Complacency - or Let That Be a Lesson To You Me Lad

[Steve Maskery]

Hi All,
I have good AV, AntiSpam, AntiSpy and I use Mailwasher, so I feel nice and cosy and safe away from the big bad world.

Yesterday I had an email from someone I recognised, my AV didn't get upset, so...

One opened, THEN my AV got upset, but it was too late. I lost my network and my AV would no longer load. Top and bottom, I've had to re-install XP, (twice, because I tried to do XP without re-formatting - bad idea, couldn't access the internet, just cost me more time). The only good thing is that I now have a nice new installation which is a lot faster than before, as I've only reinstalled the things I really use. Fortunately all my data was on a separate drive, so I've not lost anyting, not even emails.

I've done nothing else since 8am yesterday. If anyone knows who started this, will you please let me have their address, I'd like a little word...

Cheers
Steve

 

[Les Mahon]

Bad luck Steve.

I'm familiar with the concept - very familiar!

Les

 

[Charley]

It's a PITA having to format and reload. I had to do it the other week when my Dads hard drive died.

I'm glad you didn't loose any of your data though

Did you get chance to find out the name of the virus?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Charley,
No I didn't, cos the first thing it did was prevent me from loading my own AV, as well as my mate's McAfee. As I had my data safe I figured that, as I didn't know what else it had done, the safest thing was to do a virgin installation.
In some ways it has done me a favour. For example, my Outlook is configured rather better than it was (I had and Address Book as well as Contacts - not very clever really), and starting up is faster. But it is just not what I planned to spend these two days doing.

Very glad indeed I didn't have everything on one partition.

Cheers
Steve

 

[wizer]

those sorts of PITA can be greatly reduced with the use of something like Norton Ghost. Couple of clicks and your complete XP install is restored with all your settings and applications intact.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I hope it didn't show up under my e-mail addy. I wouldn't think it would do that.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I hope it didn't show up under my e-mail addy. I wouldn't think it would do that.

Hi Dave,
No you're not the culprit! No-one here, in fact. But I might be making some security suggestions to one of my non-woody friends.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Midnight]

it took 2 days to reinstall...???

seems sad to say this but I'm all too familiar with the remedy (different cause... honest guv ) best time I've managed to get a bare bones software set up and running was 3 hours...

 

[ProShop]

Steve,

Been there a time or two .
Sounds like I have a similar setup to you, eg; mailwasher, antispy, AV (I'm using Avast) and since getting serious and setting it all up together last year have not had a single problem (but I'm touching lots of wood ).

Hope that's the last time you have to go through all that.

 

[RogerS]

Which AV are you using Steve and what version of it? If there's something out there in the wild it would be good to know in advance as any of us could get bit.

 

[Steve Maskery]

it took 2 days to reinstall...???

Mike,
I tried to reinstall XP over XP, and it didn't like that (although to be fair, it did warn me that it was not the best choice to make)- I couldn't access the internet as there was a problem with IE. An hour talking to ntl in Delhi didn't solve the problem. Removing my wireless router didn't, either. So I went for a re-format and virgin installation. It all adds to the time. Then I had to reistall all my service packs and applications, transfer back templates, reload my emails etc,etc,etc.

Roger,
I'm using ZoneAlarm, and it's the first time it's let me down. I'm still happy to stick with it, for now.

Every cloud though. My PC is flying!

Cheers
Steve

 

[RogerS]

Steve

I never use ZA for AV. It's not their key strength. AVG (free and purchaseable versions available) is much better and is what they focus on

Glad you're flying

Roger

 

[Midnight]

I tried to reinstall XP over XP, and it didn't like that

ahhh... been there, done that.. I feel your pain...

one point about XP has been bugging me for ages; during the instalation it doesn't assk who the admin is, doesn't ask for or notify of any installed passwords...
Setting up for a reinstall, I noticed there's a repair function.. so I click it.. you guessed it, it asks for the admin password... even Microsquirt tech help couldn't advise what that was about..
The remedy..??
Quick format and reinstall.. basics up and running inside 2 hours..