Can someone please answer a computer question while mine is still working?

[greatauntoftriplets]

I came home sick from work yesterday about midday (throat virus) and after resting for a bit tried to turn on my computer. My internet connection had worked fine in the morning, before I went to the office, but kept freezing up on me later in the day.

Used Ad-Aware SE Personal to get rid of junk, and quite a bit of it showed up, which I quarantined and deleted. Same thing happened again, rinse, repeat. Occasionally, I would be online for less than a minute before the machine froze. Right now, I have been online for almost two hours with no problem -- except that I had to remove 260 bad files yet again before logging on.

Note: There is a possibility that the computer was used during the day by my mother's part-time caregiver who likes to read porn stuff while I was not home. Had a problem several months ago, and the person who fixed the computer got rid of some porn-related stuff she had downloaded. :eyes:

I did notice an icon on my desktop for "Java Web Start" that I had not previously notice. I access the internet via SBCIS and Mozilla Firefox. Something else I noticed -- the Java icon was visible on my taskbar during the times the computer kept freezing. Now that I am staying online, the icon is gone from the task bar.

My question: Could this Java Web Start be the source of my problem? A neighbor computer genius will come over sometime during the weekend to help, but I am still hopeful of resolving the problem on my own. Deleting all those adware and spyware files get to be a bit annoying.

thanks all!

[jokerman93]

1. Check this out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=242

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Thanks, I posted over there as well.

n/t

[Courtesy Flush]

2. It must have caught your virus

:)

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. Good one....

;)

[Sentath]

5. my favorites

Ad-Aware is good and all, but even it needs partners

http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Spybot Search & Destroy (and use this program's link to get the 'more protection from active-x' program. Its on the immunize interface)

http://www.zonelabs.com

These comprise my basic toolbox

Notes:

Always install Tea Timer when spybot asks
Always immunize
always get away from IE (and make it hard for people to find)

And if your OS can (2000 & XP) set up an Admin account or the weekly Windows Update and make everyone else limited users.

[suigeneris]

6. Yes, you need to do a good anti-virus scan.

Also, as suggested, get ZoneAlarm as a firewall. Then set the privacy tab to not run scripts or other active content.

You need, in order of importance:

1. Antivirus
2. Firewall
3. Spyware/adware killer

[patrice]

7. Some of the removers are nothing but cosmetic when it comes

to some of the adware etc. They recognize stuff and "delete" but there are self-replicating files hidden (and you can't find them even in the registry), anyhow some remover software "deletes" but the files self-replicate, so they replace themselves.

I formatted to get rid of my adware and other beasties. I am behind a soft and hardware firewall/router too. I'm also going to check out gmail.

I've heard of instances in which Norton's updates weren't recent enough apparently.

I've also heard of Geeks R' Us fixes in which they don't format the main drive, they just clean the system, which gets the self-replicators out of your system, except that about the moment you reuse an old email or use forms on the internet, you start getting germs again.

[Nite Owl]

8. Ok I'm no computer person

and maybe someone else could comment on this but could the Java file be corrupted? Maybe deleting it would help?

[greatauntoftriplets]

9. Thanks to all....

And to Nite Owl...I am also not a computer person...but I thought about deleting the damn Java file, but will wait for the computer genius whose aunt said he would visit over the weekend.