My Inter-Tubez Wuz Clogged

WTF? (Yes, I said that, but didn't abbreviate) I was on a page, then it went to another one: Cool Web Search. Hmmm....maybe I had accidentally clicked on a link, done it before. I went back to the page I was on and was reading and about five minutes later I was directed to another page.

Oh, no. I immediately knew what was wrong; I had picked up a Trojan. (which I've always found semi-ironic - a Trojan brand condom is supposed to PROTECT you from bad stuff) I had been on a dicey site earlier, following a link on Facebook. A little research told me what my computer had, the "CWS" (for Cool Web Search) trojan. I then ran my HiJack This app. but it didn't pick up on the infection. Then I ran my anti-virus program, a full scan but it didn't want to repair the damage. An article found in the search had told me this was possible, that the trojan could keep itself from being repaired. I also noticed in my virus scan log that about two dozen attempts at contacting the 'net had been denied by its web guard feature.

Long story short, I d/l a small application called "CWShredder" which zapped the thing out of my computer. I had also d/l another small app. that does the same thing and ran it too. Another virus scan came up clean. I wondered why my firewall hadn't stopped it, then discovered it was disabled. I enabled it and *hoped* everything would be OK. Things were fine until a few hours ago.

Then I started having problems with my internet connection. I have had problems for a year and the phone company has been out and "fixed" it, but when it rains, the connection slows way down. I've been looking into other ISP providers because of the crappy service work. At first I thought it might have something to do with the CWS thing I had got, but another scan came up clean. (I even ran the cleaner tools again)

I was getting frustrated - I had cycled the modem off and on, but no joy. Most of the lights were green, even showing I was connected, but the internet light would only flicker now 'n then. When it was steadily on, I would try to get a page to come up and the activity light would blink once, then stop. Dammit. I don't mind trouble so much, most things can be fixed, but when you can't even diagnose the problem....

I had given up and started watching the TV but there was nothing on I really wanted to watch. I had d/l a couple of Dallas Cowboy talk shows before the trouble, so I got up to listen to them. I always like to do something else while listening to shows like that or music or online radio, either playing a game or looking at GoogleEarth. I opened up the GoogleEarth application just to see if the image files would still be on my disk even though my DSL wasn't working. Lo and behold, my connection started working again!

I don't know what the trouble was, but it was like the "blast" of the GoogleEarth had opened up the inter-tubez again. -grin-

So, for now all is well. If you don't see me on Facebook or participating in the quiz, I'm down until I can suss it out.

(and, after writing all that, I am having problems again. Going to try to send this when the light goes green again)

---

UPDATE: Had a little trouble again, then closed GE, then reopened. Everything was fine f/ a while, then went offline again. Now it's OK. I managed to play the quiz. Funny thing, seems like everything is loading faster for me than has in quite a while. Gonna call the phone co. again Monday.