wtnhunt Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Been noticing our computer had been a little slow here lately and so when dogdoc posted about some computer problems and I saw a link another forum member had posted for a anti-spyware scanner, I checked it out and went ahead and dowloaded it and let the scanner check our computer to see if maybe something avg and adaware had been missing. That was my first mistake. This I believe was a program called zerospyware. This program after the scan said we had a keylogger on our computer. Adaware had been missing it I guess. Well, this program would not let you remove the keylogger so I searched for a removal program and found another from a software company called enigma, thinking the "spyhunter" program would find and fix the problems I downloaded and ran it. When it came up that you had to pay I decided I would go to wal mart and just buy a copy of McAfees antispy, I had seen it there just the other day. I went on and deleted these programs, they were not doing anything but telling me I had a problem. That was my second mistake. At some point I decided to check my e-mail only to find out everything there was gone. Address book, couple hundred e-mails some with pics from family I never saved to a cd. I back up my files, but have never backed up the e-mail files. Ended up buying McAfees antispyware program and it has not found any problems . So now I am wondering if there ever was any problem or if maybe the software company attempting to sell its product was just making it up in order to scare me into buying there product. Spent all weekend while I was not outside working on fencing trying to figure out if there is anything bad there or not, still not sure if there is a keylogger on our sytem and trying to recover our lost data which I still have not recovered. Sorry blasted thieves are smart enough to hack peoples computers why dont they get real jobs where they could make honest money . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherguy Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Ouch that really sucks. I am wondering if i have a problem as well. My norton is up to date and i scan often, but i do not have a spyware remover and now my computer is slowing right down. Guess i will have to find a good one and buy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating I've used lots of anti-spyware programs and the best I've used to date is Spyware Doctor. You can downlod this for free on download.com. I fixed someone's machine with it the other day. Ad-aware would not even touch the problem. Could not get into Control Panel or do anything. This program took care of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Think I saw that spyware doctor program somewhere, but dont think it was free where I saw it. Pretty skeptical about loading any "free" software off the internet anymore after this experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherguy Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating I just downloaded spyware docto and it found 419 infections. Deleted them all, so i am hoping that is an indication it catches a pretty good portion of them. So now i think i am virus safe with norton, and hopefully that will remove all my spyware when i scan every few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating give it a shot wtnhunt. don't buy something you don't have to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Which anti-virus program are you running? It may have backed up all your missing files. You just need someone who knows what they are doing to recover them, if that's the case. Also, check out your Recycle Bin. I use SpyHunter, but you have to buy it. I found the other ones that were free, would not catch them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Steve, I am currently running avg as an antivirus program. Had norton system works 2003 before that and had nothing but troubles with it, and I removed it back early on last year and went to the avg free version. I think the data for outlook is still there somewhere. The space on the hard drive sure makes it look that way anyways, just cannot seem to pinpoint it. Not in the recycle bin either, was one of the first places I looked. A lot of the stuff these "free" antispyware programs are picking up are just tracking cookies. That makes the number really big. I noticed that on the adaware program. Any time you get a popup it will show up as a tracking cooking if I am not mistaken. The McAfee antispyware did finally find and remove a exe file this last time I just ran it, not sure if that was the keylogger or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating you guys can be skeptical of the freeware all you want. It's your machine. I work as a system engineer dealing with XP workstations every day. I get to try a lot of these programs. some companies are out for a buck. you don't necessarily always get what you pay for, as they say. the developers of these bugs, spyware, malware, viruses, whatever you want to call them keep evolving their code so for any utility to stay on top of the latest code is a challenge. Using XP SP2 with firewall enabled, a couple different pop-up blockers in tandem, Symantec Antivirus, as wlel as a spyware cleaner it's still nearly impossible to keep spyware from collecting on a machine. In my opinion Spyware Doctor is better than any of the others I've seen. That could change in a week, who knows. I've only been using it for about a week and thus far it's done the job. I wish you luck no matter which utility you choose to run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating I might try the spyware doctor at a later time, right now I am still trying to recover my lost data. I am not going to download anything else free at least until after I either recover my outlook files or I give up on trying to recover them. I really need to defrag my drive, but not sure if that will result in making it impossible to retrieve the missing files. I already bought the McAfee program, and I still have adaware loaded, I will just continue to use them for now until I get the outlook problem resolved. Mainebuck, being that you work with computers have you got any suggestions on any type of recovery software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichiganHuntr1 Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Ive got Spybots, and A whiz at office max told me not to buy their spyware programs, he said go online and get Spybots search and destroy. So I did, and I saved money. Its free, and I havent had a problem with spyware since. Knock on Wood. If your willing to WTN, you should try it. It works fine for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating what problem are you having with Outlook and which version is it? Also which OS are you running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Windows ME, outlook express 6.0. I lost everything from outlook including my address book. Kind of think maybe somehow when I removed one of those free antspyware programs something happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating wtnhunt, here's what I would do. first, make sure you are viewing hidden and system file in your Windows Explorer options Search for *.wab on your C: drive. that's the extension for the Outlook address book. If you don't find it that way it's likely gone. If you do find it you can re-import it into Outlook Express. I'll have to research finding your e-mail messages. You can try searching for *.msg. Does your ISP keep a copy of your messages on their mail server? Does doing a send/receive bring in new messages? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tedicast Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating I use Spybot - Search and Destroy, and i use AdAware. They are both freeware, and are excellent programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating As far as I know bellsouth does not keep my messages. They have a cap on the inbox of 8 megs, and I can view mail their at bellsouth only if it has not been opened in my inbox yet. The search of *.wab resulted in one file created on Friday the 18th of 2005 . Not sure how you view hidden files? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Try importing that wab file into your Outlook Express and see if it's your address book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating The files for the address book and the inbox and everything are all there, but are empty. Guess I did not make that real clear. Afraid that *.wab file is the newly created address book that came to be on last Friday when all this started. Cannot find the contents of my original address book, inbox, and etc., but still think the data is there somewhere. Thanks for all the help, think I am going to break down and buy a recovery program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainebuck Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating might want to think about upgrading to XP as well. system restore would sure come in handy right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWSmith Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating William, I'm running the entire McAffee Security suite and it does not catch all the Spyware that gets through. I downloaded the Spy-Bot S&D from Download.com free... http://www.download.com/3000-8022-10122137.html It happens to catch what the other programs miss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Re: Soooo frustrating Thanks Gary, I heard spybot was pretty good and I guess I am going to download it. Mainebuck, on ME I have the ability to go to system restore and have tried restoring back to before all this happened and unfortunately it has not fixed anything. I think after attempting to recover my lost data with a commercial program this weekend, I will just save all my data, then dump it all and start over fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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