Adware

[Brain Spout]

allright i decided to do a system scan and found three possible threats all of them adware. this doesnt surprise me sicne ive downloaded a good deal of free software and free games and etc. the fact that i only have three is the real surprise but i try to do the best in terms of not getting stuff on my computer. anyway the three are the following:

Aphex.exe this came with gamespy arcade apparently and is in that directory. my question is can i just delete this and be done?

ArcRes.dll this came with gamespy arcade as well... this one im unsure about since in an old computer whenever i found a threat i think it was jsut deleted and now i get errors like thisfile.dll not found! so im not sure if i should delete this. its also in the gamespy arcade folder

AltBrowser.exe this one is adware.ezula not sure if i should just delete it as well

all advice is welcome thankyou!

 

[Zickddot]

never delete a dll lol

 

[Jung]

Aphex.exe this came with gamespy arcade apparently and is in that directory. my question is can i just delete this and be done?

ArcRes.dll this came with gamespy arcade as well... this one im unsure about since in an old computer whenever i found a threat i think it was jsut deleted and now i get errors like thisfile.dll not found! so im not sure if i should delete this. its also in the gamespy arcade folder

If it came with Gamespy, it's probably ok. I don't pick up anything from scanning though and I use Gamespy. Have you updated your definitions? You could also see what SPybot or Microsoft anti-spyware say it is before you delete it.

AltBrowser.exe this one is adware.ezula not sure if i should just delete it as well

all advice is welcome thankyou!

I'm not sure about that one, try Googling it. Whatever the case though, don't delete it though, let Spybot or Adware remove it safely.

never delete a dll lol

Why not? Some DLLs are harmful, would you just leave them there? That's just bad advice. However, you should be sure that the DLL in question is actually malicious before you go deleting it.

 

[Brain Spout]

thats what i thought, which is why i didnt delete it. but should i delete the other files? why/why not. im not really sure how much of an issue these are in terms of computer performance/security

edit:
the .dll file and the first adware program were both found under the gamespy arcade directory: c:\programfiles\gamespyarcade\... not sure if that is the actual directory but you get the idea. the last one was in a stranger place and i remember that one of the folders was peoplepc, which i dont even use

 

[Jung]

but should i delete the other files? why/why not. im not really sure how much of an issue these are in terms of computer performance/security

Try what I suggested and Goolge AltBrowser.exe. That should help you figure out if it's malicious or not.

 

[Brain Spout]

http://www.auditmypc.com/process/diwaller.asp
here is really good definition, form what ive read this sounds really bad and good thing i found it. i think i got it recently since i just noticed problems with my PCs performance today which is y i ran virus checks and such and found this problem (my last virus check since today was 3/25) now i need to download some sort of spyware remover, any suggestions?

 

[Jung]

now i need to download some sort of spyware remover, any suggestions?

You already said you were running AdAware, right? Won't that remove it?

Aside from that, you could try the two I already listed in this thread. Those being Spybot S&D and Microsoft Anti-Spyware. Another good program for blocking malware is Spyware Blaster. Just Google for the links to those files.

Also, if you're using Internet Explorer, that's probably a main reason you're getting malware. You should look into getting a more secure browser, such as Firefox or Opera.



P.S. I wouldn't download anything off that site you posted.

 

[Brain Spout]

ill try firefox, i tried it earlier but was having some problems. im using norton antivirus, came with the computer. ive downloaded some other spyware things and am trying to get rid of the altbrowser. i unistalled gamespy and deleted the directory which should get rid of the other two things. thanks for all the advice

edit: ive tried the following three apps
ad-aware - seams very efficent sicne it scanned my system very quickly. however it didnt find altbrowser (not sure if it somehow got removed htough). also it claimed all my cookies made with IE are critical files.

adware - very very slow scan time. so slow its still scanning now and i started it at like 3 in the morning. its like 11 now.

norton antivirus - previously the only program ive used. gotten me along allright found these three. scan time is about int he middle. its not fast, but it isnt slow. i like the options and ill ocntinue to use it for the firewall. it found altbrowser on the most recent try.

firefox - got that working

ill probably keep norton and ad-aware and use them together. this thread alone has drastically improved the security on my computer and will probably save me later on thanks

i decided to do a little more research on altbrowser first i went to the ezula site(ezula is the company that supposed made the adware)
www.ezula.com
its definitely adware since on the site ezula says quote:
"the solution for online advertisers matches consumers ads at the moment they express interest in a product or service anywhere on the web..."
there were plugins you had to download to view most of the site, but considering their record with me i decided against that.

also on
http://www.runrev.com/section/press/29.php
they talk about altbrowser, but by a different company, im not sure it if does the same thing. it probably does since if they use the same name it probably has similar functions it says quote:
altBrowser by Altuit is a powerful new plug-in which lets developers access web based technologies within any Revolution or Dreamcard application. altBrowser extends the Revolution feature set, for example developers can add HTML based help systems, the ability to render Flash(tm) animations, create desktop Internet applications and much more. altBrowser is multi-platform and uses the Safari rendering engine on Mac OS X and the Internet Explorer engine on Windows.
altBrowser includes the ability to:

* Navigate 'back', 'next' history
* Refresh current URL
* Show and hide the browser
* Intercept clicks from the browser
* Set the html URL for the browser (including local files)
* Get the htmlText from the browser
* Handle before navigate callbacks
* Handle successful navigation callbacks
* PDF document rendering on Windows
* plus many more

thats all i got, im going to try posting on a computer forum to see if anyone knows anything else, bye

 

[jamesp]

never delete a dll lol

wrongo, dynamic link liraries can be the root of all evil on your computer. malicious dll's can call into use a whole plethora of other dlls that will bog your computer down horribly! and always delete ezula crap, its a pain in in the ass.