Computer Problems--X2

[DouginUtah]

Two hours wasted last night fixing computer problems.

I noticed on a Windows 7 computer with AVG 2011 and Firefox 3.6.15, down in the bottom left corner something I hadn't seen before. It was "Reading cdn.eyewonder.com". So I Googled cdn.eyewonder.com and sure enough it is one of those Pay to remove it viruses. I had just received an update notice for Firefox 3.6.16 and had updated it.

I thought I'll just do a system restore. But I really didn't know when this eyewonder infected my computer. Was it the Firefox update or had it happened earlier? I tried the system restore just going back three days. Nope, the eyewonder was still there. So I went back as far as system restore would let me. Still there.

Time for desperate measures. I decided to remove Firefox 3.6.15/16 and go for 4.0. When attempting to download 4.0, I got a never seen before long rectangle box at the bottom of my screen. It gave the source for 4.0 as being a non-US link. Finally I was able to download 4.0 from a US Mozilla link.

Unfortunately, I kept getting a script error when trying to run it. (Clicking Cancel allowed it to run.) More searching on Google/Mozilla and I ended up disabling all Plugins and Extensions. Now it would run, so I enabled them one at a time until I found the one which was causing the problem. It was one of the two AVG Plugins.

Back to Google to find out how to remove AVG. I downloaded a DOS script and AVG was gone. Quickly I downloaded MS Security Essentials and installed it.

I downloaded Update checker from www.filehippo.com and got all my programs up to date (since I had done a system restore and several programs were set back to an earlier version.)

It appears that everything is back to normal and I have Firefox 4.0 and Security Essentials installed—which is something I was planning to do anyhow.

My advice: If running Firefox 3.?.?? check down at the bottom left of the browser window (where it usually says Done and make sure you don't see Reading cdn.eyewonder.com.

[SwampDonkey]

I've never been taken over in all the years I've run Toshiba Laptops and ran Norman Security Suite. That's 11 years now. I don't know where some of you guys are hanging out to pick up those viruses. ;)

[DouginUtah]

I don't know where some of you guys are hanging out to pick up those viruses. ;)

If that is a slam it is not deserved.

[Onthesauk]

I agree with Doug.  I've run Norton for years, don't think I do anything stupid and I still picked up one a few years ago.  Bad enough I had to reformat and reload everything.  It happens.

[SwampDonkey]

Nope, not even remotely. Doug do you run Adblock and Noscript in firefox? That shuts out a lot of crap. Although, it can seem weird as some pages will hang for 3-5 seconds before going on to load when you set NoScript to allow or deny permission of a link or page in the menu that appears in the status bar. Takes getting used to I guess.

[tyb525]

When I ran Windows, I used AVG Free, Spybot, and Ad-aware. I never had a virus in 5 years.

[timerover51]

I have been running Macs since 1990, and have yet to pick up anything.  Just about all of your viruses are written for Windows, as it is so widespread, and such a bloated piece of operating software that it is not that hard for someone to take advantage of.

[tyb525]

Same goes for Linux- since I switched to Ubuntu, I still haven't gotten a virus, or had any other issues for that matter. Another great thing- I haven't had to pay for a single piece of software yet. I have everything I could possibly need, and it's all freeware, high quality too. It doesn't really matter if you're good with computers or not, because the way the whole system works is totally different, so even if you're used to windows or mac, it's a totally different animal and you're gonna have to learn it from scratch, which is fairly easy compared to other OS's, IMO.

[timerover51]

Hmmm, tyb525, I will be running Linux on a bunch of servers next year, hopefully. A lot of the computer engineering and software engineering students at my son's school are using Linux on the laptops supplied by the school, and my son has his dorm floor servers all running Linux.  I will need to check which version.

[tyb525]

I picked Ubuntu cause it's all free, and seems to be pretty user-friendly for linux. I've been running it for almost two years now.

[Raphael]

Well you've convinced me... when it comes time to finally upgrade from Win98se I'll be going for RHEL or Ubuntu.  Looks like sketchup is finally running well under wine and I'm down to my last 256meg of RAM so the time is drawing near.

[SwampDonkey]

Win98 ??  :D You mean it didn't blow up in Y2K? ;) 

[Coon]

Don't laugh too hard Swamp Donkey but we still have one computer running Windows95.   ;) :D  We don't use it much anymore cuz it sounds like some kinda scud missile launching time bomb getting ready to be sent off into orbit.    :D 

[Raphael]

Win98 ??  :D You mean it didn't blow up in Y2K? ;) 

It's actually Win 98 4.10.2222, second to last (and IMHO best) beta before the official release of 98se...  Best windows since WFW 3.11 ;)  It was 'free' and the last MS OS developed in 'open' beta, therefore more secure!

Actually I've never bought a Microsoft operating system for one of my own PCs, unless you count the copy of win2k server I returned for a refund and replaced with Red Hat...  I really don't like spending hard earned money on an inferior product.

I've never run an active anti-virus because of what they do to PC performance and these days DOS based OSes are so out of date I don't have to think about it.   :D

Coon:  You should hear my wife's multimedia monstrosity, even with it just idling on the far side of the room I can't tell my PC is on and when she goes to edit video it's like the batmobile firing up.  "Atomic batteries to power!  Turbines to speed!"  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Rapahel, I can't do what I do with GIS/GPS on anything but windows. It's not too painful, I've survived this long. :D

[Raphael]

That's pretty much where I'm at as well, in my case it's AutoCAD 2000 with TimberCAD & LandCAD front ends plus a full suite of page layout software from Adobe (Pagemaker, Illustrator & Photoshop).

~25 years ago I had the choice of buying the software and building a 'bleeding edge' PC myself or buying a top of the line MAC and have nothing left over for the software.   :

But I longer do any desktop publishing (my friend's business closed it's doors some time ago) and very little landscape design.  So I'm looking at migrating to Sketchup as it seems well suited to timber framing and I've always preferred my drafting table and/or graph paper when it came to working out ideas.

[tyb525]

I use sketchup on wine and it works pretty well.