I need computer help please

My gmail was accessed about 5 hours ago and every contact in my address book was sent a 'dear friend' spam email. I had to delete all of my contacts to ensure it doesn't happen again. This happened to me about 3 years ago with my hotmail address.

Anyway, I've changed my password and security question and identified the ip address, which is registered in China!!

Now I would like to try and block that address from getting in to my account again
and this is the &%#?**! ip number 115.49.91.58 .

Does anyone know an easy way to block it? I can't understand the instructions on the net.

I've got Trend Micro installed and I use Windows XP.
 
Now I would like to try and block that address from getting in to my account again
.

You can't - the whole point with web based emails are that they are accessible from anywhere. Your password is the only protection you have.

Cheers,

The Y-man
 
Oh I see. I thought if it can be done on forums, then surely I can do it. Like you block websites.

Okay the passwoird is changed so hopefully that is enough. It was a strong password too so I'm confused about how they got it. Would it have anything to do with loading email on my new iphone? I've never accessed email on my phone before last week.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
 
My gmail was accessed about 5 hours ago and every contact in my address book was sent a 'dear friend' spam email. I had to delete all of my contacts to ensure it doesn't happen again. This happened to me about 3 years ago with my hotmail address.

Anyway, I've changed my password and security question and identified the ip address, which is registered in China!!

Now I would like to try and block that address from getting in to my account again
and this is the &%#?**! ip number 115.49.91.58 .

Does anyone know an easy way to block it? I can't understand the instructions on the net.

I've got Trend Micro installed and I use Windows XP.

You could try these two sites -
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090108184746AATnYBh
http://www.ehow.com/how_5014642_hide-ip-address-gmail.html

The thing is though that you can change your IP address so if your spammer is an experienced spammer he probably changes his IP address occasionally anyway.
You could try writing to their ISP and asking that they do something about his SPAM sending and spoofing. You can track the path the email took through the header details (Open the message you'd like to view headers for, Click the down arrow next to Reply, at the top-right of the message pane, Select Show original), the ISP will show in the header.

http://www.emailaddressmanager.com/tips/header.html
This site shows you one and how to decipher a header.
http://www.stopspam.org/index.php?option=com_content&id=45
This one is more in depth.

Good luck
Olly
 
Oh I see. I thought if it can be done on forums, then surely I can do it. Like you block websites.

Okay the passwoird is changed so hopefully that is enough. It was a strong password too so I'm confused about how they got it. Would it have anything to do with loading email on my new iphone? I've never accessed email on my phone before last week.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Nah, your iphone shouldnt've caused the issue. If the spammer got hold of your email contacts, then there's nothing you can do about it (even using a stronger password). The contacts are out there in the internet.
 
But how on earth could they have accessed Tizzy's contacts?? It makes no sense to me.

What is the point of a password it someone can hack it anyway!
 
There is a section in gmail where you can go in and see when your gmail account was last accessed. It was accessed twice from a computer in beijing while I was fast asleep. I can't understand how they are able to access the contacts list without my password so think they must have got it.

I usually hibernate the computer too, plus I generally tick 'remember me on this computer", so won't be doing that any more.

I'm going to change my password much more frequently now.

Thanks for those links Olly, lots of work to do now.
 
There is a section in gmail where you can go in and see when your gmail account was last accessed. It was accessed twice from a computer in beijing while I was fast asleep. I can't understand how they are able to access the contacts list without my password so think they must have got it.

I usually hibernate the computer too, plus I generally tick 'remember me on this computer", so won't be doing that any more.

I'm going to change my password much more frequently now.

I'm the only user on my PC so consequently have everything set to 'remember me', no password sign in, haven't changed passwords since I first set them donkeys years ago and so on and it is fine to do this as long as you have good security in place. I've never had any problems in all the years I've been using a PC.

You didn't say whether you had a firewall or not (not the Windows provided ones - they're rubbish). If not, I'd suggest you get one installed. They may have hacked in via an open port and if you have your passwords set to 'remember me' or 'remember password' they are stored in your PC and a hacker knows where. Also if you are running wirelessly have you got it set up in secure mode - WEP or WPA - the default is no security at all - it has to be set up.

A good free firewall is here - http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm
When you first start to use it it will ask your permission as to what programmes you want to allow internet access to AND it blocks unauthorised intrusion into your PC. It keeps a log of this and can warn you every time an attempt is made or you can set it to just 'do it's thing' without annoying you and check the log for curiosity sake every now and then.

You can allow your programmes access EVERY time you use them or permanently allow for some programmes (your browser and email and updates to antivirus for example) and allow or deny access to other programmes when needed.

Cheers
Olly
 
Hi Olly, I've got Trend Micro installed. It should be working, it costs me enough. I need to check all the settings. I'll go in and see if there is a record of this hacker getting access. I was fiddling with the Trnd Micro settings last night so hope I didn't accidently turn something off.
 
Hi Tizzy,

No point in blocking that IP address. It was most likely from a bot-swarm. Was your password easily guessable? You could have a keystroke logger trojan installed on your machine - is your Windows XP PC up to date with all the latest patches (and I do mean the latest - as in, last week)?

You can't access the contacts list in gmail without a password, so either, they logged into your account by guessing your password, or they recorded your keystrokes and captured your password.
 
Well my password was a name and a year but I put capitals in as well and it was meant to be strong. With the patches, you may be onto something there. I've been ignoring the windows emails recently.

I'll take a look. I stopped downloading all the updates a couple of months ago because my computer started freezing. So, I had to restore to prior to the updates and I've just ignored the windows emails.
 
windows doesn't send e-mails, so you should keep ignoring them

what it does do is pop up an icon in a try prompting you to update
if it doesn't - you need to enable automatic update in control panel
 
Well my password was a name and a year but I put capitals in as well and it was meant to be strong. With the patches, you may be onto something there. I've been ignoring the windows emails recently.
That's an insecure password. Capitals or no. It can easily be guessed.

TIZZY1990 is insecure.

tee3y3zedzedy;1990 is much more secure.

I'll take a look. I stopped downloading all the updates a couple of months ago because my computer started freezing. So, I had to restore to prior to the updates and I've just ignored the windows emails.

Your computer is vulnerable then. If you're going to be running windows, you must:

* Turn on automatic updates and let Windows download and install them automatically for you.
* Buy a complete firewall product like McAfee that does firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam, privacy and anti-phishing and keep it updated
* Keep backups
* Change your passwords regularly.

Also, I wouldn't leave your computer idle (eg, overnight) when you don't need to.

Alternatively, run Linux or MacOS/X. Much more secure.
 
i'd disagree on the buying complete product advice above

AVG antivirus is quite good (and free)
windows firewall/firewall on your router are also quite good, just need to be enabled/configured

however the most important points are

  1. don't open e-mails you don't know,
  2. don't click on a links inside e-mails even if they look legit,
  3. don't open attachments on e-mails which you don't expect to get.
  4. don't use Internet Explorer and Outlook

if you follow above points and you are behind broadband router - you can even get away without running antivirus on your computer (i have), although i wouldn't advise this for an average user
 
Okay the emails are coming from Microsoft and not from Windows.

I've lookedd and I've got auto updates switched on but can't figure out if it filters through to Firefox or just updates Internet Exporer.

Re the password, No I've never done one that complicated. I'd have to write it down to remember it.

One of my boys switched to MacO/S and never has this trouble. I might jump ship too.
 
i'd disagree on the buying complete product advice above

AVG antivirus is quite good (and free)
windows firewall/firewall on your router are also quite good, just need to be enabled/configured

however the most important points are

  1. don't open e-mails you don't know,
  2. don't click on a links inside e-mails even if they look legit,
  3. don't open attachments on e-mails which you don't expect to get.
  4. don't use Internet Explorer and Outlook

if you follow above points and you are behind broadband router - you can even get away without running antivirus on your computer (i have), although i wouldn't advise this for an average user

So don't advise it.

Windows Firewall is rubbish. It easily gets disabled by having an unpatched system behind an open router.

AVG Free is great, but it won't protect you from malicious attacks. The non-free version includes a firewall.

Agree with everything else. I run Windows 2003 inside a virtual machine that is corderned off from everything and it's not running any anti virus. I only run it to use Somersoft's PIA. :)

When you start being told: "You can't run this and don't run that and make sure you disable this", you start to think: "What other operating systems are out there where I don't have to put up with all this crap?".

Answers:

- OpenSolaris
- Linux (Ubuntu, Centos, Redhat, name your flavour)
- OpenBSD/FreeBSD (Seriously only for people who have neckbeards) :D
 
automatic updates update windows and other MS software
FF has got it's on updates, you can enable it in tools>options if it's disabled for some reason

microsoft shouldn't be sending any e-mails to you, unless you have subscribed for some service to get notifications via e-mail. it's definitely not the default behavior.

making password secure isn't hard

for example i would make tizzy1990 into t133Y1990

it's still easy to remember, you just need to remember that you replace certain letters with numbers
 
I've lookedd and I've got auto updates switched on but can't figure out if it filters through to Firefox or just updates Internet Exporer.
Autoupdates are for Windows (which includes Internet Explorer). Firefox is clever enough to update itself. :)

Re the password, No I've never done one that complicated. I'd have to write it down to remember it.
Of course, I was being excessive. Maybe make up a phrase and change that phrase into letters as a password, eg:

"Global Financial Crisis? Bah - whatever"

is

Gfc?bahwvr!

One of my boys switched to MacO/S and never has this trouble. I might jump ship too.

That's because Mac OS/X is awesome and just works. :D
 
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