xp internet security 2011

yungman

My computer is taking over by the XP Internet Security 2011. I cannot get onto the web. I have Mcafee internet, firewall and virus protection and it does not detect anything. WHat is this? Is this a spyware? What do I have to do to remove it or fix it. What do I have to watch out?


Anyone use 2-Spyware.com?
THanks

Alan

JaredJames

It sounds like a virus.

A quick Google confirms this and provides instructions for removal.

KrisOhn

That's your problem.

From whatever computer you used to post this do what JnJ said and google it.

FtlIsAwesome

I had the same virus, with a different name. It seems to come in many different names and appearances.
The virus would run at random times and terminate the Microsoft antivirus, task manager, and other programs whenever I tried to run them.
We used a program called ComboFix to remove it. After running, ComboFix quarantined the virus to C:\Qoobox.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/po...n32%2fFakeRean
XP Security 2011 is in the list of names the trojan takes on.

yungman

Thanks for the replies. Can someone give me a link to a free clean up program.


BTW, what's wrong with McAfee? should I change to another provider?

KrisOhn

Sorry, but I have a very strong dislike of McAfee. I used it for about 6 months.

At the beginning, everything worked great, it did it's daily scans, didn't find anything; I thought all was well.

About 3 months into using it, it developed a strange glitch. Every time I opened the window, all that would show would be a white box with the Windows GUI overlay. Even when I right clicked the task tray icon, it would just show a white box. I spent a couple days on the problem and a couple hours with customer support but to no avail the problem persisted. Even if I had been able to fix the problem the damage was done.

From there I went to AVG, when I ran the first scan, it flagged some suspicious files McAfee hadn't noticed and got rid of them accordingly.

To sum it up, even when McAfee is working, it really isn't working and when it isn't working, it's not working for good.

Yes, I suggest Microsoft Security Essentials. It comes free with a legitimate Windows installation (even if it's not legit I know there are ways around it ). It is not too extreme, but will find the files if they are there and it works well in the background.

A lot of people will say that since it is made by Microsoft it is the first thing that hackers target since it is going to cover such a large user base. While I do admit that this idea is valid, I don't think it should be a cause for concern. Any virus that can get through MSE is going to get through all the other mainstream providers and as long as you keep your wits about you when using the internet (read: don't try to open up an exe file when you downloaded a movie [people complain about that lots]) you should be fine.

JaredJames

I'll second that.

AVG is the best free one I've come across.

Everytime I've seen McAfee so far it's been on a computer with a virus - and McAfee has been taken over and reporting all is fine!

yungman

Thanks guys

I guess I am going to go away from McAfee!!!

yungman

Yes the MS Security Essential seems to do the job. I am using the infected computer to do this right now. Thanks Krisohn. You are of big help.

FtlIsAwesome

When I tried that, it didn't work. I thought it did, but the virus simply hid and came back later. The virus is already in your system, so it may not work. I scanned my computer and found nothing, but it was still there.
Whenever the virus would run, it would terminate MSE. In the history for MSE was three or four instances where MSE detected the virus, but the virus prevented MSE from stopping it.

On your computer, if MSE shows up "no viruses detected" then it's not working.
If MSE detects the virus and removes it, then it's working.

jhae2.718

My preferred malware removal technique is:

JaredJames

Mine is to build on that technique by following the command with a Linux installation.

yungman

So what should I look out for?

Should I just recover the computer with the recovery disk came with it?

KrisOhn

That is ideal, but not necessary if you don't want to.

A manual removal of any virus is harder than a virus scanner doing it, but if the virus scanner doesn't detect it, it is possible.

FtlIsAwesome

Well, reinstalling the OS would work, if you don't backup your stuff and put it on the new installation. We were about to do that, and I started copying the My Documents folder and other stuff.
We found ComboFix, removed the virus, and abandoned the fresh-os-install idea.
I found out later that the virus exe had been in the My Documents folder, so if we had continued the new installation and put the backed-up stuff on it it probably would have the same problem. The virus has its files in multiple locations.

Here is one place to download ComboFix:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/down...virus/combofix
You may want to do some Googling to read up on it.

Various sites say that it wasn't intended for "the average user", but how I remember it we put it on a USB drive, plugged it into my infected computer, ran ComboFix.exe and *poof* FakeRean gone.

Note that the person helping me told me "don't do anything" after double-clicking on ComboFix.exe. So I recommend to not click, press buttons, or anything while its running, or it might mess up. But I don't really know.

jhae2.718

I as well.

yungman

It did say it found the trojan virus and removed it.