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Thread: Something's fishy

  1. #1
    Elite Hacker
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    1,407

    Something's fishy

    I've recently encountered a strange problem on my laptop. It's a toshiba running Windows XP Home. About a week ago AVG free edition warned me that my virus database was out of date. So when I went to try and update it, it wouldn't update. Not a good sign if you ask me. So I rebooted into safemode with networking, and I ran the trendmicro online scan, which I think didn't find much if anything. The weird thing is, that AVG was able to update in safemode with networking. So I rescanned since it updated, and it didn't find anything.

    So the other day I try and update again and it won't update. Same thing, where it updates in safemode with networking but not in normal mode. So I decide to uninstall AVG and get Avast. So I install avast, reboot, then it scanned on reboot. It didn't really find anything. After I login, I register with avast, and try and update it. Same thing as with AVG, it wouldn't update in normal mode. I didn't immediately boot into safemode with networking and update it. I went to school and tried updating it on their connection to no avail. So when I got home, I reboot into safemode with networking, and it updates fine, and I run a scan. Comes up mostly clean with the only problems being stuff I knew about such as WhiteScorpion's backdoor program in a zip file.

    Now I'm wondering what the heck is going on. Since then I've run the Panda online scan and also one mentioned in a recent thread here from microsoft. Both with pretty much nothing. I still can't update my AV in normal mode. This really scares me. It almost has to be some program keeping it from updating, since it works in safemode and not in normal mode.

    So I ask all of you, what do I do? Either this is some freak thing, or I'm owned. If I'm owned, what can I do that I haven't already done? I don't really want to reinstall, but it may come to that. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thanks.


    edit

    It's the weirdest thing. About when all this started I had disabled Sygate personal firewall from starting up with msconfig. Well, apparently all that was disabled was the GUI or something. It was blocking stuff without asking me if I wanted to allow or deny it, and I had no idea it was running. There was nothing in the taskbar or anything. So I started up the GUI, and I immediately get a message asking if I want to allow a ping to the update site for avast. I allow it, then it asks me again this time for an HTTP connection. So now it's updating and all is good. Now I feel stupid, but I'll leave this up anyway. I blame it on Sygate!

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Memphis, TN
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    3,747
    yeah sygate is really bad about that.

    YOu can close it, but it still runs in the background.
    =

  3. #3
    Right turn Clyde Nokia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Button Moon
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    1,696
    Reckon thats one of the strangest problems I've heard about for a while! Kudos for finding the answer - certainly something to keep in mind for future reference!

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