Network Adapter Mystery

[gbrown]

Ah, the joys of being "Geek on Call" to my neighbor :D or should I emote :eek: ?

His kid and a friend downloaded some stuff that I think fried a bunch of things. The integrated network adapter keeps installing itself in a group in the device manager called "unknown" rather than "network adapters". I've tried everything, but I've now fallen back on the "the heck with it...do a Window's repair install". My thought is that something that the kids installed tried to hijaak the adapter and put some of its own stuff in.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Network Neigborhood Geek!

[Corey]

Bummer. Poor kids, what a welcome to the internet... :o

[gbrown]

The Windows reload did the trick. Dave (my neighbor) rolled down his car window and yelled at me this morning while I was walking the dog: "It worked!!! Everythings back!!!" So, I'll pop over there tonight and make sure all the connections, protections, and stuff are where they are supposed to be.

Oh, and "the kid" I mentioned is 22, and what they downloaded was control software for an on-line gambling site. They get No Sympathy from me! Geez... I can't even imagine what nasty payloads were hidden in that software.

[Intrigued]

The Windows reload did the trick. Dave (my neighbor) rolled down his car window and yelled at me this morning while I was walking the dog: "It worked!!! Everythings back!!!" So, I'll pop over there tonight and make sure all the connections, protections, and stuff are where they are supposed to be.

Oh, and "the kid" I mentioned is 22, and what they downloaded was control software for an on-line gambling site. They get No Sympathy from me! Geez... I can't even imagine what nasty payloads were hidden in that software.
It would not hurt to load up and update:

Ad-Aware
Spy-Bot

!

[Worm]

Take PC Magazine's reviews for what you will, but neither of those spyware tools did very well in their testing.

Try MS's spyware tool, I've found it to be rather nice. Best of all, it will remove the dreaded Wintools without the help of HiJackThis.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

[Intrigued]

Take PC Magazine's reviews for what you will, but neither of those spyware tools did very well in their testing.

Try MS's spyware tool, I've found it to be rather nice. Best of all, it will remove the dreaded Wintools without the help of HiJackThis.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
I have been using both of them (and my diagnostic CD is in a machine now) for years and what I find is that each alone is not enough. But, when I combine those two with SpySweeper and follow other pre-scan list of activities... I get the job done 99% of the time, to date.

But, new products arrive on the scene all the time. Something is bound to work better sooner or later.

As far as the MS Spytool... it's from a company that was bought out recently by M.S. and it's product was not all that good to start with.

But, the more the better (if you have the time to scan with all of them). As long as you are not having them stay resident in memory as say SpySweeper does. Run them updated and in a standalone format is what I find works best for a on-the-spot scan scenerio.

:yes

[Worm]

Yep Little Giant I believe it was, or something like that. Anyhow, I agree. I've run spyware tool after spyware tool, some catch things others don't. Personally between, Spy-Bot, BHO Demon, HiJackThis, and an Avast Anitivirus boot scan, I've been able to knock down about anything that was ailing a PC.

[Intrigued]

Yep Little Giant I believe it was, or something like that. Anyhow, I agree. I've run spyware tool after spyware tool, some catch things others don't. Personally between, Spy-Bot, BHO Demon, HiJackThis, and an Avast Anitivirus boot scan, I've been able to knock down about anything that was ailing a PC.
SpySweeper allows for a 30-day trial, with full functionality and updates! It cover just shy of 70,000 defs. as of yesterday.

Then when you uninstall from a machine, FIRST, Select All in the quarantined dialog and delete them. Then do the uninstall. Or, buy the application, or your client buy such.

;)

[Worm]

Spy Sweeper is a nice tool, although for some reason on my notebook it always ends up getting corupt, and I have to reinstall. That parts getting a littl old.

[Intrigued]

Spy Sweeper is a nice tool, although for some reason on my notebook it always ends up getting corupt, and I have to reinstall. That parts getting a littl old.
I would shoot the error msg. over to them at Webroot. I did once and got right on it and it was fixed pretty quick. Or, do you not get an error message of sorts?

[Worm]

I do get an error message. Can't remember the exact verbage, but in essence it tells me that critical files have become corrupt and to re-install.

I can't gaurantee it's not a hardware issue, but it's the only app I seem to have problems with.

[Intrigued]

That stink'ems.

:huh