Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 8/27/2006

Question
Hi Carolyn, I have been down the worst road ever. I thought all along it was my connection to Verizon that was causing my computer to lock up. So I switched to cable yesterday.. it still give me a 'Not Responding' error on AOL when I am about to launch a program. I did a spyware scan several times and there is something it refuses to let me delete or quarantine..it is Begin2SearchBigTraffic.net. What the heck do I do to get this off the machine?  I have Spy Sweeper is which is what detects it.. thanks so much.. Annette

Answer
I agree with you that this is a likely culprit because their website is now dead -- a pretty good sign of a faulty spyware product that could be causing your problem.

The easiest solution, if you have Windows ME or XP, is to use System Restore to go back to a time before your computer got infected.

If this doesn't work, does your spyware scanner tell you the location of the file that you can't delete or quarantine? If it does, then write it down, reboot into safe mode with the command line option by hitting F8 as your computer reboots. To delete the file use the command "cd path and filename" substituting the location of the file for "path and filename" for example "cd C:\windows\nastyfile.exe"

Then use the command "del nastyfile.exe" (Substitute the real file name) to get rid of it.

If this doesn't work, give the command "attrib nastyfile.exe" and see what letters appear to the left of the file name, in particular S and/or H. If you see these, give the command "attrib -H -S nastryfile.exe" Then hopefully you can finally delete it.

If this doesn't work,  it may be time to completely rebuild your operating system. I do this about once a year anyhow because WIndows tends to accumulate a lot of random errors and this give your computer a freash start. This is what most computer repair shops do anyhow -- they call it "nuking"!

In the future, to avoid being hit by nasty spyware infections, you can use a safer browser such as Firefox, free from Mozilla.org, and a safer email program such as Thunderbird, free from Mozilla.org. Some firewalls are really good at blocking syware infections, for example the one I prefer, ZOne Alarm from ZOnelabs.com.