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[AstroLad]

Dell sent me a new HD. I loaded everything up and then went to Windows Update/Office Update to get things up to speed. Lo and behold minutes later I started getting bombarded with spyware; I've never had as bad of a Spybot/Adaware scan ever, and this was on a fresh HD! Not wanting to deal with the shit, I reformatted, got Symantec, turned it on and then went to Windows Update, lo and behold it "intercepted" some sort of worm. The problem is this shit is just everywhere. This thing called "Sygate.exe" keeps popping up even though I've zapped it w/ Hijackthis I don't know how many times. I've already reformatted and reloaded Windows five times today trying different things, but it just seems like the second I plug in the network cable, I'm fucked.

Any ideas?

 

[Particle Physicist]

do you have any other computers on your network?

 

[AstroLad]

It's the school's network. The other thing is that when I load up my "broken" HD, it works perfectly fine, no spyware, no worms, nothing, and I don't even have an AV program running on it and haven't run Windows Update in 6 months or Office Update probably ever, and yet it's problem-free as compared to this piece of shit I'm on right now. I'm halfway contemplating just saying fuck it, keeping my old HD (which works for now), and sending the "new" (it's a refurb) one back to Dell, though that would be too bad since it's 10GB more. :/

EDIT: Oh yay, Spybot just found the same DSO Exploit that it supposedly got rid of five minutes ago. Fucking Hell.

 

[impirius]

What exactly is the message you're getting when "sygate.exe" gets intercepted? Sygate makes computer security software; if you have Service Pack 2 installed, it may just be trying to connect to the net.

The "DSO Exploit" thing is always going to show up. Best to just ignore it.

 

[Particle Physicist]

my guess (im no real expert):: your old drive has all the windows security updates... your new drive is getting infected by the worm riding around on your schools network..

what i would do is download zonealarm or some other firewall.. burn it to a disk.. reformat drive.. and install the firewall before connecting your computer to the network.. first think you should do when you connect is to download all the security updates.

 

[Particle Physicist]

The "DSO Exploit" thing is always going to show up. Best to just ignore it.

i actually found a fix to this exploit some time ago.. let me look for the link..

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=15537


had a problem finding it cause i misspelled 'exploit'

 

[AstroLad]

Everything looks sorta okay now. But since I deleted tons of files w/ Hijackthis in a fit of rage, I'll probably have to start over again anyway. That firewall thing is a good idea, I will try that too. And if I get anything that even resembles a worm or spyware, I will throw this fucking thing out the window (it's 4 AM, I have class at 10 AM, I have to get this HD running and transfer all the stuff from my old HD b/c I need to send this back to Dell before I catch my plane at 6 PM=Perfect).

 

[aaaaa0]

Dell sent me a new HD. I loaded everything up and then went to Windows Update/Office Update to get things up to speed.

[...]

Any ideas?

First thing you do is YANK THE NETWORK CABLE from the computer.
THEN you install the hard disk.
Boot the machine WIHTOUT THE NETWORK CABLE CONNECTED.
Start installing Windows.
Wait for it to finish.
Immediately after it finishes, go to network settings and TURN ON THE BUILT-IN FIREWALL.
ONLY AFTER you turn on the built-in firewall, plug the network cable back in.
Go directly to Windows Update.
Immediately install SP2.

This should let you get a machine updated without getting infected. (Worked for me.)