Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with viruses

Germs on my hands

MrMulan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:17:15 -0800

Is it possible for bacteria, and/or viruses to ever physically adapt to soap, alcohol, peroxide, iodine, ect.? Washing your hands is the best way to cut down on a known vector for germs to spread. Could bacteria adapt physically in a similar way lice or hookworms have? Or does their size make it impossible? Same for viruses.

I know bacteria can and are adapting to chemical solutions like anti-bacterial soap. When hand washing with soap, the soap is not suppose to kill the bacteria, but it is the physical activity of rubbing that gets rid of the bacteria. The soap just makes it physically easier to transfer bacteria from your hands to the soap which is then washed down the drain.

As for viruses, could they ever evolve to the point that the usual disinfectants would not work? (alcohol, lysol, ect.)

Personal answers, opinions, anecdotes, are all welcomed, but links are always preferred.

As always thanks in advanced.

Viruses and surgical masks

dfriedman — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:40:34 -0800

Do the surgical masks that I see everyone wearing protect against viruses? So, I've seen and hear of people wearing surgical masks or some variant of them when traveling, in order to guard against various strains of the flu.

Can these masks really protect against airborne viruses? My understanding is viruses are much smaller than bacteria or fungal spores. Do surgical masks adequately filter out viruses?

What's Going Around?

jragon — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:43:06 -0800

I thought I had heard of a website that tracks current viruses, called What's Going Around or something similar. I'm finding tons of local tv stations with special pages for their community, but nothing that ties them all together into one website. Anyone know of a site like this?

How Do You Deal With An .SCR File That's A Likely Virus?

ProfLinusPauling — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:12:11 -0800

I downloaded a .scr file that was probably a virus. I was at least smart enough to trash the file instead of opening it, but is it likely that my computer is infected, anyway; that the file is executed merely by downloading it? (NOTE: This happened on a Macbook Pro.) Tragicomically Stupid Aspect, Offered For Your Amusement, You Helpful Ones:

I just got out of a bad relationship, and this .scr file was from a very dumb, desperate and ill-conceived foray into craigslist casual encounters.

This time with feeling

bytewrite — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:09:14 -0800

Can we talk seriously about Mac OSX security this time? In light of this comment it seems pretty clear to me that OSX is not just "inherently secure" which was pretty much the advice I got last time I posed this question.

If we are to believe mock and basically everyone in the previous thread the reason viruses don't exists in abundance now is simply because there aren't that many OSX boxes compared to Windows machines. The "do nothing" advice from the previous thread sounds like security through obscurity to me. Now it may be that there are no good security tools for OSX (other than ClamXav and Little Snitch which I already use) which is something else entirely but that is part of what I'm asking.

What I am looking for is advice on how to secure my box and any tools that will help with this. Advice like this article and specific software recommendations (or software to avoid) are what I'm looking for.

I know that there are very very few OSX viruses RIGHT NOW that is besides the point and not what I'm asking about. I'm a good driver and haven't been in a wreck. But guess what? I still wear my seat belt every time I get in the car.

So in short, how do I keep my OSX machine secure?

A bugs life?

greytape — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:42:20 -0800

Help me settle a bet about the total number of identified bacteria and viruses. Last week a friend, recalling a university lecture, said that the number of named and identified species of bacteria and viruses account for 98% of the total number of named species. I doubted this and thought it more likely that though there are fifty times as many species of bacteria and virus as there are any other kind of species, not all them have yet been named and catalogued. I suggested that this 98% figure is more of an estimate.
I base this supposition on the fact that it's so much easier to identify species that are visible to the naked eye and that people have had a lot longer to do it (the microscope being a relatively recent invention). Am I wrong?
Google has failed me, can Metafilter help?

P.S. As part of my searching I’ve been unable to find an estimate of the total number of identified species, and this has rather piqued my interest. Any help with this would be great too.

Thanks!

Has my gmail been hacked?

whoaali — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:29:59 -0800

Has my gmail been hacked? Twice I have had the same person attempt to add me on gchat. I do not believe that I know this person, but immediately after they try to add me, a window pops up saying that I have been logged out of this account and once I click ok it returns to the gmail login screen. Each time I have been able to immediately log back in and each time I have immediately changed my password just because it seemed so odd and I did it as a precaution. Is this something I need to worry about?

Have I given my hangnails mono, and if so is it safe to masturbate?

modernpoverty — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:44:54 -0800

I've got mono. Mono is in your saliva. I'm a nail biter. Did I manage to infect my finger wounds with the virus, and what does that mean for my general health and my poor battered hands? I've had mononucleosis for about 2, maybe 3 weeks. The really aggressive flu/strep like symptoms have for the most part gone away, so now I'm left with an occasional pain in the spleen and a constantly lessening sore throat and slowly shrinking glands in my throat, as well as the usual not-entirely-paralyzing fatigue.

I've always been a nail biter. Sometimes I get a little carried away, chewing the skin around my nails as well as the nail itself. And so sometimes I manage to leave my fingers bleeding and painful.

However since I've had mono, my fingertips have been extremely sensitive to pain. little run-ins with stationary objects that are the common enemy of a girl's fingers have gone from unnoticable to causing a shockingly painful sensation. two of my fingers have barely under the skin bruises, the type I'd normally get if I shut my hand in a car door...and both are probably just from misjudging the distance of a something (I'm not the most coordinated kid in the world). One is bandaged because the skin covering the bruise broke and made a huge bloody mess, and I mean bloody as in there was lots of blood rather than something englishy.

I've got 3 fingers bandaged that were originally just my basic run of the mill chewed on fingers but are getting considerably nastier with no more chewing. red and inflamed and gross and painful!

it occurred to me...mono is transmitted through one's saliva, and I've certainly subjected these fingers to my nasty germ ridden mouth at some point or another. and mono is related to the herpes virus, so it doesn't go away. What can I do?? will my current treatment of neosporin and bandaids do anything? And more importantly, what on earth have I done, especially in terms of my general health, recovering from this stupid virus, and perhaps being able to type without it hurting like hell ever again?

(and yes, this might just be the incident that actually breaks me of biting my nails. let's just hope that that is a happy side effect, eh?)

Can I possibly still have the same cold virus 5, 6 months later?

AthenaPolias — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:09:02 -0800

Round about this past April, I developed a nasty, hacking cough that hit only in the mornings. Can my icky, phlegmy self still have this same cold virus, months upon months later? I still had this cough through June, though not badly enough to send me to the doctor (I was also writing my thesis at the time, so no money or time for a checkup). It's mostly gone now, though appears every now and again - no hacking, though. I do, however, still have this nasty bit of mild post-nasal drip and a constant congestion in my head (nose, really - you can't hear it when I speak, no headaches, etc). This can't *possibly* be the same cold from April, can it?? Any ideas on why I can't kick this thing? My diet is fine, and I *never* get sick otherwise.

What cases colds, exactly?

borkingchikapa — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:07:36 -0800

Does being cold/wet actually have any affect on the contraction of the common cold? Everybody "knows" that the common cold is caused by a virus. Yet it also seems like everybody "knows" that's it's also caused by being out in the cold or rain, going to sleep with wet hair, whatever.

I'm tempted to believe that this is one of those folktales that's been passed down for so long that everyone still believes it, but would being cold or out in the rain lower your immune response to the virus? Or is it just that the times when that's likely to happen are coincidentally cold season? I, personally, have never gotten a cold from anything of the sort, and I'm not very judicious about wearing warm clothing or bringing along umbrellas.

MPREXE has invaded me!

zaelic — Thu, 25 May 2006 05:14:00 -0800

Something called MPREXE has invaded my computer. Is it a virus or part of Microsoft's evil empire... in any case it is making my PC screwy.... help me get rid of it please! When I turn on the computer (Windows 98) I get an error message as my desktop loads saying:

MPREXE caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 016f:bff7a4b2.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=016f EIP=bff7a4b2 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=00000000 SS=0177 ESP=0136edbc EBP=0136edcc
ECX=00510018 DS=0177 ESI=00510000 FS=1a97
EDX=00000040 ES=0177 EDI=0051000c GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 03 25 fc ff ff 0f 3b 45 0c 0f 83 81 00 00 00
Stack dump:
788f1d20 0136ef1c 829c7340 0136ef1c 0136ede0 bff88dc4 00510000 00000040 00000000 0136ee40 7ff214f0 00510000 00000000 0000003c 7ff21520 7ffce00c

My symptoms: so far I notice that my "find files" function is disabled, and I cannot open the "My Computer" file to check properties on my C disc (I can look in Windows Explorer, though,

Googling this has me confused - is it a legit program or a trojan virus. I downloaded Microsoft's patch (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192249/en-us) but that has not worked, searched for it in my registry. Last night I ran Trend's virus scan on-line, and came up clean.

Perhaps it might be something that came in when I downloaded uTorrent yesterday?

Maintaining a laptop

apple scruff — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 13:09:19 -0800

I just got a new laptop...help me care for it so it has a long and happy life. I just spent quite a lot on a new laptop (Dell Inspiron), so I want to make sure that I keep it alive and humming as long as possible. Please make recommendations in terms of ANYTHING (software, general tips, things to avoid, things to do, etc) that will help it function smoothly for a long time.

Also, one specific question: my laptop came with "Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security" as its virus/spyware protection program. Is it any good? I received a CD-ROM from school that includes McAfee VirusScan 8.0, so if I am better off switching over please let me know. Thanks!

How can I get my PC to boot after a sleeper virus?

zaelic — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 04:16:00 -0800

I got virused (a wininit.exe problem) on my computer about ten days ago, and after I thought I had cleaned it, it seems to have zapped me with a sleeper program and now I can't boot to windows, even in Safe Mode. Help! The virus was originally a Tspy_ALEMOD.A that came with a bunch of search toolbars. I ran HijackThis, Spybot, AdAware, and then online checked with Panda scan and with Symantec;s Trend Micro, which found and deleted 6 viruses, but could not delete the Tspy-ALEMOD_A found in Windows/System/WININET.DLL.

I use Windows 98 SE, and I have had problems with using Firewalls, because I am connected as a slave machine to a computer (Windows 2000 XP) that has a strong firewll and Norton, and was not affected at all.

Much googling later, I thought I had been able to replace the infected wininet.dll by using "restore" function in my Control Panel add/remove programs box. I was suspicious thgough,because there seemed to be some bugginess when I was running certain programs.

This morning when I try to turn on the PC,it gets through running the initail boot sequence, and then, instead of going to the windows startup wallpaper prior to starting it simply says C:/WINDOWS/WININET.EXE than C:/ and then a line with a bunch of random (?) letters. Within five seconds it tells me it is now safe to turn my computer off. Can't get it to start Safe mode, either. Was able to run Command prompt with a floppy and a CD, though.

I was able to run scandisk using my Floppy startup disk, and I have the original Windows 98 CD in the drive. ANyway I can get this old warhorse running? I suspect I would have to replace a corrupted wininit.dll via dos or something, any advice?

Windows startup without logging in

rolypolyman — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:27:37 -0800

Windows 2000 users and passwords: Is it possible for Windows to start up without any password prompting, yet have the OS [reasonably] safe from a bot logging in as an admin? I have a data-gathering computer that reboots every 24 hours on a script to get rid of the occasional memory leak or corruption. Setting an Admin login would cause the computer to hang at the logon prompt until somebody typed something in.

However this computer has gotten pwned when hooked up to a dialup network (Earthlink), and I figured it was likely to be due to the computer having no firewall and me assigning no password to the Administrator account. Thus the bot comes in on some unprotected port as a service of some kind and exploits the password weakness.

So how can I safely go without any startup login/password, and shut off the service the bots are coming in on without closing off the Internet? I am putting a firewall up but I'd like to know which service I should make sure the firewall never opens.

Solution to adware/spyware/viruses

patrickje — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 14:36:42 -0800

Spyware, adware, and viruses. I'm sick of feeling like a moron. I've went to college for electrical engineering, and have worked as a software developer for the last 8 years, so all my friends and family want me to fix their computers. Invariably, it's the same thing, removing spyware,adware and viruses. The problem? It takes me 3-8 hours each time to fix someone's computer. Is there an easier way?

I have a CD with the following software that I bring (including updated signature files):
Service Packs (W2K SP4, XP SP2)
Spyware Detectors (Ad-Aware,Spybot Search and Destroy, eWido Security Suite)
Startup/Browser Tools (BHO Demon, Hijack This, Toolbar Cop)
Winsock Fixes (Windows XP Winsock Fix, Generic Winsock Fix)
Special Cases (CWS Shredder)

My general methodology is to:
1.Reboot the computer in Safe Mode
2.Run HijackThis, and remove almost everything I know to be a virus/adware/spyware.
3.Run eWido (still in safe mode), and clean all infected files.
4.Reboot computer normally, and run Toolbar Cop, Spybot, and Ad-aware.
5.Install the latest service pack

And still I'm somtimes there, for hours, trying to clean out one last popup, or remove a local proxy, or something, it's frustrating! Is there an easier way to do this? Most of the time, reformatting isn't a real option, since most of the time, they only have one drive, and they don't want to lose their files.

How does contagion work with the cold and flu?

scarabic — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:20:53 -0800

Cold/Flu Contagion:

1) Is there any truth to the rumor that "once you manifest symptoms, you're no longer contagious?"
2) If you're recovering from one illness, are you more or less suceptible to others? eg: If I've just gotten over a cold, is my immune system weak and susceptible to strep throat? Or is it on high-alert and likely to protect me better?
3) Following on number 2, why don't more people get multiple viruses/bugs at once, or in rapid sequence? Anecdotally, it seems that most people enjoy an interval of good health after recovering from something. Is that true?

Rejecting bogus "mail returned" email

inksyndicate — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 09:26:07 -0800

Spam-a-lot: Are there spam filters that can reject phony "Mail returned" virus e-mails by comparing the "failed" address to what you've actually sent? Such hoaxes are dominating my daily spam quotient, despite my use of spam-blocker Razor. But it seems like these would be easy enough for a program to detect.

How do I tell what program inserted a registry entry?

twine42 — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 07:05:52 -0800

PCFilter : Is there any way to tell what program inserted something into the registry?
I've been attacked by four seperate virii that sophos claims don't exist in the wild. One of them (netclnc.exe) keeps reappearing in my registry and the system32, and I want to know what's putting it there so I can kill it. Ideas?