Expert: Keith Davis - 5/31/2009

Question
hi keith,
 i recently found a backdoor.trojan on my old pc and i can't seem to get rid of it.  my norton reports it but can't remove it and the symantec website is no help. i even downloaded spybot but could not get it to run.  i was thinking about reformatting, do you think that would work?
 also, i was wondering, since i have 2 pc's, if one computer is infected, could it infect the other pc?  i don't transfer files between the two computers but i do use the same modem when i go online but i never go online on both pc's at the same time (since i connect by ethernet, i also make sure to disconnect at least one pc so that i only have one pc connected to the modem at one time).  i haven't noticed any problems with my new pc, except maybe a 2 second delay at starup and scans haven't picked up anything.  think i should be concerned?
 thanks.

Answer
I doubt both PCs are infected due to the precautions you take. You may want to try AVG free. Many times it will detect and remove viruses and trojans that Norton's will not.
You can get it here: http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html
If it does not remove it I would suggest the reformat and reinstall OS.

Keith