DirtyLarry Veteran Posted December 17, 2004 Veteran Share Posted December 17, 2004 Okay, I went to go play some UT2k4 the other day for the first time in about 2 months. When I searched for servers my lowest ping was in the 300 area, and it went all of the way to 900. This was wrong, really wrong. I have a cable modem and always usually get connections in the low 10-20's area. Since I had not played UT2k4 for so long, I decided to launch Counter Strike: Source, the last game I played online about 2 weeks ago. Sure enough my pings were way higher than they normally are on that game as well, lowest was around 400, Highest was in the 900's. I immediately though maybe somehow, someway, although I am anal rententive with my Anti Virus and Spyware scanning, I had a gotten a trojan or something similar, as it seemed alot of activity was going out of my computer. Eventually I ran Nortons, and sure enough it found a file called "gadaware.exe" I believe (not 100% sure) was the name. Nortons went on to delete the file once I gave it permission to do so. This was late last night so I decided to just go to bed and not see if my Pings were better until today. Today, I checked to see if my pings were better, and if this file Norton found was indeed the culrpit for my outgoing activity. Sure enough my pings were back to normal. Then I saw something very interesting...under my Start Menu / Games folder that my Icon for GameSpy Arcade had turned into the missing .exe Icon... Then I read this post in the PC gamer found here, which had this... badaimer said: all-seeing eye because it has multi theft auto :D and i think gamespy has adware? not sure So after reading this reference post, and seeing the missing Icon, it turns out that I think Norton recomended me to delete GameSpy arcade, or at least something related to it. All I know is now Gamespy Arcade is gone, and my problems with high pings have completely gone away as well. So my 1st Question is WTF? My 2nd question is if Gamespy was the culprit, how did it start doing this out of nowhere? I have had it installed for quite some time, and I never had any issues at all with it before, quite frankly because I only used it once then never again. Any info on this matter would be appreciated, as I am really dumbfounded at this point. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimRogers Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 WWWWEEEEIIIRRRDDD!! Could be that a worm etc has infected the program? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585117748 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted December 17, 2004 Author Veteran Share Posted December 17, 2004 TimRogers said: WWWWEEEEIIIRRRDDD!!Could be that a worm etc has infected the program? 585117748[/snapback] Thats a possibility. Either way I am glad my low ping problem is taken care of, I just wanted to see if anyone else experienced anything like this as well. I just checked my Nortons Activity Log and this was exactly what it said. Source: X:X\GameSpy Arcade\Aphex.exe Description: The file X:X\GameSpy Arcade\Aphex.exe is a Adware threat. Click for more information about this threat : Adware.GameSpyArcade Maybe the ping just happened to be something else, but it is just weird to me. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585117978 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kak Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 Norton said that my DC++ install file was adware. Run a real program to see if it finds the file..something like Spybot, Ad-Aware, or Webroot SpySweeper. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585117986 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted December 17, 2004 Author Veteran Share Posted December 17, 2004 Acid said: Norton said that my DC++ install file was adware. Run a real program to see if it finds the file..something like Spybot, Ad-Aware, or Webroot SpySweeper. 585117986[/snapback] I ran Norton Last. I ran Spybot & Ad-Aware + first. I should have been more specific with saying that, instead I said ... "I immediately though maybe somehow, someway, although I am anal rententive with my Anti Virus and Spyware scanning,... Eventually I ran Nortons Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585118006 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted December 17, 2004 Author Veteran Share Posted December 17, 2004 Also I did some more research on the detection rule was just added to Norton on the 14th, and I have not use my computer since Tuesday (the 14th) until last night, when I noticed the problem. Since I have only been playing HL2 SP I would not have noticed if my pings were that bad for at least the past 3 weeks, so unfortunataly I do not know how long the problem existed. I just find it a little strange thats all. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585118024 Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtrftw Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 gsa is adware if youre not paying for it. a nice alternative is kquery @ http://kquery.com/ Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585118037 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted December 17, 2004 Author Veteran Share Posted December 17, 2004 norky said: gsa is adware if youre not paying for it. a nice alternative is kquery @ http://kquery.com/ 585118037[/snapback] thanks for the alternative. i should also add i am a paying subscriber to the gamespy network (fileplanet, etc.) so i did indeed have the no ads version as well. no big deal. my ping problem is gone, wether unrelated or related so is gamespy arcade is gone now too. if i dont sound upset its because i am not, as gamespy arcade has always sucked IMO anyway. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585118582 Share on other sites More sharing options...
[SST]SLAYER Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 I never had any problems with gamespy but I stopped using it about a year ago I have used this instead and works out better for me gametiger online player search Just find your buddy or clan member Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585119127 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennyout Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 I ran a^2 (a-squared) about oh...month and half ago it said Gamespy had ad-ware/spyware....it removed them....i've had no reason to touch Gamespy Arcade in long time....and it finding that after some update....well it was nice... Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585120158 Share on other sites More sharing options...
U2K Tha Greate$t Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 I have the lastest version of gamespy install and i play it when i can and i havent had any problems yet. The thing is spyware and ad-aware free, the only problem i seen on the thing is, something about Script Errors Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585120171 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercutio Vanse Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 I wouldnt never trust Gamespy, I use ASE. http://www.spywareguide.com/product_show.php?id=1242 http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/Pe...px?id=453073352 Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585120473 Share on other sites More sharing options...
[SST]SLAYER Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 It's Evil I tell you :devil: Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/258554-is-gamespy-arcade-adawarespywaretrojan/#findComment-585121186 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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