Rant!

I read a newsgroup post recently, where isn’t important, with a warning that Google/Blogspot had become infested with a variety of nasty things including viruses (virii?), trojans, adware, and spyware. Lovely people who delight in creating misery for others, had created blogs simply to spread them.

Those who know me know I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to computers. What I do know is that I know just enough to really screw things up, which I have done on more than once occasion. As a result when my pc acts up, I immediately blame myself and don't have a clue what I did wrong or what to do.

This blog is the most adventuresome thing I’ve attempted, ever. I even downloaded the recommended application that would allow me to add photographs to it.

And over the weekend, I knew something was wrong. Stuff I didn’t recognize began trying to access the Internet on its own and hit my firewall, instead. Thank goodness for that!

Despite up-to-date AV and a firewall, something had apparently gotten in. In fact, a bunch of bad stuff that I couldn’t seem to get rid of despite running Spybot, Ad-Aware, and McAfee AV repeatedly.

The different programs would find stuff, kill/obliterate it, and then it would be back all over again. And whatever it was, it seemed to be multiplying, hogging more and more RAM with each reincarnation.

And that’s when I saw that post.

I’d visited one Blogspot blog blindly using the NEXT button. The possibility was, if that post was accurate and I’m not sure it is, that I’d accidently stumbled right into one of those blogs created by lovely people who delight in creating misery for others.

The other possibility was that I’d done it to myself. The only thing I’d downloaded, except for Spybot and Ad-Aware updates, had been that photo program. Whether or not it was the actual culprit, I didn’t know or care. I deleted it.

But the problems kept on and got even worse.

Like I said, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I did eventually notice something while I was again trying to cancel an individual application that had frozen (again) without having to do a reboot, or have the whole pc freeze on me, again. On the list of active programs was something called webrebates. Several of them, in fact.

Via Google, I managed to track down enough information on it between shut-offs.

Webrebates is a little program that brazenly loads itself in full view in Windows, and the only thing you can do is remove the program. But when you do, keep your fingers crossed that it hasn’t entwined itself among other programs that you want and need. So, establish a restore point first, just in case.

Now, all of this may seem like nothing to you because you know what you’re doing. It is a big thing to me because I don’t.

Mission accomplished. I think. So far, anyway. Maybe.

If I feel really adventuresome, I may download that photo program again because I really don’t know for certain if that’s where that Webrebates thing came from.

But not now or probably for a while. I’m not feeling too adventuresome right now.

If, however, it turns out that post I read was accurate and lovely people who delight in creating misery for others are creating blogs for people to accidentally stumble into, may they roast in Hell.

Slowly.