Re: Databaseben, I need to talk to you again, please

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

DatabaseBen and Glen, I'm addressing this post to both of you.

I thought you both had excellent points. One thing I do have to bring up is
that I am handicapped and earn very little money from my part-time job. Much
as I would love to try (and possibly buy) a lot of these different
anti-virals and anti-spyware software packages, the bank just says "no" right
now.

BUT I keep a running log on Notepad on my computer of all the posts on
topics I put on here for help with. That way I can find posts giving the
names of softwares to try and useful links. I know I'd NEVER find my topics
again in the several hundred pages of this enormous forum! When my cash flow
is better, I will take a look around. I do have AVG on my computer at work
and know it is an excellent program.

I agree with you both that an advertiser or someone tagging along with Real
Player is the cause of my getting those Trojan Horse Downloaders.
Ironically, I never would have switched to Real Player if Microsoft hadn't
messed up the area in Windows Media Player 10 so you could no longer get
information for commercial CD's you wanted to load in your Library from the
Internet. The area I used to go to quite a while ago is now "grayed out" and
even their "support" information is out of date and gives info for the old
way. So when I decided I didn't want to spend a couple years manually typing
in all the information, I went and downloaded Real Player....

Another irony... You both suggested implementing a pop-up blocker. After I
had removed all my toolbars, I later decided to just put the two I use most
back on - Yahoo and MSN. I had my pop-up blockers activated in both those
toolbars, as well as in IE, when that Real Player pop-up appeared later.
Spooky.....

I have decided to take both of your advice and uninstall Real Player. (I'm
going to do it tomorrow morning when I'm more alert to what happens when I do
- have part of a day off work.) I'm hoping it will be like photo programs.
Whenever you install a new one, it takes over your jpegs, gifs, etc. from the
previous photo program. I'm hoping, with Real Player gone and all my audio
media in My Music, that it will revert back to Windows Media Player. I would
think all the song titles, CD titles, and artists would be retained. The
genre might change but that's no big deal to me. If Real Player (or someone
with them) somehow manages to destroy my media, I have a backup of all of it
on my other hard drive.

In that case, I would take Glen's suggestion and would go ahead and check
out how much the professional Real Player costs. If I could afford it, I'd
get that. If not, I'd go with with the Real Player alternative. But I would
wait a little while after uninstalling my present Real Player before doing
anything.

Glen, I wanted to tell you that I'm going to type out all those "Add-ons
that have been used by Internet Explorer" that you were interested in,
tonight on a notepad *** and then copy them to the forum. That way, if
Microsoft pulls that "log in number" on me again, I won't lose everything but
will just re-copy it again. I will put it over in my other topic, where you
requested it. I hope you find it of interest.

My, you have some "heavy duty" security software, DatabaseBen. I don't
think anything could get through that! The only free item you have seems to
be the new IE version 7. I'm sure you've seen all the posts in here of
people screaming about it. I also notice one poster keeps putting the same
links in these topics, about reading up on IE 7 before installing it and
other links with information about IE 7. I think I will copy those down and
read before I "jump in" and then end up back here in trouble again! Ha!

My, I am flattered that Glen thinks I could sound like a business and
DatabaseBen thinks I could become a computer expert! I loved those comments!
I might "squeak through" as a business but a computer expert I'll never be.

Since I can't send any personal emails or personal mail here, I'll just take
a chance with "the powers that be" here and waste a little bandwidth with a
poem that describes me. I hope they don't mind. I don't know the author of
it, just that I got it off a very nice ecard site called "Angelwinks Site".
I hope you enjoy it. I'll get back to you about what happens when I
uninstall Real Player, OK? Here's the poem that fits me:

Do You Remember When....

A computer was something on TV
in a science fiction show
A window was something you hated to clean
And ram was the cousin of a goat.

Meg was the name of your girlfriend
And gig was your job that night
Now they all mean different things
And that mega bytes.

An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano.

Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for awhile.

Log on was adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider's home
And a virus was the flu.

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash
But, when it happens...they wish they were dead.

Good night and again, thanks to you both for all your help.

Sue




"DatabaseBen" wrote:

yeh, something is suspicious about
that realsched/real player.

i think that a pop up blocker might
not be a bad thing to get installed.

for me i have disabled that realsched startup
and have not received anypopups. but i do use the
new ie7, avant browser
and spyware terminator
w/clam anitvirus plugin and
msdefender.
so issues like pop ups, etc are
a thing of the past for my pc's.

also it would be such a bad idea
to try out different antivirals until
you get the ones that work best
for your particular pc.

further, it wouldn't be a great loss or a
bad idea to uninstall real player for now.
and see how your pc functions for
a couple of days.

but it is your computer and i beleive
that you should do what ever your heart
desires with it. I'm only here to provide
some suggestions based on my experience.

if you do decide to unload that realplayer
and install the other programs mentioned above
besure to make a restore point first.

then be sure not to have duplicated / triplicated
antiviruls running as well; as this will bog down
your system. So if you want to try out
that spyware terminator, then be sure
to disable what you already have beforehand.

basically, i think we got you back up and
running again......

before you know it,
you'll become a computer expert.....

let's see "MtnLadyBlackHills1986, MVP"

(sounds pretty good to me....)


"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986"
<MtnLadyinBlackHills1986@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:949F4EA3-56DF-4E21-9F31-C1921AFFF3C9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Just a quick note... A surprise development (for me, anyway!). Earlier
when
I had changed msconfig, I left without rebooting. I reactivated the ISP's
Internet tool and bingo! Up jumped a Real Player pop-up about some music
artist. I looked at msconfig and the Real Player command was still
disabled.
Now where did that pop-up come from?

More for you to ponder, DatabaseBen.

Sue

"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986" wrote:

First, I'd like to thank everyone for being so understanding when I sent
my
distress message that too many people were trying to help and I was
hopelessly confused. Wouldn't it be a nice world if everyone could be
that
way in all walks of life?

Anyway, DatabaseBen, I actually do have some good news to tell you. We
do
indeed have dial-up, and our ISP offered a package of Internet tools
which
included an "Internet Accelerator" (as they called it). And as I look at
the
icon in my toolbar, it appears to be shut off. So I think it is safe,
and I
will just reactivate that one item.

BTW, you mentioned earlier about cutting down my start menu. Well,
surprise, I did find out about that awhile back. I have de-activated
everything that I don't think is necessary. The one that does bother me
is
one called (Startup Item) realsched (Command) "C:\Program
Files\Common
Files\Real\Update_OB\realsched.exe" -osboot

I have checked and every time I turn on the computer (even if I'm not
using
Real Player), this comes up, even though I disabled it the time before.
None
of the other start-up commands I disabled do that. I believe it was Nass
who
suggested it might be an advertiser on Real Player. The fact that it
keeps
reactivating itself seems suspicious to me. What do you think? Is there
a
way to permanently disable that command?

Can I dare hope that there might be a "light at the end of the tunnel"?
I've got to get off and leave for a little while, but I will definitely
be
back to see what you have to say!

Thanks again, DatabaseBen (I assume your name is Ben?)

Sue

"DatabaseBen" wrote:

thats great!

youre doing really good at
figuring out some of these things.

i looked up that proxyconn service
your mentioned. It is designed to boost
your internet speed.

The question is was it provided to you
by your internet service provider or
you downloaded it manually or
you clicked an ok button somewhere and it
was automaticallyinstalled with another software.

If it was provided by your internet service
provider than it is likely to be safe and may
even be required-depending on your service.

But if it wasn't provided by your ISP
and it came from some internet site
as somekind of freeware it may
not be safe.

There are different methods to boost internet
speed.

But what this particular program is likely do is
to download and store your favorite webpages
onto your harddrive automatically and without your
knowledge.

It would do this so that when you visit a site,
that webpage would pop up on your screen "instantly"
since it has been stored on your harddrive.

The fact that webpages are being downloaded onto your harddrive
automatically is a problem that could become serious because
you have no control over it,.

Your not given the opportunity to decide
what you want or don't want stored on your pc .
And there are malicious webpages that are designed
to pop up 100's of other webpages, like those porn sites.
Who knows, webpages with unlawful pics could
secretly get stored on your pc and you would never know
because of these so -called web accelerators.

without going into too much detail take
a look at the source of this proxyconn software and
uninstall it if it was not provided to you by
your internet service provider.

If you have DSL you really
don't need it.

But if you still use regular
internet, it may be required for you to use by
your ISP as some kind of turbo charger between
your modem and their servers.

Let me know....


"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986"
<MtnLadyinBlackHills1986@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:643E7C34-7770-4F38-B4EE-9E5DFD2A6A8C@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Doggone it! Right after I sent the last message, I found that the
unknown
"toolbar" I told you about is actually a Browser Helper Object. Just
wanted
you to know that, as it might make a difference.

"DatabaseBen" wrote:

hey there mtnlady,

don't be scarred about this, it isn't as bad
as you think. There are trojans that are not
evil, instead they act in a way to obtain
statistics from the people who use there
"freeware". They are designed to work
in the background and silently thus they
are looked upon as trojans by some software,
including software companies that are competing
against each other.

It might be that you are in a funny situation,
whereas your antiviral that discovered the
toolbar is a direct competition with the
maker of the toolbar.

The statistics they get from your
activity and the millions of others
via its toolbar can help
improve there services and or
get money from marketing companies.

"And" if you really "read" the fine print
of those end user license agreements,
there will be an itty bitty line stating something
like "by using this free software you agree
to share information about your usage with us...."

I think an easy way to fix this is simply
is to restore your computer to the date
when we got you back up and running
a few months ago.

Or figure out what program you
installed that subsequently may
have asked you if you wanted to use
a toolbar and said ok so you can
unintall it.

If you are not sure, you can
open you ie browser, go
to managing addins and disable
any toolbars. You don't need
any extra toolbars added to your system.

If you like the ie browser from microsoft
download the new version released a few
days ago and be sure to say yes
to protecting you with anti phising
technology.

I think you'll be ok and I don't
think you will have any problems.
But its a good thing that you had
a place like this to find
earnest people who want
to help and get you through this,
However this is a positive opinion for you,
but I have others as well.

Incidently, i know you have found
and use some anti viruls already. But I would
like for you to know that out of
many years of trying out "and paying"
for anitviruls, I discovered that using
the "spywareterminator" with the
"clam anitvirus addin" and the "defender"
from microsoft to be an excellent
combination and reliable too.

take a look at these next time
you are unsure about the ones
you have now....


"MtnLadyinBlackHills1986"
<MtnLadyinBlackHills1986@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8E6944D7-93C9-4BAE-9E69-9C020EEAA459@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi again, Databaseben. OMG, what have I gotten myself into this
time?

Did you read the answer to my original question, that was posted
by
"Glee"?
If not, could you read it? I'm such a novice, I don't know if I
understand
what he/she is trying to tell me.

I did read the article you linked to me, and it was really scary.
What
is
more scary is thinking I might still have a Trojan Horse on my
system!
I
rercently ran all the security software I have - Ad-Aware SE,
Webroot
Spy
Sweeper, and Norton Anti-Virus scans. I also ran Norton's
One-Button
Checker, Windows Doctor, Disk Doctor and Check Disk. I have also
added
all
of the October Windows Security Updates to my system. And
everything
(except
the code I sent you) checked out fine.

I have not added any toolbars in a very long time. The only thing
.

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