ya so the other day peoples away messages started randomly popping up, and then others started IMing me asking why i was sending them a link for the spider man trailer
its happend more and more offten now, and different messages
ya so i have come to that this is a virus
i’ve tried all the on line tips, ran my antivirus, ran AIMfixer the works and it still happens, cant fix anything
I’ve found AIM to be vulnerable to viruses, trojans, things like that. Thats why I use pidgin myself, heres it’s site: http://www.pidgin.im/
As far as AIM viruses go, you might want to quit using AIM, and then check your processes. If you’re not sure what one is, google it. Odds are that people have already identified the process, and all you need to do is find the one people scream virus.
A couple years ago I got the virus, and I used the virus clean from jayloden.com without much trouble.
No, Gaim and Pidgen are both programs that use your AIM name, and work just like AIM, but are not written by AOL. They are free applications that are an alternative to AIM without having to switch your provider. In other words, you won’t have to change anything, just the program. Also, you might want to try changing your password and see if that helps any.
Buy a Mac. Very few viruses, trojans, worms, etc. Built in iChat AIM client allows for multi-way video conferencing. Macs are very intuitive and easy to pick up, not to mention they look cool.
macs look confusing at first but my boss has 4 iMacs (he’s a DJ, i have the greatest job ever BTW hands down) and he’s taught me how to use it quiet well, but i dont think its right for me, i’d get one if i start DJing on my own def tho, just because of the softwear and other stuff he can hook me up with
Yeah, and I’d suggest not doing this… unless you really have some serious cash to spend. Sure, a mac mini costs $599, but you pretty much have to get the service plan just in case. If that thing breaks after a few years and you don’t have a service plan, then you are SOL my friend.
My suggestion: go with Gaim or Trillian, something along those lines. Granted I use AIM 5.something still, but I don’t have a sister to click on any crazy links either.
ya so it wouldnt stop so i went with gaim, its not so bad
ya but my friend claims the virus i had was this
(16:57:14) ScubScub: The worm delivers an executable file disguised as a JPEG, which in turn calls out to various host computers that download a variety of infection files including rootkits and Trojans that may further propagate the worm through the user’s AIM Buddy List.
[edit] See also
any idea if thats true, how to stop it, and how to tell whats its effected
first, i cant use my sounds i had on AIM, and the Gaim sounds are annoying
and second, the away message system. when away, it doesn’t prevent the IM window from coming up, or stop sounds, or list who’s IMed me, which was something i rather enjoyed with AIM
and also i miss notifications in the bottom of the screen
You could re-install Windows… (something I must do to all my Windows machines annually). This would solve the AIM-bug problem. Next time, be sure to put passwords on your account and lock the machine (WindowsLogo-L) every time you leave the machine to prevent your little sisters from using it…
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.
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?
-The IE skin is pretty good…you might be able to get away with making FF look exactly like IE…
-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…