No Internet

[JBH1876]

Have a friend tell me this morning that he cannot get on the internet due to a newly acquired virus......... Windows programs work fine, but No Int... He never uses any Virus protection. PC has not been reformatted in 5 years. I suggested he just reformat, and start fresh using more common sense in the future.. I guess my question is" Is there a way to indentify, and remove without reformatting without being able to access the internet on this PC?" Thanks

[crunchie]

You will need to download any tools required onto a floppy or a flash drive and copy them over to his PC.
Based on the info you gave, I would agree that a reformat is the best route to take.
Failing that, follow the instructions found here; http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=167915 and post back an hijackthis log.

[JBH1876]

Regarding the online tools mentioned, are we saying TrendMicro, or Bitdefender? you can download the virus scan on a thumbdrive?

[fink]

No, but you can download/transfer/run a few other scanners like malwarebytes, superantispyware, and hijackthis. Let us see all the resultant log files... run hijackthis last.

which operating system does he have?

[JBH1876]

Windows Home.. I downloaded Avast & McAfee sting380 virus removal on my thumbdrive.. thought he could start there..

[fink]

Yeah, it's a start. I'd still run malwarebytes and superantispyware though. Mcafee stinger only searches for a very few types of infections so it's not nearly as useful as the others.

[JBH1876]

I just learned that this started when he tried using an old MaCafee Security Program 5.0. Says he has had it for a very long time. It shows the program within the added/programs list. tried to remove, but it will not allow him to... The program is listing numerous infections. It keeps asking if he wants them removed, but it wants a fee.. I suggested he check the registry to see if its listed there, but I haven't heard from him as of yet.

In addition one of the infections is the pswxtrojan.

Superantispyware found 277 threats, some are within the registry..

The spyware program has been running for 3 hours...! Still scanning files. I suggested just to let it run, and check in the morning.. AND just to reformat anyway,,,,, Its been running 3 years now without any real maintenance.