Telus → Completely uninstall Telus Broadjump Spyware

I posted this elsewhere in the forum last night but I thought it was important enough to deserve a new topic.

My sister recently got Telus ADSL in BC. She was unaware that the installation CD placed Broadjump spyware onto her computer and it was trying to phone home every time she booted up. It took forever to get through to Telus tech support and they recommended to her that she uninstall Zone Alarm to solve the problem!!!! I told her that was the worst advice I've ever heard and I started to research it.

I uninstalled the Broadjump software via Control Panel\Add\remove Programs (Windows 98). Zone Alarm indicated after this that a file called CFD.exe was still attempting to phone home at boot up. Of course when I tried to find this file it was nowhere. I had run into this type of software before so I knew that the filenames would be disguised and I suspected that the leftover files and folders would be in the registry. I ran Ad-aware and despite reports that Ad-aware detects this software, it did not. I have reported it to Lavasoft.

Broadjump software is made by a company called Motive Communications. I contacted them directly by email and they referred me back to my ISP for instructions on how to completely remove the software. I placed a call to Telus tech support. It took them a week to call me back. The tech guy played dumb and pretended he had never heard of the Broadjump software. I feel embarrassed for the Telus tech people that their employer either keeps them in the dark about this stuff or else forces them to lie about it.

After quite a bit of arguing I finally convinced the guy to go and ask someone higher up. He came back now admitting that someone at Telus at least knows about the software but he insisted that uninstalling it in Add\Remove Programs was all I needed to do and it would be completely gone. When I specifically asked him whether he thought perhaps there might be some files or folders left over in the registry he actually played dumb and pretended he didn't know what the registry was! How lame can you get? Does he actually expect me to believe that? It's getting pretty bad when the average customer knows far more than the tech support. Perhaps Telus hires people who know nothing and who won't ask any questions so they can continue to hide stuff like Broadjump spyware from them in an attempt to hide it from the customer. Who knows?

I think Telus should have researched this for me. It's their job, not mine. I emailed Motive again and asked them to provide Telus with the names of all the files and folders related to their software and the locations and how to safely remove it. Telus should post this info on their website. Any reputable company would--but, well you know Telus' reputation. They won't. Their deal with Motive means a lot of money for them if they can slip it past the customers.

Here's what I finally did to get rid of this software. I can not guarantee this will work without problems for everyone and I don't know exactly what all these files and folders are. But this worked for my sister and it has caused no problems for her on her computer (Windows 98) or her internet service so far. Other people may find they need these files for things that my sister doesn't use so you might want to research it further yourself before you edit your registry:

1) As well as uninstalling the Broadjump program from Add/Remove Programs, I also uninstalled Microsoft Connection Manager. My research indicated this program was not needed and that it is just part of this spyware. I'm not sure of that but getting rid of it has made no difference to anything on my sister's computer.

2) I browsed every folder in the registry and I deleted any files and folders that were connected with:

Microsoft Connection Manager
Broadjump
Telus Roaming Wizard

I'm also not sure exactly what the Telus Roaming Wizard is. I know it's related to this spyware but I am uncertain whether it has other uses. If it has other uses, my sister doesn't use these things. Deleting these files has made no difference to her.

3) Here are some specific places where I found suspicious files and folders:

HKEY_USERS\Default\Remote Access\Profile\TELUS Roaming Wizard

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\CONNECTION MANAGER\Mappings\TELUS Roaming Wizard

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Broadjump

C:\WINDOWS\All Users\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Cm\RoamWz2

C:\WINDOWS\AllUsers\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Cm\Roamwz2.cmp

I deleted all of these without any consequeces for my sister's computer or her internet service and then Zone Alarm did not detect Broadjump phoning home anymore. I can't guarantee that these files and folders are not needed for other things. It's just what worked for me.

This problem was so annoying and Telus has acted in such bad faith that I have recommended to my sister that she drop Telus ADSL and go with Shaw Cable and she is going to do that. I have Shaw and I love it. It's never down. I'm happy with the speeds. The customer support has always been good in my experience but I have not needed much support with Shaw. I also recommended to her never to allow an employee of an ISP to touch her computer or install anything onto it.

Telus has not only lost my sister as a customer because of Broadjump, I am also going to go with another long distance company for my phone service and if it ever becomes available, I'll switch to another company for my local phone as well. Or maybe just go with a cell phone while we wait for the CRTC to get rid of Telus. It's worth it to me to get rid of my land phone completely just so I can get rid of Telus. I really hope they lose enough customers and spend so much time on tech support phone calls over Broadjump spyware that they will realize that this deal was not such a great investment.