Virus going around internet

[countrygirl1986]

Hey y'all,

Just thought some of you might be interested in knowing there is a virus going around that is particularly devistating. At least 3 people I know of in the past 2 months have caught the computer virus (I say virus because of the way it affects the computer). I do not know the name. I am one of those 3 people.

As said before, this virus is devistating. When your computer contracts it, when you go to boot the computer, it boots half way and then has to reboot again, and the cycle just repeats itself. Your computer will not boot up and has to have windows reinstalled.

Please, make sure you have a copy of your recovery disc (most computers for XP comes with one) or a copy of the windows version you use on disc.

Some computers use drivers that are not on the recovery discs. You may want to ensure you have this as well on disc.

Some antivirus software does not detect this rogue program! I know for a fact AVG is one of the ones that do not! When I had the virus, I had gotten it just after buying my lap top, and had yet to get around to switching from AVG (Computer retailer put that on) back to McAfee (what i prefer). I do believe McAfee does indeed detect the virus. It automatically scans all downloads. My computer tried to download something without asking and it was a virus, McAfee caught it. I beleive it was the same one, same directory area on the computer.

This virus tries to download into the System32 files and effectively prevents bootup.

Please friends, be careful!

If you need an Antivirus software, in my experience Systematic (norton) and McAfee work the best (Not to bash AVG or anything, but as far as I know, they are one of the last to put out information for their software to detect new viruses. Had one friend who had AVG and their computer was acting funny so I had them run a freescan from McAfee's website, and they found NINE viruses... and this was within the past 2 weeks). If you do not like these programs or think you may want to look at some other ones, and you do not have an antivirus software installed on the computer, Microsoft's website does infact have links to different manufacturers.

If you would like a link to the free scan offered by McAfee, please contact me.

There is also a minor virus going around Yahoo! Messenger. I have had it, an infected computer invisibly sends messages not seen by users to other users computers. If you catch a glimps of your computer entering text into a buddy's IM window nad entering it really fast, but it does not appear in the chat window, you can press the up arrow and it should show the line of text it entered. If this happens, you must uninstall and reinstall yahoo messenger completely. The beta does not seem to have this problem. Again, I had AVG when this happened.

If you have Yahoo Messenger and download an antivirus and suddenly after being on for so long your computer starts not showing text in new IM and Chat windows, do not panic. YM, your internet provider, and the antivirus software aren't 100% compatable sometimes. It happens (but it may also be afore mentioned virus). I have experienced this as well. It went away when I switched from Netzero IP to a Cable internet provider(although i did completely uninstall, and delete YM and downloaded it again, then decided to upgrade to 9.0 instead). Just simply completely shut down YM, wait 30 seconds and restart Messenger, or uninstall and delete it completely, and then redownload it, prefereably the new Beta version.

The best ways to prevent a virus (and no i don't think y'all are stupid, some people just don't know this and this is for them)? ALWAYS scan something new you add to the computer! If it's in email, scan it before downloading. If it's in IM or online, Scan it before opening it after the download. Never Download anything you do not know what it is. Make sure your computer blocks popups and always asks you before downloading anything (Sometimes a virus can get around this prompt though so scan the computer regularly!). Also always make sure to download your windows updates if you are a windows user! These updates 'patch' any 'backdoors' that have been discovered in the O.S. in which a virus may use to take hold or people may use to hack your computer. Also, making sure you have uptodate versions of most of your software (such as messengers, ISP's, ect) does sometimes help. This does not mean you have to get the betas, just means try to have a current version of the program.