new trick from a virus,

I have a rule that if it takes more than two evenings of effort after work in tracking down what the virus is and the availability of software to remove it.. then it gets nuked.
Fresh O/s time
(having saved customers docs/pics etc. of course)
 
Two evenings work on one pc? That would kind of limit the workload per week. How much would you charge for two evening work?

Guessing its not your full time job? (no nastiness intended)
 
Damn right it isn't my full time job. :D
I am seen as the geeky one when my family / mates all need something fixing :(
 
dmpoole said:
You need to read what I wrote.
Tell you what I'll give you a clue:



Does that sound like you if you save peoples data before formatting?
Thought not.
Click to expand...

Jesus please leave the drugs alone. Come back and post when you have finished your period:rolleyes:

I'll give you a clue. Your post makes you look like an angry old troll.

If you find hunting for viruses exciting, then you either need to work for Symantec or you are particularly sad.

HERE IS A CLUE SINCE WE LIKE LARGER FONTS
ARKANOR Doesn't care if he has "Been victim", he only cares about saving face on this thread.

I will point it out since nobody here has bothered reading his post. The child in question downloaded something dodgy, then got a virus. It was cleaned and the child downloaded it again. Got same virus. Arknor, then "cleans it" and lo and behold child doesn't download it again because of wrath.

Am I the only one who sees it?:rolleyes:

Having a go at me achieves nothing. You are supposedly a "PC Enthusiast", why does it annoy you that someone else has lost data or are we talking about you coming across a problem you couldn't fix and then having your data deleted?
 
mejinks said:
Load of rambling .......
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Once more you have totally failed to read my original thread and you will look foolish when you do ........

You said -

mejinks said:
Why is it annoying? Would you rather I charge you say £60 to format after backing up your docs, or would you rather I charge you £60 x however long to locate and destroy the virus (or many viruses) If it takes 3 hours, I have made a lot of money. What is so difficult to understand?:confused:
Click to expand...

Then I said -

dmpoole said:
Arknor has obviously experienced cowboys like I have who will just format without thinking about what data is on there and it is annoying.
Click to expand...

YOU DON'T SOUND LIKE THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT ARKNOR IS HAVING A GO AT.

If you read the thread I wasn't having a go at you or anybody who backups before they format.
It is really easy to understand, nobody had a go at you.
I will repeat the sentence again and you can see where it has a go at anybody on here -

dmpoole said:
Arknor has obviously experienced cowboys like I have who will just format without thinking about what data is on there and it is annoying.
Click to expand...

So once again did you attack me because you are a cowboy and it hit a nerve or do you backup a customers data?
I THINK THE LATTER.
That means I think you do take care and you do backup.
I can't make it anymore clearer.

Just seen this -

mejinks said:
Having a go at me achieves nothing. You are supposedly a "PC Enthusiast", why does it annoy you that someone else has lost data or are we talking about you coming across a problem you couldn't fix and then having your data deleted?
Click to expand...

Where have I had a go at you?
What exactly are you reading?
It bothers me because over the last 2 decades friends/family/friends of friends have taken their PC's to 'professionals' and they just format without asking and then they come to me asking where it is?
Once again you sound the type of person who would backup their data, can I make it anymore clearer?
When I say backup I don't mean delete, it means you actually save their valuable data somewhere else (I don't want you to misread again).
 
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Scubascorpion said:
I have a rule that if it takes more than two evenings of effort after work in tracking down what the virus is and the availability of software to remove it.. then it gets nuked.
Fresh O/s time
(having saved customers docs/pics etc. of course)
Click to expand...

wow, you are doing something wrong there...

my usualy times are

de-virus = about 45mins depending on the speed of the machine (safe mode, combofix, malware bytes, reset browser settings) job done and give customer a 3 month reinfection / free clean warranty...
reinstall = 3 hours (with 3 to 5 interactions required) so I would do 3 in 4 hours.
 
I got this virus two days ago on my crappy laptop. I don't usually get viruses so was amazed and nearly fell for it... BUT i'm not that stupid yet I can imagine how many people are, who are just casual PC users or even intermediate.

It suprisingly took me a whole evening and morning (Sleeping pattern is already broken)... but its fine now. Bleepingcomputer helped me out a lot although a lot of the fixes don't work because the stupid virus knows you're after it, so other options had to be found.. this along with it hiding nearly everything was quite scary, also not being able to run certain programs.


What I found most frustrating was what seemed like the opening of IE in the background with script errors so I would hear sound coming from what seemed like nowhere... aaaargh... along with the redirecting on firefox which made it more frustrating to find solutions and these issues stayed around after removing the initial virus until I ran a few more fixes, like combofix.

Regarding the formatting.. I considered it due to frustration but with all going on I really didn't want to have to back up everything to a slow external drive via this crappy laptop and i'd have to burn a new Vista disk to reinstall Windows as i've lost mine, only having Windows 7 now on the other systems and not needing to format the laptop in a longtime even though its dying :cool:

Fine now, I think!
 
edscdk said:
wow, you are doing something wrong there...

my usualy times are

de-virus = about 45mins depending on the speed of the machine (safe mode, combofix, malware bytes, reset browser settings) job done and give customer a 3 month reinfection / free clean warranty...
reinstall = 3 hours (with 3 to 5 interactions required) so I would do 3 in 4 hours.
Click to expand...

Depending on the disk size/pc it can take hours to finish one scan, and you might need to run a few. There's no guarantee you'll end up with a clean machine after either.
 
i dont care go read the libya thread i voice an opinion that is not going to be popular on here because its the internet people can say what they think and it doesnt really matter
Depending on the disk size/pc it can take hours to finish one scan, and you might need to run a few. There's no guarantee you'll end up with a clean machine after either.
Click to expand...
avast/malwarebytes/combofix will catch pretty much any infection known to man.

you cvan check startup tasks , hijackthislog etc to be pretty sure everything is removed if you know what should be on a computer and what shouldnt.

like on most computers i can look at taskmanager and instantly pick out stuff that shouldnt be running
 
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Sure, it's doable, but getting it done in under an hour while being guaranteed a clean and working machine is overly optimistic. Depending on your hourly rate, it may soon work out cheaper to give the customer a rebuild with data recovered. Of course, this all depends on whether it's a business pc (we wouldn't risk anything less than a rebuild for our clients) or a joe bloggs home pc, the state of the machine in question, the type of virus blah blah ...
 
arknor said:
i dont care go read the libya thread i voice an opinion that is not going to be popular on here because its the internet people can say what they think and it doesnt really matter

avast/malwarebytes/combofix will catch pretty much any infection known to man.

you cvan check startup tasks , hijackthislog etc to be pretty sure everything is removed if you know what should be on a computer and what shouldnt.

like on most computers i can look at taskmanager and instantly pick out stuff that shouldnt be running
Click to expand...

Yeah me too, thats what caught me with this virus, I couldn't open task manager and it wasn't in the CTRL+ALT+DEL menu!

Got there in the end though.

Aren't some not noticable in the task manager though? I've not had many viruses (Virii?) in my life so.. good thing but i've not learnt a lot :cool:

Who the hell makes these viruses :rolleyes:
 
arknor said:
i dont care go read the libya thread i voice an opinion that is not going to be popular on here because its the internet people can say what they think and it doesnt really matter

avast/malwarebytes/combofix will catch pretty much most of the best known infection known to man.

you cvan check startup tasks , hijackthislog etc to be pretty sure everything is removed if you know what should be on a computer and what shouldnt.

like on most computers i can look at taskmanager and instantly pick out stuff that shouldnt be running
Click to expand...

arknor said:
some arent and some genuine processes could be infected.
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Fixed for you... Those sort of programs can only catch a virus/malware if they know what to look for, if it's a relatively new piece of malware or it's not majorly released then good luck guarenteeing anything with scans from them. Hijackthis is pretty good if you know what to look for though and as you said looking through taskmanager isn't the be all and end all either, loads of malware infects processes like svchost etc which will have multiple legitimate incidences running.

Clean reinstall on pretty much anything that is remotely sensitive (ie most home users machines) depending on the malware.
 
asvast is updated in realtime aswell you can send them a suspected virus and they will patch imediately, the same as kaspersky labs do.
 
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