Virus or Spyware

[lawofmotion]

Okay, it could just be a glitch in my system and I'll probably catch a lot of heat for saying I think I have a virus, as it seems everyone is convinced of the infallibility of macs, but this thing is functioning exactly like the spyware I used to get on my pc. (I'm using the terms virus, malware, spyware, etc. interchangeably because I don't really understand or care enough about the differences to differentiate)

I have a 13 inch white Intel MacBook: 2Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb hard drive. (By the way, it surprised the hell out of me how much hard drive space the OSX operating system took up when I recieved my machine.) I have partitioned my computer using bootcamp and have installed windows xp pro edition, with 10 GB space on that side. So that is my computer.

A while ago, something happened to my computer, whether I got a virus or whether it's a glitch or something, that's what I am here for. One day when I booted up my computer, I noticed that it said I had about 12 Gigs of free memory available on my main drive. Just the day before it had been at something like 42 Gigs. I thought it might just be a display problem or something loading wrong, so I rebooted my machine, but it came up with the same problem. That is when I noticed that my clock was wrong, and when I tried to have it automatically set the time from a server (which it was already set to do so it should have done it anyway) it didn't work.

I tried searching around on the internet for a fix to this, but I noticed that a good amount of websites I tried to access were coming up with "Unable to connect to the server" errors. More than I thought was plausible. The same thing has been happening since - I can access some websites but not others. A lot of the websites I tried to access but couldn't were apple related websites and security related websites, though it also won't let me connect to myspace or youtube (though it's probably a blessing that it won't let me connect to those.)

To be sure it wasn't something having to do with firewall or network settings or anything because I was on my colleges network (though I didn't think that was the case as I had been able to access certain sites that I couldn't anymore just days before), or just that magically all of the sudden all of these sites were down, I tried the sites on a few friends computers, and they worked and loaded fine, both mac, intel mac, and pc. I then tried accessing these sites such as myspace and youtube using a few proxy sites, and each time I used a proxy to access the sites, they worked and came up. Frustrating! I tried downloading and running firefox to see if it was possibly just some problem with safari (ignoring the problems about my clock and other programs) but it was the same way with firefox as well.

I am home now and the same things are happening when I connect to the internet using my home network or wireless networks around the city. So I'm trying to find some help. I'm typing this right now on my windows side as I can't access this site on the mac side. My windows side is running fine, by the way.

I have downloaded a few virus programs, the only one I can remember the name of right now is Virex, and there is one other which was free. But they have not found anything. I also downloaded the program LittleSnitch in hopes that it would give me some insight as to whether or not there was a process hijacking my browser, but I couldn't really see anything and I don't really know how to use it. So there we are.

So any help would be appreciated, as this is a very frustrating problem. If you need anymore info just ask, as I'm happy to give. Have a good day.

Thanks,
William.

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't consider OS X to be 'infallible' - that would be a head-in-the-sand kind of attitude, don't you think? But, there are not (yet) any known viruses/spyware/malware, etc, that will actually infect the Mac and can also spread to other Macs running OS X.

So far, anti-virus software for OS X is a useless exercise - except to detect possible Windows virii, which don't affect your OS X, but might be needed to protect other Windows users. Of course, if you run Windows through Boot Camp or some other method, you need virus protection for your Windows, as any PC user should consider that necessary.
So, what's going on with your system? First, your remarks about how much space is used by OS X? About 3-4GB, more or less. The rest is used by iLife and the other bundled software - really! Garageband support files, for example, take up 4GB or more. The total default install is something like 12GB or more.
For your virus-like problems - You should try the standard troubleshooting suggestions:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ (see the "My Mac needs help" section)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html

In particular, be sure to try logging in as a different user to see if the problem exists there. (Create a new user via the Accounts preference panel if you only have the one user account so far.)

 

[MisterMe]

First off, there is no need for the story of your life when asking for help.

Next, when the first MacOS X virus is discovered in the wild, it will not be discovered on your machine. If you don't hear about it on CNN or read about it in this forum, then it ain't a virus.

You gave no information about your Internet connection, but I assume that the problems with your access if certain sites is related to your DNS. I can't help you solve this problem until you tell us how you are connected to the 'Net.

As for your "sudden" drop in free harddrive capacity, it is likely that you have a residual virtual memory swap file, a cache file, or that you or your friends downloaded a lot of stuff without realizing it.

 

[g/re/p]

First off, there is no need for the story of your life when asking for help.

And that really is not your call to make.
The condescending tone you use in the rest of
your post is rude and also uncalled for - stop
being such a jackass.

 

[DeltaMac]

Next, when the first MacOS X virus is discovered in the wild, it will not be discovered on your machine. If you don't hear about it on CNN or read about it in this forum, then it ain't a virus.

Viruses are first discovered somewhere, so why not on the posters Mac? Just, not yet!
I also wouldn't trust CNN to decide what an OS X virus is, or is not. AND, this site, although valuable, is also not infallible....
thanks, g/re/p !