Jim Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) One issue you will have is all these anti virus/malware programs will interfere with each other, disable each one before running the other. If they don't work, try using Avast. It does more indepth things than some of the other free ones.Worst case just uninstall it. I used it on 2 laptops that were almost non existent when trying to get online. Once I ran it on them they perked back up to life. Removed over 40 hidden viruses the others didn't catch and now runs as new. I use the one as my music server now, and the other is for my son to use. Saved me several hundred $$$$ by using Avast.It's also excellent on phones and pads. It worked so well I upgraded it for the yearly agreement and it does 3 computers for the licensing for the timeframe you get it for. There's also a "grime fighter" with it where it does things the others don't do,it runs anti virus/malware, cleans up the hard drive, emails, start up files, and a bunch of other things. Edited January 23, 2015 by Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Thanks Jim, I'm with you. I've been un-installing as each program fails to find the problem. I've used AVG for years, but I'll take it out and try Avast if I continue to fail on these others. I was just going through my Windows Services and Processes to try to find something not right. No luck so far. I think I'm going to try a restart into Safe Mode and see if the problem is there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 You don't need to uninstall them, just disable them for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 It sounds very familiar with what I had as an issue. If you go into a search engine and punch in pup.optional it will give you a play by play way to search for the issue and remove it yourself. It will also show you a company that will do the work for you and guarantees the work. I used them for the issue as you have to check the issue,remove it one by one, restart,and then do it again and again for each issue you find. Having them do it for me was worth it in the long run and cost less than $50.00 with a guarantee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Google just bombed out in Windows Safe Mode, then Firefox. +++ And Jim, I think I did update some programs recently. I know I did Win 7 updates (I do those manually, and pick what I choose) and I think I upgrade my Firefox into v35. The problem with that, is that IE Explorer has the same problem. I think Spy Bot is up next. Edited January 23, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) I have nothing to offer except hope that you find the problem soon -- it must be very frustrating. i’m tech-stupid -- i’d be lost. Edited January 23, 2015 by BigStewMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Dave, open the command prompt and see if you can ping www.google.com. That can help diagnose DNS and host file problems. You can change your DNS directly to 8.8.8.8 and see what happens. It's google's public DNS server. You can download a custom host file that also blocks a ton of crap at http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm. In CC, there is a place to look at startup stuff. The place I find the most crap hidden is in the scheduled events tab. Also, have you tried installing google chrome? -> used direct IP link in case your DNS stuff is blocking. Edited January 23, 2015 by mustang guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Does anybody know ssL.gstatic.com? It seems to want information when I access Klipsch.com. +++ Mustang Guy: I'll try your suggestions, thanks. -Dave Edited January 23, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Dave, open the command prompt and see if you can ping www.google.com. That can help diagnose DNS and host file problems. You can change your DNS directly to 8.8.8.8 and see what happens. It's google's public DNS server. You can download a custom host file that also blocks a ton of crap at http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm. In CC, there is a place to look at startup stuff. The place I find the most crap hidden is in the scheduled events tab. Also, have you tried installing google chrome? -> used direct IP link in case your DNS stuff is blocking. Mustang guy, If he uses Avast, it will do everything you are also stating on checking for other areas where things are hidden and it's all in one program. My issues were also in the scheduled events stuff and this is what the pup.optional thing attacks. It will continue to tell you that you need to update Chrome, Google, Adobe, Java, and stuff like that. You do it because it's already encoded in those programs and it makes the issue worse. You definitely have a leg up on me though with computers as I wouldn't know what to check from what you just posted, but his issue sounds identical to the one I had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) I hate to disagree, but it won't do the things I mentioned. Ping google, change the DNS server to 8.8.8.8, check the scheduled tasks tab in CCleaner or install google chrome. I use Avast on a couple computers. It's good. So is AVG and Panda, etc. Malwarebytes is a good tool and so is good. HiJackThis is a nice tool that can report so people like us can see all the processes. Try the things I mentioned in my early post Dave, let me know the results. PS: The path to your HOSTS file is in regedit path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DataBasePath Edit that file and see what's in it. Should have some localhost stuff and 127... etc Edited January 23, 2015 by mustang guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Dave, That's exactly how it works,it attacks everything you go on with browsing and installed programs. Does anybody know ssi.gstatic.com? It seems to want information when I access Klipsch.com. +++ Mustang Guy: I'll try your suggestions, thanks. -Dave Google has off-loaded static content (JavaScript code, images and CSS) to a different domain name in an effort to reduce bandwidth usage and increase network performance for the end user. As per look up for what it does through Google. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I didn't mean Avast would ping, but it should do what CC does within it's programming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Update: (all failures) I have removed all the old anti-virus programs Avast is the only one now, and has not been successful, using full computer scan, quick scan, and start-up scan. It is re-scanning the computer as we speak, takes a couple of hours for the whole computer. I did Ping google.com via the Command Prompt, it timed out immediately. I have not changed the DNS to 8.8.8.8 yet I ran CC Cleaner, and it cleaned up some files in the Registry, but no changes to my problem. I will do some more work with it later. I uploaded a fresh version of Chrome, and it bombs out trying to go to Google Search home page as well. I used Win 7 Restore, but my choices only went back about a month, and restoring to Jan 28, 2014 did not change anything. If anything my problem is now worse, because now Klipsch.com is slowing down looking for a google file. Craig: I will try a couple more of your suggestions, I just have to wait for one task to get done before trying the next. If I knew the exact name of the virus file I don't mind going through the Registry manually to delete things. I've done that before. FYI I am pretty handy with computers and this stuff doesn't frustrate me usually, but this particular problem is nasty and is kicking my butt so far. Edited January 23, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I feel for ya brother. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Install Adblock onto Chrome. That will stop the timeout issue with Google. Change the DNS server to 8.8.8.8 as soon as possible. Frankly, that should solve the problem by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 (edited) Avast is being very thorough going through my 1gb D drive, about 3 hours now and only 30% done. My C drive is a 250gb Samsung Evo SSD, and it flies going through that! After it finishes I'm going to try the Hosts file Craig referred to above in Post #27. That has a ring of "solution" to me. +++ Edit: Sorry Craig, my post "passed" yours while I was typing. I'll let Avast finish and then try resetting the DNS Server, as you suggested. OR... would it be OK to Pause the scan, and try the DNS Server suggestion now? -Dave EDIT to the Edit: Hmmm. I just noticed the Google problem is now resolved, but I don't think anything has changed with the anti-virus programs. Google now loads instantly, all browsers, and I can see Google is being re-directed as I go to both AVS and Klipsch sites and steals whatever information they want instantly. I want to do some more testing, but I think I'm cured. If I am, the bad part is, I'm not sure why. I can see Avast is still running and has taken out 8 infected files. Maybe that's it. Edited January 24, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avguytx Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Adwcleaner is one I use in our school district too. I haven't seen that mentioned but you might give it a try. Also run TDDSkiller and let it scan for a root virus. Was this using Chrome or IE? Uninstall Chrome and delete entries from the registry if you're comfortable with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 (edited) Thanks, AVG. My first browser is Firefox, my backup is IE 11. I loaded Chrome AFTER all this was going on, and it bombed out immediately as well. Now, everything works. I think all the programs I used helped, and that CC Cleaner was a good one. I'd like to think Avast was the final program that helped, but I ran it a couple of times and it didn't fix the problem, but now it's on its fourth major scan, still found 8 infected files, and the problem appears to be in remission. FYI: I just ping'd www.google.com, it took 44 ms. Edited January 24, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Lot more patience than I would've had. I commend you on that. I would have called the company I did a lot sooner than you have been working on things. With the Avast and your comments, it sounds exactly and I can't say it enough exactly like the issue I had. Avast will continue to find something, as it (the infection) jumps from one thing to another while your computer is on infecting other programs and files. Just make sure when you run the program you manually remove the infection without having the file auto removed, then run it again, and so on and so forth. Otherwise it keeps coming back. It was explained to me that the infection doesn't have a remedy automatically through these antivirus programs yet as it keeps changing before they can get it due to it being so new. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 It sounds as though you were infected with a virus then. Probably a worm which Malwarebytes would have stopped had it been installed before the infection. AVG free has trouble detecting worms in my experience. Either the DNS queries for the google domain were being blocked, or the actual internet stream was being filtered. Either way, there was something parsing the TCP stack, which means it could have been snooping to say the least. You should consider changing all your online passwords, and possibly having new credit cards sent to you. I would if I were you. If there is a file you download which you want to check for malware, after downloading the file, check it at Metascan online before you execute it. Having Malwarebytes anti-malware also running will intercept worms or trojans which a simple scan may miss by scanning while the program executes. One more thing. Keep your Java up to date. I discovered that most Java updates are to fix vulnerabilities. The same is true with many Windows updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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