Hello,

I have a major spyware infection, which cannot be fixed by McAfee, Yahoo free Anti-spyware, SpyBot Search & Destroy, or SmitFraudFix.

Whenever I open a browser window, a page appears telling me that my PC is infected. McAfee also keeps detecting Trojans.

One message says: "udpmod.dll is infected with dangerous spyware or adware!" It keeps trying to re-direct me to antispynet.com.

Please help.

I am told that some of this stuff is really nasty - however you haven't tried everything yet - - I use the following (1) Ad-Aware Ad-Aware SE Personal - Software - Lavasoft (Reviews say that this free software will detect and remove some Spyware that SpyBot does not detect) and Microsoft Windows Defender Windows Defender home (another piece of free software that runs in the background and prevents new infections as well as removing existing spyware when it is first installed).

Maybe I've been lucky but between the two I've been pretty well protected for the past couple of years.

Have you tried Ad-Aware at Lavasoft ?

Also, McAfee is a horrible anti-virus program (and any other type of program). Get the one at AVG Free Advisor: Free anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware tools (AVG Free). MAKE SURE YOU UNINSTALL MCAFEE FIRST THOUGH (they each detec the other as virii and it gets real nasty).

Some of the other things you should try:

1) Clear out your Internet Explorer Cache and all temporary files (this can be done using Windows Disk Cleanup pretty quickly).

2) Run the wonderful program HijackThis! (don't fear the name...it's legit) over at |MG| Free Download - HijackThis 1.99.1 and post your logfile output from this.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. You do have what I call ironicware, though. It's ironic because it's spyware telling you to get rid of spyware.

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I tried Ad-Aware, but it didn't work and the instructions at HijackThis! were beyond me. Finally I got desperate and got a pro to re-format the system and re-load Windows with Norton 2006. I hope this will be effective.

I guess the only way to be safe is to be very selective about the mail you open and the websites you visit. Quite a pity, because it severely limits the power of the Internet.

I would have suggested Spybot- Search & Destroy.

Spybot - Search & Destroy - Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com

Pretty neat software.

However what you did was probably the easiest way to get everything clean again.

You could also try ewido anti-spyware. That does a good job.

ewido - anti-spyware and anti-malware solutions

There are many out there that are very good at cleaning this sort of infection.

Originally Posted by navi5

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I tried Ad-Aware, but it didn't work and the instructions at HijackThis! were beyond me. Finally I got desperate and got a pro to re-format the system and re-load Windows with Norton 2006. I hope this will be effective.

I guess the only way to be safe is to be very selective about the mail you open and the websites you visit. Quite a pity, because it severely limits the power of the Internet.

Yeah, it does. But you can usually get a pretty good idea of what you're going to get into by the number and nature of the ads on a page. You start seeing popups/excessive ads, back your *** up and go somewhere else.

As far as Norton (whatever it is, AV, IS, it doesn't matter) 2006 goes...no pro in their right mind would load that piece of crap onto a machine. It creates more problems than it solves.

I agree sometimes the simple solutions do work! AVG and Zonealarm have never let me down.

Spyware front.. I use spware blaster (Protection before spyware can hit), search and destroy, ewido... and some others I can't remember though

Hello,
Yes, sometimes, if you can't get help from someone who knows what their doing, reloading the OS usually helps. However, you can fix and protect your computer free of charge at various places. This is a perfect time to let you know about my webpage, CleanComputerHelp.com - Home . It is 100% free computer help and tools for infected computers. If you need further help with your computer, don't hesitate to ask.
Patrick

Originally Posted by JohnJ

I am told that some of this stuff is really nasty - however you haven't tried everything yet - - I use the following (1) Ad-Aware Ad-Aware SE Personal - Software - Lavasoft (Reviews say that this free software will detect and remove some Spyware that SpyBot does not detect) and Microsoft Windows Defender Windows Defender home (another piece of free software that runs in the background and prevents new infections as well as removing existing spyware when it is first installed).

Maybe I've been lucky but between the two I've been pretty well protected for the past couple of years.

Lavasoft is the best to use been using for years, the record number of infections it found on a friends PC was about 800+ when Spy Bot only found 280 ish