Did recent worm virus also affect Windows 98?

Cal

Hi guys.

Ive been having severe computer trouble since when this blast worm thing hit on the 14 th of august. the thing is ive got window 98, and ive been told it doesnt affect 98. i first noticed it when i logged on and had a different homepage to my usual one

ive also run numerous 'patches" which tell me i dont have the worm, but the symptoms are just too similar to what it did to other computers.

basically it shuts the computer down once in a while, and it takes a while before i can reboot. but the main problem is when im on line.

it opens my homepage fine, as well as opening sites. once im actually in the site, it slows gown to a snails pace. it's at its worst when i type messages on forums or web site based emails, like yahoo and hotmail. id type a sentence, then watch the cursor move painstakingly slow across the screen, before what ive typed fianlly comes up. also switching between open sites takes an eternity. thing is , some sites work fine

ive contacted my server, and they say its a hardware problem. ive logged on using a different server and its still the same.

as you can probably notice, in not that computer literate:) , and if anyone knows whats going on id be very grateful

primesuspect

You probably have some sort of spyware installed. Blaster has no effect on Win98.

Run adaware or spybot search and destroy. Use google to search for either one, they both work great.

Cal

Thanks:)

i already had adaware, and ive downloaded the other one.

i ran it, and it did find some faults and rectified them..............................but its still the same:(

Funny thindg is on this forum its not working too bad

Ageek

What Blaster does is this-- it generates large amounts of internet network noise. Some ISPs might have issues on their servers if they have Server 2003. So, you might get noise as Blaster probes if you surf to places with sites on Server 2003 servers although your end is not affected. Look at Symantec for this virus if you have problems in a few more days that are widespread for MANY sites:

w32.randex.e

This virus comes in through IRC, is IRCbot spread, acts somewhat like Blaster except besides how it spreads, and DOES affect Windows 98 and 98SE as well as soem computers with 2000 and XP.

If you do not have one and have a CPU with more than 1 GIG speed you should given this climate have both an antivirus(Trend Micro's PC-Cillin is good, so is Norton Anvitvirus from Symantec) and a Firewall like Tiny Personal or (better) Sygate (Personal and free) in version 5.0 and up. Sygate Pro costs a bit but is better. Firewalls that check outbound from you traffic as well as incoming traffic will show you if you might have a problem by telling you unusual programs trying to use the Internet after you tell them to let you use the ones you know are decent.

They use a way of getting a signature that is encrypted and is very specific to a program, and are so specific that you will get to tell them to let you use IE once after you upgrade it or security patch it also, ditto your anitvirus program one time after you update the program itself (virus def files do not count as they are not built into program and the two firewalls I mentioned are simple executable access control to and from your box programs).

Note, if you want tech info about them, both the sites for Tiny and Sygate can tell you about their products in detail, just know that firewalls are written and need to be so written as to be higher priority processes than will preempt if they see things running, so if you get a firewall alarm window while surfing check it out. tiny works on machines with less RAM than Sygate, it pulls 16-32 MB. Sygate wants 32-48 MB when fully active and being configured, about (depends on if you get an alarm while configuring).

IE Note:

On Wednesday Microsoft revealed that Ie does not check the type of things it accepts from websites. They called this a Critical alert.

If your box cannot Windowsupdate, before trying to patch manually go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(use IE and type in or click on the web address (URL) above
INSTEAD of http://www.windowsupdate.com/ using your onboard Windows Update function. You might get new WindowsUpdate software so they can limit access to legit boxes and keep worms and such from affecting their update site for Windows owners.

Note on Microsoft:

In its efforts to work with National Governments they are letting Government security experts work with them. The patch for the type check has been needed since the days of IE 4. My guess is one reason they have put back the next service pack for XP to 2004 and the Longhorn version to an estimated 2006 release is that they are back in code security mode after Blaster beccame known on the 11th of August (I got a severe attack alert from GeCAD in Romania late that day, I use their software partly because that way I get alerts from Eastern Europe).

Other things to check, read about Symantec's Virus Encyclopedia entry on w32.sobig.f@mm. this virus was 90% probably mailed using multiple SPAM mail softwares to all known email addresses and it also actively ESMTPs itself to others with a sending email address picked at random from those it knows or has found in your email address book. Three days ago by Date, MessageLabs, which tracks malware, got 1 Million plus hits on its monitoring network by Sobig.f. The software used was mostly mass-mail software of the sort used by SPAMMERS. This virus can be so busy emailling using your box that your surfing is affected. It is schdeduled to deactivate on Sept.10 from virus code reverse assembling and study. It masks as a .pif file (used in 95 and up) which should only be used to try to run programs that would otherwise be not right for your machine as written, so I would say that if you get an email that shows a .pif attachment get rid of it unless you know the person sending it and have asked for that spoecific file name. If you get an unknown email that you are not expecting, it is a good idea to trash it, and most emailling things show a paperclip as attachment indicator right in the list of messages.

Conclusion:

One good reason to have very good and frequently updated Antivirus software and definitions is that you can also get free advisories from your Antivirus provider about major virus attacks as well as get definitions for killing viruses very fast.

Firewall providers also research security loopholes and update firewalls, and Sygate does very heavy research. They make little profit from each copy after research costs are taken into account and they are very good coders and writers and researchers in security.

Cal

thanks. ill try that.

though when i do go into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and check for the virus (s), nothing does come up.

i was told to delete "MBLAST" from that file last week, which i did, but the problem persisted