Vuze update & browser problems - malware?

[Kino]

I’ve been using torrents for years and I have never had a problem. I was using Vuze eight years ago when it was called Azureus and I was on a PC. Never any problems. Anyways, now I am on a MacBook Pro (10.7.5), and something has gone terribly awry.

So, this all started when I finally updated Vuze. It had been bugging me about an update for about a week. Though I chose to refuse all add-ons, it began installing them. I figured I must have not unchecked all of the boxes for the crappy add-on software. I couldn’t force the installer to quit, so I did a hard shut down. I thought if I reinstalled Vuze and was careful to refuse every last add-on this time, all would be well.

Unfortunately, Vuze is just a total piece of shit, and the reinstall added a bunch of junk to my browsers (Chrome and Firefox). Most of this was easy to fix right away, just by removing extensions and re-setting home pages and default search engines. But now, pages in Firefox are often redirected to Yahoo, and it is impossible to stop this. Each time, the tab says “DNS Solution Yahoo Error”. These pages always work just fine in Chrome, though. However, in Chrome, when I am on Amazon (which is often), I cannot click the “Look Inside” button for books, nor will clicking on the thumbnail photos under an item’s main photo open those thumbnails as larger photos in a pop-up. I checked the advanced settings, and pop-ups are allowed for all sites, so what gives?

I thought uninstalling and then reinstalling the browsers might help. I looked up how to completely uninstall Firefox, and did so (opened finder and searched for it, found and included the system files, tossed everything in the trash and emptied it), but when I reinstalled, all of my previous data was there (extensions, cookies, history… I was even still logged in to some sites). The only difference is that now, Firefox’s logo doesn’t show up in the applications folder – instead there is a generic white circle with a line through it. So, in short, that didn’t exactly work…

I’m worried, obviously, that something is compromising my security. I should really have an anti-virus program by now, but I stupidly believed that the free Chrome scan was good enough… I know, I know… please try to control your laughter

I tried to figure out which anti-virus is best for Mac so I can get it and do a scan, find whatever is wrong, and remove it. But that is a huge can of worms, itself. From what I can see, Bitdefender is the best, but it seems every program has both 5-star reviews and a slew of 1-star reviews that complain about how inefficient and impossible to remove the program is. I don’t want to choose the wrong one because I’m pretty short on cash (and hours at work), and I don’t want to end up with junk that will make my computer even worse off…

I don’t know what to do. Take it to the genius bar and have them backup my files, wipe it clean, and start over? Would any virus/malware possibly just infect the files I backed up? Can anything be saved?! Should I just burn my Mac, toss its crispy remains in the ocean, and start my life over in a new city? Please help…

 

[honestone]

Hi Kino,

Welcome to this site. Hopefully, we can help you.

First of all, I would recommend you try the excellent freeware program ClamXav. Here is a link to download it:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15850/clamxav

It has had numerous good to excellent reviews. If you want to read some of them, here are the results of a google search I just did for "Reviews of ClamXav":

https://www.google.com/search?q=Reviews of ClamXAV&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&channel=sb&q=Reviews of ClamXav

The program does have some limitations (hey, it's free, so what does one expect?), but it's a good, first attempt. I do use it occasionally on both of my Macs, but so far, I have been "virus free".

Secondly, there is an excellent free program called Onyx that clean out quite a bit of "junk" and "crap". Here is a page to download it:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx

Since you are running Lion (OS 10.7.5), you need to download the correct version, Onyx 2.4.8. So, go to where it says "Related Links", click on Onyx 2.4.8, and then you'll get a small screen where you can do the download.

I've been using Onyx for numerous, numerous years, and it is definitely a winner.

Third, taking the optimistic approach that these products help you out of your dilemma, you need to develop a backup strategy. That is extremely critical. If you can afford it, get an external hard drive. 1 TB drives can be had for as little as $50 to $60. Stick with Seagate drives, as they work best with Macs. The only thing you'll need to decide is which connection interface you want. Since you did not say which specific MacBook Pro model you have, I do not know what types of ports you have on it. I suspect you have at least one or two free USB 2.0 ports, and a USB drive (even USB 3.0, which would be backwards compatible with USB 2.0) would be the cheapest way to go, although the slowest. Firewire 800 would be the fastest (and more expensive), but I don't know if you MacBook Pro has a Firewire 800 port.

In any event, you need to make a backup as soon as your Mac is "clean". The "best" freeware program for making a bootable backup is SuperDuper!. Here is a link to download it:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13803/superduper

Don't worry about the cost stated on that link. You can use it for free, but some more "enhanced" features will not be available in the "free" version. Again, I use that program for both of my Macs, and recently, it was a life saver for one of my machines.

If you can't afford an external drive, there is the possibility that you could partition your internal drive (assuming it has enough free space), and backup to that empty partition. But, it will definitely be wiser to backup to an external device.

In any event, try ClamXav and Onyx, and let us know the results.