Viruse, Trojans and Spyware, Oh My

Long story short, I got a trojan on my laptop. That did NOT make me happy, especially when McAfee said it got the bug, and then I kept getting pop-ups. I believe it's gone now, but so is my word counter because it was while I was updating it that the trojan appeared.

So anyone who has a word counter from the same site as me (nanowrimo), just be careful. I'm not positive that it was this site where I picked up the virus, but I'm paranoid about it and wanted to pass the info on to all of you.

Not only that, but for a while now I've been having an issue where I visit a blog and when I leave, the window begins to reopen so fast that I have to log off in order for my computer not to freeze.

I'm aware that it's happened to several other bloggers. Do you know why? Is it a google glitch? Add-ons? A virus?

I would LOVE to know how to make this stop. Any advice?

Have a happy Sunday and Monday everyone, despite the pitfalls of life in cyberspace. :-)

Comments

Terri Tiffany said…
Yes, it happened awhile ago to me and I had to switch to Firefox to open blogs. It was driving me nuts! I think I will get rid of my counter as it is the same place as yours came from. Thanks!
January 17, 2010 at 7:40 AM
Sherrinda Ketchersid said…
Oooo, I have that counter too. I will have to find another one! Sorry about your trouble. :(
January 17, 2010 at 8:02 AM
Arlee Bird said…
I started to set up that counter on my computer, but then I just didn't feel good about it and let it be. There have been a few times when I've gone to look at a commenter's page from sites that I follow and my computer gives me a warning not to go to that blogger's site. Don't know what it means but I heed the warning and avoid it.
Lee
January 17, 2010 at 11:07 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Arlee, how does your computer give you a warning? I'd love to get a warning system. LOL I do have the McAfee Site Advisor, which is really helpful.

Thanks Sherrinda and Terri. I don't know for sure that it was the Nano site though. Terri, is it easy to switch to Firefox? I'm so use to IE.
January 17, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Gwen Stewart said…
No advice, Jessica, but the same thing happened to me on Blogger a couple of weeks ago. Very annoying and somewhat scary too, with window opening left and right that I couldn't close.

Have a great Sunday--hope your 'puter is on the up and up now!
January 17, 2010 at 1:44 PM
Karen Lange said…
I don't really have any advice, but I sympathize. Hopefully things will get straightened out soon!
Blessings:)
January 17, 2010 at 4:23 PM
Arlee Bird said…
how does your computer give you a warning?

Something that McAfee must have installed recently on my system. I've just noticed it recently. It must have been some kind of automatic update.
Lee
January 17, 2010 at 5:34 PM
Emily Conrad said…
Hi Jessica,

I had some problems openning certain documents at work a while back. I realize this is a different problem, but switching to Firefox also fixed that. You asked about how easy Firefox is to use. I found it just as easy as IE, and I believe it's just a free download you can take care of in a matter of minutes.

My home computer was once out of service for a month before my computer-savvy brother managed to get it back up and running for me. That was a bit of a rough time, so I hope your troubles are solved much, much more quickly!

Best of luck!
January 17, 2010 at 5:41 PM
Kathryn Magendie said…
A while back, it's been months now, I would visit blogs and suddenly I'd open one and that would happen -when I tried to close it, it would re-open and multiply and multiply until I had to turn off my computer! I never found out what and why - but it hasn't done this in a long while!

ugh! horrid virusus and bugs!
January 17, 2010 at 5:52 PM
Kathryn Magendie said…
A while back, it's been months now, I would visit blogs and suddenly I'd open one and that would happen -when I tried to close it, it would re-open and multiply and multiply until I had to turn off my computer! I never found out what and why - but it hasn't done this in a long while!

ugh! horrid virusus and bugs!
January 17, 2010 at 5:52 PM
Karen Hossink said…
Hmmm. I'm having a thing where a second window pops up, imitating the site I'm visiting (copying the appearance, that is). But all I have to do is "x" out of it. Nothing freezes for me. So it's more annoying than anything else.
Whatever.
Happy Sunday night and Monday to you! *grin*
January 17, 2010 at 9:33 PM
Angela Ackerman said…
Ugh--I fel for you. We just scrubbed a virus off the computer--what a mess it made!
January 17, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Danyelle L. said…
Urk! *sympathy cookies* I'm so sorry.
*sigh* I wish people with the intelligence to make these things would use it for the side of good and niceness. :)
January 17, 2010 at 11:29 PM
Angie Muresan said…
Thanks for the warning, Jessica! I have no idea on how to help you though. So very sorry. :(
January 18, 2010 at 12:47 AM
* said…
Pitfalls of cyberspace, indeed. Maybe a bit of chocolate would help in the meanwhile?

Best of luck on booting out the trojan. They really bug!! (pun intended!)
January 18, 2010 at 2:06 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Thanks guys! I think it's gone, but we'll see, right? LOL
January 18, 2010 at 6:10 AM
Jennifer Shirk said…
Oh, I'm so glad you mentioned that! I thought there was a problem with Google Connect or something. I would use the Google Connect to visit blogs and extra windows would start to open up and I'd have to shut down my computer too. But only on my PC which has McAfee. My laptop has Norton and I have no problems. (Yet)
January 18, 2010 at 8:42 AM
anita said…
Eeps. I still hope I didn't give you your bug. I HATE spreading germs. Sigh...

I'm glad it's better now.

TTYL!
January 18, 2010 at 9:39 AM
Eileen Astels Watson said…
Jessica, those windows opening fast happened to me. I still don't know what caused it, but I do know that after that terrible virus that hit me twice and having to send lappy into the computer geeks for a complete overall, the problem went away. I wonder if you restored your computer to the week before this started happening if that would rid you of it? Good Luck!
January 18, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Patti Lacy said…
Gulp. I'm sorry this happened to you. Gulp. I don't have a laptop yet.

Maybe there's one advantage in being behind the times.

Informative post, Jessica! Glad you didn't have to shut THIS down!

Patti
www.pattilacy.com/blog
January 18, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Linda Kage said…
Thanks for the warning. I'll keep a look out. Scary.
January 18, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Tana said…
Yes, I do know how to make it stop. Buy a mac. No really, buy a mac. You can still get weird things on Mac's but it is very rare. I love mine. BTW, I'm a trojan ;) I went to USC.
January 18, 2010 at 10:06 AM
Sarah Forgrave said…
Oh boy, I'm not a computer guru. (That's why I married one, among other reasons of course.) LOL

I almost put that word counter on my blog, but it didn't fit in my margin. Now it sounds like I should be glad I didn't use it.

Hope your computer troubles go away soon!
January 18, 2010 at 1:35 PM
Elana Johnson said…
Sorry for your stress! I haven't had anything weird happen, except for blogs are loading extremely SLOW today. Slooooowww.
January 18, 2010 at 5:20 PM
Warren Baldwin said…
Jessica,
When you get the window opening does it say "connecting" and keep opening with a new "connecting" message? I get that sometimes.

Also, I can't print with WordPerfect on my office machine, and not at all on my home computer.

I hate computers.

Warren
January 18, 2010 at 6:01 PM
Deb Shucka said…
Sorry for your techno-problems. Hope your computer is back in the pink soon.
January 18, 2010 at 6:30 PM
Dara said…
Did you get that counter from languageisavirus.com (or whatever the site was called)? If so, I believe there is something attached to it. I tried that counter once and made the mistake of doing so on my work computer and it was the exact same thing you had.

I guess I should've seen it in the title of the site.

The one that I have on my site is good--it's basic and you have to update the widget manually, but it works.
January 18, 2010 at 6:46 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
Dara, Yes!!! THat's it. I know, the virus thing always threw me.

Everyone, thank you so much for your advice and comments! I wish I had time to respond, but today was crazy. I hope to "visit" all of you tomorrow though. :-)

And my computer is fine so far! Thank you Malware Bytes. LOL
January 18, 2010 at 8:14 PM
Jessie Oliveros said…
I did use the same word counter, and at the time had some issues with my computer. It's all coming together now... I should probably get my computer examined for viruses.
January 18, 2010 at 10:38 PM
Genny said…
This exact same thing has been happening to me. I've been having major laptop issues. I had someone just email me and tell me it could be my IE7. I think I'm going to switch to Firefox or IE8. If you find the answer to your problem, can you email me?

Thanks!

Following your blog. :)

Genny
January 20, 2010 at 9:58 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
Hey Genny,
Yes, if I find out the problem I will definitely e-mail you, or at least do a blog post.
I kind of think you might be right about it being internet explorer. I'm not convinced it's a virus or anything because it ONLY happens with blogs. Nothing else.
I hope your laptop gets better. :-)

Jessie, you don't have an antivirus installed? I think SpyBot and Malware Bytes are pretty good, free things you can use too.
January 21, 2010 at 9:18 PM
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