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sona1111
join:2011-01-12
Franklin Park, NJ

sona1111

Member

xfinity constant guard pop up thingy

Hello. I am sure that you have heard this one before. I came to forums to ask because that is what i always do if i can not answer a question by searching the first few pages of google.

Anyway just today me and my entire family started getting these annoying pop-ups (they are not pop ups exactly, they are like flash or inside of the page kind of) Here is what it says:

Your immediate attention is required,
Constant Guard from XFINITY identified that one or more of your computers may be infected with a ‘bot’.
Please visit XFINITY.com/BotAssistance by clicking the ‘Get Help Now’ button for important information on how to remove malicious software from your computer(s).
 

Most of our main computers run spybot and/or spyware doctor but we use so many i am not going to police what my entire family does.

Most of the solutions for this i have seen are people saying to go to "add or remove programs" but i am running ubuntu so this does not apply. It seemed to just pop up on all of the computers on maybe 50% of the pages that you load, which is completely unacceptable. My mom was so annoyed she tried to log on to comcast and disable all of it but found that they don't let you. She plans to call them tomorrow if i don't figure something out.

I have had some problems with comcast over the few months i have used them, but nothing this major. I am coming here mainly to ask if anyone has solved this problem before. Can you do it with a browser extension or other anti-spam software or does it require calling them? (most of us use chrome if that helps)

Thank you for reading.

plencnerb
Premium Member
join:2000-09-25
53403-1242

plencnerb

Premium Member

This is only a suggestion, but I don't believe that you actually need the "xfinity constart guard" thingy installed.

I have Comcast, and have 3 desktops connected, and none of us have that installed (or any comcast software for that matter), and our service works just fine.

I would go in and remove any Comcast software that you have, as it is not really needed.

--Brian

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 edit

tshirt

Premium Member

However you SHOULD/ MUST fix whatever is triggering their alerts, and the easiest way to find out what they are seeing is to ask. One of you (or maybe both, as I'm guessing the account is in her name, and they won't answer your questions without her permission) needs to call and you can get whatever tech info they have, otherwise they may block your internet access.
You say most of your computers are protected, so maybe one -that isn't, is infected. Or spybot isn't able to fix it.
How many computer do you really have because alot of clients together MIGHT appear to them to be one VERY active computer behind a router.
If you don't fix it quickly or at least talk to them they CAN lock your account (blocking access to anything but the solutions center) without further warning.

jlivingood
Premium Member
join:2007-10-28
Philadelphia, PA

jlivingood to sona1111

Premium Member

to sona1111
I recommend you visit »amibotted.comcast.net/ for more info. You may be able to correlate it to the time certain devices are used.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer to sona1111

Premium Member

to sona1111
said by sona1111:

...we use so many i am not going to police what my entire family does...

And that is precisely why Comcast "polices" your internet traffic for you.

The notifications you are getting may indeed be a false positive, but I would suggest that your follow the advice given by jlivingood See Profile and use the information you get from the link he supplied to do a bit of "policing". If you then find that the Comcast notifications are indeed a false positive, that would be the time to complain to Comcast. FWIW Comcast's TOS gives them the right to simply disconnect you if their network monitoring determines that your connection is a risk to others; the Constant Guard notifications are a courtesy to you designed to allow you to investigate what is going on inside your local network.
sona1111
join:2011-01-12
Franklin Park, NJ

sona1111

Member

I have never heard of anything like this being used on regular customers before, and really i don't want to be forced to install their software if i prefer not to, but i am willing to keep my cool for now.

I followed the suggested link and it reported two things (i have no idea what these mean) "Murofet/Zeus_Group_A" and "TDL/TDSS Gang". When i followed their link to get rid of it it said i must run windows in order to install it. Do they have a recommend third party software for ubuntu that i can use?

We also use a few windows laptops that i can try to install it on, but i plan to remove it after the pop ups are killed for good.

From the information i have, it seems like its more of a courtesy to comcast then us, the customer. I never had these kind of problems before we switched to them.

Thank you again for the replies.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

1 edit

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by sona1111:

I have never heard of anything like this being used on regular customers before, and really i don't want to be forced to install their software if i prefer not to, but i am willing to keep my cool for now.

I followed the suggested link and it reported two things (i have no idea what these mean) "Murofet/Zeus_Group_A" and "TDL/TDSS Gang". When i followed their link to get rid of it it said i must run windows in order to install it. Do they have a recommend third party software for ubuntu that i can use?

We also use a few windows laptops that i can try to install it on, but i plan to remove it after the pop ups are killed for good.

From the information i have, it seems like its more of a courtesy to comcast then us, the customer. I never had these kind of problems before we switched to them.

Thank you again for the replies.

Chances are that it is one (or more) of your Windows boxes that is (are) infected, not one of your Linux boxes (although it is not impossible despite a popular belief that Linux is invulnerable).

There is no requirement to install any Comcast (or third party) software; the only requirement is to make sure that your devices are clean and are not attempting to spam and/or infect others on the Internet. The applications that you saw mentioned on the Comcast web site were just suggestions for a relatively easy way to try to disinfect your local network devices.

The reason that you have not seen something like this before you used Comcast HSI is that most ISPs don't bother to try to help keep the Internet (and their own customers) clean. I don't think you understand that the notification messages you are receiving are the result of Comcast's monitoring of their network; it is not happening because you are not running some specific application on your PCs. I do not run any Constant Guard specific application(s) on any of my PCs and I do not see the Constant Guard notifications messages because I do not have any bot infections on my network.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

3 edits

tshirt to sona1111

Premium Member

to sona1111
Comcast is notifying you so that you can fix it, it is for your benefit to not be infected, but allowing you to continue running infected systems put others in jeopardy.

The Page jlivingood See Profile linked you to just says AT least one of your systems has those trojans, but you should scan them all, multiple times if need to be sure the infection no longer exists.
if you don't want to can't use the comcast tools, there are the security forums here »Security where volunteers MAY be able to help you somewhat (they actually are very talented and helpful but when you choose to go with *unix based open source part of the tradeoff is YOU are your own tech support.) or direct you to products that can help.
You are also responsible for use/abuse on your network and if you don't take control, CC will cut you off.

good luck

readmyfriend
@comcast.net

readmyfriend to sona1111

Anon

to sona1111
What everyone's been saying, nice writeup:

»AT&T Doesn't Want to Improve Botnet Efforts Right Now, Thanks [39] comments