Sympatico High-Speed???

hi all!
I am a new member here, but my PC has become victim to trojan horse programs SEVERAL times. I just had to pick up my PC after needing to get Windows re-installed after some d*ckhead decided to screw over my computer by deleting a key Windows file.

Anyways, my ISP is Bell Sympatico High-Speed Edition. I connect through an ADSL modem and my IP is changed everytime I connect. Like I have said, this is not the first time I have been attacked by trojans and it is getting very annoying and also costly to pay for repairs.

I have always had Norton AntiVirus 2003 Professional installed and somehow the trojans got past this protection (or maybe someone else in my house executed the trojan server files by accident). So I now have McAfee VirusScan 6.0 Professional installed, which also comes with a built in personal firewall. When I enable the firewall, even though I have allowed full access to the Enternet folder (which contains Sympatico Access Manager) my internet connection is dropped. The Access Manager will also not let me connect to the internet if the firewall is enabled.

I am just wondering if anyone here is using Sympatico High-Speed with a firewall enabled? If so, what firewall are you using? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. :cool:



Thanks in advance!!

I, personally, have had alot of problems directly related to McAfee products. Especially their firewall. It completely crashed a system of mine and I had to do a reformate and re-install to get it working again. Their antivirus programs seem to be ok though.
My suggestion to you would be to uninstall the firewall portion and use a third party firewall. ZoneAlarm, Kerio, and EZArmor all have free firewalls you can download, and they are very good (there are others out there also).
[EDIT] Trojans by the way are usually downloaded by a user on your own computer and a firewall will offer you very little protection to prevent this. what they will do is prevent them from 'phoning home' with potentially damaging information.

Head over to www.moosoft.com and download the 30 day trial of "the cleaner"....that should get you cleaned right up. After that, make sure that you don't open attachments or accept files from people that you don't know...and in some cases avoid accepting them from people that you DO know.

Are you a P2P fan? Kazaa is the number one when it comes to downloading viruses. Do you have file sharing disabled, or are you sharing anything you shouldn't, I.E. c:? Someone could drop a trojan in that way, but shouldn't be able to execute it.

I've had success with Norton products, firewall and AV, but I always run housecall.trendmicro.com for a double check. I don't have experience with the cleaner, but it gets good marks around here.

http://security.symantec.com/
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

These are 2 scanners that will do some penetration testing on your box, and look for live trojans accepting connections.

You're firewall will have logs, and should alert you if someone attempts to connect with a trojan client. With that IP you can use a site or program like magic nettrace
http://www.tialsoft.com/download/
If their is a single IP that is singleing you out over time, then you can use that tool
to find a email you can complain to, like: abuse@"attackersnetwork.com"

have fun
Soda

[editage]
Resonse to your next post- I installed Kerio on a winME machine, and although I thought its options and interface were better than any firewall i have dealt with....(norton and zonealarm) and free, it caused major freezage with other progs. Regardless of my problems, its configurability(is that a word :confused: ) was incredible and is worth trying.

Thanks guys!!

All viruses and trojans would have been removed as they did format my hard drive and re-installed Windows ME. I could have done this myself, but for some reason when I purchased my computer I did not recieve the Windows ME CD-ROM :confused: .

I have done alot of reading on trojans, and know that a file known as a "server" must be installed on the victim's computer before the remote user can connect remotely using a trojan horse program. But somehow before these server files were installed without my knowledge (must have been binded to an .exe or something). So if a firewall is enabled, it will block attempted connections from the trojans, even if the server files have been installed. This way, if they somehow make their way on to my PC without me knowing (like they did before) they are virtually useless as the remote user will not be able to connect to them. :cool:

I am still looking for a firewall that is compatible with my internet connection and everyone's input is appreciated. :D

lol Soda_Popinsky. We must have posted at the same time! :D

Yes, I do use KaZaA and have had MANY encounters with viruses and with this program. This is most likely how the server files are getting installed on my system. I read that trojan servers can be binded to almost any Windows filetype (including .mp3) meaning that they are probably being executed by me not even knowing that they are there. :(