Better Check Your Computer Before July

[Meg]

Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July - Yahoo! News

Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.
The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, DCWG | DNS Changer Working Group , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

If you've been using free or discount antivirus, you should check. Robert is on the linked repair site as I type this, and he reports its very simple to use.

[MikeD]

Well, according to this website my 'puter seems to be ok; looking up websites the way it's supposed to.

Thanks for sharing this

[Meg]

Robert checked his, and its clean, I'm going to ask him to check mine later. To MikeD,

[Obie]

Is this service free of charge? Thanks.

[WKUHilltopper]

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, DCWG | DNS Changer Working Group

Yeah. That's exactly what I'm going to do...give them access to my hard drive.

[Meg]

Yeah. That's exactly what I'm going to do...give them access to my hard drive.

When Robert went to that site, it gave him a list for the disc operating system that you can check yourself, and a list of web sites that just by visiting will tell you if your Domain Name System was hijacked. None of these required anyone to scan your system.

[Robert]

Yeah. That's exactly what I'm going to do...give them access to my hard drive.

Neither of the ways they check your computer require the site "getting into your hard drive."

As a point of fact, this is the manual method they listed:

Manually Checking for DNS Changer Infections

The following are the original manual checks to see if you computer is infected with any of the DNS Changer malware.

To check if your Windows 7 machine is infected, first click the “Start” icon. This opens the Windows Menu. Click on the “Search” field at the bottom. Type in cmd, and hit enter. This opens a DOS shell. In the DOS shell, type in the command:

ipconfig /allcompartments /all

and hit enter. (Windows users might be used to just typing “ipconfig /all“. This also works, but might not list all the routing compartments if you have a VPN setup in Windows7.) The output will be very long, since Windows7 by default has support for IPv6. Most likely, you want to look for the IPv4 information under the section entitled “Ethernet adapter…”. Look for the “DNS Servers” line, and write down these numbers. There may be two IP addresses listed there.

This your do yourself in your own computer, which I did.

[Obie]

Is this service free of charge? Thanks.

WELL????

[mattfivefour]

This is for real. The information in this thread is correct. And, Miss Ginger, it is free. For those who are nervous about information on other sites, the FBI site has all of the information you need, including how to discover your DNS server number and then a form into which you can enter that number. It will immediately tell you if your computer is infected. The interactive form is at https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-i...sing-rogue-DNS. BTW, it works regardless of whether you are in the US or somewhere else in the world.

For the record, in my case, it responded with the welcome news that "Your IP is not configured to use the rogue DNS servers." Vicki's was good, too.

Thank you so much for posting this, Meg.

[Obie]

Thanks, Matt; such a sweet young man. I didn't want to get all cranky this early on a Saturday. LOL
Plenty of time for that later in the evening.

[mattfivefour]

Sis, keep those "YOUNG man" comments coming!

[WKUHilltopper]

Sure. I should trust their intent. This national "government"/administration has only been running guns to drug lords, groping you at the airport--expanding this to other areas not just limited to the airport, searching and seizing without probable cause or warrant, ease dropping on communications without warrant or probable cause--just the tip of the iceberg.

I should trust their intent--because they just love me and have my best interests in mind.

[Robert]

Suit yourself.

[FaithInChrist]

I gotta a green light! Guess I get to stay online.

[nillapoet]

FWIW, avast is one of the best free anti virus programs. Along with ad-aware.

[Robert]

FWIW, avast is one of the best free anti virus programs. Along with ad-aware.

Maybe so, but I had Avast and my computer was riddled with malware!

[WKUHilltopper]

Suit yourself.

I typically do.

[Hannah]

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Personally if I don't have the money I do without. My PCs always have had properly purchased fully licensed software. I ban my computer supplier from using freeware/shareware when they work on my computer. They are supposed to be professionals but even they have fallen victim of GREED and tried to get something for nothing.

I've been told time and again you're paranoid. Hey, I guess a little paranioa can be a good thing.

Thanks for the heads up, I will tell some of my friends I know are no where near as paranoid as I am and probably have some of that software on their machines.

[nillapoet]

Maybe so, but I had Avast and my computer was riddled with malware!

Well yeah, you need an anti-malware program too.

Malware bytes is really good for that.

[Robert]

I had both of those, and ended up with some nasty stuff.