We had McAfee and it tied up our system, so we now use Norton. I use Outlook Express as well, but I know nothing about Firefox. Wish I knew more so I could offer some real help!

Hope you get this resolved soon!

I don't suppose throwing the whole thing out the window and starting over is an approved method of repair? Thats about all I know how to do.

I can see everthing in Firefox, no problem. Maybe it's a Windows thing. (Sorry, am not geeky.)

Oh and I thought it was just my browser that is screwed up, I guess other firefox users are having the same problem. I can't seen your header and only the background color of green shows up.

Sorry can't help you with the Virus stuff. I know Mcafee used to have a program you could download but I can't seem to find it. It was a small exe and it would look for the most prevalent viruses.

i can see everything fine.. i'm in IE

Depending on the speed of his connection, you can do a scan of his hard drive at www.trendmicro.com - give it permission and it'll check for viruses without downloading an update.

I've had a LOT of problems with McAfee, and used Norton exclusively. You can get a free download 14-day trial of Norton if you want to uninstall McAfee and try Norton out.

And yeah, the banner is missing in Firefox.

I'm a safari (mac) and I no longer see your header.

I use Firefox on Windows, and I see everything just groovily.

As for your dad's PC, try downloading ewido (a spyware scanner) from Grisoft (free, just like their AVG virus scanner). I consistently use Ad-Aware and Spybot, and still ewido found something those two missed.

Also, run the PC in safe mode when you run these scanners.

Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. I'm computer geek by profession.

Same problems with hubby's Toshiba, firefox and freezing up and McAfee. His screen was also messing up so the computer was picked up yesterday for repair and he also mentioned to them the freezing problem. He just recently installed McAfee (bought at local Comp USA), with a rebate. I think Toshiba tech folks told him to install McAfee but....... We'll see what kind of repairs they do.

I have your side bar but no header.

Still thinking of you and your family. How is your dad's back?

Personally, I think you may be infested with magicians. And I should know...

yeah, it looks jacked up in Opera too.

when viruses abound, best thing is a reformat. mcafee bites and so does norton. nothing but resource hogs that break other programs. avg is the best bet.

If you still have McAfee/Norton on your computer it does not play well with Spybot or AVG. You could try uninstalling your McAfee (I'm assuming that you have instalation disks). Then try running everything without bad McAfee and see if that works.

I am in Firefox and everything is lovely. I have Norton and it seems to have slowed my computer down some as well, but better than a virus I suppose.

1. Running the latest Firefox, no header.

2. Ditto the comments about not having more than ONE A/V program installed. They conflict. AVG is great, McAfee sucks.

3. There are some spyware web forums where you can upload your HijackThis log and someone will tell you what to do. I would also be able to do this for you if you mail me the logfile.

I'm using Opera (9.something)

If I view the main page, no header.
If I view the page just for this article (http://www.busymom.net/archives/002862.html) looks great.

I nuked Norton AND McAfee (I gave them a year apiece) since they were pretty crappy and seemed more interested in getting me to renew my subscription than giving me tech support. AVG has been working great (I tried the free one, then bought it)

Since you have had a couple of really bad weeks with MANY different issues and I can't help you on any of your computer problems, I will spend my time hoping that your life settles down some and allows you to "breathe"

I turned on my handy error console and got a whole mess of CSS errors from your main page, starting with

FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR="#000000"

in styles-site.css

This may or may not be related ...

Your home page has three unterminated string ... Line 296 col 94, line 334 col 97, line 1773, col 94. (In other words, unbalnced quotes). Open the Firefox Jacascript console (under tools) and it will show them to you. Could just be quoted text got wrapped onto a new line and Firefox (and IE) don't like it.

(IE also shows the errors, but youhave to dive into the options and set 'show all errors')

I use only Norton products. I can tell you after a certain point nuking a machine and starting over is somtimes (even often) th best idea.

I cannot see any graphics on your blog. I use FF.

As far as your dad's computer. A reformat is probably in order! We use Spyware Doctor and Avast as well as Registry Mechanic. Avast is TONS better than Norton or McAfee in my opinion. We also took off Zone Alarm.

Oh and Adaware and Spy Bot add lag time as well as blocking certain sites. We found that out the hard way. Take those off and reformat it, then it's new and clean and purty. :)

No help here.. but I am a firefox person... and you are right, there is no header.

My computer stopped talking to IE all together... that is when I switched to Firefox... and then one day, it just showed up again... just too weird!!

I use FF on a Mac and you look fine to me. And so does the site!

If you click on my name it'll take you to a list I'd made awhile back of good virus/crap cleaners/etc. Check it out and see if there's anything on there that might help ya. And I'm in FF and still not seeing your header :(

When you figure out the bug, be sure to share it with us. My blog does not display correctly in FF, either, and only shows my profile and "about me" section in IE.

I've been having problems with my own computer, but today your site looks complete.

No header here (Firefox), which is a bummer, cuz it looks like you've changed looks since the last time I wandered by. I might even have to dust off Explorer (UGH!).

If your dad has been hit with some sort of spyware, you may just have to break down and reformat. That happened with the kids computer at one point, and I tried EVERYTHING. Finally reformatted and reinstalled Nortons (I've never had any luck with McAfee). Good luck!

More and more of late I have had people ask me to clean their machines. It usually takes me 5 hours to make the machine presentable enough that I feel confident the viruses/malware/spyware and other garbage won't return in a week.

Here are my trade secrets.
1) Go to http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ and make a CD from the iso. (I prefer the windows version http://www.ubcd4win.com/ and often use both).
2) Make sure the bios is set to boot from the CD first.
3) Boot to the ultimate boot cd (I'll assume you chose to use the windows version) and enable networking
4) Run all the virus scanners. When they prompt to update, do so! Not all will work. Skip the rootkit detector.
5) Run Adaware and Spybot.
6) Run EZPCFix, load the hives, delete temporary files, remove downloaded program files, update winsock/winsock2, and very important clear all pending file rename operations.
7) Reboot making sure to remove the UBCD from the cd drive.
8) Within Windows, go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and start a virus scan from your browser.
9) Go to http://safer-networking.org/ and make sure you have the latest SpyBot Search N Destroy. Be wary of anything that is not SpyBot SND, Lavasoft's Adaware, or Microsoft's Defender (all 3 do similar things and overlap but one might catch something another missed).
10) Go to http://lavasoft.com/ and make sure you have the latest Adaware. Also get the VX2 cleaner from the addons.
11) Search google for "Microsoft antispy" and get the latest Defender (I hate this thing and often uninstall it when I'm done).
12) Get CWShredder http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/ and run a scan.
13) Get HiJackThis http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html When you run it, simply google EVERYTHING that it returns and be certain you understand its purpose before removing something. When in doubt, probably best to leave it and rely on a detection and removal tool.
14) Start->Run->regedit Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and remove any suspicious items. Google and use caution. Do this also for RunOnce, RunOnceEx, RunServices, and RunServicesOnce.
15) Repeat 14 for HKEY_CURRENT_USER
16) Update the virus definitions for whatever virus software you use. Although Norton and McAfee used to be the top dogs, I no longer recommend them because they bog systems down too much with their "good intentions." I advise people toward Grisoft's AVG http://www.grisoft.com/ and AVAST http://avast.com/ (free). Run a full, intensive virus scan.
17) Run Windows Update and get all the latest security patches. It amazes me how many people have never run Windows Update or Microsoft Update.

I'm sure I have left some things out. Good luck!

email me - i'll see if I can help! I wouldn't use Norton or McAfee - they both seem to cause problems - and just t omake you happy, I"m sorry to say I cant see the top banner in firefox!!!

It sounds like you've already gotten lots of great advice. Just FYI, my husband tells me at his computer shop they have to remove McAfee all the time because it is problematic. He recommends Avast (www.avast.com). The home edition is free! Good luck!

Sara's comment "Oh and Adaware and Spy Bot add lag time as well as blocking certain sites." is inaccurate.

There are two types of protection. Passive and Active. Active protection is a program that runs in the background all the time. Since it is running, active protection can cause performance issues. This would be akin to a doorman letting people (programs) into a night club. It would be faster if the doorman wasn't there and just let everyone through but then you get the riff raff. Active protection checks everything as it goes.

Passive protection works only when you tell it to. With active protection you have no doorman at the club and people come and go. Perhaps some riff raff come in and vandalize a bit, steal some information, and when you start to notice the disturbances you run your passive protection. You turn off the music, make everyone stand still, and have the doorman and security sweep the place removing the riff raff.

Adaware and Spybot are passive protection. Adaware Plus (the paid version) has a wonderful piece of active protection called Ad-watch which I run all the time. Ad-watch does some blocking but mostly warns you if something is trying to make an unauthorized change to the registry.

Adaware and Spybot are not blocking applications. They do not block sites. They are scanners that look for and correct problems. They are the most valuable tools in your arsenal against malware. Ad-watch does some popup blocking but it is not a firewall and does not filter sites.

Reformatting to recover a computer is almost NEVER necessary. Sometimes it is easier and it is nice to start fresh but not required. I used to reformat and start a new every 6 months to a year but then again I had regular backups of my data.

Two other topics of consideration are virus protection and firewalls. Using our night club analogy, virus protection can also be active or passive. Software like McAfee, Norton Antivirus, AVG, and Avast are active. They reside in the computer's memory and run all the time. They are the doormen that stick a tongue depresser into everyone's mouth as they enter the club and make sure no sickness gets in. The online scanners at Trendmicro (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/) and Symantec (http://sarc.com/) and other are passive. They scan when you tell them to and it would be the equivalent of calling in the doctors after you notice your guests falling ill. I few Norton and McAfee as doctors that have gotten carried away and give everyone an anal exam even if they just came in for a splinter. Norton and McAfee both come with large staffs that consume a lot resources (ie. their Security Centers)

A firewall is like a guest list. That's the big ugly bouncer who turns people away at the door. When a person tries to enter the club that isn't on the approved list, the bouncer sends them packing. Some firewalls have VIP lists which are the programs that can run even if they appear on bad lists (this would be called your "exception" list). The firewall might trust most programs (depending on the instructions you've given it). These programs are called white listed. And might absolutely refuse some guests based on a blacklist typically maintained by not for profit organizations and the company from which you purchased your bouncer...er, firewall.

Btw, I see your header fine in Firefox.

One final tidbit, I forgot to meantion that you should go to the control panel->add/remove programs and confirm that each program is supposed to be there. There are some nasties out there that install themselves to your system and give names that sound appropriate. By searching google on each program name you will find out its purpose and may be surprised by some that should be removed.

Holy Moley. 28 comments and only one Mac user besides me. Here's my suggestion. Get out of PC Hell and join the Mac world. It's SO easy and there are NO viruses. Trouble shooting is practically done for you, and you'll always be able to see the issues clearly yourself. Not to mention, we call your browser "internet Exploder" and are all moving over to Safari or Firefox, which are both great.
To be a little more encouraging. . . . I am a high school teacher, and we have some great techie kids. Can you send me the source file and the name of the HTML editor you're using. Some 16 year old may be able to figure it out for you, if you haven't already made progress on your problem.

My 2 cents.....I had the same problem but not with Comcast. We have Time Warner RoadRunner here. I called TW and LIED (yup, I sure did!) and told them that McAfee said they couldn't find anything and to contact TW. After being on the phone with them for about 10 minutes, all was fine with Outlook. I also have used Outlook Express and you have to turn your firewall to medium. RoadRunner supplies a firewall, then there's another one if you have Windows XP, and then yet another one with McAfee. You're so covered, nothing is coming in or going out!

djuggler, your experiences doesn't mean that people don't have problems with those programs. We've had problems with Adaware and Spy Bot on brand new computers, reformatted computers. Everyone's computer life is different. Busy Mom asked for help, so I typed what I know.