Computer Progress!

[queerbychoice]

Aha! My new computer either arrived pre-infected with the W32.Blaster worm, or else somehow managed to get infected with it within 10 minutes of the first time I turned it on yesterday. That was what was causing it to crash and reboot every twenty minutes.

It is behaving far better now, and I am installing every Microsoft patch and increasing all the security settings to try to protect it from all these malicious invasions. I may yet manage to develop a not entirely hostile relationship with this thing.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Were you on-line when the problem began? Given how prevalent that damn worm has become, I'm guessing that since you were using an unpatched version of XP, the worm infected your computer before XP could download the patch. I'll keep that in mind for the next time I set up a new computer.

[piman.livejournal.com]

On my college network, it takes about 45 seconds between getting an IP ("getting online") and being probed by various worms. I imagine it's pretty much the same for cable modem networks, maybe a little better for DSL or phone modems.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

It must not be much more than 45 seconds for dial-up connections, because I use dial-up.

[violin.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already, you may want to turn on "classic look" or whatever they call it. One of my biggest peeves with XP is the assumption that I need buttons that look like candy coated bubbles. I don't. If that's part of your issues with XP, that may help.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! I did turn on the "classic" version.

[experimentego.livejournal.com]

Antivirus. It does a system good.

Although, you might have a problem with that seeing as reliable and branded antivirus programs cost like an arm and a leg at retail. Thank god I have piracy in my country.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

My computer came with two free months of Norton Antivirus, which is what removed the worm.