Think I've been hacked

For some reason, my settings won't save, can't add sites to favorites, passwords won't save, and when opening a site in a new window, it won't load. I have to "stop" it, then refresh it to view it. I'm running XP Firewall, ZoneAlarm firewall and virus scan, I've run Ad-Aware pro and Spy-Bot, used Registry Mechanic, but no viruses are coming up. One thing that really pisses me off is a window that opens with I search, and loads a popup. I can't for the life of me find it on my puter. Anyone know what could maybe be causing all this? The windows not opening in a new window thing is the one that really pisses me off.

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

 

Running two firewalls alongside each other is asking for trouble. Are you on SP2 as well?

How long has it been since a clean format and fresh install. If that's over 6 months then I'd recommend doing just that. The only guarantee you get with windows is that it WILL be a mess within a year.

Besides those general recommendations, there's not much we can do without access to the machine. I've sold and repaired computers for years and no 2 machines are the same. My Win 2000 machine ran perfect for months and without changing anything it stopped shutting down properly and booted without loading anything.

Clean install is my #1 recommendation.

 

Couldnt it be some spyware in you registry or some dailer?

 

you may want to clean up.

You may have to start in safe mode to get rid of IE history etc.

This very often sorts it out.

M

 

You might want to download and install Spy Sweeper at http://webroot.com.

It is generally more thorough then AdAware and Spybot. Although, I recommend using all three to be safe. If you are getting a lot of porn pop-ups or porn sites added to your Favorites and/or getting browser home page hijackings, you might have the dreaded CWS spyware, which is a pain in the backside. Spy Sweeper is the only spyware removal tool I know of that will remove it. Though, with how deep CWS penetrates the reigstry, it usually take 3-4 sweeps to clean it out totally.

Spy Sweeper gives you a 30 day free trial. After that, it is $30 year, but well worth it.

 

Why are you running two firewalls at the same time, that may cause problems just like two AV programs running at the same time will?

Sounds like you need a MAC man

 

http://alpha.hackerwhacker.com has some great on line tools for testing your machine.

 

I have seen it a couple of times when AV kinda half-deleted a virus and its damaged code still tried to show empty popups. It can also be that your firewall blocks the content, but the code still runs on your machine, hence empty popups.

Find someone technical to look at your machine for you. It doesn't have to be someone nearby - you can allow other people to connect to your machine using XP's remote assistance functionality (you will need to open a port in your firewall for this to work).

J.D.

 

The one thing you need to remember when deleting any spyware is do it while being disconnected from the internet. The hard spyware to remove tends to keep updating and hiding when you delete parts of it unless you are disconnected.

 

The main thing about viruses is that your AV tool has to kill virus or virus-infected processes and *then* remove their remnants from the hard drive. If AV does its job properly, then it doesn't matter weather you are connected or not. If it doesn't do a good job, well it won't help you to stay disconnected either - there's 80+ Gigs of space for them to hide in.

The rule of thumb is to boot the machine in minimal configuration when running an antivirus (safe mode with command prompt is usually the second best; booting the machine from other media, when possible, is much better). This minimizes the number of viruses starting up (basically, it prevents the dumb ones hooked up to the Run key or in the StartUp folder from starting) and helps the AV to do its thing.

J.D.

 

Read the first post. I mean *really* read it.

 

Good call...

 

No you haven't - "cracked" maybe...

 

whatever...

 

It really sounds as though you have been hit with a drive-by downloader and browser hijacker. I say that mainly because of the popup that keeps loading. It could also be registry problems caused by over-zealous use of Registry Mechanic and/or issues with using both Windows Firewall and ZoneAlarm at the same time.

My best guess would be the dreaded CWS (CoolWebSearch) or a variant.

Check out this resource for advice on removal:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/cws/