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View Full Version : Sudden computer slow down.


PPRuNe Pop
22nd Mar 2007, 10:37
Detected this about three days ago. Things like "cannot find server" was the main one, OE stopped functioning properly. Restarts would correct the problem before it went into slow mode again.

Used Housecall this morning and it detected a piece of "grayware" that looks for XP ID and product keys however many you have.

It cleared the infection and its fizzing again! :ok:

If you have similar problems I suggest you use it.

PPP

renfrew
22nd Mar 2007, 17:13
My PC has been a bit slow this week,so on seeing your message I ran Spybot which has been clear for months.
This time it found 19 items!

PPRuNe Pop
22nd Mar 2007, 18:15
Just an update to give the critter's name:

CRCK_XPPROKEY.C

Enters via the browser I understand.

Keef
24th Mar 2007, 12:45
Hmmm.

My laptop has been getting slower and slower recently. It runs AVG, and ZoneAlarm, and there's a NAT firewall on both the routers it connects to, but why not do a Housecall again...

Nope, won't work.

I had to enable Java for it, but then I get an error message from the Housecall site telling me
Warning - the HouseCall API did not define a native binding.
It asks me to say that's OK, so I do.

Nothing further happens, but there's an error message (shown by Firebug in Firefox), which tells me:
this.delegate.bindDelegate is not a function

Do I have too much security for Housecall, or do I have a nasty that's trying to keep it out?

PPRuNe Pop
24th Mar 2007, 14:13
Keefy, I found it a little irritating getting Housecall to run but after clicking on a different button here and there it worked OK. It can take quite a while to complete but it's worth it.

PPP

Keef
24th Mar 2007, 14:45
Thanks, PPP.

No way would it work with Firefox, but I enabled IE7 and that seemed happy to run it.

It's been running for half an hour now, with no messages of any kind other than that my Internet connection is very slow (it's ADSLmax and usually achieves around 5.5meg from here).

Summat's adrift, clearly. It'll be interesting to see what it comes up with after all this faffing about ;)

renfrew
6th May 2007, 17:05
Spybot had been clear for months.Now when run it picks up 10 or 12 items every time.(AVG is clear)
I only visit a very limited number of sites.Can someone explain in simple terms how these things get into the PC and what I can do to stop it happening.

Saab Dastard
6th May 2007, 17:43
The vast majority of the things that adware programs find are tracking cookies - at least this is my experience.

You can do a number of things, such as disable cookies or prompt to allow cookies in your browser.

However 1) will stop most sites from working and 2) will drive you mad.

Another approach is to block the domain on your firewall (e.g. block adbureau.net or tribalfusion.net etc.).

A similar effect can be gained by adding lines in your hosts file (that's c\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) linking the server.domain name to the loopback address of your own PC.

However, this is limited to specific servers, rather than entire domains, so is much more tedious to populate - and maintain.

Another approach is to kill the cookies as they arrive, or on startup / shutdown with an adware program - though frequently you actually have to pay for this functionality.

SD

BOAC
7th May 2007, 08:09
Re 'Housecall' - the 'slow connection warning' now appears to be a regular event. I also often need to kick-start the process a few times. They have obviously changed something since a few years back it used to run faultlessly.