We are having a problem on our son's Windows XP computer. He apparently downloaded some files back in July which we suspect are taking control of the computer, but for which we can find no information: name: Ahst file: iebs.exe Do you know anything about these?

Did a search with google and nothing turned up. I would go to www.lavasoft.de and download the latest version of AdAware and also get the up-to-date reference file and do a full scan of you system for any adware/malware. Next thing to do is to visit www.simplysup.com and download the trial version of Trojan Remover and do a full scan with that and see if either finds anything.

I don't know if you have figured anything out about this file iebs.exe. I had the file too. I got it from downloading something that had the purity scan program attached to it. I knew it was there because I use Zone Alarm as my firewall and I require everything to ask permission to access the internet and I am very familiar with normal files that access and that is not one of them. It is wonderful it will also tell you if a file has changed in case a hacker has altered your normal files. I tracked down the IP address it was trying to go to through Zone Alarm and thus found out what it was associated with. There are other programs that are associated with this IP address (which traces back to Clickspring, LLC) but Purity Scan is the most common. I included the address of one of the sites where I found the connection if you want to check out more about Purity Scan because that is probably where it came from. http://www.cexx.org/winservs.htm An updated version of spybot will pick up both the purity scan and iebs then you can get rid of them. I prefer Spybot over AdAware because I ran both for awhile and spybot will pick up twice as many files as Adaware plus Spybot is free. With a child's computer if you haven't already I would take the time to clean it out real well. I run Ace Utilities on mine to clean it out. If you are not real familiar with computers DON'T change the setting to expert level you'll get in trouble there. Once you run Spybot and Ace Utilities on your computer you'll probably notice a great deal of difference in the speed of your computer especially if it hasn't been cleaned recently. If you clean out a lot don't forget to defragment. Good luck to you.