I'm using the AVG free edition anti virus software and it says I have a Launch virus in my computer running Windows 98. The file name is mfxdll.exe and it was in the windows folder. AVG has moved the file to the vault but now I can't launch any applications because I get a screen that the program ie mfxdll.exe is "needed for opening files of type 'Application' I have gone to the AVG website but there is no information about this launch virus. I'm hoping one of you kind souls will help me get rid of the thing. Luckily I have another computer to access the net.

Either Inbox me or reply here if you think it would be useful info for other mongers.

Mil gracias
Reytj

See if it tells you exactly what virus it is, i.e. the name of the specific virus. I saw one very similar to that one time. You had to change a few settings in the windows registry and it was fine.

Or, if you have two computers, search the registry for mfxdll.exe on the infected computer. Then find that same registry key on a clean computer. Then change the infected computer's registry to read just like the clean one's. Repeat until you changed every entry for mfxdll.exe in the registry. Should fix it.

Good luck

MrBill

Thanks for your response. AVG just calls the virus Launch, a trojan horse. Although it has disabled my computer it hasn't destroyed any of my files.

A fellow monger has agreed to look at my computer so we'll see what happens. I'm pretty sure I got the virus while d/l mp3's with Kaza Lite.

Reytj - as long as the virus has been quarantined, just reinstall Win98 and you should be fine. Your system should keep all its current files and settings.

i have downloaded files from kaza and have the same problem with viruses. another suggestion is to install a program pcillin 2002 on your machine as well. it will catch those viruses in their tracks and put them into quarantine. then you can delete those infected files later.

Someone posted about receiving a virus from my Email recently... It was determined maybe 6 months ago that there is a virus going out from an old Email account that has been shut down for over a year (deja.com)...

This is no doubt going out from another PC and the person had my old Email address in there address book.

I've been using Norton 2002 since the first of the year and also use Zone Alarm fire wall..

I can assure everyone that my system is clean of virus and worms as Norton scans ALL files once a week and upgrades daily..

We've been plagued by Sobig the last few days as I'm sure many of you have. If you do not know what Sobig is, it is a record setting email virus/worm that has clogged the Internet and mail boxes. The last few days it has been particularly prevalent.

TODAY, infected computers are instructed to download a program between 3pm - 6pm EASTERN (noon-3pm PACIFIC). This update is likely to be spam related, but could potentially be damaging to your home computer. If you have opened any strange email attachments recently, you may want to take a break during these hours and shut the computer down, then come back later to do a checkup to make sure you are not infected.

Here is a link about TODAY'S Sobig self-update:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/955498.asp

Here is a link about Sobig:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.html

The article has been updated. I also forgot to mention that another update is planned for Sunday at the same time.

I estimate I received between 1000-1500 of these virus emails on Friday.

I have recieved about 50 and most of them are from losers I know

I just fowarded them to curious to let him deal with them

Sorry Milkshyster, I JUST this minute got home from two days in TJ!!

And yes, my email was full as well....

Admin: Sobig removal tool

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.removal.tool.html

Quoted messages are from the Mexico Chat Board

---

quote:

Posted by Ahora007 on March 17, 2004 - 20:19 pm

Whoever is sending me constant viruses using the security@clubhombre.com title you obviously dont know what I do for a living. I will track you down and make sure you are prosecuted.

---

---

quote:

Posted by Admin on March 17, 2004 - 20:27 pm

In Reply to: VIRUS posted by Ahora007 on March 17, 2004 - 20:19 pm

This is not related to Mexico and is covered in our FAQs under Support. Whoever is infected with the virus that is sending you emails likely has no idea that they are infected.
When you do not understand something, ASK SUPPORT!

Support is on the left hand navigation bar.
FAQs is on the left hand navigation bar.
The question addressing this is located under FAQ -> Miscellaneous Questions
Did you send me an email?/How do newer email viruses operate?

---

---

quote:

Posted by Socrates69 on March 18, 2004 - 0:01 am

In Reply to: Re: VIRUS posted by Admin on March 17, 2004 - 20:27 pm

Yup, that exact virus that is described in that link you provide is the exact virus a friend of mine was infected with. Luckily, she called to tell me not to open her e-mail before I got to it.

---

---

quote:

Posted by Ahora007 on March 18, 2004 - 21:51 pm

In Reply to: Re: VIRUS posted by Admin on March 17, 2004 - 20:27 pm

dude you need to take a chill pill. Stop being so fucking rude. Im getting tired of it. The reason I posted here is #1 to let everyone know about the virus so it does not happen to them as I doubt anyone goes daily to the support section and second to warn anyone that does it on purpose that it is illegal. I would think you would care enough about your customers to let them know this on all the boards ahead of time BEFORE t they open it not after when they are already infected and have to look it up in your damn support section. The way you respond makes me think some asshole like lakers is working here.

---

IMPORTANT VIRUS/WORM ALERT

Really bad news how the most recent virus worms are developing. This one is automatic (does NOT require opening an attachment) and will render affected computers inoperable. Over 50,000 affected so far. This one damages computers with Black Ice and Real Secure Internet firewall products installed.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/fc/Tech/computer_viruses_and_worms/latest_developments/*http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040321/tc_washpost/a11310_2004mar20

Thanks for the heads up.

For those of you that don't have any anti-virus software on your machine, you should go ahead and run this free util from Symatec. It checks for and removes the Sasser worm:

http://www.net-security.org/software.php?id=559

And just in case you don't already, you should be visiting http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com every month and installing all the latest and greatest security patches and fixes from Microsoft for Windows and Internet Explorer. If you had been keeping up on this, a fix from Symantec would not be necessary for Sasser because your system would not be vulnerable to attack.

Any computer connected to the internet via broadband should have both firewall software and anti-virus software installed. All computes should have anti-virus to protect from the loads of email viruses that are out there. Those of you that aren't that computer literate probably have tons of spyware and viruses on your systems and don't even know about it. Yet your computer can be controlled in an instant by a hacker and used to attack other machines, get personal information off your machine, or tons of other malicious uses.

I recommend Sygate Personal Firewall as a good free firewall.

http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

I recommend McAfee for virus protection.

http://www.mcafee.com

Here is Microsoft's page on Sasser that has recommendations and another removal tool.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp

And when you REALLY get tired of the viruses, get a Mac

I got hit by Sassar yesterday. My computer would restart within a minute or so of getting online. This happened about 6 times. I just built my first one, installed XP, and was starting to search for the virus protection (AVG) and firewall (Sygate) that I had installed on my last computer. This virus hit me out of nowhere literally within the first 5 minutes of getting online. I picked up several others that may have piggy backed on it. Now the two programs are running and I downloaded 16 security patches from MS. Unfortunately, there is now something residing on my hard drive that attempts to get online everytime I start up. Spy Bot rooted out a good 10 registry entries they claim are either fake or attempts by MS to continually keep in touch with users of their products. Search engines find many others with the same problem socalled service files and no one seems to know whether they are actually legit or not.

A note about XP: I am sick and tired of spam, pop ups, and programs that want to suck your blood out with repeated attempts to install crap on your computer. I followed the lawsuits against MS by the governments feeling that MS wasn't really doing anything wrong except offering a superior bundled product to people who chose to purchase their offerings. Two days into using XP for the first time I have had it with its damn little icons demanding I participate in all the "features" of MSN, instant messaging, and numerous other products I don't want. As quick as I delete them or reset my "startup" configuration they show up again. It was a real pleasure telling Windows Media Player that I was not going to use it for my default player and making it stick. Ditto with resetting my "home page" and deleting the crud in the "favorites" list. I wish other things were so easy.

If you have some decent bandwidth and a cd-burner, try downloading Knoppix, a linux distribution. It runs completely on your cdrom and doesn't touch your harddrive, except if you want to save a configuration file. If you like it you can install the distribution, even side-by-side with Xp.You can get a feel for what linux is bringing to the desktop. I let go of M$ about 12 years ago and have never had a virus, worm, spyware, adware, unwanted popups on my computer. While I have to admit I'm a computer professional, I installed Knoppix on my mothers computer (she's 75) and she has no problems with it. I think 3.4 is the latest version. It's free, it's not crippleware or shareware. If IBM, HP, Dell, Gateway and Novell are all jumping on the linux and OSS (open source software) bandwagon, It's for a good reason. M$ right now owns the desktop about 90%, but most analyst are predicting Linux will have about 20-30 percent or even more, of the desktop in 3 years.

Don't wait that long!

OG

Orgngrndr,

Very interesting about Knoppix. Is that what you use as your main desktop workstation OS or do you use another Linux distro? I had never heard about it until today. I have dabbled with Redhat 6, 7, 8, and 9 in the past, but they seemed to have changed directions now to focus on enterprise computing.

I am looking for another Linux desktop workstation distro to play with. Two that I am considering are Debian and Mandrake and then possibly Suse as well.

Do you have an opinion on either of those mentioned? I probably won't give up XP as a desktop workstation, but I like to play around occasionally.

Tight_Fit, you might try a copy of Zone Alarm (www.zonelabs.com). It can block anything from accessing your network connection, inbound or out, and will tell you what's trying to access it. There's even a free version that'll do that much.

As for the Microsoft Passport, etc. If you've got a legit version of XP, just go ahead and sign up for all that crap once, and you need never be bothered with it again. And if they do start sending you newsletters or such, at least Microsoft provides legit opt-out mechanisms. One word from you and they'll go away.

I've run XP pretty much since it came out, and never had a worm, virus (except the one my computer-illiterate roommate managed to acquire for me), or anything other than spyware (which Ad-Aware is pretty good at getting rid of). My best protection is probably using an old trusty text-based email and usenet reader, Forte Agent (www.forteinc.com). None of that crap with Outlook automatically running scripts. The only email attachments that get opened on my machine are the ones *I* say to open.

Xen,

The linux desktop I'm using now is Sun's new Java Desktop. This is only because I use it as for my sys admin duties, (several dozen, rather large, Sun Enterprise servers). I've been using FreeBSD since 1994 (v2.1) and before that Sun/os and before that bsd/os 4.4 on Vaxes, and before that bsd 2.11 on a pdp-11. So I'm pretty familiar with unix . My favorite linux distro right now is actually debian, as they support many architectures. I can run it on a ultra-sparcs and alphas as well as a x86.

But if your looking for a "desktop linux" one with all the bell's and whistles and like to have everthing preinstalled, then Mandrake. Lindows, Xandros, and Knoppix are the ones to try. Knoppix is unique in that it can run right off your cdrom, so if you are knew to linux, it is the easist to get to run fully featured without any effort. Just put it in the cdrom and boot. it boots into the KDE desktop with all applications, you can easily confgure it for internet usage, and all this without touching your windows installation on your harddrive. I definately recomend it if you want to show people what linux is about. It's easy to permanantly install too. Mandrake is easy to install also.

Suse is also good and they were just acquired by Novell, who are going to make a big push to reclaim market share they lost to Windows NT. They have a good desktop version ready already, but the Novell/Suse version coming out soon will be really a gee-whiz slambang kind of thing.

PhoenixGuy

Without a doubt, the first thing to submarine when running ANY windows version is outlook/outlook express. Go a third party email client, make sure it can't execute /or open anything that comes in the mail. I installed Mozilla on our only XP/2000 machines at work. All our mail is filtered by a unix box anyway. So far we have not been hit by any of the real nasty worms/viruses. The company that I'm contracted to has just made a decision to move away from M$ products during the next purchase cycle. They will only have Linux and Mac OSX desktops after 2004.

OG

Phoenixguy, I was using Zone Alarm for a while and really liked it except that WinMx, my music downloading program, and Zone Alarm would not work together. Too bad because ZA was easy and didn't screw things up like Norton Internet Security 2004 which was a two week disaster. I've been with Sygate now for several months and am quite happy with it. The fact that both ZA and Sygate have free personal downloads is nice also.

Hey orgngrndr

Is Sun's Java desktop downloadable? I have wanted to try it (tired of gnome). Could not find it on Sun's site (not unusual, I always have trouble finding things there).

Thanks

Sandy

Sun Java Desktop is still what they (and myself) consider Beta plus. That is they are still working thing out, but are selling it to corporations. You do not just buy the desktop, it comes with a desktop support program for your company. I got mine as I belong to Sun's Developer Network (which really anybody can join). The Java Desktop is essentially Linux with Java running many apps. It is pretty cool. Sun can really run with this at the corporate level. It runs all Unix apps as well as most M$ apps through Wine and some Sun proprietary stuff. I'm not sure if Sun is offereing it as a download just yet, but they will soon. If sun would have offered this about a year aand a half ago, they would not have suffered like they did recently. (But then again they wouldn't have got the half a billion dollar settlement from M$ for it's illegal Java use.

OG

Thanks! Looks like I will have to sign up with the Developer Network again!

Sandy

I just got spam at my Club Hombre email address The_Senator@ClubHombre.com. Here's the header:

475 ROBERT ALLEN MONEY MAKING SYSTEM WITHOUT SELLING ! 5 Aug 2005 5K

Anyone else get this message? Could someone on Club Hombre be culling it for email addresses?

On the Panama City board I saw a link to a call grl website. I clicked on it & was infected with a se

My CH email address doesn't seem to work any more. Is the service still available?

Member ch email addresses have not been available since we moved/upgraded the server in March.