Re: Viewpoint Media Player

Boy anymore when one gets on their computer, they barely can have time to search and do email without being attacked.

I have WinXP with SP2 upgrade. I have NIS 2004 and Spybot. I have Win XP and NIS 2004 firewalls on.

I was having disconnection problems for the past few weeks. I was clean except for a few "ad spies" found by Spybot. I also found more when i realized i had forgotten to check for a Spybot upgrade as well.

I then was looking around my Control Panel and said to myself: "How does one know all these things belong here?" For one, a few times Norton would alert me to a Viewpoint manager wanting to use a port for access and would recommend i not let it. I had no idea what Viewpoint Media Player was. I did a Google search and found it is spyware, possibly getting on my computer by having AIM, which someone blamed AOL for doing, yet now Netscape owns it, right? Anyway, i removed Viewpoint and its componets in Add & Remove.

My next question is: What is Learn2 Player? And who knows what other programs in the Control Panel and/or Add/Remove Programs list do not belong there?

I finally downloaded Ad-Aware SE, as i had not done that and kept thinking i ought to have it along with Spybot. I used to have it, yet this is a fairly new computer and i am still putting on my armor. It is sad that we have to take so much time and disc space to protect ourselves against some humans who have nothing better to do than to spy and attack us in all walks of life.

 

Sometimes, using Spybot and Ad-Aware isn't enough. If you would like to be sure, please post a HijackThis log on here. This is just a tool, it doesn't know bad from good, it just shows what it finds, and can 'fix' them by removal. Wait for advice before acting with it.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
BTW, you may be interested in the IEspyads link below. It will put a number of sites into your Restricted Zone known to do these type of things. When all the security settings for that zone is set to disabled, those sites in the zone can do nothing.

 

I feel i am an Intermediate computer user. I am not good with the tech stuff. It at times is overwhelming in your Senior years to learn all this new tech stuff. It seems all the Security programs take up a lot of my time and disc space even.

I do not have a zip program to dl IE SPY-AD. Can you still get WinZip for free or only buy it?

I do not understand what you meant here:
"If you would like to be sure, please post a HijackThis log on here. This is just a tool, it doesn't know bad from good, it just shows what it finds, and can 'fix' them by removal. Wait for advice before acting with it. "
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html

Thank you for your reply, understanding, and patience.

 

Hello crystalwoman,

I do not have a zip program to dl IE SPY-AD. Can you still get WinZip for free or only buy it?

XP has a built in "un-zipper" - download IE SPY-AD to it's own folder and un-zip by double clicking when you want to install it.

I do not understand what you meant here: If you would like to be sure, please post a HijackThis log on here.

Same - Download HijackThis to a folder of it's own - unzip and run. After the scan, click the save scan button, the saved scan will be in the same folder - then copy & paste it into your next post. Someone will look at the log that HijackThis will create and look for malware entries.

Download from here: http://radiosplace.com/

I then was looking around my Control Panel and said to myself: "How does one know all these things belong here ?

Links to sites that have info on startup applications and system processes:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/index.htm Startups

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/system/ Windows System Startups

http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/search.php !! Searchable DB by Windows Startup Manager people

If you can't find a particular entry in the linked sites, google for it or ask here.

Regards - Charles

 

thank you again for all the help. I never knew i had a built in zip program with my new WinXP. I learn something everyday.....
I downloaded Ad Aware. I found nothing unusual in spies. I did find that the Viewpoint was nothing i had wanted and AOL AIM put it on. They are sneaks.
thanks again, J