Has anyone ever heard of a beagle virus? My DH just did

[babylonsister]

a scan on his computer, and 1,319 beagle viruses were found. Symantec supposedly quarantined them.
He discovered he had a problem when he couldn't do a disk clean-up, but still can't. Any suggestions, and thanks!

[hobbit709]

1. With that many viruses

it's probably best to start over. Format C:, reload windows and all your applications,install security software. I use Spybot S&D, Spywareblaster, AVG antivirus and ZoneAlarm. run regular updates and sweeps-stay away from Internet Exploder and Lookout.

[Berserker]

2. Did you check the symantic

site: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[e-mail]

First I would get rid of the virus and then I would git rid of that garbage symantic program and use a free alternative like AVG.

Symantic sells the Anti-Virus program then charges you each year or you will not recieve updates and then people find they have a Virus even though they run symantic and then symantic has a program that cleans the Virus off the machine that runs their program that is supposed to CATCH that Virus. Am I missing something?
You will get Free updates "everyday" from the Free AVG program I have been using for years without a virus.

[RoyGBiv]

3. That about covers it ...

Can't see that you missed a thing.

They call it a business model. The mafia used to call it "protection."

Interesting side-note to this. Symantic is in the process of challenging Microsoft's inclusion of anti-virus and spyware tools with its operating system, claiming monopoly. (I'm personally conflicted about this, because Syamntic has a point, but that's really another issue.) The wording they're using suggests that a secure OS in any form is a bad thing, that it unfairly cuts into their business. They're riding a thing edge with this, if anyone bothers to notice, because this is an admission that they *want* the OS to be insecure.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Weird ...

Bagle/Beagle is supposed to be inert at this point. (It's technically a worm.) You actually had 1319 instances of it? Do you by chance have an e-mail "box" that holds stuff you never delete, or have you never emptied your trash/junk mailboxes? What e-mail client do you use, btw?

Anyway, reformat is all I can suggest. If your system had that many instances of one worm, I very much doubt it is clean and has possibly been compromised in ways that a simple virus-scan can't fix.

[babylonsister]

5. Some kind DUer sent this link and it removed all the viruses:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.beagle@m...

We use Symantec because we get it free through my DH's employer, including the upgrades.
But I will be sending this thread to him and we'll take all the suggestions into consideration.

Thanks, everyone!

Edit to add: We use Earthlink, he still uses IE, and I use Firefox. We are computer illiterate and DH uses e-Bay a lot, so he's wary of changing to Firefox.

[unhappycamper]

6. Firefox and eBay work just fine together.

A friend of mine who is addicted to eBay now uses Firefox and loves it. I set the tab option to open a new tab for every link & he's happy as a clam.

[babylonsister]

7. Happy as a clam"-I hadn't heard that in years, uhc!

Reminds me of my dear departed mom. Thanks for the info!

[RoyGBiv]

8. Do yourself a favor ...

Find another anti-virus package, such as AVG, install it, update it, and run it at least once to see what else might be on your system. If you want to stay with Symantec, then just uninstall AVG or whatever afterward.

Once again, the Bagle/Beagle virus/worm is supposed to be inert. It was a problem in 2004. No virus checker worth the time even to consider should have allowed it on the system in the first place. Having over a thousand instances of it boggle the mind in absurdity. Put another way, regardless of why you use Symantec, it obviously did not protect you in its primary job.

And, FWIW, I personally wouldn't touch e-Bay, or any website that I might use for financial transactions, while using IE. That's just asking for trouble. Firefox has no issues with e-Bay in my experience.