Is there spyware in my box?

[nolonemo]

I'm running Win98se with dial-up. Recently I'm getting a popup window that tells me I'm not connected and do I want to work offline or try again. It pops up a couple of minutes after I've logged into Windows. If I click the "work offline" button, it goes away but pops up again a few minutes later.

I've gone through the install/remove programs in Control Panel and uninstalled anything I didn't recognize, I've run MSConfig and unchecked everything in the startup list except for those things I know what they are. I don't have any autoupdates set that I know of (I disabled McAfee, Windows Update is not auto, nothings listed in the maintenance scheduler). I do not have Explorer set to connect automatically.

I downloaded an couple of antispy programs and ran them, but they didn't find anything. BTW, if I do connect, there's a little outbound data, but not much.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm getting ready to format and reinstall everything just to make the sucker go away (a pain, since I have over 50 apps on the box not counting games).

Thnaks

Nolo

 

[ipdave]

Check your Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Some dialup proggies install themselves (esp at porn or warez sites) without you telling them to install..

 

[nolonemo]

Thanks, ipDave, but I've done that (several times). BTW, I agree with your theory of how the thing got on. My kid surfs gaming sites for hints and cheats, god only knows what kind of stuff he lets in, and I have been known to visit some of the seamier sites (only for educational purposes). And then there are all those pop-ups

Nolo

 

[ChiMusic]

yep

Record Now MAX installs programs for music sharing and caught by Pest Patrol.

 

[NetLion]

Try also run Ad-aware. It's a spyware remover.
You can find at this forum.

 

[freejnr]

do you have any pop3 checking apps?...sometimes they require a connection?

if you allow it to connect, try using netstat -a... this tells you whats connected to your box ... then you could try trace route /whois - if theres any active connections... If the connections ARE Normal then you should find the website, if you can't find / do not recognise the site / ip - then you might have a trojan/ virus/ spyware...

I DO hope you understand the above - and good luck

 

[nolonemo]

Thanks all, since I'm building a new box, I decided I'm just going to live with it for a while longer.

 

[sushii]

Use ad-awre ( as mentioned above - d/l at lavasoft.com) and also use pestpatrol.

Use the searchbutton in this forum

Sushii