welo

bump!

I know it's a specific question but is there not one Thaivisa Member out there who is freak enough to put a computer in his car!?

I mean, c'mon guys, look at this! Doesn't that look pretty slick! (my car is older though and there is only room for a 7" display).

Thanks Welo, thats right, the problem is with sites outside Thailand. [...]

My post was actually directed at ignis since I suspected that his speed tests are run against a server in South East Asia, which of course is a completely different story...

About your other comments. I personally deal with connection problems this way: I troubleshoot whether my domestic connection is OK (speedtest to Bangkok server), if not, I will call the local TOT office (unfortunately my provider) and complain, otherwise, if 'just' the international bandwith is rubbish, I will yell out loud at the spot and complain about said company in a very inpolite way (usually my wife has to listen to that)... and leave it by that.

You might complain with your provider, maybe it will change something in the long run if enough people do that, but for me I doubt that. I still have the hope that the internet connection in Thailand will improve in the future, but I doubt that customer complaints will be the driving point behind that.

Btw do you have Maxnet Indy or Premier package?

welo

Next time get the e-visa http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx?PortDir=Asc it's still $25 but it doesn't use up a page in your passport (in itself worth the $5 extra 'processing fee') and you can apply in the comfort of your own home

I am usually an advocate for the Cambodian eVisa, mainly because it saves you a page in the passport. But the Cambodia eVisa website has unfortunately been under repeated attacks and has successfully been hacked at least two times recently. The first time was about a month ago when I visited the website myself, the last time was 3 weeks ago according to Google's 'Safe Browsing' service, check out the report here. If you visit the website with Firefox you will be presented a big red warning message.

Of the 36 pages that we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 3 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time that Google visited this site was on 2009-08-27, and the last time that suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-08-08.

Side note: The issued visa is actually not fake and quite a few TV members have used the service in the past weeks. The billing process is actually run on a different server by another company that is specialised on online payment - don't know about their reputation though.

The attack seems to aim at installing malicious software at the client's computer (trojans, viruses, etc).

So I would recommend the e-Visa only for experienced users and those who don't need to play it too safe.

Checkout the discussion from a month ago here and here.

welo

Just ran another test back up again

Last Result:

Download Speed: 2957 kbps (369.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 430 kbps (53.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

TEST TIME:: Sunday August 30, 2009, 06:46 AM

Against which server do you run your tests? You should test the speed to Europe or the US since the mentioned websites (BBC, Youtube) are hosted there.

welo

Ok I'll give it a go...I thought I understood that if it does reboot that, that pointed to a virus and not a driver problem, but based on what is happening and what you've pointed out so far it sure seems to point towards a driver which is sensible, logical and what I suspected all along but thought I deleted it maybe it wasn't thorough though..

It's more like: if it does NOT reboot after shutdown from safe mode, it points to a driver problem - if it reboots even then we learn nothing (but it still can be a driver issue, or a virus, or ...).

I see it like that: Safe Mode does load only essential drivers and services, so if the faulty driver is not loaded Windows should not crash when shutting down, hence not triggering the automatic restart.

But this all applies only in the case when the reboot is triggered because of a crash during shutdown. I later found the hint with disabling the automatic restart on a system error, and this should be the better way to check if the reboot is actually triggered by Windows because of a crash during shutdown. Please try disabling this feature as described here. You then should see if the shutdown fails by seeing an error message, this would appear just at the point where before your computer would trigger the restart, which should then of course no longer happen.

About removing the faulty driver: a hardware driver is usually placed in the Windows systems folders during installation. Any files located under 'Program Files' or anywhere else are usually just additional tools. So if the uninstaller does not clean up the drivers properly it is often not so easy to find the files and remove them. Again, this is why System Restore is really handy in such cases.

What steps did you actually do to remove the driver/program?

I was hoping that attempting to run in Safe mode was the problem with not being able to run the NOD32 as that's how I understand safe mode to operate but so many people suggested running it that way I thought it was just me... I didn't have NOD32 either until this happened and I've been trying anything and everything..

NOD32 has a really good reputation, excellent detection rates, good UI and does have a good history of smooth integration with Windows. I just don't use it because there is free antivirus software which is good enough for me (Avira or Avast). But I did come across it on other computers.

Switching antivirus installations sometimes brings troubles because this kind of software has to hook deep into the system, and sometimes this just doesn't work as it should for various reasons (e.g. the previous antivirus software did not uninstall cleanly, conflicting software, etc).

If you were happy with Avast I encourage you to switch back. The System Restore should do the trick, in a very clean way. I would prefer System Restore to a uninstall/reinstall especially now that maybe sometimes is already unstable since NOD32 seems not to fully startup (you mentioned something about the firewall).

The only disadvantage of System Restore is that it will undo all the changes done to the system (note: NOT the data such as documents, mp3s, pictures..). This means all the programs, drivers, Windows updates that were installed in the meantime will be undone. But in your case this is actually a benefit

I didn't use System Restore myself too many times because I was always suspicious that it would mess up my system, but when I did, it actually always worked as expected and it is just so perfect for a situation like this (a antivirus installation that went wrong). It could take you hours to fix, downloading special uninstaller software etc etc.

So I would recommend to

1. Try to disable the auto-restart on error feature in Windows (see link above)

2. If NOD32 doesn't work properly in normal mode, revert back to Avast via System Restore

Hopefully not too much, I am a diagnostician in another trade and it's always good not to make wholesale changes as once you've actually corrected the problem it's easy to loose track of where you've been and what solved the problem causing you to run in circles chasing your own tail..

Exactly!

Good Luck!

welo

Can't run NOD 32 from safe mode.. I get this message...... "ESET Smart Security- Shell Extension Error" "Communication with Eset Smart Security Kernel failed!"

Sorry, didn't see your message this afternoon on your safe mode troubles.

Google says

Safe Mode will only load a minimal set of services and drivers on your sytem, as it is a diagnostic mode for Windows. The NOD32 Kernel Service does not start in safe mode, so the Control Center will not launch while you are in there. The On-Demand Scaner (nod32.exe) will run in Safe Mode and can perform a full scan and clean while in safe-mode.

I don't have NOD32 and cannot give you more detailed instructions on this. The additional virus scan is not that important though. Rather go with my post from this afternoon, disable the auto-reboot and try to find whether there is any error message.

welo

Plan has changed (as usual), and I'm back online, hurray!

Have NOD32 scan in safe mode, just to make sure. It should have current virus updates though (a couple of days outdated is OK).

I googled more and found a website dedicated to Windows shutdown problems, this is Windows XP though. Some of the reasons/solutions mentioned here might apply to Vista too.

Eventually the 'automatic' restart may be a result of an error during shutdown, often caused by an outdated hardware driver (does this ring a bell?)

because, by default, XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot.

Windows displays this error message only for a very brief moment. It might not even be seen at all, e.g. if your monitor switches resolutions.

In XP you can disable the automatic reboot which will make it possible for you to see an eventual error message.

Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab. Under “Startup & Recovery,” click Settings. Under “System Failure,” uncheck the box in front of “Automatically restart.”

Just checked and found a tutorial for doing this in Vista:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvista...estartvista.htm

I would check this out before anything else now (keep the virus scan for tonight). Hopefully we get to see some error message!

welo

mimo 720s usb touchscreen display.

Thx namoo, looks like a nifty device. Do you know a place in Bangkok that sells these screens?

In the car computer scene Xenarc and Lilliput are well-known brands, but I couldn't find those or similiar ones (like the one you pointed out) in Panthip Plaza.

Of course I can always order online, but I was hoping not having to do that, and maybe even finding some no-name screens from China

welo

And one more thing

I heard some people talk not too nice about AVG recently. I don't want to start another antivirus software discussion here, however, it is always a good idea to check with a second antivirus software if you experience problems and suspect a virus might be involved. No antivirus software has a 100% detection rate!

You can go with a bootable Rescue CD or any online scan (NOD32, Kaspersky, and others). I would not recommend to do a program install of another antivirus software, this will most probably cause conflicts with AVG!!

The reason why I would not rule out a virus in your case is, that a trojan might try to hide its attempt to connect to the internet by waiting for another program to open a connection and then get active. This is just speculation and I would not get too paranoid about it, but it's also worth a try. Just have the scan start before you go to bed, it might take a couple of hours..

welo

AVG Update will use HTTP or FTP requests to download the virus definition updates, so it sounds reasonable that the router does not only crash when using the web browser but with any program opening a http connection. Just tells us that the problem is not directly related to the web browser (which I ruled out before anyway since you experience the same kind of problems no matter whether you use Firefox or IE).

During the session when AVG crashed the router, did you have any program access the internet before that?

I further conclude now that the problem is not triggered by anything specific during the OS startup such as obtaining a IP address via DHCP.

Does the Windows Messenger automatically sign-in on startup? When you noticed the router crash, did Windows Messenger already sign in successfully?

And still my question, how sure are you that only your son's computer crashes the router. Maybe this is just the computer that is used most often? If the crash happens with other computers too, we have to target the router to solve the issue. If it really only happens with the Vista PC, we should keep targeting the PC. However, the router deserves some attention in either situation, since it just shouldn't crash

I assume you already checked the cable and the port as lopburi pointed out.

You could also check whether there is an updated driver for your network card.

With crashing routers it is always a good point to check for a firmware upgrade. But be careful, it seems that your model will lose all the settings and you will have to re-enter also some of the more technical values (VPI/VPC), so this is something for experienced users only. Nevertheless this would be one of my first steps now!

And always remember that after a firmware upgrade, and after you reboot the router, you ALSO need to do a factory default - which reboots again - then setup router again from scratch - do not load a saved config!!

source: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-repli...cfm/352875.html

And a general thing with computer hardware in Thailand, check that your router does not run (extremely) hot, if it is packed in some shelf give it some air to breath...

welo

OK, I see we have to slow down a bit not to make things worse

Did you figure out how to run System Restore? From a previous message I understand you followed lopburi's advise and 'rolled back' to a previous date. If you go back to a date before this driver was installed, this should eliminate any program and driver installed since this date. Of course a virus would try to find ways around that and probably stay on your computer even after that.

System Restore is a powerful tool that can help you a lot if things went wrong. Make sure you understand this tool and you use it.

E.g. if something went wrong with your ESET installation you can easily 'roll back' your system to the state before uninstalling AVAST and installing NOD32. Your computer would just look like you never even tried to change anything there

Unfortunetaly I am offline now until evening, so you will need some patience...

welo

Hi guys!

I plan to build a car PC ('carputer') to run GPS navigation, video/audio/dvd etc, internet, etc. I am NOT talking about ready-made multimedia systems but a full-blown Windows based computer (check out mp3car.com if you still don't know what I'm talking about).

Does anybody know a store that sells 7" or 8" Touch Screens with VGA-in. The ready-made world-tech systems are pretty kewl but have only video-in not vga-in. Today I've been looking for 2 hrs in Panthip and found only one shop that sold one model of 12" touch screens, looked like a model for shop cashier systems. Eeeeh!

welo

He goes to ANY website --> problem, but only occasionally and not always with same website!

He has no torrent start-ups but I guess he should have a look at his msconfig start-up to see what he can eliminate. The problem could be there.

Well, that is interesting! However, the question is not only when the problem becomes visible to you/your son, but when the router actually locks up. Could you ever pin down the exact point when the router locked up? Meaning, did somebody ever use another PC and the internet and then your son turned on the computer and the router froze?

I know I am picky, but it will help finding a solution. If you keep restarting your son's computer several times, can you 'make' the router freeze sooner or later? Like I said before, reproducing the problem is the first step to its solution...

I guess another question is also how much the lockup actually annoys you. From what we see now it will take quite some observation work and trial and error to find a solution

welo

What about Eset? I ran it in normal mode without results would it be wise to give it a try again and run it in safe mode? or is that just wasting time or additional steps for nothing, or is it virtually the same thing?..

Hm, I honestly don't know. However, why not give it a try and start the scan in Safe Mode before you go to sleep. No time wasted

I recommended the Rescue CD so you can scan with a second antivirus software without needing to install it on your system, maybe (or probably) causing conflicts with your NOD32 installation. Besides there is several other advantages as I pointed out. Again, just start the scan before you go to sleep...

I also noticed that not only does it reboot after shut down, it also does not restart after I put it into sleep mode, it requires a shut down and reboot it seems to want to avoid anything that suspends it's activity..

I just want to remind you that there is two possible 'main reasons' for your problem, a virus infection or a hardware driver issue. The trick with booting into safe mode and then shutting down to see whether the restart still occurs, is to check whether an invalid/incompatible/faulty driver might cause your troubles. So nothing to do with running the antivirus software from Safe Mode (just want to make sure to avoid confusion).

Did you try to do that? Do you know how to boot into Safe Mode? (F8 before Windows Logo Screen comes up). What is the result?

My experience with Standby and Hibernation mode is that often Hardware drivers do not properly support either of these sleep modes and either prevent the system of entering the sleep mode (usually followed by a more or less meaningful windows warning stating exactly that), or might also prevent the system from 'waking up' again.

I personally consider a hardware driver issue more likely from what you tell me, but just because I didn't encounter any virus in the past that would affect a system in that way. I've been also reading about some pretty nasty viruses just recently on the board, so this is why I would go with one or two more antivirus scans just to be more confident on ruling that out.

welo

Here some links to download Rescue CDs.

Kaspersky

http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/RescueDisk/

last updated 23 June 2009 (note that the file name states 2008 but this is the program verison not the virus definition update date)

CD supports virus defintion update via Internet

Avira

http://www.free-av.com/en/products/12/avir...cue_system.html

Vendor claims it is updated 'several times daily'

Bit Defender

http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/

last updated 3rd August 2009

F-Secure

http://www.f-secure.com/linux-weblog/2008/...d-300-released/

CD supports virus defintion update via Internet

I have used Kaspersky and Avira before. Kaspersky's Rescue CD has a nice UI and excellent detection rates (at least used to have), but is not updated daily. The internet update feature from the UI did not always work for me.

Avira is my favorite Antivirus software and I usually install the full program on my computers and those I fix. The Rescue CD is claimed to be updated daily. The EXE download will write the CD image to an empty CD when you start it, for the ISO file you will need a CD writer software.

welo

welo

What will this do to my other files or programs?? Anything?

A 'Rescue CD' is just the antivirus software on a bootable CD. Most antivirus vendors offer bootable rescue CDs for several reasons:

• The CD brings its own operating system to run the antivirus software, hence the infected system is not started and any virus that has infected the system not run. The antivirus program just accesses the hard drive and scans for viruses - this way it is much more difficult for the virus to interfer with the scan and 'hide'. (For the same reason it is sometimes recommended to scan in Safe Mode if a virus cannot be removed otherwise.)
  
• In case the infected system has no antivirus software installed yet, the virus might interfer with the installation of the antivirus software, preventing a working installation.
  
• Of course somtimes the operating system just doesn't start up properly anymore, then the bootable CD is the only way to run the antivirus software. (After the virus has been removed you can try a repair install.)
  

The antivirus software on the CD will do a virus scan (read-only) and if it finds any virus will try to clean the file, or many times just delete it. This is basically the same as if running the antivirus software from Windows.

Of course it might always happen that the virus attacked an important system file and the antivirus software can only delete it, eventually damaging the windows installation so - in the worst case - it cannot start anymore. However, it is always better to get rid of the virus and - in case of the windows installation being damaged - just do a repair install which will preserve your configuration and installed programs.

welo

I guess it all comes down to two possible problems:

• a driver issue
  
• a virus
  

Found this on the internet about immediate restarts after shutting down Vista

Usually that is a sign that a driver is hanging on shutdown. Windows

senses the crash and restarts rather than shutting down.

Try booting into Safe Mode and then shut down to see if it does it

properly. If so, you'll have to isolate the driver that is hanging.

source:http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaannouncements/thread/a6ce1a7a-7cf3-44bd-96b0-8573adadf1d9

Can you tell us more about the 'driver' you installed. I re-read your post but still can't figure out for sure whether you talk about a hardware driver or a normal software that you installed.

If a hardware driver was installed, you might reconnect the device, and go to Device Manager to remove it. Not sure how this works in Vista, I still use XP

A System Restore however should eliminate any hardware driver you installed since that time, solving your problem anyway.

To check for a virus I recommend to download a standalone rescue CD (available from Avira, Kaspersky and others). Boot from CD and start the scan, will take a couple of hours.

welo

ok so tried that and no luck either, still rebooting and painfully slow like never before..

Also approximately the same time I loaded a recommended online program to remove SOL cookies called 'better privacy' has anyone had any experience with this program good or bad? Could this be the issue do you think? I can not locate this program either...

I googled for 'better privacy' and found a Firefox extension. If this is what you installed I consider it safe to use, since it is hosted on mozilla.org and chances that one of those contain a virus are very very close to 0%.

Since there is obviously some guess work involved now, I'll open another round

• Are you absolutely sure that the router locks up when your son's computer starts and did not already freeze before? I guess you are, just want to make sure. Of course it would also help to know the exact point when the router freezes (during system start (POST), OS start, or later after login when auto-start programs fire up), but this might be hard to find out. Actually sometimes finding a way to reproduce the problem will bring you a lot closer to finding the solution. But in some cases this is just really hard...
  
• One Computer-Router interaction during startup is to receive a DHCP lease from the router. Try disabling DHCP on the router and assign fixed IPs to each computer, maybe something wrong there.
  
• I guess you already checked for a firmware upgrade to your router
  
• What software is running on computer startup. Is there a bittorrent software running? This might open many connections on startup, sometimes more than some routers can handle. However, the lockups would probably occur not only at startup but also after hours running the bittorrent client. What program did the port-forward use? But again, this brings up the question whether you can state the time when the router freezes more precisely.
  
• I like the hint to change the ethernet port on the router. You could even carry that further: change the cable, change the network card in your computer (resp. add one since you probably have an onboard NIC).
  

welo

Do you have UPNP enabled on the router? Some routers have crappy implementations and it is better to turn the UPnP support off. Worth a try...

welo

Full Scan: completed 6/24/2009 4:24:06 AM (events: 11, objects: 100823, time: 00:51:07)

6/24/2009 3:32:59 AM Task started

6/24/2009 3:34:06 AM Detected: http://www.viruslist.com/sea/advisories/34572 c:\program files\microsoft office\office11\powerpnt.exe

If you can interpret/tell me what I should do (if anything), I'll appreciate it. All of these vulnetrabilities are listed as either "highly dangerous" (the first one) or "very dangerous" (all the others). The website referenced is defunct.

Other than having nio idea what the report means, not having any trouble with Kaspersky on the desk top. I did have to abandon it on the lap top though as simply could not connect to the internet while it was installed, maybe because it is a Lenovo whioch uses special programs to configure internet connections. So on the laptop I have Avira.

Hi Sheryl,

I am sorry I didn't see this thread when it was prevailing. I am a bit disappointed how some of the posters got caught up in argueing about the 'best' antivirus software and failed to actually support you with your problem. So maybe a bit late, but I hope some of my answers might help you to avoid problems in the future.

Kaspersky's Online Advisories

It took me only 5 minutes of guessing to fix the links to Kaspersky's advisories - obviously the structure of the website has changed since your version of the program was published. Lopburi3 actually gave the good advise to upgrade the program which would probably fix the links. Also jackiechan gave a good explanation about the nature of the warnings (which are actually warnings about outdated programs that contain vulnerabilities that might be used by viruses to attack your system).

The solution is to keep your software uptodate, this is espacially true for the Windows Update Service. I see too many computers in Thailand that have this feature disabled - the reason behind it is that enabling it 'brings troubles' since most Windows installations are 'unpaid'. Of course this is true since Microsoft has issued updates to the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) component in the past that made life more difficult for those, but this is no reason to expose your system to attacks due to outdated system components (especially since Microsoft will never be able to avoid Windows copies completely), and it does not happen on a monthly basis, maybe once every 2 years...

If you want to check the messages yourself, the advisories are now located under the following URL:

http://www.viruslist.com/en/advisories/XXXXXX

So the link http://www.viruslist.com/sea/advisories/34572 will translate to http://www.viruslist.com/en/advisories/34572.

Securing Your Thumb Drive

Another thing that nobody has mentioned is how to prevent infections via your thumb drive.

I recommend disabling the Autorun/Autoplay feature completely. This will prevent viruses infecting your system just by plugging in an infected thumb drive (or external harddisk or cd-rom). Just google for a tutorial (http://www.google.com/search?q=disable+autorun+thumb+drives).

To avoid infections of your thumb drive (or any other drive) you can create a read-only autorun.inf folder at the root of your drive and place an empty txt file in it. This will prevent viruses from creating an autorun.inf file on your drive, the file will make it harder for the virus to delete the foler. The virus will still infect your thumb drive with an infected .exe file (or whatsoever) but will not be able to automatically run this program as part of the autorun process.

There might still be viruses that can delete the folder during infection but so far it worked for me every time I had to bring my thumb drive to an internet cafe. At home my antivirus program would report the infected files upon listing the contents of the drive in explorer and I would delete them.

Of course this does not avoid viruses infecting or destroying existing files on your thumb drive, it just prevents the infection of your (or other) systems by means of autorun.

Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=autorun.inf+folder

Another good practise is to not use 'double-click' to list the contents of thumb drives in explorer. A double-click might trigger the autorun feature if the thumb drive is infected (even if the Autoplay feature is disabled I think) with a virus using the autorun.inf file to spread automatically. Better open the folder structure panel and click the drive there. This will NOT trigger the autorun. You can then examine the contents and delete any suspicious exe file or an existing autorun.inf. You can even open the autorun.inf file in notepad and see where it points to (and delete this file).

Don't rely on one Antivirus software alone

My last recommendation is to use a second On-Demand antivirus/malware scanner in addition to your main antivirus program. The discussion about the best antivirus software is very misleading in the sense of it makes you think there is one antivirus program that can detect 100% of the viruses. By using more than one program you might avoid that one virus that slipped through. Of course you SHOULD NOT run two antivirus shields/guards at the same time, this is asking for troubles and instabilities. Rather get a second program that supports to disable the real-time protection and use it as On-Demand Scanner maybe once a week/month or whenever you encounter suspicious files.

It seems you know more about computers than the average user, and the virus that hit you was a really nasty one. I hope you can prevent troubles like this in the future, good luck!!

welo

Partitions are rarely necessary and give a false sense of security, because when a partition fails, it's almost certain that the drive has also failed.

Since the OP's question were already answered I guess he will not mind if we go a bit offtopic

Whereas I agree there is a certain risk that unexperienced users might see partitions as different physical devices and this leading to false decisions when it comes to backups, I personally still consider partitions as useful.

Separating system and data on two different partitions has the following benefits IMHO:

• Repair installs and fresh installs are easier to handle. No need to move/copy gigabytes of data around before/after a successfull install. Of course you always need a backup of sensitive data, but nowadays we talk about massive mp3 and movie collections - some users don't bother to backup them and accept to lose them if really something goes wrong, they just backup the family photos and documents to a DVD but would still like to keep other data e.g. when upgrading the OS.
  

• Structure is more obvious and understandable compared to separating data on the same drive in different folders. This is espacially true for inexperienced users who love to create folders at root level.
  
• System (and swap file) will always reside on the faster part of the harddrive (harddisk speed is faster on the outer parts of the disk where the first partition is located)
  
• OS/System backups are easier to handle since a created disk image does not contain data. I still do quick backups with imaging software before doing major changes to the OS (service packs, OS upgrade). In case anything goes wrong I can easily revert back to a working system, which is always a good thing if you run into unexpected problems. System restore & Repair install are just not reliable enough.
  

@Jingthing

I checked out two of the viruses that were found on your computer:

Win32/TrojanDownloader. Bredolab.AA - The trojan tries to download several files from the Internet. The files are then executed.

Win32/Agent.ODG is a trojan used for delivery of unsolicited advertisements. The trojan is sent data and commands from a remote computer or the Internet. It uses techniques common for rootkits.

The second one can be difficult to get rid off, check out the article here to get an idea. But I understand that you are a pretty lazy chap (when it comes to your computer..) so - if you really cannot be bothered to take care for your computer properly - just run the virus online scan again in a week or so and see if the virus is still there.

In your situation I would recommend a fresh install anyway, so better get your new harddisk and do a clean re-install (and install an antivirus software this time )

welo

wow! Thats a mess. Advise: do NOT restore your system with system restore. Your daily nightmare will be back!!!

Not sure if an online scanner can access the system restore folder and clean it. Better watch out!

That's a good point! I am not sure though read access is limited for online scanners, since activeX components can do pretty everything as soon as you allow them to install - there is nothing like an activeX sandbox limiting access AFAIK.

I found a few articles on antivirus software and system restore. It seems there are sometimes issues where antivirus software can read but not delete files in the system restore folder. I am not sure though this is still an issue with antivirus software nowadays - if I'm not mistaken I remember cleaning viruses from these folders without problems.. Does anybody know more about this?

@Jingthing

1.

I really encourage you to install an antivirus software with real-time protection (aka 'Guard'/'Shield'), here twopopular picks:

• Avira Antivirus Personal (free of charge for personal use) - download here
  
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus (1 yr=25 USD, 2 yrs=38 USD, free 30 day trial) - download here
  

It will prevent most if not all infections and make your life a lot easier, and it is really not that complicated to install!

2.

You better scan your computer with a second antivirus software. Remember, not even the best antivirus software can detect 100% of viruses, and since you had a severly infected computer there was probably a backdoor open to bring in more of these bastards..

If you install one of the antivirus software mentioned above, just do an update after install and run a full computer scan.

welo

Your welcome welo

Dont know if yours is constructed the same as mine here in bkk but mine is under the car port and both primary and secondary tanks have openings, Its a plastic cover fixed with 2 screws and a rubber seal,

Depending how strong your stomach is if you come across a road kill...rather a smelly rotting one ...take it with you and drop it in the primary tank, It sounds strange i know but helps to pep the system up and i cant imagine anyone complaining about you packing a dead chicken or soi dog under your arm.

I am living in the province, hence I have the cement ring kind of 'tank' behind the house. The top 10cm of the tank and the cement cover is visible. I didn't dare to move the cover yet - will do that when I am mentally prepared for it...

Every 6 months, I would flush a cup of dried yeast down the toilet to charge up the septic - seemed to work fine. Maybe more expensive than roadkill, but .

This will be my backup plan in case the Thai chicken are good runners

welo