Am I having trojan problems?

Question

Hey guys,

lately I've noticed that my HDD is thrashing a lot more than usual, so my first thought was that I've become infected with a virus of some sorts. After downloading an anti-virus, I ran a few scans to no avail.

Next I ran netstat on the command prompt to see if I have any open connections (I made sure that all browser windows and all internet based applications were closed) and I noticed something strange.. this IP address showed up: 178.237.174.87:843.

I did some research and the 843 port belongs to flash connections (Which might explain why I've been having problems updating flash. Flash installer would ask me to connect to the internet when I was already online and then crash). The IP address belongs to a guy named Neal Quinn(Got his phone number/address etc... )

Thing is that I'm not sure how to proceed from here.. Easiest solution would probably be to format the HDD and make sure that I get rid of the trojan (IF it really is a trojan), and change all passwords etc..

But what about that Neal guy ? Should I take legal action ? Should I report him to anyone ? (I'm from UK btw) Is it possible that I've overlooked some program and maybe that IP is legit ?

Answer 1

How serious are you about protecting yourself? If you are really serious, get Norton Internet Security and also Webroot Spysweaper.



There are a lot of opinions about what the best product is, but these are what I recommend to my clients. Since most of the people who are recommending support one computer and I support many client's computer, I think that my recommendation is more accurate. I have tried many different products over the course of 20 years and have found the Norton one to be the best overall.



Yes, the company is very non-user friendly and does some jerky things. The others do too and the Norton product is more reliable than the others that I have tried over the years. For example, all of the machines that my shop was building were freezing up immediately after they were loaded. Turned out it was a problem with McAfee that the company had known about for weeks, but "didn't have time yet to tell customers."



You can also try HiJackThis to scan for the cause of the problem. It is a lot harder to do, but you sound much more knowledgeable than the typical user.



Changing all of your passwords is a good idea. Technically, that should be done periodically anyway, but no one does unless the system forces them to.

Answer 2

You will must get Trojan removing equipment. You would take a look at the Winnows Live CareOne Safety Scanner on the hyperlink underneath. It will experiment your pc for malware and verify your pc's registry and so forth. I have used this a number of instances and feature no longer had any issues with it. It might take a pair hours to experiment your whole pc. Just click on on Full Service Scan and take it from there.

Answer 3

You could block that ip address by adding a specific rule in your routers NAT firewall or using a Software firewall such as Comodo.



EDIT: I see you point, you could block the complete range, Id also download Comodo cleaning essentials, load up Killswitch which will show you whether theres any suspicious processes, then do a scan with the Malware scanner, its very sensitive so look carefully for any false positives.