404 not found - I keep getting this tonight?

[SV-net]

Anybody know what it means? Am I in trouble with the laptop, cos the PC is working fine...

[Spiderman]

depends what links you're trying to follow i guess.

[SV-net]

I tried Richer Sounds for LED TVs, then my own website then this forum. Homepages work fine, the next click gets 404 not found - sometimes. Not everytime.

[SV-net]

Wooooooo I just looked at a CD on play.com and when I clicked it gave me link to nasty page removed - spidey now Im really worried. ANy my virus stuff is all up to date too...

[Spiderman]

hmm, somethings redirecting you. I;m sure you know already but do not download from that site!

Have you only got anti virus stuff? You should also have spybot and adaware to be extra safe i'd suggest.

[SV-net]

I just have Mcaffe on the laptop, I just tried this forum onthe lappy again and it went to another site of crap I dont want to see. Is there a recommended scanner protector I should get. Bloke at work just text me AVG free?

[Spiderman]

dont waste time with AVG, it used to be good but isnt nowdays. Try an online scan with Kaspersky but also download and install Sypbot S&D and Adaware, btoh fre and both downloadable from many place that you can trust.

[SV-net]

Can you pm a link to download or post for me, this is not something I would normaally be getting into. Thanks

[Spiderman]

here you go.

http://www.filehippo.com/search?q=spybot

http://www.filehippo.com/search?q=adaware

download and install one at a time, each will need to be updated once you have installed the main software bit.
Personally i'd loose the Mcafee bloat ware too but thats just my personal preference.
Does your Mcafee come with a firewall? If not i'd suggest you search your laptop for windows own firewall and make sure its turned on, its pretty good.

BTW, i'm gonna remove the link you posted above that you're getting redirected to just in case someone else follows it and clicks it by mistake.

[SV-net]

No worries, thanks for the feedback I am off to the laptop now to do these links. Wish me luck. Cheers

[Spiderman]

Updates for each and subsequent scans can take some time so bear with them but they are both well worth doing. Post here again if you need anymore help :)

[madcockney]

404 page not found errors can be caused by numerous reasons.

Lost connectivity to the DNS server
Your cache has incorrect data
The connection settings for your ISP are incorrect
The website is down
You have a virus or other malware on your computer

are just some.

If on a MS O/S machine such as XP then you can try from the command prompt C:\ipconfig /flushdns and see if that resolves it, though if this is the problem it tends to have affected all sites that you are trying to go to. After checking the connection settings including DNS and testing again a reboot may be required. Some of the web security apps that embed themselves into your web browser can cause a 404 error as they appear to go out to their own DNS server and if they cannot find the location virtually immediately they display the 404. Where this happens it's worth temporarily disabling the browsser web security and trying again. There is also the possibility that your ISP, or whoever they forward the DNS query to, DNS server has lost or has got a corrupted listing for the site.

Malware can play havoc with your machine. I never liked Adaware as it tended, in the old days, to lock machines up, but spybot is first class. Another similar app that I highly recommend is Malwarebyte. I have both of these applications on our servers at work and my home machines. I also run the Tea Time module of Spybot which helps to prevent changes to the registry unless you give permission.

AVG I lost faith in and they lost a 500 machine contract at work after 4 years. F-secure used to do a freebie version and there is another one that I haven't tried but supposed to be very good called Avast, also free to home users. Clamwin is a very good open source AntiVirus application which currently has not got any on access ability, but this is being worked on.

[SV-net]

Thanks, I ran spybot - nothing at all found. I then adaware and again nothing at all found. But today the laptop is working fine and goes where I point it so I just hope its ok.

I just want to thank the help and comments that I have received here, very constructive and a great help. I would never fiddle with this kind of stuff so I had to ask and thought this the best place for me, Im pleased I posted.

[Spiderman]

... one that I haven't tried but supposed to be very good called Avast, also free to home users.

i have been using it for the last year or so, its done me right so far.

I just want to thank the help and comments that I have received here, very constructive and a great help. I would never fiddle with this kind of stuff so I had to ask and thought this the best place for me, Im pleased I posted.

You're welcome dude :)

[timwilky]

I would be tempted to look for a rootkit, try rootkitrevealer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897445.aspx) from microsoft/sysinternals

It won't kill anything. But could tell you if there is anything nasty hidden in the depths