If you are having problems with Windows XP shutting down with a timer, you have been infected with a virus that has exploded on to machines everywhere..

http://www.umbrellaonline.co.uk/msblast.html
RPG and myself have made this page to combat the virus, please pass on the knowledge of the page.

Neo, RPG - what a saviour...Mine started doing this yesterday.

Thank You!:D

Does this have anything to do with this?

http://www3.ca.com/virusinfo/virus.aspx?ID=36265

Moon

That looks like it, yep.
Pooh on viruses. Pooh.:evil:

well you could always buy EX Trust anti-virus and stop it getting into your system in the first place. :lol:

I wonder if EZ trust will give me commission?? I have said before and I will say it again - prevention is better than cure. Best anti-virus programe I have come across

Moon

I will speak to my system administrator.:o :lol:
Sorry Miss:lol:

oh look national news!!!

Looks like you are doing a service Neo & RPG

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3143625.stm

Moon

http://www.umbrellaonline.co.uk/msblast.html
Symantec have now released a removal tool for the virus.



Anyone that was infected with this virus is advised to get a firewall up and running by August 16th, this message has been travelling the messengers today:

WARNING SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ANYONE WHO GOT THE RPC ERROR NEEDS TO GET A FIREWALL AND BLOCK OUT PORT 135 ON THE 16TH THE VIRUS WILL BEGIN TO EAT YOUR WINDOWS UPDATE FILE THIS IS THE BEGINING OF THE NEW VIRUS

That is a nasty little piece of work. A friend of mine spent hours round my house last night...clearing it, reclearing it, reclearing it, almost ad infinitum. Finally got up a firewall and virus checker, but not before the computer came within a second of being booted down the stairs :lol: . He kept getting calls from other people as well, freaking out about their computers rebooting. Apparently makes it difficult to do much when it keeps shutting itself down after 120 seconds :lol:
Better let everyone you know, know...it's a cunning little virus.

you can stop it from shutting down by doing:

Start>Run>type CMD>then type "shutdown -s" (without the ""s)

that'll halt the shutdown routine

I was under a panic when reading this thread. I though my system my be in an early stage of the infection. So I downloaded the balst fix.exe thingy and it dint find owt! No worries! Phew!

Originally posted by DaBouncer
I was under a panic when reading this thread. I though my system my be in an early stage of the infection.

It's when your poor computer starts sneezing and emitting a dry, hacking cough that you need to worry :lol: :lol:

I got it, spent ages last night trying to get on the net to find out what it was, only to find my PC shutting down after about 2 mins.

very nasty.

RPG were can I get a free firewall?

www.download.com

or www.zonelabs.com

Moon

infact mikey, go with the link moon maiden supplied! :)

does XP have a firewall built in?

I have Norton antivirus, I guess this is OK.

I don't know about XP firewall but we the hubby swears by zonelabs.

We have extrust anti- virus which costs about £14 (approx conversion from US dollars) for a full year and updates with that and then around £5 every year after that for continued updates.

EZ Trust has managed so far to stop every virus going no problems whatsoever. Even works well with KaZaA and will tell you if there is a virus as you are downloading.

They also sell a firewall and I think we may consider buying that next year - will have to see, so far zonelabs has failed us.

Moon

Zone Labs is ok. I have had slight problems in the past with it preventing gaming but it's protected me fine. I also use Sygate on one of my PC's which is also free.

got zonelabs zonealarm pro and sophos antivirus - no problems yet.....

I'm all OK now, removed Blast with RPG's resources, and now got the patch from Microsoft.

Can one of you techys explain in simple terms how this got me.

you got it becuase you didn't run the latest security patches from MS. It was released last month and its amazing how many people fail to download and run these security upgrades.

The plan of events

Microsoft release a security upgrade
Virus writers write a virus to exploit it
People get infected
People need security paTCH

advice - always check on the microsoft site from time to time to see what is potentially lurking out there!

The built in XP "firewall" is absolutely pants - I've seen more secure chocolate firedoors. It's not even worth turning it on - go to either zonelabs.com or agnitum.com and download one of their free firewalls (ZoneAlarm, and Outpost respectively).

Even better, format the C:\ drive, and install Linux.

Doesn't anyone bother to protect their computers?

the stats say that my write up has helped at least 1900 People, and over 2500 have looked at the helpguide to rid it after

not a smudge on the estimated 1.4million affected users mind

Originally posted by alchresearch
Doesn't anyone bother to protect their computers?

Thanks for the constructive comments, I have up to date Norton Antivirus and still got hit
Some of the best programmers were hit by this as I know a few.

The big companies/banks etc check every hour for updates, Do you keep looking every hour for updates?

Maybe you are not running XP?

This is the first time I have had any virus/Virii??? and it has certainly made take stock.

I use Norton Antivirus and now Norton Firewall - which is great by the way!

I got the bug bear that was flying around a couple of months ago, it went through my inbox in Outlook and randomley selected 2 emails and forwarded them, not just to everyone in my addressbook, but to almost every domain I have emailed since my last install. Anyway, EVERYBODY at work, including my MD ended up with these emails, I won't go in to too much detail but one of them was VERY embarassing and a little offensive to say the least.

So, the moral of the story, virii can ruin more than your hard drive! Make sure you keep your virus definitions up to date!

Originally posted by mikey
Thanks for the constructive comments, I have up to date Norton Antivirus and still got hit
Some of the best programmers were hit by this as I know a few.

Maybe you are not running XP?



Nope, running XP Professional, as well as Windows 2000, ME and Linux on my other machines and not one has got it.

I am using McAfee Antivirus on one machine and AVG anti virus on the others, along with Zone Alarm Firewall.

There is no excuse for getting a virus. They don't download and install themselves. I've been in computing since the mid 70's and have never had a virus infection. Yes, I've come across loads, but I'm wise enough not to open emails from people I don't know or risk opening up unknown files.

Perhaps if they put decent manuals with computers, like they used to back in the days of the Spectrum and Commdore, perhaps we wouldn't have as much problems.

One thing I would like to see is these virus writers putting their code to good use. Having a go at Microsoft and it's users is all very well, but perhaps they should put their talents to attacking child porn sites?

Originally posted by alchresearch
They don't download and install themselves.Is that really true though? I thought W32.Blaster.Worm installed itself by exploiting a security loophole on TCP ports 135/4444. I could be wrong though :?

no tony, you are right.

but its one of the first which has run and installed itself

The TCP worm aside, (which was detected on 16th July - one month before) most viruses are executed by people just opening up attachments, such as the Anna Kourikova virus a couple of years ago.

Too many people take action after its too late. Anti virus and firewall software should be installed right at the beginning, and it certainly doesn't hurt to use the "shields up" utility at www.grc.com to check for any port leaks. The virus mentioned earlier was known for a month before it's planned activation.

Originally posted by alchresearch
They don't download and install themselves

Your original point was wrong this one was not part of any email or exe file, so it did install itself.

Take a look at this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3163001.stm

It's an Anti-virus virus!!! :D :lol: