This old dog learned something new.....

This old dog learned something new.....

Postby kim » May 16th, 2014, 6:16 pm

Okay, I know I haven't been on in a while but I have been busy with DS (YAY, he now a Combat Medic) going to his graduation in San Antonio and then to come home and my brother having to go to hospital and ICU because he almost bled to death in a matter of hours. (something about an ulcer ...from his drinking....and it bursting and then bleeding)....to a computer virus. I have been battling a computer virus on two of my computers (one for business and one for playing on the forums, blogs, etc). I kept getting a popup saying I needed to update my flash player (did not say Adobe). Plus it made my search engine conduit.search which would not do a search at all....and couldn't get onto the internet unless I typed in "search.com" and then was able to search for help. I have a antivirus/anti malware program but the virus managed to bypass it. I spent two weeks trying everything under the sun to clear my computer. I figured I would work on one computer at a time. After two weeks of cleaning my computer and only to have the blasted pop up show up again, I finally did a factory reset. Turned the computer on and what shows up again.......the pop up. I was ready to throw my laptop away....but I still had my business one to clean up too. So I went to my craft room and decided to do a search on that computer. I rarely use the internet on that computer....I just take my files that I have worked on from my laptop and just plug in a flash drive and cut from that computer. So you would think no virus on the craft room computer, right? WRONG. First thing to pop up was the update my flash player. So this tells me that something else is going on. This is not something that I downloaded or opened and it infects my computer. Call the internet provider and voila.....modem/router is old and doesn't have some kind of security feature that prevents someone from changing my DNS. Don't ask me about DNS because I really don't understand all of it but is also has something to do with your ISP which is sort of like your "address" in the computer world. The internet provider mailed a new modem/router and voila!!!! no virus. Went and ran all the anti virus programs, etc. again just to make sure computers were clean. Then spent the next few days reloading software, etc.

So the last three weeks that I have been able to get on my computer, I have been pulling my hair out and bad mouthing my computers.

So what did I learn? I learned that a virus does not necessarily have to hit your computer but can come through the modem/router. So you are not 100% protected even if you have a good anti virus/spyware/malware program.
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Re: This old dog learned something new.....

Postby Gigi » May 16th, 2014, 8:32 pm

Wow Kim - so sorry you have been through all of that. What a pain......

I have a computer guy I work with when I have issues with anything, have good antivirus and malware programs, and he says that no program protects everything and one way or another, if you are on the internet, you will get something. You can also go a long time not knowing you have something if it's a little annoying virus and not necessarily "bad or dangerous." Just relieved you didn't have to throw your computers out and start over!!
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Re: This old dog learned something new.....

Postby kim » May 17th, 2014, 1:31 pm

Thanks Gigi, so am I! I really thought this was a little thing that I could take care of but, as usual, this turned out to be something totally new to me and didn't even cross my mind that a modem or router could be the cause. I didn't want to take my computer in to the tech guy because I couldn't really do without my work computer, but then again, it wasn't doing much good sitting there collecting dust because I was too scared of the virus spreading and totally locking up my computer. That's why I played on the play computer and tried to see what would work on it. So those of you that use Adobe Flash Player, when you get an update notice, go to the Adobe site to update. DO NOT update via the pop up.......it was a good thing I didn't do that because I would have had a lot more problems. As a matter of fact, ANYTIME you get an update notice from any software, it is a good idea to go to the original manufacturer's site, i.e. Adobe, Microsoft, etc) and do the update/upgrade from there. That way you can make sure it is a legit update.
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Cutter: SB 24" and BC 24"

Re: This old dog learned something new.....

Postby Elizabeth » May 19th, 2014, 12:21 pm

Thanks for the heads up, Kim! Glad things are back to normal for you now!
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
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Re: This old dog learned something new.....

Postby kim » May 19th, 2014, 6:43 pm

I am soooo glad that I finally have everything working fine now but I can say that I NEVER even considered the problem would be a modem/router. Make sure when you get a virus (even with a antivirus software) you check your DNS setting. See if it has changed. Probably need to know what it was in the first place. Bleeping computer site is really a great site to get help and to download some useful tools to get info from your computer. I have downloaded many of the stuff from directly on that site and didn't have any loaded with any viruses/malware, etc.
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Re: This old dog learned something new.....

Postby Elizabeth » May 24th, 2014, 6:27 am

Having married the phone guy, I don't have to worry too much about the hardware at home. However, I am the "IT guy" ( :ROFLMBO: ) at work, so I will file this info away for later use.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
http://shrinkingmimsy.blogspot.com/[/url]

Totally addicted to cutting with my new 24 inch Silver Bullet!
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Re: This old dog learned something new.....

Postby kim » May 24th, 2014, 10:07 am

I didn't know what my DNS was before so didn't know it had changed, but I have made note of it now. That way the next time this happens, I will know.
Mommy to a Silver Bullet 24" , a Black Cat Cougar 24" AND a Foil Master!
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Posts: 3459
Joined: May 19th, 2011, 12:15 pm
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Cutter: SB 24" and BC 24"


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