...So WTF happened?

[Oneironaut Zero]

Ok...My pc has been a real bitch, lately. I'm going to have to check it for viruses and whatnot (whenever I stop procrastinating) but, yesterday, something weird happened. My pc is connected to my mom's pc, which is way on the other side of the house, by a wireless network. I was sitting here using mine, while hers was running, and all of a sudden mine completely shut down on me, out of the blue. As it was coming back on, I heard mom's pc beep. I went to check it out and saw that hers had shut down and reset at the exact moment that mine did. Nothing else in the house even flickered, so it definitely wasn't a power surge. What would make that happen?

[pj]

Either you had a power spike or else something infected both computers - something that needed root access for itself and thus had to reboot the computers. PLEASE tell me you are running active virus and spyware protection! If you have personal information on either computer, get 'em off the net NOW. Even if you don't, a lot of these infections are about hijacking remote computers for illegal activities and spamming. No procrastinating, O... or you may end up in a really unfortunate situation. If you need help, let me know. This is in part what I do for a living, and I'm happy to help. I'll PM you my cell phone number. pj

[Oneironaut Zero]

Ok, thanks man. And nah, I'm usually all over my antivirus and spyware software, but I just reformatted a little while ago, and haven't been able to locate my Norton CD. It's been so long since I've had to use it, that damn thing could be anywhere. I don't keep anything TOO personal on my pc, though, that I know of. I'm going to see if I can get another copy of Norton. Thanks, PJ.

[pj]

If you are away from Norton, I'd recommend staying away from it. The stuff I PM'd you can all be had legally for free and is in all ways superior to Norton - especially in the overhead department.

[Ynot]

99% sure it was a spike in the power

[pj]

99% sure it was a spike in the power Speaking of which - you really should be at least running these through a surge protector. I'm not even close to 99% sure though. Remember these computers are networked, and also that they do not have normal protections running on them. I wouldn't take even odds that it is an infection or hijack, but the possibility is way more than 1% IMHO.

[Merlock]

Aye, PCs are more sensitive to the spikes. My power here is horrid with periodic spikes and my PC dies while nothing around even blinks. And those are light spikes. I get the huge ones where all the lights and TVs die too but that goes without saying. It happens. Unfortunately though, that might also be the cause for why I've had to go through 4 power units in the past year... >.<

[pj]

It happens. Unfortunately though, that might also be the cause for why I've had to go through 4 power units in the past year... >.< I've had two different locations over the years where we were getting all manner of bizarre hardware and software failures. In both cases, (finally) adding an inexpensive UPS cured the problems completely. You don't need one that will run your system for a half hour - just enough to smooth the dips and spikes if and when they happen is all.