blocked connection

[jimijames]

Hi, a friend of mine keeps getting a pop up advert from 'patch now.net' saying that there is a weakness in messenger which is letting in a virus and he needs to patch it. When he closes the ad his BB connection freezes up! Even if he re boots the PC the connection freezes every time he goes back online.

He has Norton anti virus software and firewall etc. and has run a scan which finds nothing.

He's also reformatted his hard drive and re installed XP four times, but then when he goes back online he gets the same pop up and the same thing happens!

Can anyone help with this before my friend melts his computer with a blow torch?

[Sterling_Aug]

Can you spell virus in the popup ad?

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168820

[jimijames]

I don't understand.

Wouldn't re formatting the hard drive get rid of any sprware or virus that was on it?

[r8500]

Originally posted by jimijames
I don't understand.

Wouldn't re formatting the hard drive get rid of any sprware or virus that was on it?

Yes, but if he has spyware on his computer, it can easily be removed. Since it is so common to get it anymore, it wouldn't make sense to format a machine everytime it got some spyware on it.

[jimijames]

r8500 the point is that he has tried scanning for viruses and spyware and it didn't stop it happening, so as a last resort he reformats and reinstalls XP.

Even after he's done that (four times) the same thing happens again.

Sterling_Aug I don't understand your question.

[Midknyte]

you need a popup blocker in addition to antivirus and antispyware. try the google toolbar at the link Sterling provided. If he didn't already, install SP2 since that has a built in popup blocker.

[kwebb]

If he decides to reformat again make sure he repartitions the drive he is putting windows on, and not just format the existing partition.

[rraehal]

Which version of XP are you using? XP, XP SP1, XP SP2?

If you do not have the patches installed, a virus can attack you when you connect to the internet for the first time.

I always install my AV, a firewall, and SP2 before connecting to the internet. SP2 is slipstreamed on my install CD.

[Sterling_Aug]

Try Adware Away in my link above.