How to support better?

Hey

I do realise that this is a free site and that we all support of our own freewill and goodwill. I was just wondering if there was any way for people like myself to be coached or taught how to deal with the details of specific troubleshooting areas e.g. analysing minidumps, hjt logs, etc. I ask as I would like to help out a lot more (be more diverse) than I am currently capable of doing. Please do advise.

Regards,

Spyder_1386 :)

Hi Spyder

I think you are doing pretty darn good!

As far as more Malware training see here
http://www.malwareremoval.com/

Mike

Thanks mflynn! .... Your kind words are greatly appreciated. I would really like to improve as much as I can so if there's any way for me to learn more, please do advise :) .... thank you for the link too - I'll definitely have a look.

Spyder_1386 :)

This may help ;)


RE: HijackThis logs: First off, keep in mind that MOST of the entries you see will be normal and legitimate entries. But you can find detailed descriptions here:
HijackThis Tutorial - How to use HijackThis to remove Browser Hijackers & Spyware:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial42.html

This has each numerical entry and description> in the table of Contents:
#11 is How to interpret the scan listings,
#12-#24 category entries

But it's important that you read #1 first> Warning on how to and how NOT to use this program.

Keep in mind that there is an orderly way for checking for malware and it's removal. Using HJ as a 'screening' tool is not recommended.

How to View \ Analyze Minidumps

Debugging Tools for Windows - Overview (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx)
How to read the small memory dump files (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315263)
Download Windows Symbol Packages (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/Debugging/symbolpkg.mspx)
HOW TO: Debug Memory Dumps (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246)
[MS-ERREF]: Windows Error Codes (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc231196.aspx)
Troubleshooting Windows stop messages (http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm)
Before posting your minidumps, please read this (http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic51365.html)
Prevent automatic restart in XP (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320299/) or Vista (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/help-troubleshoot-the-blue-screen-of-death-by-preventing-automatic-reboot/)
.

Spyder, a lot of it is just opening the logs, becoming familiar with the entries, then looking at the entries people are told to remove. I did that for an entire year before I even made an attempt to help with malware.

There is a Malware University online. An application has to be submitted. The rules are very tight and you are supervised before being allowed to help on your own. As for malware, look at the steps HERE (http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic58138.html)

Become familiar with these first. Some people think they can jut jump in because maybe they worked in IT, but that isn't the case. It's an orderly process, beginning is standardize here because it works. There are many boards with Tutorials (including this one) that has information- you have to do a lot of searching.

It's best to be conservative with users. One newbie sent another newbie to do a Registry Edit! That wasn't conservative!

thanks for all the info :) .... will definitely be doing some more reading :)

Spyder_1386 :)

You're welcome. The more you know, the better able you are to help the user find and resolve the problems. It is not an overnight process!