So I seem to have done a Vicar-style 'blogger disappears without notice or trace' thing this week, and I'm sorry - it's been Buggeration Factor central round here since Tuesday when I picked up a nasty, intrusive and bastard-hard to remove adware 'trojan' that hijacked my browser and pumped endless online casino ad sites and pop-ups my way whenever I tried to go about my innocent, everyday internetty business. I tried loads of that free spyclean software in attempts to remove it but a) none of it worked and b) some of it helpfully contained spyware of its own. Oh, deep joy.
In the end I had to buy this which, fingers crossed, seems to have done the trick.
All of this frantic and time-swallowingly stressful malarkey was happily also accompanied by the hammer, bang, saw, drill, thud and occasional deeply off-tune whistle of a bunch of builders who appear to be actually demolishing the house next door and our very own counterpoint in Terry the nice Irishman who had a good noisy go at sorting our bathroom floor midweek.
And it rained most of the week. And I drank too much wine on Wednesday night (can you blame me?). And somewhere in the midst of all this I also had to earn a few honest quid.
Bloody Nora, get life back to normal.
Anyway - how are you?
Echo & The Bunnymen - 'Bedbugs And Ballyhoo' (1987)
I'm fine and dandy - thanks for asking. Bit of muggery from too much red and of course a couple of short snifters to follow.
ReplyDeleteI know you've just lobbed out, but would still recommend checking Lavasoft Ad-Aaware for anti-spyware and AVG for anti-virus. Both are available on the 'freemans' too.
I'm very well, thank you and, yes, I was starting to wonder where you were. If you want noise you should try living here: noisy military jets swooping right above my roof practicing for the airshow (at least I hope that's what they're doing). I'm sure one of my fillings rattled loose.
ReplyDeletePM - AdAware detected but could not remove the bug - which was Virtumonde - and according to the many geek forums I have unfortunately been hanging around for days, never does. And I think I got the bug from DivShare so, as they used to say in Hill Street Blues, be careful out there...
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the strafing Michael.
(Smug mac user)
ReplyDeleteMy old pc used to pack up constantly thanks to nasty little viruses and spyware. God knows what goes on inside this machine but whatever it is, it works. Shame it costs your firstborn AND your granny to get it fixed when it does go belly up....
Glad to see you up and about Mr D! Would have been a shame to go AWOL with Ringo as your last post.....
Harsh but fair.
ReplyDeleteI used Safari as an emergency browser this week, but it's all fuzzy fonts on a Windows PC.
Never had a virus either, fortunately, but then I've also got a Mac.
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued that you say you think you got said virus from DivShare, since I use it and am very fond of it.
Care to elaborate, davy ?
I thought I'd have a go at using their embed player thingy - the one you and Mondo use. But just being on the site I got lots of pop-ups and then my regular anti-virus started going ballistic with 'attempts to invade' messages. So I kind of assumed that's where the problem originated. There or a music file download I made just before it.
ReplyDeleteNever had this happen before, and that particular bug seemed especially hard to get rid of.
I do know DivShare got hacked recently - maybe this is related?
Shoot me someone I'm starting to sound like a serious IT nerd.
ReplyDeleteDid you try
ReplyDeletehttp://www.virtumonde-removal.com.removal-instructions.com/removeVirtuMonde.html
Apparently it's free. Sounds more of a pain in the ass, than genuinely scary. I hate pop-ups.
I tried so may I lost count - and found out the hard way that some of them are malware themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt was more than pop-ups though - it was picking up my keyboard strokes and serving ads related to what I was typing...so presumably also able to pick up passwords and user names, etc.
Is it too early for a gin & tonic?
They WERE hacked recently, but it was the database of clients end. They sent out a detailed communique to the fact that NO files or servers were affected.
ReplyDeleteI did change my user password, though.
One thing: I am very suspicious of the Imeem Freeware - which some other sites use. I have never downloaded from it but it's buggy as hell, and has slowed up my browser on occasion - which blocks all pop-ups as a matter of course.
Don't use the DivShare embed player. I don't use it at all. I use Yahoo Media Player as per Art Decade and Rising Storm and others, and the files are direct linked without using DivShare's free embedding facility which, while not dangerous, is a pain in the ass anyway.
I don't think the trojan has come via DivShare, however.
Just to make it perfectly clear. I don't use DivShare's embed player. I use Yahoo. I also pay for direct file linking, which means you are not navigated to a DivShare download page.
ReplyDeleteI started off using MediaFire as a server, but didn't like it too much.
Sorry to be so pedantic, Davy!
P.S. It's never too early for a gin & tonic, in my book!
ReplyDeleteWell as Sid James would say, mine's a large one.
ReplyDeleteGo for it, dude!
ReplyDeletejc! A fellow Glaswegian ; we seem to be thin on the ground!
ReplyDeleteI've put in a link to Vinyl Villain to celebrate the fact!
... Viruses not withstanding!
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one to crack that lazybastarditis. I had that for four years once.
ReplyDeleteThe geek exorcism has taken nicely, ta.
oh you poor dear - i take some comfort in the knowledge that i'm totally clueless and any invasion like that would end with my stupid machine chucked off the balcony and a return to having to find stuff to actually do for fun...
ReplyDeletei am ever so glad you're clever enough to battle back to us
x
Cheers ducks. 'Having to find stuff to actually do for fun...'. Crikey. Hope drinking counts.
ReplyDeleteI'm becoming kind of normal again and am slightly cross with myself for how easy it is, but only in a bit of a drama queen way. But how are you????
ReplyDeleteMe? Oh I'm alright. As I once said to Colin 'Fun & Heartbreak? I'm too English to have had much of either'.
ReplyDeleteMy Boo-autographed The Bible CD arrived though so, you know...
ReplyDelete