My Computer Got A Virus, My dad claims it's from matazone Options

[voices_in_my_hea...]

Well, I don't know the details, but last night my computer started freaking out on me. My cursor was flashing, the Internet wouldn't load, and on the little bar-thingy that tells you what it loads said "loading (some site name I don't remember)streetinteractive.com.

So, This morning, my dad fixes it. He said that all he had to do was delete a virus from the computer. When I asked what virus It was, or what it was called, he said "it was from m-a-t-a zone. or something. Interactive"
I then went through an bit of questioning from my parents as to what Matazone Interactive was.

I (of course) know what matazone is, but matazone interactive?
On a sorta-funny note, my dad thought matazone was
1) pronounced maha-te-zone 2) after I laughed at that he said that maybe it stood for material zone.

(ps: keep in mind, my dad tends to just pick random sites from the web adress bar and claims the virus is our fault, when it was really him.)

[mooooooooooopo]

(ps: keep in mind, my dad tends to just pick random sites from the web adress bar and claims the virus is our fault, when it was really him.)

If you're going to blame a site for giving your computer a virus you gotta make sure it's one you don't recognise right.

Maybe that's his logic?

In seriousness I really doubt it came from Matazone considering how well moderated this place is, I don't think dodgy links would last very long.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

I'm pretty sure he's lieing. But I thought I'd tell you all, in case he wasn't.

There's been a whole lot of adware on my computer lately, and no matter what we do, they just seem to keep finding their way to the computer. If you've ever played "kill the pop-ups" then you have a pretty good idea of how my computer looks whenever I get on the internet.
Is it possible to get a virus through pop-ups?

[Greeneyes]

If you've ever played "kill the pop-ups" then you have a pretty good idea of how my computer looks whenever I get on the internet.

Get FireFox and remove all your popup problems.

[Mata]

If it's a shared computer then you might find some people are resistant to FireFox (although I also strongly suggest getting it).

A quick Google reveals that currently there is no site on the web that has the name of this site followed by 'interactive', so if someone has made a virus file named after my site then currently it hasn't been registered anywhere at all.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=...nG=Search&meta=

Of course, in a few weeks this thread will probably turn up, but I can assure you that there are no virii on my site.

Virus attacks/hack attempts can happen pretty much anytime that you are online, whether you have a browser open or not, so it's possible someone launched an attack while he was looking at my site, but it didn't originate from here.

Now to the important bit:

If you're getting loads of pop-ups then it's very very likely that there is something on your machine that you don't want there. At the very least this will be adware, and it's likely that you have spyware on there too.

This can get on your machine in a number of ways, one of which is by hijacking the activeX controls that are a core part of the Internet Explorer software (and that FireFox doesn't use, which reduces its functionality for some sites, but pays this back by a massive leap in security).

You need to get your machine scanned for adware. Use this link:

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910...page&tag=button

to go to a download page for some free (for personal use) anti-adware/spyware software. I bet it finds something!

You also might want to make sure that you've got the latest service pack installed for Windows. Click the 'start' button and then use the 'windows update' option from the very top of the list of 'all programs'. This will help the security of your machine.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

I can't download anything onto my computer, unless my dad said it was okay. I asked him about both, and he said no (Of course) beacause we already have Norton AntiVirus, and he evidently thinks that that's enough.

I'm going to run a search for "street interactive" and see if I was right.

edit: I, as usaul, was right.
http://castlecops.com/postp282385.html
some people that're haveing the same problem.
And, Badurl.streetinteractive Is what they are having the problem with, too.

Also, I Went into Norton AntiVirus to look at the folders my dad had recently deleted. All of them were infected with adware, and There was no sign about anything called Matazone Interactive.

[Greeneyes]

Erm, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Norton just a virus scanner? In which case your father's arguement is ill-founded, as it wont pick up on any spyware. Also, speaking of spyware, a lot of the cookies that websites try to download are spyware, particularly the advertising ones, and I'm not sure IE lets you block them. That might help explain your abundance of popups.

Also: Ad-Aware very nice.

[Moosh]

Greeneyes is right, Norton will not protect you from Spyware. Try getting Spybot Search and Destroy, although, if your dad won't let you donwload it then there isn't much you can do.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

Nope. He seems to automaticly assume that Anything that I suggest we download is full of viruses...

Unless it's from Yahoo!, And then it's suddenly a great Idea. So, I'm going to try to convince him to download Yahoo! AntiSpy.

[surewhynot]

Thats why i love my own computer

[Jonman]

I can't download anything onto my computer, unless my dad said it was okay. I asked him about both, and he said no (Of course) beacause we already have Norton AntiVirus, and he evidently thinks that that's enough.

I don't know quite how you can frame this to your dad without it sounding bad, but he clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. If you're getting virii, then clearly, Norton is not enough.

There's 3 legs to the computer security tripod:

Anti-virus
Firewall
Anti-spyware/adware.

Without all 3, you leave yourself open to virii and malicious code. Simple as that.

[Mata]

Nope. He seems to automaticly assume that Anything that I suggest we download is full of viruses...

Well, the obvious conclusion would be that you scan everything you download with Norton before you run it. If he trusts Norton then that will do the job.

As Jon says, you absolutely must have a version of all three pieces of software on your machine. Just AV software is not enough. Norton AV does not protect from spyware and leaves you and your father open to having secure details such as passwords or credit card numbers merrily emailed off to complete strangers. Norton does not protect against this kind of software!

A virus reproduces itself, usually by emailing itself to your friends, then begins to destroy your computer, sometimes fast, sometimes slowly, but it is a destructive program. This is what Norton protects you against.

Spyware/Adware exists to steal your private information or to generate advertising on your machine when you don't want it. It is not destructive towards your computer, but in some ways spyware actually poses a far greater risk!

Unless it's from Yahoo!, And then it's suddenly a great Idea. So, I'm going to try to convince him to download Yahoo! AntiSpy.

You've got to hand it to Yahoo, that's a good bit of brainwashing... I've never heard any reports about their software, but it might do the job.

*searches*

Ah! Try this when he's not around:

http://www.spywareguide.com/txt_onlinescan.html

If you launch it from Internet Explorer it doesn't install any software on your PC but it will run a quick scan of your machine to find most of the most common spyware and adware. Very useful! (I've downloaded it and scanned it so I know there's not any nasty code in it!)

[Pab]

For the record, and so you can argue with Dad properly, Norton Anti-virus 2004 and above does check for spyware too. It's just that it prefers not to remove them most of the time, and chooses instead to scare 7 shades of poop out of you by implying your life is in danger.

Spybot Search and Destroy + Adaware get my vote. They are safe, free, and work well together. You cannot be without it.

[surewhynot]

haven't got one from matazone. never will i trust this site. maybe voices dad is incomptant sorry for the spelling.

[voices_in_my_hea...]

Hey, my dad wanted me to stop and say thanks to you guys for all of the sites you suggested. After The pop-ups got so bad that 15 of them were popping up at once, he decided to go ahead and try the spybot search and destroy. It turns out that we had 144 different spyware programs on our computer! Also, Mata, I think I'll go ahead and apoligize for my dad for blaming it on you.

[Mata]

haven't got one from matazone.  never will i trust this site. maybe voices dad is incomptant sorry for the spelling.

So... Does that mean you understand that my site doesn't have spyware on it and never willingly will, or does that mean that you don't trust it anyway? I'm a bit confused.

[surewhynot]

haven't got one from matazone.  never will i trust this site. maybe voices dad is incomptant sorry for the spelling.

So... Does that mean you understand that my site doesn't have spyware on it and never willingly will, or does that mean that you don't trust it anyway? I'm a bit confused.

I mean i never got a virus from matazone. never will. i trust this site completly!!!!

[Quoth(The Raven)]

haven't got one from matazone.  never will i trust this site. maybe voices dad is incomptant sorry for the spelling.

So... Does that mean you understand that my site doesn't have spyware on it and never willingly will, or does that mean that you don't trust it anyway? I'm a bit confused.

i mean i never got a virus from matazone. never will. i trust this site completly!!!!

<Spam> THIS is a prime example of why proper English is so important. One little period (Or full stop) was omitted, and Mata didn't know whether you were praising the site, or condemning it. One period, after "Never will" would have made your meaning crystal clear. Again, sorry for the lecture.

[Mata]

i mean i never got a virus from matazone. never will. i trust this site completly!!!!

Cool, 'glad we've cleared that up!

For future reference, as Quoth says, correct punctuation and grammar do a great deal of good in helping avoid confusion. Capitalisation helps too!

On a board tech note, if a square bracket on a quote isn't closed then it messes up the whole nest of quotes around it, which is what happened above. You can always edit posts after you've made them with the edit button.