Virus In-Game

[fatedicewolf]

You guys are so not going to believe this one...

I was changing the appearance of my toddler in-game. And I've been playing for the past few hours, mind you when suddenly out of nowhere, the generic 'Error in dll file' pops up. That's strange but I'm okay with it until a flipping advertisement pops up in the lower right-hand corner 'Have Your PC Scanned for Viruses'. The Internet was not in-use and this happens!

This did not minimize the game, it was in the game. It didn't look like any simish download before any questions are asked.

So, my question is, is it possible to have a virus in-game because this was freaky!!!

If so, does anyone know how to get it out? I have Microsoft Security Essentials and this has never happened before. It's actually done a better job of keeping malware and trojans off my computer than Norton did.

[mookie]

You can right click on both the launcher (if you use that) and your The Sims 2 folders and scan those for things that shouldn't be there. I have Mcafee , Malwarebytes , Ad-Aware and Spyware blaster on my comp and several if not all of those should show when you right click to give you that option. I found Norton , even when free , to be pretty useless also. There are quite a few decent free virus etc , scanners out there. Just make sure to do a little research/review work before you dl any. Good luck!

[fatedicewolf]

Thanks, Mookie! You're always a big help with my TS2 probs lol

[Theraven]

If you protect your computer properly, have a scanner going in the background (at least while surfing the net), and use high settings on the net, you won't get viruses easily.

My internet browser is so jumpy I have to use ctrl to get (even safe) popups up, and my computer doesn't install or download anything without giving me at least one or two warnings first. I'm pretty sure anyone else than me would go berserk on the current settings, but I'm so used to it now that I run on autopilot (ctrl-click on opening links and quick up with task manager if I happen to run across this annoying scanner thing (I'm almost sure it's a virus site) that seems to have latched itself on google picture search - it's the only thing my net has troubles to stop), and other than that I make sure I always double check files I've downloaded. I never install anything from the net until I'm sure I can trust it. 

Avira (antivir?) and Avast usually get good reviews. Norton actually stops things for me, but I've got Avast as a backup - they actually run along fine. I scan my computer 1-2 times a week (at night), with both scanners (Norton slows down everything, especially the net, but Avast runs more or less in the background - even if things slows down a bit). Norton usually stops bugginess while I'm surfing the net, while Avast picks up whatever managed to sneak past it.

[ancienthighway]

There are too many sites that download tiny programs in the background to pop up advertisements similar to what you've encountered.  Blocking cookies is a good idea.  Forcing your system to display a Yes/No popup any time something wants to write to the hard drive is a good thing also.

You probably pick up this little program when you were browsing a site and a pop up, with sirens, whistles or bells, said you computer may be infected, do you want to scan for viruses?   It only gives one option, with is to download the program even though is says start scan.  Clicking the Close widget is the only safe way out.

If your browser supports AdBlockPlus and NoScript get those two add-ons.  The first will block almost all of the ads you see.  The second will prohibit a visited site from running any type of script or program unless you say it's okay to run.  Add an antivirus program that checks online activity, I prefer Avast , but there are others, and a firewall, Windows has one you need to enable which is okay, ZoneAlarm works good for me.

[gazania]

A similar situation happened to me two or three years ago. I had actually downloaded the nasty thing a couple of days before, but for some reason, something triggered it days later, and things just went crazy. It took both my husband and I ten hours to fix that mess (shudders). I recall reading that sometimes, yes, there are "sleeper" nasties that rear their ugly heads when you least expect it. Not fun.

I use AVAST!, MBAM, Spywareblaster and Spybot, and use NoScript, Adware and Adblock when in Furryfox. When in Chrome, there is a Chrome Adblock-like download I use, but my policy is to be very, very careful what sites I visit while using Chrome. Actually, I try to be careful in Firefox, too. . I use the Windows firewall.

When we were really stuck back then, techguy.org was a great help. People there gently and calmly walked me through the processes needed to help us get our computer back. Bleepingcomputer.com can help as well. I hope you have it all fixed by now.