Thanks for the tips Moi. I'm updating our work computers that run XP. Doing an early backup today for March 31st and April 1st. Our server isn't connected to the internet but our workstations are. We have a hardware firewall named "The Troll" used for internet access. I'm doing all this extra stuff just in case.

I have McAfee virus protection. There is a "Lockdown Firewall"
option that states it "instantly blocks all inbound and outbound network traffic between your computer and the Internet. It stops all remote connections from accessing your computer and blocks all programs on your computer from accessing the Internet."

There is a button to click on for "lockdown". Should I activate this? If I do how do I deactivate it once the threat has passed? I don't want to do anything that's going to be hard to reverse.

good job on being pro-active, wizzy.

~~~~~~~~~

kitty,

lockdown means it'll block all the in coming and out going traffic.

The only advantages to that is if you never shut down your computer (that you leave it in sleep mode) and if you were trouble shooting your computer and you don't want to be interfered by additional internet bugs while you're trouble shooting it.

it is the equivalent of unplugging your puter or your modem. But most people don't like to do that. So this program was created for those that want to just "unplug" it via their puter rather than plugging and unplugging

if you turn off your computer. You don't have to worry. If you let your puter fall asleep vs. shutting it off. You might want to just consider unplugging the modem(or just the ethernet wire that is connected to your puter) vs going through this feature.

I am not familiar with McAfee's firewall lockdown feature but I suspect it's the same as others. It might give you more trouble than the virus itself.

good question though.

*note. If you LOCK it down. You won't be able to access the internet (if you are able to, then the lockdown is NOT doing it's job.)

Thank you, Moi!

I told my boys I'm shutting the computer down tonight and leaving if off all day tomorrow. You'd have thought I told them that pizza was no longer available!

Sandy if you have a internet security suite program - or maybe the regular ones or firewall ones have it too... there in the program in one of the sections should be something about locking internet or locking the firewall..

If you don't have one of those you can always download a free trial
most are 30 days.

here's a top 10 with reviews -
http://internet-security-suite-revie...enreviews.com/

or cnet.com listings and downloads -
http://download.cnet.com/windows/int...torsRating+asc

My Zone Alarm has a setting in the program section where i can set it to lock after any amount of time that I choose.

Also if I right click on the task bar icon for ZA - that lets me lock or unlock access.

I ran the full scan. Took about 3 hours.

It found and removed
Win32.Zhelatin.a
also known as Win32/nuwar.A (McAfee)

The AVG virus scan did not pick this up. (I had run that last night after loggin goff the internet.)Don't know how long it's been there. I had McAfee on this computer up until 2 weeks ago.

Running the scan is worth it.

Rumor has it that turning off your computer for the whole day only delays it being active to the next time you turn it on.

If you have your Windows updates done, your antivirus up to date, and scanned, and a good anti spyware program like Superanitspyware.com (FREE) up and scanned, you are in good shape.

Its April 1 today.

Can you go to Microsoft.com? Can you go to Nortons.com? If so, its a 99% chance you DONT have the worm. The worm prevents you from reaching either of these two sites.

I'm fine. I went to microsoft first thing. If it was the conficker worm (which what I had wasn't listed as one of the names), then the scan got rid of it.

All of my programs are updated daily. I have to check too many links here on NT not to keep them updated.

I sure hope that rumor isn't true. I took the modem away from my husband. I know he hasn't kept the gym's computer up to par. He thought having a firewall was all he needed.

We did the Microsoft scan today.... it took over 8 hrs!

It found only one medium problem:
Win32/PowerRegScheduler

Which I checked for removal.

My son thinks this is a start up window for registering some
software. It was located in my start up folder.