I was just using my main PC and reading a wiki page. Every time I tried to scroll upwards, it would do so for a second but then rapidly flick back to where I was. I clicked into the address bar up the top to see if it was a glitch on the page, and the cursor started spacing rapidly across, as if I was pressing the space bar. I then switched into my facebook tab and the same thing happened.

Am I right in guessing that someone has inserted a trojan onto my comp and was messing with me by overriding my commands? I remember a friend of mine used to have a program called "Pest" that could do stuff like this.

I don't have anti-virus or a firewall and I'm using a PC (dumb, I know). I downloaded TrendMicro's Housecall, which I have used for years when I suspected a virus. It did not find anything.

I've logged out of all my internet accounts, erased my cookies, saved data, passwords etc, and disconnected the computer from the net.

Can anyone offer any advice as to what I should do next? The best free anti-virus program seems to change every few years. What is the good one now?

have you tried replacing/disconnecting your keyboard?

It is a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, so some kind of hardware glitch is possible but I'm fucking paranoid now. What if it is a trojan and I pass it off as a keyboard stutter? There's no real way to know is there? Fuck.

edit: no, I haven't tried that because the problem just happened for 10 seconds. It wasn't persisting over 10 minutes or something.

quote:

Can anyone offer any advice as to what I should do next? The best free anti-virus program seems to change every few years. What is the good one now?

Same as it is every year, regularly updating and using your brain.

Microsoft Security Essentials is surprisingly excellent. We managed to get Stuxnet at work ( ) and it nuked it (muahah), even on our source machine. MS has a shit history of security, but they've finally caught up with Win 7. there's really no need for Kaspersky, McAfee, etc. All that shit is basically spyware, at this point in most people's PCs.

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quote:

Originally posted by chode_breath It is a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, so some kind of hardware glitch is possible but I'm fucking paranoid now. What if it is a trojan and I pass it off as a keyboard stutter? There's no real way to know is there? Fuck. edit: no, I haven't tried that because the problem just happened for 10 seconds. It wasn't persisting over 10 minutes or something.

Wireless signals are subject to all manner of interference. I would not be the least bit surprised if some nut in a panel van full of surveillance equipment merely drove too close to your apartment, possibly Feds looking for HardCandy pings.

Replace your batteries, update drivers. You probably don't have a virus.

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Thanks for your reassurance. Though I'm still antsy, because I have had this keyboard for years and never had any problems like this.

I've been thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 (from XP). Maybe this is a good time to do it? Though 8 is coming out soon. Then again, that probably won't be useable for 2 years after being released, right?

Last edited by chode_breath on Aug-06-2012 at 03:32

The outlook for Windows 8 is rather reminiscent of the outlook for Vista (abysmal). I hate to be a naysayer with 0 experience, but it's looking like a shitty Apple clone at best, and an utter enemy to general developers at worst. Get Windows 7, it's very secure, and much smoother than XP. And still has a couple service packs left before completion, as usual. You can probably bank on using it quite successfully for another 5-7 years, at least.

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Reboot in safe mode with networking. Download Malware Bytes, Super Anti Spyware, Hitman Pro (32 or 64 bit), and CCleaner (all free).

Run a quick scan with SAS and then MBAM. Then run a scan with Hitman Pro, which should pick up any rootkits that SAS or MBAM might miss.
Run CCleaner to clean up the registry, and then reboot into normal mode. That will fix about 99% of infections, and judging by what you've said, yours is pretty minor (if you even have one).

If you still have problems, try getting to the task mgr and locating the infected process. You should be able to get the file path, and then you can find it in the registry and get rid of it for good.

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quote:

Originally posted by OrangestO This isn't about physics, this is about waves.

Last edited by srussell0018 on Aug-06-2012 at 03:19

honestly , if you have a virus, or think you have a virus, you might as well just reinstall everything and not risk having your personal info compromised. There are rootkit styled viruses that will not be detected and will keep corrupting your computer, every computer connected to your network ....

It doesn't sound so bad so try what russel said but the second it detects a virus, stop and disconnect the internet. And do all your research on another computer. In fact i would download the program , burn it to a cd , don't use a usb device, and install the program this way.


A: Disconnect from the net and all other computers asap and shut down any wifi.
B: Backup files you absolutely need to a drive that isn't on a network and assume everything on it has been infected. Don't touch it. Don't put anything into your computer like a usb drive.
C: Before reinstalling WIndows, make sure you don't have a bios or boot sector level virus
D: Install windows with no internet.
E: Make sure windows firewall is on
F: Update all the OS updates ASAP.
G: Get a proper virus solution.

you will have to do some internet searching so you will need a computer that has access to the internet that you know does not have a virus and has a program.

I've known people that have tried to get rid of viruses over and over reinstalling everything over and over not realizing that the problem was either some other computer on the network, some rootkit style virus which happened to mac users a few months ago.

With pcs, if you have a virus, it just isn't worth it trying to isolate it and get rid of it. It sounds like overkill but i just wouldn't risk having everything you care about compromised.

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^^ Don't listen to anything this guy says.

"rootkit styled virus" ?

It's a rootkit, or it's not a rootkit; and even if it is, anyone who has anything more than even the most basic understanding of computers should be able to locate and delete the infection from the registry, which I'm sure you must know, given your obvious expertise on the subject.

You're right though, totally not worth it to take 15 minutes to delete some registry entries, when you could just backup all your files, disconnect from the internet, run an initial scan to determine if the computer is infected, reinstall Windows, and THEN get a proper AV program.


You're beginning to sound like Nou when chiming in on subjects you clearly know very little about.

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quote:

Originally posted by OrangestO This isn't about physics, this is about waves.

For personal systems its probably not a big enough deal to reinstall, but if you suspect you have a rootkit like infection and do important things on your computer re installing is definitely the only sane option if you are not an expert.