Hi all,
First posting here despite having been a member for some time and absorbing information like a sponge.
I am Zanias hubby and we have a problem… just another one in a long long line of problems that have beset us since moving over here!
Living as we do in a small village outside of Granada we are stuck with Telefonicas rural ADSL service .
Over the last three or four weeks however, our ADSL line speed appears to have dropped to virtually zeo.
After a long and expensive phone call to T’fonicas ADSL support line, we were advised that the line is OK. The support line is a premium rate call in Spanish only and whilst the guy on the other end of the line did his level best to help us out, his conclusion that the line is OK puts us right back where we were before the call.
The best speeds we have ever got for downloads is only 56kbps, but it is now down to sub dial-up speeds, typically 9 or 10kbps
Clearly we have a problem. Could be the router I suppose but we cant prove this other than by substitution.
I have reset all the physical connections between the incoming phone socket and the computer, but this has made no difference.
I know that we have a particularly nasty virus/trojan/worm on the system and I cannot get rid of it no matter what I try in the way of adware/vius killers. We are running Norton antivirus & AVG and HIjack This; they advise the problem exists but cant kill it. It appears to be a version of the Kaspersky W32 trojan.
I dont know if this is the problem that is slowing our ADSL speed; the trojan has been on the system for nearly six months and has never caused problems with the ADSL download speed before.
If there is anyone out there who may be able to throw some light on this matter we would greatly appreciate it.
With Christmas coming up we need to be able to stay in contact with familly in the UK and need to have a serviceable system to do this with.
So, please… help!

I dont think you should be running AVG and or Norton together, this in itself can cause a problem, you need to remove or disable one of them,.
Secondly you say you are running Hijack this, does that mean you have gone to the malware removal university and got direct online assistance,
Theyare excellent and providing you are patient will clear up your system nicely, all FOC.

http://www.malwareremoval.com/

You need to carry out all their test before posting, NB be sure to read all basic advice first.

Mike, Hi and thanks for your reply.
We didnt know about the Malware university and have opened a dialog with them to try to get to the bottom of our problems.
Since Norton seemed to be causing far more problems than it was solving we have deleted it entirely and are now using AVG as our antivirus protection and AVG’s Spyware protection program.
It may be just a fluke and I suspect it is, but since deleting Norton our ADSL speed seems to have improved a little…
Looks like its going to be a case of slowly, one small step at a time to a recovery. Lets hope so.
Thanks again.

I’ve never been a fan of Norton either. It’s very heavy on memory usage and also very intrusive in your system. I also use AVG on my system, along with Spybot S&D;and have never had any problems with virus’ and malware, adware.

I always run tests on a regular basis to ensure the system is clean and free of problems.

Can’t think of what to suggest with the connection speed problems I’m afraid. It’s a shame that where you live, you’re in a vally and don’t have clear line-of-sight to the Parapanda. You would be able to get Iberbanda or CableSur broadband through a small dish then.

For those in the know more in PC matters - could the trojan that foxbat mentioned, cause remote “leeching” of bandwidth? I’ve heard of this but don’t know about it in any detail I’m afraid.

Hi, everyone and thanks for your support and suggestions.
I contacted the Malware University people and am having an ongoing dialogue with them with all kinds of very helpful suggestions forthcoming.
I have deleted Norton in favour of AVG and this made an immediate improvement; we have also got rid of some other Nasties that were floating around the system that Spybot could detect but not Kill.
Root problem seems to have been a variant of the W32 virus/trojan which is virtually impossible to kill, but I think that we have succeeded thanks to the Malware Removal people. However, whatever the cause, it has caused a few residual problems which we might just have to live with. Short of reinstalling Windows there doesnt seem to be much we can do; there is some problem existing now which means that we cannot access System Restore.
This I think is only a symptom however of something deeper in the registry.
Reinstalling Windows XP is not an option!
We have far too much on the computer to even contemplate doing backups of files.

The good news however is that our ADSL speed is back to its mediochre normal 56kbps and for the most part the overall system is back to its normal speed, albeit that sometimes it may take up to 15 minutes to boot up.

Incidentally, for those out there that are using Spybot, the latest version is Spybot S&D;1.5. and the recommendation from the Malware Uni is that wherever possible all earlier versions should be deleted and the latest version installed. The latest version can be found at ‘http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html’

Similarly ‘HiJack This has also been updated recently, again earlier version should be deleted and replaced with version 2.0.2

Just as a matter of interest, does anyone know of a computer spares shop in or around Granada?
One of the cooling fans on our machine is very noisy due to worn bearings and needs replacement. Those nice people at Time Computers, the original manufacturer of the machine in the UK, want me to replace the entire PSU at a cost nearly equal to that of the original machine!

Thanks again to all out there for your help.

kevsta - 07 January 2008 04:34 PM

i think i personally would buy a 4Gb data usb drive, back up my most important files on it, and just risk the rest and reinstall XP. ive reinstalled it quite a few times over my own, and clients computers, sometimes without backing up at all, and it works very well.

ive never any kind of problems with install or the data on the disk. as long as you have the XP disc you can reinstall from within windows itself, not the old way of boot disc and cds etc. it just writes over itself and all your settings & programs come back pretty much how they were.

suppose it depends how much you use it, as to how much your legacy problems will bother you.

I couldn’t agree more. If you’re going to torture yourself by using a Windows computer (Macs don’t get viruses) then part of that torture is a reinstall about 1-2 times a year depending on usage. That’s a fact of life and the first time is always the hardest. In the future you’ll remember to keep better backups and stuff so it won’t be so bad.

Hint: most people only keep important files in My Documents and Desktop. If I remember correctly you can find the folder called Documents and Settings which, once backed up, should get all of the My Documents and Desktop folders for all users on the system.

Ps. I’ve been a huge Mac fan for two years now since I made (what I thought would be)  the difficult switch. Never looked back except when I wanted to play a game. Now I run Windows XP on my Mac (without rebooting, check out Parallels) and have everything you could ever want from a computer for only $69. 😊

Hi i run a computing company in kent and will be moving to spain shortly.
I will outline below what I recommend doing for pcs that have or have had virus’s. 
Things to have are a full copy of whichever version of windows you have, ie home or professional and service pack 1 or 2.
You will also need a working internet connection or a means of getting programs on the system such as a friends computer and usb flash drive.
The programs I use are as follows:

AVG Free
Tuneup utilities 2007
ccleaner
superantispyware

You can find these programs on http://www.download.com or by ‘googling’ them.
These programs are ones I selected for a balance of functionality, ability and minimal after issues. Afterall if I am fixing a clients computer system I dont want to fix one problem and cause another at the same time, which I found similar alternative programs occassionally did.

If you have service pack 2 you will have a built in firewall which I believe is inbound only so not great for stopping trojans but for most people it is sufficient, especially if connecting via a router which will have a built in firewall as well.

Ok, firstly download a fresh copy of AVG as the first point of attack in my experience for virus’s etc is your security programs, it may appear that your program is functioning but downloading a new copy will eliminate this potential risk.  Uninstall all old security programs, norton and mcafee are awful and cause more problems than they fix, so even if you have paid for these remove them and use avg.  Avg is by no means the best antivirus, but with a little common sense it can be ample for most people.  It also cannot be minimised the factor or cohabiting, and I have found avg to ‘play nice’ with most other programs, whereas norton and mcafee will try and take over your system.

Once avg is reinstalled, update it and run a full system scan.

Then download and install ccleaner, you will want to run cleaner, ticking the box accepting that it will be deleting things from your computer.
This will clean up your temp files etc which is a common place for virus’s etc to hide.

Secondly download and install superantispyware, i used to use a combination of lavasofts adaware and spybot search and destroy, but found superantispyware to be very effective and I only use more than one program now if problems still exist after scanning with superantispyware.
update the program and then run a full system scan and click next when finished to remove any found spyware.

By far my most favoured program for fixing issues with peoples computers is tuneup utilities, download and install this.  Go to cleanup and repair then to tuneup registry cleaner.
This will scan the registry for erroneous entries and give you the opportunity to remove them, it even scans again after to check that by it removing entries it has not subsequently caused more problems.

Once you have done this, place your windows cd into your cd/dvd drive and go to start> run> type ‘regedit’ click ok.

The registry editor should appear, you will see five categories, root, user, local machine…
Click on the + sign to the left of ‘HKEY_lOCAL_MACHINE’ to expand the options and repeat this on the following ‘folders’
Software>
microsoft>
windows>
currentversion>
This time instead of clicking on the + click on the actual ‘folder’ called ‘setup’
The contents of which should appear in the window to the right.
You are interested in the bit next to ‘sourcepath’.
You want it to be your cd drive letter, most computers will be D:\
If it is set to c:\ check on your c:\ drive for a folder called i386, if this folder is there then close the registry editor and move on to the next bit, if not change the value by double clicking on it and type your cd drive letter, e.g. D:\

Once you have done this go to START > Run> type sfc /scannow note the space between sfc and /scannow.
This will load up a windows file protection window which will check for missing and corrupt core windows files, it is a way of repairing windows without reinstalling it thus you will not have to worry about dealing with your data.

If a window appears asking you for the windows disc make sure the correct version is in the drive and try again, I have found on occasion even with the right version that this does not always work but its certainly worth a try and can repair issues caused by virus’s.

Once you are confident your computer is clean and reliable, then you can do other tests.  Try simply unplugging your router for ten seconds and plugging it back in, most routers save the information so your settings will not be lost and it will force the router to reboot and this can often resolve problems.

There other tests that you can try beyond this, if you are still getting slow speeds reply with up to date symptoms and any extra info you can and I will try and help further…

Thanks

Jamie

only run one , avg would be the best it slow down you system and the firewalls will have problems
reset your router again and try it again

Hi avg free only covers virus’s trojans and worms etc,
the other programs and procedures i suggested covers, spyware, malware, invalid registry entries which are much more likely to be the problem on a computer system these days.

Even if you know you have had a virus, they often come with spyware and other malware in one nice package when you get a virus these days.
Avg does not affect a firewall,(assuming it is functioning correctly) if you have windows built in firewall it will run silently and not cause many problems in my experience, the router is likely to have a router built in and again this does not need much configuration for most people unless the slow speeds are related to p2p file sharing in which case you would need to configure port forwarding, (this process is different from router to router and brand to brand). Go through the router manual and follow the procedure for port forwarding if p2p file sharing is what is slow.

If it is browsing which is slow, then either the websites you are choosing to go on are busy, on a slow server or having technical difficulties themselves.  If all website including some big sites such as ebay, google and yahoo are slow then I would try resetting your router, first by turning it off for 10 seconds then back on, if this doesnt work, do a hard reset which can be done by putting a sharp object like a biro pen or pencil into the reset hole and hold it in until the light turn off on the router.  The exact procedure can be found in your router manual. N.B. only do this if you know your broadband username and password and how to input them into your router.

The simplest thing to do would be to get another pc or laptop, connect it up and test the internet, if its the same its your internet connection, in which case contact your isp. If its better then its your pc and it needs further work.

Hope this helps

Jamie

foxbat - 19 December 2007 01:28 AM

Mike, Hi and thanks for your reply.
We didnt know about the Malware university and have opened a dialog with them to try to get to the bottom of our problems.
Since Norton seemed to be causing far more problems than it was solving we have deleted it entirely and are now using AVG as our antivirus protection and AVG’s Spyware protection program.
It may be just a fluke and I suspect it is, but since deleting Norton our ADSL speed seems to have improved a little…
Looks like its going to be a case of slowly, one small step at a time to a recovery. Lets hope so.
Thanks again.

I give my one cen input.

Not sure if you comfortable with (regedit) but if you still have problems, go to “RUN” put “regedit” once there, CTRL+F put “norton” and delete only the keys “norton” once your finish try to look for “symantec” also do the same.

Most of the time this is the “culpit” of many problems.

I use “avast” I have use in the past AGV, Avast seams to work better (for me).

just a friend.