So I opened my blog in internet explorer this weekend and all the images in my sidebars (Google ads, Amazon ads, Pugsplace T-shirts ads) were showing unwanted unapproved advertisements. Some were even porn. Imagine my shock when I saw boobs and asses on Pugsplace side by side with my content. The links to all these sketchy sites were coming from places like ad.creafi.com, ad.directaclick.com, zedo, and zango.

Immediately I thought the issue must be linked to an Amazon or Google affiliate who had perhaps hijaked my code and taken over my ad space with malicious intent. The first thing I did was remove Amazon links to see if that stopped the ads from appearing. Nope. Then I pulled down my Google ads to see if that would stop the unwanted ads from appearing on my site. Not. Even my own self created Pugsplace store banners were populating links to naked celebrities and adult friend finders in my local area code...

That's when it started to hit me that maybe it wasn't a case of hijaked HTML code or seedy affiliates, but some kind of spyware that's seeped into my system and is replacing all banners with viral image ads. I went into another room and booted up my old dusty CyberMax98 desktop which probably hadn't been turned on in about a year. Sure enough I pulled up Pugsplace.com and only the appropriately coded ads were appearing...

I went back to my XP laptop (where I do all of my blogging and online activities) and now I was getting unwanted pop ups with every click. Fucking virus. I ran Norton but it didn't detect anything. I tried to download the latest copy of Ad-Aware but the computer kept freezing on me or I'd get incomplete operation messages, have to reboot and start over. Either that or the machine would overheat and I'd have to wait for it to cool down before I could start over and then work in Mozilla.

Finally I got through an Ad-Aware full system scan and it detected 408 infected files. It was able to clean all but 190 of them. The critical infections found were:

Win32.Trojan.Clicker
Win32.Trojan.Agent
Win32.Backdoor.VB

After a system reboot and follow-up attempt to clean the infections I kept received error messages saying Ad-Aware has run into unexpected problems and had to shut down. My next step was to download some other spyware programs like Spy-bot, AVG, or Avast but by that point the infection must have spread too deeply into my registry files because I wasn't even able to get a browser to stay open.

Sunday afternoon now, I decided I had two options: 1.) Drive down to Circuit City or Best Buy and spend 2k on a new laptop or 2.) Dig out my original Windows XP Operating Disc from like 5 years ago and reformat the entire hard drive. I opted for the latter. Unfortunately my current system wasn't stable enough to allow me to save some files to back up so I lost a lot of things but I've had to do this once before (reformat) so it's nothing I can't live without.

My first attempt at the reinstall was to try to Repair my hard drive before totally wiping it out. But in order to do that I had to enter my oringal product key which I couldn't find, anywhere [only to later find out it was on the bottom of my laptop, all I had to do was flip it over]. Enough screwing around. I took a deep breath and clicked "D" on the "Are you sure you want to delete this Partition" question which would essentially wipe out everything on my hard drive so I'd have to start over from scratch and rebuild all my drivers, reinstall all programs, etc. F. it, I hit D.

60 minutes later I am back to the factory settings my computer came with, sans the drivers that had been preloaded and I'll have to reload. The first thing I tried to do was create my internet connection which runs through a cable modem. No luck. I went to start/run/cmd/ipconfig and it wasn't even listing an ip address, so the modem is not talking to my computer!

After 64 minutes on the phone with my ISP and having to speak with 3 different supervisors I am still without an internet connection. They insist it has something to do with my modem because the "cable" light does not stay steady on. I argued and argued with them that its not the modem because my other computer (the Cybermax 98) connection is working just fine through the router. Then they gave me the whole "We dont support Lynksys routers ma'am" the only thing we can do is open a trouble ticket.

A trouble ticket wherein a cable guy will come to my house between the hours of 3-5 (they only give you a range not a specific time) on Tuesday when I will not be there because they can't accomodate MY schedule and come after 6:00PM so I'll have to juggle Dr. appointments and work and the rest of my life only to find out that there is nothing really wrong with the modem, it's something in re-establishing the internet connection that was lost upon system wipe. I'm sure of it.

Now the Cybermax 98 isn't optimal for anything, it doesn't have excel or word or adobe. I can't even check my Gmail on it because of the way 98 formats the screen. I can't use any of my other programs that I use in daily life and it doesn't have any anti virus software on it, so it's only a matter of time before this one becomes infected too. At least it's a temporary internet connection until the other one gets fixed.

On a positive note, I stopped taking one of my medicines last week and the rash / bumps on my back are gone. Guess it's my computer's turn to be sick.