Re: AIM virus, any help
 

Reinstalling windows isn't always the easy-ist thing. If it is a laptop machine that is relatively new, you could back up the machine and then use the restore partition to return the machine to factory default, meaning windows is installed and all the drivers (programs that make hardware work correctly) will be installed also.
My cousin fell victim to an AIM virus a few years back. Scan your computer with an anti-virus. Uninstall AIM, restart the computer 3 times ( this clears any configuration backups your computer has saved [used for when 'booting with last known good configuration] ). Then again scan the computer with anti-virus. Install AIM again, and try using a different screen name and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't try using the problematic screen name, and if the problem returns ...get a new screen name.
You can turn off the sounds for Gaim in the preferences (tools->preference or ctrl+P [keep in mind im not on the most current beta for version 2, I don't particularly care for the latest release] ) Gaim is not in anyway related to AOL, so any "custom" sounds you got from AOL will not be avaible with Gaim. Personally, I turn the sounds off on any messenger...they interrupt my music
You can go to interface (in the preference window) and look at the option that says "Conversation Window Hiding" you can set it to hide when you are away. For sounds you can set it to "Enable Sounds: Only when Avaiblable" which will cause the sounds to cease when you go away.
Yeah I miss those too :(
It's better from the operating point of view, it uses less resources than AIM, and if an AIM virus is written to infect the AIM Client, Gaim will not be suspect able. Also, you can have all your messengers in one program (as previously mentioned by others). One thing I like is you can choose whether or not you want to be able to view others fonts, so if someone has that tiny font you cant see you can disable font sizes.

I hope that helped...if you have any questions feel free to IM/PM me.

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

Yeah, this isnt a bad idea. If once you restore, the problem is solved, be sure to lock down your machine, and install a decent firewall.

Jacob

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

its a family computer, that solution is no good

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

Oh, man... family computers are hard to manage...

Usually an AIM-virus is something that embeds itself into the AIM app on that computer. Even if you had seperate accounts on the machine (talking about in the future, after the problem is solved), anyone else that uses AIM on the computer can bug it up again. I'm not too sure of a way to FIX the current AIM, if the solution that Michelle suggested doesn't work. Perhaps you won't mind Trillian?

Jacob

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

-The IE skin is pretty good...you might be able to get away with making FF look exactly like IE...:D
-You need a good AntiVirus. Norton is crap. I don't know about McAfee, but I use Grisoft's AVG Free Edition. It gets the same virus database the commercial version does. It just doesn't have firewall/internet security features.
-Update *everything*. This includes Microsoft updates (http://update.microsoft.com). Install everything but the driver updates (those tend to break things) and you can forgo Internet Explorer 7 if you want.
-Put your system behind some form of firewall. Even a cheap-y Linksys router will put you behind a Network Address Translation device; this makes it much, much harder to intrude into your system.
-I hope you don't have dial-up...:)

JBot

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

McAfee is Really Nice..auto updates (like daily), it catches almost everything, and best of all, its FREE (to Comcast subscribers). Otherwise, it's fairly cheap ~100 bux I think, which is a small price to pay for data loss and frustration. The firewall is the r0x0rs... that is the cool feature. If you don't get the virus in the first place, you don't have to clean it.

There are plenty of good free ones out there to. Just PLEASE, read a cnet review on it before downloading (some 'virus scanners' are really viruses themselves.)

Jacob

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

ive run McAfee, Adaward and AIM fix and they all come up saying theyve found nothing

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

I think Pidgin is just a later release of GAIM... because of some lawsuits that AOL had with it (reading the story on wiki makes me detest AOL even more...)

Anyhow, did you try anything from jayloden? Norton and McAfee typically catch things involved with windows, and not different apps.

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

Have you tried Spybot? I dunno if it'll catch ths kind of thing (in fact, I highly doubt it) but installing it is a good idea, for TeaTimer, if nothing else.

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

Are you still having problems? If you can't get it with any scanner, it's probably a good idea to explain to your parents what's happening, back everything up, and (with permission, for your own sake;) ) delete the partition and reinstall Windows, building from the ground up. Believe me, it'll feel much faster for a few months (until your sister gets back on it and starts clicking banner ads/downloading "free giveaway" software).

You might consider, as a preventative measure, using OpenDNS--it blocks quite a few "bad" sites before the browser gets to them, and you don't even have to install a single piece of software on your system. Here's the link.

Good luck...
JBot

Re: AIM virus, any help
 

I'm sure someone has already posted it, but Aimfix has helped every friend that I've referred to it.