[S.M.]

IE6 usually worked fine although it'd gone slow lately. But last night when I clicked on the IE icon, which takes me to the default page, it showed the casual "Cannot find page" and then went to this page http://204.177.92.68/rotate/r3.html . It didn't actually go to this page. Just showed the url and then displayed the "cannot find ..." thing and then the url and the "cannot.." thing. It just moved back and forth between these two. I tried different urls but no change. So I disconnected. And then McAfee showed this:
Virus found
File: MNSVC.EXE
Virus Name: Downloader-W
File Path: C:\WINDOWS
Status: Deleted

It was late at night so I just sut down. I'm sending this post from uni. Was that vitus the cause of that strange behaviour?
Even before that the internet speed has slowed down.

And then before the computer shut down, it showed this:
Ossproxy has caused error in OSSPROXY.EXE
Ossproxy will now close.

Do I need to remove this OSSPROXY.EXE?
The last thing, before this internet episode, I ran the Maintenance. It did the first two tasks but when it came to defragment, it wouldn't do anything. The hard was making its noises but it was stuck at 0%. It would blink every 5 second or so as if it was being restarted.
It's all so confusing. Please help

O/S: Windows Millennium 64 Mb 100MHz SDRAM

Thanks

[elina]

SM, hi, you got a couple things going on here. There are many reason for your IE to slow down. But first as it is more likely, the reason your IE has been slow lately is you got on your PC what's known as spywares, or softwares that spies and tracks your surfing habits for marketing purposes, but a lot of them can collect your personal information. You might even have what's called a browser highjacker . Yes, that is exactly what it means (not kidding, really). These browser highjacker softwares usually either re-set your homepage to their homepage, re-direct you to another website even when you type in something you want to find, and/or load pop-ups as soon as you click GO or ENTER.

And YES, you have a virus and other spyware--OSSPROXY--that are also causing your IE to slow down.

You can remove OSSPROXY here: http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup.../startup_o.php. OSSPROXY is part of a software from NETSETTER. Did you install NETSETTER to boost you internet speed? Well, NETSETTER is a spyware company.

To get rid of all these spywares, I recommend down load either AD-WARE and/or SPYBOT, both at www.download.com and both FREE. But before you clean your PC with either AD-WARE or SPYBOT, upfdate each of their spyware database list, so you can have the latest list. They are very easy to use. I use both because one will find what the other missed. But I like to use AD-WARE because I find it finds more spywares, but that is my personal choice.

Lastly, if you have not done so, I recommend updating your anti-virus definition list every 2 to 7 days. If you have NORTON ANTI-VIRUS, you can turn on the "automatic enable" option. And also, clean your Internet temp files whenever you can. I recommend using SYSTEM MECHANIC and WINDOW WASHER, instead of cleaning the temp files in the TOOLS\INTERNET OPTIONS at the top of IE menu, because the INTERNET OPTION don't really clean the temp files, although it appears to do so (coz it only cleans the surface and not the at the deep-layer, which is what SYSTEM MECHANIC and WINDOW WASHER do). :-* 8)