Adware Gator Threat

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion (More info?)

You most likely have more malware on your system that Norton cannot remove, and
SpyBot or Ad-Aware cannot detect.

Try cleaning your system of trojans with the standalone app Sysclean:
- Create a new folder on your Desktop or the C: drive and name it Sysclean.
- Go here and download sysclean.com and the pattern files to the Sysclean folder:
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp
- Unzip the pattern files from their .zip file into the Sysclean folder.
- Restart your computer in Safe Mode.
- Go to the Sysclean folder and double-click sysclean.com to start the scan.

When the scan is finished, use Notepad or Wordpad to look at the log it created. You
may need to locate the files it named there to manually delete them, if sysclean did
not delete them itself.

Following that, while still in Safe Mode, use your anti-virus app to run a
full-system virus scan. Make sure you have already updated it while you are in
normal mode.

Download these apps, install and update them while in normal mode, then run them in
Safe Mode:

CWShredder, the CoolWeb removal tool, available here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3019.html
http://aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.zip
Close all browser windows and open apps, start CWShredder and click the Fix button.

Ad-Aware SE free Personal Edition (To update it, start it and click its 'Check for
Updates' link in the app to install updates). Use it to scan your system, and
remove what it finds.
Ad-Aware SE personal edition:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html

Install, update and run SpyBot Search & Destroy, scan your system, and then remove
the items in RED only.
SpyBot S&D:
http://www.safer-networking.org/in [...] e=download

If problems persist, download, unzip, and run Hijack This from one of these
locations:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
http://computercops.biz/downloads-cat-14.html
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloa [...] ckThis.exe
Unzip to a folder other than your Desktop or the Temp folder, double-click
HijackThis.exe, and hit "Scan".

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log"
button.
Press that, save the log somewhere you can find it (Desktop, My Documents, or
similar).
Most of what it lists will be harmless or even required, so do NOT fix anything yet.

Copy the log files and paste them into a new post at ONE of these forums:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html

In your post, please state your problem clearly and what you've done so far to fix
it.

The folks there will tell you what to remove.

See the "housekeeping" you should complete before you post your log:
http://aumha.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4075

A tutorial for using Hijack This is located here:
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/

When posting to one of those forums, it might also be helpful to download the free
MWAV antivirus tool from here:
ftp://ftp.microworldsystems.com/d [...] s/mwav.exe
Save it to the desktop (or other convenient location) and run it. Follow the prompts
to scan your system for viruses. Then post the log of infected files from the BOTTOM
panel of the scan window, along with your Hijack This log.

If you would, I would also like to see the log of infected files, from MWAV, so
please post that info here also.

When removing spyware, it is a good idea to download and store LSPFix and
WinsockXPFix ahead of time, in case you need to fix your Internet connectivity when
done. Some spyware will break your ability to connect when removed.
LSPFix:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/lspfix.html
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/lspfix.html
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/communiti [...] fault.mspx


"Elsie" <Elsie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:673E2CC0-D5DB-441F-BD56-787BF2C2E593@microsoft.com...
> My Norton Antivirus notifies me that I have Adware Gator in file
> HDPlugin1018.dll
> The delete within this program fails & I downloaded Fix Gator from their
> website, but it says I have NO THREAT on my computer. Running SpyBot also
> says "it is not there". This file is "supposed" to be located in
> Windows/Downloaded Programs, but by using Windows Explorere to search, the
> file is NOT there.
>
> Does anyone know what the problem could be that Norton finds this? I had
> the computer repaired to delete any Adware/Spyware & I still get the same
> message.
>
> I need help to resolve this issue if anyone knows what the problem could be!
> It's frustrating....
>