Is this a Virus?

[NAG]

Just for the record, this "quicktime codec" thing has absolutely nothing to do with quicktime. Thats just the social engineering scheme they use to get people to give them their admin password. There is nothing in the installer related to quicktime at all.

Follow the instructions here to see if you're effected.

Most likely you got something like the above.

 

[clevin]

Ah yes, the playing dumb routine. I was hoping you'd get past this Firefox obsession you have but at least you've managed to backtrack and now at least look open to trying to help the person. Don't let me stop you from actually trying to help instead of pushing your Firefox zealotry onto him.

Did I say one word of suggesting him to use firefox? I have no problem saying firefox is miles ahead of safari in security. Just you know.

I simply pointed out the must-take measures to use safari safely. and what are you pissed off for? for safari needs these measures? sorry, blame apple, not me 😛

Anyway, back to the actual problem. Have you reset your caches? You may still have some of the old/erroneous pages in your cache. If resetting your cache as well as switching to OpenDNS ends up fixing it then your ISPs DNS has been compromised. They probably already know this but you should go ahead and report it to them anyway.

He has two computers, and his friends', only one out of 3 has this problem, in the same fr..ing network environment, how can it possibly be his ISP's problem?

The problem is in his laptop, not his ISP. you just can't believe a mac can have this type of problem? or what?

4)
A friend just left; he brought over his identical white iBook with Safari.
He had no problem on the internet, or with my wireless network here
in the house.

5)
So, it's all in my laptop,, I guess.

6)my housemate has admitted to downloading 2 small QUICKTIME clips
a few days ago (I remember 2 on the desktop, but one was blank.
I'd rather not say what was on the other one... anyway, I dumped them)
Usually I have a personal "No-Quicktime" rule because they suck.

somebody gonna take this as an issue again, but I have to say this, because apple never really discuss these security issues publicly and never communicate with end users about possible problems, when we face them, we have no effective ways of dealing them, other than re-install OS.

i sure hope apple store helps, good luck with it.

 

[kirk wilson]

short update with dumb question

I don't want to get into the Firefox vs. Safari issue.. but, I just downloaded
Firefox onto the laptop (by going through a Canadian search engine, since
it's 'not found' on google today, at least for me).. it downloaded quickly and it's all crisp-looking, but I'm not going anywhere on the Internet.. it just continuously
looks like it's loading. I went only to Yahoo Mail.

I opted NOT to import anything from Safari when I downloaded Firefox; still, I was hoping that the
problem with the computer lies in the copy of Safari that I am running.

It's probably now in the computer itself.

Dumb question here: Can I insert an OSX 10.39 disk (that's all I have with me) and get a new copy of Safari off of it, without re-installing the whole OS?

The laptop is running OSX 10.4.1, hate to lose it, but can I run a lesser
disk over it, just for Safari? I am thinking 'no.'

Or, do I just wipe the HD clean, and start over with 10.3.9?

On we go..

 

[SuperCompu2]

Wipe it and go with 10.3.9. At this point the trouble of losing Tiger is far outweighed by the inability to access the internet.

Panther has Safari anyway, which, when installed, will be a brand new fresh install free of troubled, crippling files.

I'd say go for it. I have 10.3.9 on an iBook in my house and it's been rock solid for over a year now. 700MHz G3 Dual USB if you were wondering.

And besides, if you find someone with a Tiger disk down the road, just do an upgrade of Panther.

 

[kirk wilson]

Fixed.. (i think)

Thanks for your advice, and I almost did wipe it clean last night, but
I came across the brand new version of Safari (3.1.2) and was able to download it, after about six tries.

(It shouldn't have worked, by my estimation, since the new Firefox I downloaded the day before also
began to hang right away; it was even giving me the
'Not Found (404)-- Try Firefox!" page..
anyway, I dumped it, after i downloaded the new Safari.)

Everything works now. It's almost as fast as it used to be.
But.. Safari 3.1.2 wiped out ALL of the old bookmarks which i had, except for my home page. That's okay, I guess. I was expecting it to ask me first.


I am staying with the 'Open DNS' numbers given to me here, though. No harm in that?


So, if anyone is still following this, I think it's fixed.. by downloading firefox,
gettinng onto the internet long enough to download the newest Safari,
and then dumping the firefox. I should know soon enough if this holds.

Otherwise, I will wipe the HD and start over.

Thanks everybody!