Or should I say predawn into late afternoon? It began last night or more accurately this morning at 1AM when I googled my name and clicked on one of the links on the search page. Suddenly my screen was flashing all sorts of warning and ordering me to download virus protection--which I already have!--and nothing I did would get rid of the annoying fake alerts(even a fake Microsoft window!) which turned out to be some Trojan mal-something. McAfee, of course, caught and quarantined all three times the nuisance appeared between early this morning and today, but I couldn't physically get rid of it without doing a hard shutdown. I was finally able to get it removed today after several hours of dealing with it. Then I did a wash and removal of cookies as well checked all files for virus infiltration. Ran two virus scans of my complete system. Lord what a hassle!
This is something I have never dealt with before. And, besides fear, stress and borderline panic, it cost me over five hours of time to just be able to get things straightened out. All seems fine now but I'll tell you it was a lesson in perserverance. So I will warn you all to BE VERY CAREFUL IN ANY INTERNET OPERATION because you just never know.
Anyway, my plan was to work on my WIP today but the day is just about over! How annoying is that? Maybe tonight?
Okay, thanks for allowing me to vent. Now for some good news.
My August newsletter is finally available at Dayana's Happenings. If you haven't signed up for it just scroll down the right sideboard here and have at it. My format has changed a bit due to conversion issues. I think I may just have to revamp the darned thing for September 'cause I'm not really sure I like it now, LOL Fickle aren't I?
I am so looking forward to Fall. I think maybe I'll reformat to begin the Autumn Paranormal/Halloween holiday celebration a bit early. What do you think? This is a paranormal author's time of year and hey! why not take full advantage? LOL
Oh and I've got Author, Icy Snow Blackstone visiting on August 12th. Please mark you calendar and check her out.
Hope your weekend is moving along in a nice relaxed pace. Lord knows mine wasn't but things are looking up nicely now *grin*
D~
Horrors when that happens. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI've had that happen to me, too. It was horrid. It wasn't by chance a pirate link was it?
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible thing to deal with! I know all sorts of bad stuff is out there, so we should watch out and be careful.
ReplyDeleteThe fall early start sounds good to me.
I'm sorry you lost so much time dealing with this! But at least it's fixed with no harm done ;).
ReplyDeleteDon't you hate it when you're raring to go and your computer isn't on the same productive page? That just sounds a bit too scary! Glad it's fixed.
ReplyDeleteHey, Mary, Shelley, Kaye, Helen and Mickey. Thanks for dropping in and sharing my antagonistic virus war, LOL
ReplyDeleteIt is a nasty thing to have to deal with but as Helen said, everything did come out on the good side thanks to diligence and updated spyware/virus software. It updates all the time which is totally annoying to me because it slows the computer but as they say no pain no gain. I am thankful for it now.
D~
I've had that same virus. My SIL had gotten it, too, and I'd seen what it did to her, so the moment the pop-up appeared on my screen, I closed my laptop and pulled the battery to shut it off and then handed it to my DH -- I love having onsite tech support :-)
ReplyDeleteBut it's a nasty bug.