this forum yay!

So, um, if you need help yourselves with er.. videogames or something, drop me a line!

A good idea in general is to only surf the web in an XP User Account that doesn't have admin priviledges. Just open the control panel and create a new user for surfing. A bit of a pain, but if you enable fast user switching too, it isn't too bad.

You people over-react.

I use Firefox. That's it. I've NEVER ever had any viruses or spyware. It's all just hype.

oh well, that's what you think. and thanks to you ignorant people we have to fear ddos and stuff like that >:(

Quote from: hajo on Thu 08/06/2006 14:08:49
oh well, that's what you think. and thanks to you ignorant people we have to fear ddos and stuff like that >:(

No, we have to fear DDOS and the like due to the ignorant people at Microsoft who can't build a decently secure application. It is a known and verifiable fact that most MS applications are significantly less secure than other parties' apps, such as Firefox or indeed Linux. Over 90% of viruses, trojans and malware use stupid exploits that exist in IE or Outlook, and can thus be avoided by using better applications.

Actually, I think a lot of malware these days uses social engineering to a greater or lesser extent, and so the attitude of "I dont use MS therefore I'm invulnerable" is very dangerous.

Quotesocial engineering

further explain

Well, despite repeated warnings from all quarters to:

* not open email attachments you're not expecting
* check that the address that a link goes to is correct
* check for the padlock icon when accessing a site that takes a password or other confidential info
* don't accept self-signed SSL certificates

People still do silly things. All the time.

See: http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~rachna/papers/why_phishing_works.pdf

Quote from: Radiant on Thu 08/06/2006 14:19:15
It is a known and verifiable fact that most MS applications are significantly less secure than other parties' apps, such as Firefox or indeed Linux.

I doubt that. It may be a known and verifiable fact that MS applications have significantly more known vulnerabilities than other parties' apps, but that's because the apps are more widespread, and that's why it makes sense to use Firefox &c. If Firefox ever became the standard, it would become the target of malware, and then we'd actually see whether it is more or less secure than IE. (I'm not making claims either way. Nor am I addressing the open source issue.)

Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Thu 08/06/2006 16:04:47

Quote from: Radiant on Thu 08/06/2006 14:19:15
It is a known and verifiable fact that most MS applications are significantly less secure than other parties' apps, such as Firefox or indeed Linux.

I doubt that. It may be a known and verifiable fact that MS applications have significantly more known vulnerabilities than other parties' apps, but that's because the apps are more widespread,

That is what the Microsoft marketing department wants you to think. While it is obviously true that the most popular browser will have its flaws exposed quicker than any other, it is also true (although less obvious) that (1) IE has significantly more flaws than other browsers, some of which a result of flawed design, and (2) Microsoft is significantly slower in fixing those flaws than other companies.

"Exploitation of Internet Explorer's security holes has earned IE the reputation as the least secure of the major web browsers."

"Art Manion, a representative of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) noted in a vulnerability report that the design of Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 made it difficult to secure."

"The Apache HTTP Server, for example, had a much larger market share than Microsoft IIS, yet Apache has traditionally had fewer (and generally less serious) security vulnerabilities than IIS."

"In an October 2002 interview, Microsoft's Craig Mundie admitted that admitted that Microsoft's products were "less secure than they could have been" because it was "designing with features in mind rather than security.""

"Microsoft has also not responded as quickly as competitors in fixing security holes and making patches available. Not only are there more holes in Explorer, but holes remain unpatched for a longer time. ... As of May 28, 2006, Secunia reports 101 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, 21 of which are unpatched. In contrast, Mozilla Firefox, the main competitor to Internet Explorer, is reported to have only 31 security vulnerabilities, of which 4 remain unpatched."

(source: Wikipedia)

Quote from: Radiant on Thu 08/06/2006 16:41:38
(source: Wikipedia)

So it must be true and totally unbiased!  :P

More on social engineering: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32311

blaming microsoft because you can't handle your pc is like blaming a car manufacturer for a crash. as with about everything, pebkac.
people don't think it's their duty to keep their pc clean or are too stupid to see why they should. it's easier to blame microsoft for everything than actually learning how spyware works and how to protect yourself. this is ridiculous, ms provides excellent tools for that, all you need is a legit version of windows xp with sp2. running anything else than that would be dumb, ms stopped supporting pre-xp versions recently, iirc.

"Blaming microsoft because you can't handle your pc is like blaming a car manufacturer for a crash."

Only if the brakes weren't working.

no, you obviously don't know how to secure your own pc. there is no one to blame but yourself.

You are obviously unaware that e.g. the latest version of MS Outlook contains fifteen known security vulnerabilities, which is more than the other ten most popular e-mail clients combined, and the oldest of which has been known for over two years and remains unfixed. It helps being aware of security issues, but one of those issues is that Microsoft's track record proves them unreliable. Don't be a lemming.

Quote from: Radiant on Thu 08/06/2006 16:41:38
That is what the Microsoft marketing department wants you to think.

This may be true, but it's clearly irrelevant. I think meat is tasty. The Meat Marketing Board says meat is tasty. That doesn't mean I only think meat is tasty because the Meat Marketing Board says so.

Quote
While it is obviously true that the most popular browser will have its flaws exposed quicker than any other, it is also true (although less obvious) that (1) IE has significantly more flaws than other browsers, some of which a result of flawed design, and (2) Microsoft is significantly slower in fixing those flaws than other companies.

(1) This is not "true". IE has significantly more KNOWN flaws. That's all you can say with any certainty.
(2) I don't doubt it.

Quote
"Exploitation of Internet Explorer's security holes has earned IE the reputation as the least secure of the major web browsers."

Of course. This goes back to my point that malware is targeting the "market leader".

Quote
"Art Manion, a representative of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) noted in a vulnerability report that the design of Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 made it difficult to secure."

And did Art study the other browsers?

Quote
"The Apache HTTP Server, for example, had a much larger market share than Microsoft IIS, yet Apache has traditionally had fewer (and generally less serious) security vulnerabilities than IIS."

Ok, so Apache is demonstrably more secure than IIS. Yay!

Quote
"In an October 2002 interview, Microsoft's Craig Mundie admitted that admitted that Microsoft's products were "less secure than they could have been" because it was "designing with features in mind rather than security.""

This merely says that MS products aren't 100% secure. Nor is any product. It certainly doesn't say anything about relative security.

Quote
"Microsoft has also not responded as quickly as competitors in fixing security holes and making patches available. Not only are there more holes in Explorer, but holes remain unpatched for a longer time. ... As of May 28, 2006, Secunia reports 101 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, 21 of which are unpatched. In contrast, Mozilla Firefox, the main competitor to Internet Explorer, is reported to have only 31 security vulnerabilities, of which 4 remain unpatched."

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
1. More KNOWN holes.
2. IE has patched 80 holes. Firefox has patched only 27.
3. How serious are the remaining holes?

I'm a Firefox user myself, because right now there are less KNOWN vulnerabilities in it. I'm hoping it won't become too popular. I certainly don't want it to beat IE. I don't know whether Firefox is more vulnerable than IE, but I don't really want to find out. Even if Firefox holes get patched quicker than IE's, I'd rather not have the holes exposed at all.

Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Fri 09/06/2006 17:58:42

Quote
"In an October 2002 interview, Microsoft's Craig Mundie admitted that admitted that Microsoft's products were "less secure than they could have been" because it was "designing with features in mind rather than security.""

This merely says that MS products aren't 100% secure. Nor is any product. It certainly doesn't say anything about relative security.

That's true. But the important point (to me) is that a browser or network system should be designed with security in mind rather than features. I'd take safety over bells and whistles any day. Judging by their past, Microsoft's chief goal has always been marketing rather than performance, so to me that means they have their priorities wrong.

Of course, I'm not saying that Firefox is designed with security in mind; that's why I still back it up with a firewall and adkiller. But the point is that it is possible to make an application secure from the bottom up, even though it is rarely done; there are certain core design issues that make Linux inherently more secure than Windows. Security works far better as forethought than as afterthought.