help ime under attack

[electric.mike]

i know this is not the right place but its the only place i can think of asking
i think my pc is under attack
every time i open outlook i start to receive an email then norton starts to scan it and the pc starts to slow down i ctrl alt del and it shows 100% cpu usage and it seems as though nothing is going to happen no matter how long i wait, any ideas would be welcome
thanks mike

 

[Flying Kiwi]

i know this is not the right place but its the only place i can think of asking
i think my pc is under attack
every time i open outlook i start to receive an email then norton starts to scan it and the pc starts to slow down i ctrl alt del and it shows 100% cpu usage and it seems as though nothing is going to happen no matter how long i wait, any ideas would be welcome
thanks mike

Forgive me from replying here Russ - it was an electric bike related email you were receiving wasn't it mike I used to work as a computer tech (one of several jobs I've had) and had to deal with performance and security issues from time to time (it was at a boys school after all ). How much hard disk space is remaining on the machine - if it's getting low and a large email download is attempted this could cause the problem your experiencing. If you unplug your PC from the internet (just disconnect the modem or router from the phone line and start it up does it run at ordinary speed and CPU usage? Have you manually Live Updated Nortons to ensure it's the very latest? If the problem is definitely with the email on the ISPs server then you could always phone them up and ask them to guide you through telnetting into their email server to delete it without having to download it. If you want to PM me further details of how you get on I'll try to help that way if needed.

 

[electric.mike]

FLYING KIWI
thanks for the reply i will try to answer your questions
laptop 37.2gb hd 27.9gb free
dont know where email is from it wont fully download
have blocked all trafic via norton and cpu is 0%-2% as soon as i unblock and open outlook it jumps to 100%
i normaly leave it up to live update but did a manual update and it said every thing was up to date.
i did a security check via the norton site and it came back with no problems exept it said there where two areas it could not check because i was not running activ x (which i thought it was better not to run)
the problem with contacting my service provider is its ntl and (this is not a racist remark just a comment on ntl)i dont speak hindu chinese hell i sometimes struggle with english
thanks mike

 

[Baboonking]

you could try one of the free online virus scans such as this one

Dr.Web Anti-virus - official website of Doctor Web, Ltd. / Download

I've not found norton very good. I'm not a computer security expert but I do use my computer a lot and have found that while norton picks up some viruses its not much use against some of the more sophisticated bespoke trojans, the same goes for some of the free checkers like avast and avg free.

If it does turn out you have a virus I'd recommend either Bitdefender (paid version £40), nod32 or my favorite DRweb (£15 per year).

But like flying kiwi said above it might be something more prosaic.

 

[flecc]

It's worth using a spyware checker as well to see if you've picked up a trojan which is using your PC to mail out spybot attacks. That can slow it right down like this.

There are free adequate ones which you can use, and this one is highly recommended, just click the green button or the Free download link below to download it so that you can scan the computer and quarantine any nasties:

Spyware Doctor - Best AntiSpyware 2005 & 2006

For future reference in the event of PC problems once this is sorted, the PC Advisor forum gives free help from experienced computer users. I worked in that helproom for some years until the workload buried me!

 

[Flying Kiwi]

FLYING KIWI
thanks for the reply i will try to answer your questions
laptop 37.2gb hd 27.9gb free
dont know where email is from it wont fully download
have blocked all trafic via norton and cpu is 0%-2% as soon as i unblock and open outlook it jumps to 100%
i normaly leave it up to live update but did a manual update and it said every thing was up to date.
i did a security check via the norton site and it came back with no problems exept it said there where two areas it could not check because i was not running activ x (which i thought it was better not to run)
the problem with contacting my service provider is its ntl and (this is not a racist remark just a comment on ntl)i dont speak hindu chinese hell i sometimes struggle with english
thanks mike

No worries about lack of disk space then. When you opened Outlook was the modem or router plugged into the cable jackpoint? If the PC is physically isolated from the internet and other PC's if it's connected wirelessly (easiest to isolate the wireless capability by turning off the wireless network controller in your laptop) then what happens when you attempt to open Outlook and just leave it a few minutes? It's easier to just physically isolate the PC rather than relying on configuring your firewall software and more dependable. As long as the machine is physically isolated from other machines and you've got up to date AV software it should eventually sort itself out after it's churned through whatever it's doing. Because Outlook Express stores emails and attachments in a compressed format it sometimes takes quite some time and lots of CPU resources to display emails. Have you run the 'clean up now' 'compact option under the tools/options/maintenance tab within Outlook Express recently? Although this will run automatically from time to time, I like to manually clean up mine regularly.

Remember as long as your machine is unplugged from the Internet and other machines both wirelessly and via cable, then no hackers or undesirables can be interfering at the time. Personally I think this looks more like a software glitch than a hacker attack, which would often take place surreptitiously.

 

[rsscott]

i know this is not the right place but its the only place i can think of asking
i think my pc is under attack
every time i open outlook i start to receive an email then norton starts to scan it and the pc starts to slow down i ctrl alt del and it shows 100% cpu usage and it seems as though nothing is going to happen no matter how long i wait, any ideas would be welcome
thanks mike

Hi mike,

can I presume you are running Windows XP ? If so, when you ctrl-alt-delete, if you sort the running processes by the CPU column header you can see what tasks are taking up the time. I suspect it will be your antivirus software that is doing it though as it will be scanning the emails as they are downloaded.

You could try starting your PC in Safe Mode and then running outlook to see what happens? Also are you running outlook or outlook express?

I'm not sure if NTL provide a web interface for accessing your email? If they do, you could see what email is waiting for you and delete it direct from their email server.

 

[Beeping-Sleauty]

Hi Mike,

if you log onto Virgin Media - digital TV, broadband, phone and mobile which is what NTL has become this week, at the top of the page you'll see the envelope icon for your NTL email account, you will need your NTL 10 digit password to access your account,

Once your inbox opens, open the messages, look for any attachments, exercise extreme caution, delete anything suspicious.

close the NTL account, 2 screens of this, then try Outlook for your messages again,

i've seen malware corrupt email headers and cause outlook to jam the machine like this,

PM me if i can help any further,
regards,
beeps

 

[Sav]

Yup dead right basically.

I would guess there is an large email or one with a dodgy attachemnt on your ISP's web server. Outlook Express attempts to download it onto your PC.

Log directly onto your webmail where the email is stored on your ISP's server and delete the humungous message from your inbox. There should be a webmail option on your ISP's home page ('webmail', 'view your email online', or similar).

Next time you fire up Outlook Express the email will no longer be on the server to block the download.

Sav.

 

[electric.mike]

thanks every one especialy Beeping-Sleauty there was a email not that large for broadband only 7mb but it was from a mate and we send each other all sorts of comedy pics and movie clips of the net.
i guess norton wasnt happy with it.
mike

 

[flecc]

Is he still a mate?

 

[electric.mike]

i mailed him to tell him, and ask him not to send it again, in case it came up on his pc that i had not opend it.
i bet when he finds out he will feel just a little guilty,i would rather it be that way round.
mike.

 

[Sav]

thanks every one especialy Beeping-Sleauty there was a email not that large for broadband only 7mb but it was from a mate and we send each other all sorts of comedy pics and movie clips of the net.
i guess norton wasnt happy with it.
mike

Good!!

More likely there was a problem with the file in that it got slightly corrupted in the upload / transfer. OE's protocols didn't know how to handle it. I've seen that several times when a file causes OE to go around in cirlcles.

Sav.

 

[Flying Kiwi]

only 7mb but it was from a mate and we send each other all sorts of comedy pics and movie clips of the net.
i guess norton wasnt happy with it.

It concerns me that your CPU usage went up to 100% when you were attempting to download it just because of its size Personally I dont use Norton products anymore because of issues exactly like this. No program should hog 100% CPU resources just for a download scan and I consider that to be a software bug with the program. You may wish to report it to Symantec for investigation.

There are better, smaller and more effective AV programs out there which aren't as CPU dependant. I've used both NOD32 and Kaspersky with none of these sorts of problems cropping up. Sophos is one of the best but unfortunately it's a business product and not available for end users unless its installed at your childrens school and they have permission for parents to use it for free (quite common in schools with Sophos on their machines). The school network manager will be able to tell you if this applies.

 

[electric.mike]

FLYING KIWI
norton has never been my first choice but it was installed as part of the package when i bought the laptop and i took the easy way out, a few years ago i tried to uninstall a norton package and with my limited knowledge i never got rid of it completly.
after saying that its the first problem i have had in 5 months.
mike