Posts by DMR

pauly_1,
As other members here have already indicated, your original post ("Why should microsoft didnot do the proper update for Internet explorer.There is lot of problem of explorer") is very vague and does not give us any information that we can use to help you.
If you are still having problems with this issue, please post the following information:

• The exact version of Windows that you are using.
• The exact version of Internet Explorer that you are using.
• The full and exact content of any and all error messages that you've seen that might relate to your initial complaint ("Why should microsoft didnot do the proper update for Internet explorer.There is lot of problem of explorer")

Also- please be aware that Microsoft has discontinued active support of Internet Explorer in favor of their new browser called "Microsoft Edge".

Since you said that you've been "given" this router by someone else, have you tried to entirely reset the router back to its default factory settings before assuming that the device itself is defective?
A "Factory Reset" is the first thing that I do whenever I "inherit" a network device from someone else.
Instructions for doing so for your R7000 can be found here:
http://kb.netgear.com/24340/What-are-the-factory-default-settings-on-my-Nighthawk-R7000-router-and-how-do-I-reset-to-default

I'm a 34 year old kid :)

Hey, like I said- hang on to that thought!
(I'm a 51 year old kid at this point, and remebering that I'm a kid at heart has kept me alive through at least one or two incidences where I wouldn't be here otherwise). No Joke.

On second thought, I feel like a little kid next to all of you...

It's all good blackmiau- hang on to that thought about being a little kid.
And when you get to be around our age... hang on to that thought even more! ;-)

Get JRT and hopefully it will sort it out.
Post the notepad notes :)
PS: this shoud be on the viruses section

Hi Mya:),

What blackmiau said above is true-
Given the symptoms you've described, it does sound like you have a browser-redirect/browser-hijack infection, and you'll definitely get more "expert eyeballs" looking at that problem if you start a new thread in our Viruses, Spyware and other Nasties Forum.

Please start a new thread there, and when you do, please try to include as many details as you can regarding the exact problem you're experiencing. From there, we can help you work through the steps needed to clean the infection(s) out of you system.

Wow- that's a very old drive!

If the sound is really coming from the drive itself rather than from the computer's built-in speaker, my guess it that the sound is caused by the drive's head armature mechanism (or possibly the drive's spindle motor) trying to engage but failing to do so. If either is true, that would indicate a pretty fatal electro-mechanical failure of the drive.

Can you connect the drive to the computer diectly? That is- does your computer have an available IDE/PATA port on the motherboard that you can use, to eliminate any possiblity that the external IDE-to-USB convertor is interfering in any way?
(I know you said that you're sure that your IDE/USB converter works, but external drive enclosures/connectors can often get in the way when trying to revive a "dead" drive.)

Sorry, no cookies... but I did bring PIE

2. i reformatted my drive c, when i installed win xp sp2...

4. the ones with yellow exclamation points are...

5. when i checked in BIOS, Secondary IDE MAster is CD/DVD COMBO

Ahh- the plot thins... ;)

The info you posted is pretty much the classic list of symptoms that occur when you've reinstalled Windows from scratch but haven't then reinstalled the motherboard chipset's driver package, and perhaps other drivers as well. (Windows doesn't have built-in drivers for some motherboards and/or their on-board components).

If you have the original driver CD that came with the computer, you can reinstall the motherboard driver software from there. If you don't have the CD, you should be able to get the right driver package from your computer manufacturer's website.

If you need help obtaining or installing the driver software, give us the exact make & model of your computer and we can probably point you in the right direction.

Your log does shows signs of a few different infections. It also indicates that you have quite a few optional (but non-malicious) items configured to run at Windows' startup, and these programs are unnecesarilly chewing up some of your system resources.

For the malware infections, please do the following to begin with:

You will need to close/quit all web browser programs and disconnect from the Internet for some of the following, so you should print out the following instructions or save them into a text file with Notepad.

* Download ATF-Cleaner and save it to convenient location.

* Download AVG Anti-Spyware to your Desktop or to your usual Download Folder.
http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

• Install AVG Anti-Spyware by double clicking the installer.
• Follow the prompts. Make sure that Launch AVG Anti-Spyware is checked.
• On the main screen under Your Computer's security.
  • Click on Change state next to Resident shield. It should now change to inactive.
  • Click on Change state next to Automatic updates. It should now change to inactive.
  • Next to Last Update, click on Update now. (You will need an active internet connection to perform this)
  • Wait until you see the Update succesfull message.
• Right-click the AVG Anti-Spyware Tray Icon and uncheck Start with Windows.
• Right-click the AVG Anti-Spyware Tray Icon and select Exit. Confirm by clicking Yes.

If you are having problems with the updater, you can use this link to manually update AVG.
AVG Anti-Spyware manual …

Let's start by identifying exactly what kind of "nasties" you have:

Our usual preliminary drill:

You will need to close/quit all web browser programs and disconnect from the Internet for some of the following, so you should print out the following instructions or save them into a text file with Notepad.

1. Download the free HijackThis utility. Once downloaded, follow these instructions to install and run the program:

* Create a folder for HJT outside of any Temp/Temporary folders and move the HijackThis.exe file to that folder now. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.

* Run HijackThis, but do not have HJT fix anything yet; only have it scan your system! Once the scan is complete, the "Scan" button will turn into an option to "Save log...".

* Save the log in the folder you created for HijackThis; the saved file will be named "hijackthis.log".

2. Download ATF-Cleaner and save it to convenient location.

3. Download the free version of AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly ewido). Save the installer file to your desktop or any convenient folder.

* Run the installer, accepting the default options. Run the program once installed, click on the Update icon at the top of the main AVG window, and allow the program to download the most current components.

* Close AVG once the updates have been downloaded.

4. Reboot …

The Registry key you mentioned exists in XP, but I'm not sure if it existed in 98. I don't have a 98 machine running at the moment, but this tip from mvps.org might help:

Applications can be removed from the Open With dialog box. There is a list of applications stored in a registry key that are removed from the open with list.
Steps to Remove a Program from the Open With... Dialog Box

• Click Start - Run...
• Type regedit into the Run dialog box
• Navigate to the following key
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\FileAssociation
• In the right hand pane double click the value named KillList
• This will bring up a dialog box with the contents of the KillList. This is a list of applications seperated by semicolans
• Press the End key to place the cursor at the end of the list, type a simi-colon followed by the applications filename and extension.
• This is a sample kill list %1;explorer.exe;dvdplay.exe;mplay32.exe;msohtmed.exe;quikview.exe;rundll32.exe

Rich, was I ever glad to find you!

You might not get a response from richh, given that his reply was posted more than two years ago. :cheesy:

Power supplies are easy to replace; it's usually just a question of fiddling with a few screws and connectors, as the power supplies themselves are self-contained boxes which just slide into the inside of the machine.

A search for the keywords [search]emachines "emonster 500" "power supply"[/search] should help you find the right supply.

Sheesh! Talk about blowing your own horn...

:mrgreen:

Hi goodgood,

You've definitely got a few infections, but there is one thing you need to take care of before doing anything else:

C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Temporary Directory 3 for hijackthis.zip\HijackThis.exe

The log entry above indicates that you are running the HijackThis.exe program from within the downloaded HijackThis.zip download package. You are also running HJT from within a Temp/Temporary downloads folder.
One of the normal steps in eliminating malicious programs is to entirely delete the contents of all Temp folders. Given that, if HijackThis (and other data that you care about) is living in those Temp folders, it will be erased along with everything else!

Please do the following:

* Create a folder for HJT outside of any Temp/Temporary folders. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.
* Right-click on the HijackThis.zip folder and choose the "Extract all..." option from the resulting drop-down menu. This will start Windows' Folder Extraction Wizard. Click the "Next" button to start the wizard.
* In the next window, click on the "Browse" button. In the destination selection box, navigate to the new folder you created for HJT, hilight it, and click "OK".
* Click "Next", and then click "Finished"; a window dispaying the newly-extracted hijackthis.exe file should open.
* Double-click on the hijackthis.exe file to verify that the program works. If it does, just close hijackthis for now.

Your post is OK in this forum, and here is some info:

1. Both the MSI 6378 motherboard model line, and the VIA KT133A chipset it uses, can actually support more than 512MB of RAM, but since your particular version of the mobo seems to have only 2 physical slots, 512Mb is all you get. The individual memory sticks are 168-pin 256MB PC100/133 SDRAM modules; pretty standard stuff.

2. The mobo doesn't have an AGP slot, so you're stuck with only PCI video cards as an alternative to the on-board video. PCI cards are getting harder to find, but the reviews in this article might help you find a PCI video card that fits your needs:
http://compreviews.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm%3Faid=445

* The antivirus and "Internet Security" packages from both Norton and McAfee have definitely caused headaches for a lot of people, and even when they're working properly, they put a heck of a load on your system (especially your startup time).

* The free version of AVG is only the antivirus program; it doesn't include a firewall. As far as antivirus program go, though, AVG is very good; it's the AV program I install on my clients' systems when they get sick of the hassle and cost of Norton and McAfee. :D

* Unfortunately, an antivirus program alone isn't enough protection; you should have at least one antispyware program installed/running in addition to your AV program. Microsoft itself has the Window Defender antispyware program avalable as a free download, and the AVG site has a download link to the free version of ewido antispyare, which is an excellent spyware detection and removal program. The free version of ewido does have two limitations, though:
1) It doesn't constantly monitor and protect your system like AVG and Defender; you have to run ewido scans manually.
2) It doesn't automatically update itself; you have to manually download updates for it.

* You should at least enable Windows' built-in firewall (available in XP SP2 only), especially if you don't have a broadband router with a built-in firewall. As for other firewall programs, there are obviously ones that do a better job than the Windows firewall; this page …

An uberly one I'm certainly not
so confusion arose in my simple thought
Surely in your marsupial abode
Ought to be a disc of windows stored?

Oh Lupine One, my heart it doth sink,
that only of Windows I see that you think.

For the crufty old code of that horrid OS,
hast made of my box a right bloody mess.

So of that abomination, I speaketh no more,
and the "FC" I mentioned is Fedora Core.

And of the sound problem, I did in jest speak,
for the truth it be told, I'm a real Linux Geek!

:mrgreen:

lol, glad to hear it.
Now- tell me, Oh Uberly One: how do I get my sound card working under FC5? :D

Hi chungkiap,

The behaviour you're seeing is apparently due to a security hole found in netapi32.dll, which (as of about Aug. 12th) is being exploited by hackers. Please do the following:

1. Download and install Microsoft's security fix.

2. Download the free Windows Worms Doors Closer utility. Run the utility and choose to disable all of the ports/services it lists. Note that if you have a local network and need to share files/printers with other computers on that network, you'll have to leave NetBIOS enabled.

After doing the above, test-drive the computer for a while and let us know if you still experience the crashes or not.

when we boot the system in safe mode what are the files shown before booting the system??

What you are seeing is the list of core files that Windows loads in Safe Mode.

i have some files in my startup list & when we boot using safe mode will those files be executed??

In Safe Mode, Windows loads only the minimal set of programs/processes/drivers/services. Programs referenced in your Startup folder and other "autorun" locations will be bypassed.

will drivers be loaded when v use safe mode??

In terms of drivers, Windows' basic/generic mouse, keyboard, VGA video, and storage drivers are loaded, but not much else.

Yes.

1. Have you run the SmitFraudFix program yet? If not, please do that, following the instructions in the link I gave in my 2nd post. After performing the procedure, post the contents of the C:\Rapport.txt log file that SmitFraudFix generated.

2. Download ATF-Cleaner and save it to the desktop or another convenient folder. Don't run the program yet.

3. * Reboot your computer in Safe Mode by doing the following :

• Restart your computer
• After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, tap the F8 key continually;
• Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu with options should appear;
• Select the first option, to run Windows in Safe Mode, then press "Enter".
• Log in to the Administrator account.

* Run ATF-Cleaner
- Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to open the program.
- Under Main choose: Select All
- Click the Empty Selected button.

If you use Firefox browser : Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

If you use Opera browser: Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.
Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.

Heh *holding back my secrets*

I guess I don't really have a secret; I just posted an average of 6 times a day, for 3 years straight, until I got to... wait- is it? Yes, I think it is........ post #6,500!

Now I just have to catch up with Dani.... :mrgreen:

What you describe is quite common, and is usually due to a fault with the DC power receptacle in the laptop. The receptacle is soldered to the motherboard, and the solder leads are often the only thing securing it to the motherboard, so they can get damaged or broken from taking the stress of plugging/unplugging/jiggling/jarring the connection. When this happens, the first visible indication will be an intermittent ability to engage the charger, but eventually overheating and shorting will occur at the broken solder joints, and this can lead to serious motherboard damge. The fact that you say you hear "a strange noise" means that you are already at this point.

If you are not comfortable with disassebling your laptop, you need to take it to a repair shop ASAP. Replacing the DC connector isn't difficult or time-consuming for an experienced tech, and the part itself only costs a few dollars. If you catch the problem before it gets too severe, simply replacing the connector will totally fix the problem. However, if you let it go and continue to jiggle the connection around, you will eventually destroy circuitry on the motherboard, which will obviously be a Very Bad Thing.

So what about this one?

Hmm.... well, let's just whip out the handy Ghost-O-Meter that I purchased from that site's store and find out...

[IMG]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Misc/ScreenHunter_001.bmp[/IMG]

Gosh DMR, I had no clue you were so handsome! :)

Well... I'm, um... :o :o

That's a totally clean log; is there a specific reason that you suspect malicious infections to be the cause of the crashes?
Give us as much detail about the crashes as possible (including the exact text of any error messages) and we'll see if we can't help you pinpoint the source of the problems.

Oh for Christ's sake, folks- this is really disheartening.

While I close this antagonistic, sophmoric stream of ego-stroking blather, let me leave you with a couple of words to consider:

Maturity
Professionalism

-

I'll need to wait for the laptop, but will post shortly.

Ok- post when you can; we'll be here...

Due to the fact that the member who originally started this thread has not responded in almost one year, this thread is considered abandoned and has been closed.

In accordance with our posting rules, other members having similar questions or problems need to start their own threads and post their questions there. In order to help us help you most quickly, please include as much information about your problem as possible in your posts.

If the member who originally started this thread wishes to have the thread reopened, please send your request, including a link to this thread, to one of our moderators via email or Private Message.

Thank you.

[img]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/DWThreadLock.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downloads/DMR/Visuals/greengrinwink.gif[/img]

I'd suggest installing the free SpywareBlaster utility; it blocks known "bad" addresses/domains, including abcsearch. A short tutorial on installing and updating SpywareBlaster can be found here.

Also- you should try running AdAware and SpyBot in Safe Mode if you haven't already; they might be able to find/fix more "nasties" that way:

- Before booting into Safe Mode, open SpyBot and AdAware and use each program's online update feature to make sure that you have the absolutely most current spyware definition databases installed. Do not run scans yet, just close each program when it finishes installing its updates.

- Reboot into Safe Mode (you get to the safe mode boot option by hitting the F8 key as your computer is starting up).

- Run both utilities (the order doesn't matter) and have each program fix everything it finds.

- Reboot normally.

minidump contents won't help me, as I don't have the tools to analyse them. The problem you're having is definitely a well-documented bugger though, and I haven't seen anything to indicate that it's truly been dealt with yet by MS or NVidia.

I don't know if it will help (or if you've seen this before), but this site has some suggestions and workarounds:

http://members.home.nl/marf/Infinite%20Loop.html

Good- the main "nasties" are no longer present in your latest log.

A couple of things, though:

1. MessengerPlus! 3 has a "Sponsored" installation mode, and if installed in this mode, the program will install adware on your system. If you are unsure of which installation mode you chose, you should uninstall the program and then reinstall it without the Sponsor option.

2. The following log entry is a loose end which should be taken care of:

O23 - Service: Remote Packet Capture Protocol v.0 (experimental) (rpcapd) - Unknown owner - %ProgramFiles%\WinPcap\rpcapd.exe" -d -f "%ProgramFiles%\WinPcap\rpcapd.ini (file missing)

To do this:

A) Open the Services utility in your Administrative Tools control panel.

- In the list of services, locate the service named "Remote Packet Capture Protocol" or "rpcapd" and double-click on it.

- In the General tab of the Properties window that opens, click the Stop button if the service is not already stopped.

- Once the service is stopped, choose Disabled in the "Startup Type" drop-down menu and then click OK. Close the Services utility after that.

B) Run HijackThis again, do another scan, and put a check in the box to the left of the O23 - Service: Remote Packet Capture Protocol v.0 entry, and then click "Fix Checked".

C) Once HJT finishes the fix, click on the "Config" button in the lower right corner of HijackThis' main window. In the next window click on the …

It wouldn't look good if everyone would delete their old posts. If you delete some posts here and there, threads would change and possibly good content would disappear. It would also make threads hard to follow if some posts would refer to other post that would not be there anymore.

Right on all counts, belama. :)

If a member does need a post deleted for some reason, they can PM their request to one of the forum moderators and we'll take care of it.

the thinkpad's ip adress thing is the default 192.168.1.1

That's wrong- the 192.168.1.1 IP address is the default IP of the model of your Linksys router; if your Thinkpad or any other computers on that network have that IP address as well, there will be a conflict. By default, the BEFW11S4 should hand out IP addresses (via DHCP) to the computers that connect to it starting with 192.168.1.100; the 192.168.1.1 IP addres is the (router's) gateway IP.

but my home computer is like 65.32.xx.xxx. I can get it to be the same 192.168.1.1, but then it wont connect to the internet either.

Pleae give us more specific information on the network setup in both circumstances. For instance, on the home computer/network, do you also go through a router, or do you connect directly to a cable/DSL/etc. modem?

... and web pages produced by Excel.

*cough* *choke* *shiver* Bad web designer, bad!

I'll ask this again for starters:

- What exact problems are you having, and what (if any) errors do you get?

If you created a folder under /mnt named "fat", and your FAT32 partition really is hda6, then mediaphyte's syntax for the mount command is correct.

In terms of the way rwx permissions work with FAT32 mounts:

The default permissions for a mounted FAT32 volume are rwx for root, but only rx for normal users.

In Linux, permission control works differently for FAT32 and NTFS filesystems than it does for native Linux filesystems (ext2, ext3, reiser, etc.):

1. The UNIX permissions of a directory onto which you mount a Windows filesystem can't be changed while the fileystem is mounted. Unmount the Windows partition; you should then be able to chmod the permissions of /mnt/Windows. You will need to set the appropriate Linux rwx permissions on the /mnt/fat folder and set the permissions for the FAT partition (as described below) in order to grant everyone write access.

2. Windows doesn't support UNIX-style permissions, and you can only apply permissions to the entire filesystem, not to individual Windows files/folders. This is done with the "umask" option of the mount command. In /etc/fstab, change the mount entry for your Windows partition to this:

/dev/hda6 /mnt/fat vfat users,defaults,umask=000 0 0

(the "users" option allows anyone to mount/unmount the drive and overrides the default , which is that only root is allowed to mount/unmount.)

- …

but until then, I think this scheme is the best we have.

It appears that way, yes. Considering the fact that it's being positioned as a replacement for WEP, TKIP, and even DES/3DES, it must have something going for it...

1. WEP is definitely not secure (although it is better than nothing). Cracking any level of WEP encryption is considered a trivial task these days for anyone who is truly intent on doing so and has the right setup. Depending on your location (and the sensitivity/importance of the data traversing your network), you may not have to worry about such serious "hackers", but then again... you never know.

WPA and other newer encryption methods have come along to address WEP's shortcomings, and although they are more robust than WEP, they too have their weak spots.

2. MAC filtering is not an altenative encryption method to WEP, but rather a compliment to the security that encryption such as WEP can provide. MAC filtering simply allows or denies access to your wifi network based on the unique MAC address assigned to every network device.

MAC addresses can be sniffed and "spoofed" however, so even this is not a foolproof security measure. Although most Windows users are unaware of the wealth of network sniffing/cracking/etc. tools that are available, users of Linux systems and other UNIX-based operating systems have been using such tools for a long time. Unfortunatley, even though most of those tools were originally intended for legit network maintenance and troubleshooting, they've been put to the wrong uses by "war drivers" and other wifi network-cracking low-lifes.

Hi Heidi719,

This does actually sound more like a general Internet Explorer issue rather than something caused by malicious infections, so I'm moving this to our Web Browser forum now. You should get more "eyeballs" on your question in that forum.

The one thing I have noticed in all that I have read on the subject so far (just a trifle actually), is that the vast majority of *nix users don´t stick with one distro. They all seem to try, not two or three, but five, six and seven different ones. And each one has his own opinion and reason for using one.

I´m sort of amazed at this...

Amazed? That's understandable; I think most people who live primarilly in the Windows World would have the same take on the situation. What usually happens with serious *NIX users though is that they will try many different distros to start with, will perhaps even use multiple distros for a long time, but will eventually decide on a single distro that fits them best. At that point, it isn't uncommon for them to become strangely religious about their choice; an almost evangelical thing which invarialbly leads to what are commomnly known as Distro Wars. These are not pretty; if you've ever run across those "evangelical" types of Mac users, you've only seen the tip of the iceberg I'm talking about. Put a die-hard Slackware user and a Mac zealot in the ring together and you'll see what I mean; just be sure to put your money on the Slacker! :mrgreen:

The basic thing is that *NIX variants, and Linux in particular, offer so many choices, and that isn't something Win users are very accustomed to.

- How do you want your …

If you mean that the disk is physically stuck in the drive and won't eject, look for a small (about paper-clip diameter) hole somewhere on the face of the drive. If you find such a hole, that's how you access the "manual eject" mechanism.

Slowly push a paper clip or some other thin (and blunt-ended) instrument into the hole. If the eject mechanism on your particular drive is truly manual/mechanical, you may have to use a bit of force to engage the eject lever behind the hole, but once you do, that should pop the drive's tray open enough for you to remove the stuck disk.

Ba careful though- some drives don't use a mechanical eject mechanism; they use a "software" eject switch instead, and the computer will need to be turned on for it to work. If you hear or feel just a slight "click" when you insert the paper clip, you're hitting that switch.

Are you still experiencing problems? If so, please tell us what they are; because your post was split from another thread, we don't have that info in this thread.

You should uninstall any Wild Tangent programs through the Add/Remove Programs control panel; Wild Tangent is rather notorious for its adware/spyware components.

After doing so, run HijackThis again and have it fix the following:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Dell|Alert] C:\Program Files\Dell\Support\Alert\bin\DAMon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UpdReg] C:\WINDOWS\UpdReg.EXE
(the above .exe programs are not malicious, but you don't need to have them running)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [WildTangent CDA] RUNDLL32.exe "C:\Program Files\WildTangent\Apps\CDA\cdaEngine0400.dll",cdaEngineMain
O16 - DPF: {3A7FE611-1994-4EF1-A09F-99456752289D} - http://install.wildtangent.com/Acti...iveLauncher.cab
O16 - DPF: {41F17733-B041-4099-A042-B518BB6A408C} - http://a1540.g.akamai.net/7/1540/52...meInstaller.exe
O16 - DPF: {65E7DB1D-0101-4100-BD66-C5C78C917F93} - http://install.wildtangent.com/bgn/...lim/install.cab
O16 - DPF: {F54C1137-5E34-4B95-95A5-BA56D4D8D743} (Secure Delivery) - http://www.gamespot.com/KDX/zd/kdx.cab

Once done, reboot and delete the entire C:\Program Files\WildTangent folder if it still exists. Also keep in mind that "free" online/downloadable games and the like are quite often bundled with adware/spyware; avoid them as much as possible.

To help protect yourself from getting infections in the first place, you should put some protections in place in addition to your anti-virus software:

1. Use Windows Automatic Update function to keep your system as up-to-date as possible with the most current Microsoft security and bug fixes.

2. Stop using Internet Explorer as your web browser. Because IE is so closely tied into the Windows operating system itself and contains so many security flaws, switching to another browser such as Netscape, Firefox, or …

Glad you got it figured out. :) I usually do a reboot after changing DHCP-related settings just to make sure that the changes fully take effect. Rebooting shouldn't be necessary, but I've found that sometimes the changes just don't ripple down the way they should if you don't.

I'm glad you're not in a hurry here- I've been too busy to post the rest of the info (WEP encryption, etc.), but I should be able to do so before Monday.

Thanks for your patience!

That's OK- the past couple of days have been crazed for me as well, which is why I haven't followed up with the rest of the info. Hopefully the weekend will allow me the spare time to do so...

He might even show you MAC address exclusions, but I would think that is excessive for what you want to do.

lol. Actually, being a paranoid bugger, I am going to throw MAC filtering in there!

Most of the configuration is done in the router's setup utility, so open your web browser and point it to http://192.168.1.1, which is the default IP for that model of router.

Speaking of "defaults", it is never a good idea to leave settings such as the IP address, device name, aministrative password, SSID, etc. of a wireless router or other wireless access device at their defaults. The default settings for different manufacturer's devices are well known, and getting just one of those pieces of information can give an attacker a lot to go on.

For instance: if I wander around downtown San Francisco with my laptop, I can usually pick up at least 7 wireless networks in any given place. Most of the time, 3 or so of those networks will be broadcasting the default SSID "Linksys". Just from seeing that, I can be 99% sure that at least one of those networks:

- Is not using WEP encryption.
- Is using the Linksys default IP of 192.168.1.1 for the router.
- Is using the Linksys default password "admin" for the router.
- Is not using MAC address filtering.
- Is using the router as the DHCP server for the network.
…

Grr!

For reasons that I won't go into simply because they p!ss me off, it looks like there is no manufacturer-supplied solution to getting that particular card working under Linux; you are going to have to jumps through some hoops to if you want it to happen.

Please have a read through the following links for A) one possible solution (ndiswrapper), and B) where the core of the compatibility problem lies:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wpc54g+broadcom+linux&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.google.com/linux?q=WPC54G+driver&hl=en&lr=&start=0&sa=N

You can probably also delete the file when booted into Safe Mode; it's most likely that the file won't be running in Safe Mode.

There's a larger issue though: you're obviously infected, and it's highly likely that the wndllsys.exe file is not the only "unwanted guest" on your system. You should have a read through the threads in our Viruses, Spyware, and other Nasties forum to find out how to check your system for further infections. If you find that you need more help along those lines, please start a new thread in that forum, as that is where we deal with those sorts of issues.

...running the sr.inf:install solved the problem. Had to browse around, a bit, to find the various files it wanted, including some on the WinXP install disk. Thank you all, very much, for the quick response, and (especailly) for the resolution.

Glad we could help, and good job on getting yourself through the process! :)

You can find more hijackthis tutorials...

Here: ;)

http://hjt.wizardsofwebsites.com/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?showtutorial=42
http://www.angeltowns.com/members/zupe/lsps.html
http://www.help2go.com/article153.html
http://www.fbeej.dk/NewHJTEntries.htm

In terms of viruses and the like, Norton, Sophos, Trend Micro, and other AV companies have areas on their support sites where you can find detailed info on thousands of known malicious programs.

One very helpful thing is to become quite familiar with what files and folders should exist on Windows systems; that will help you more quickly spot possible suspects when you're weeding out an infected computer.