My ISP Adam Internet contacted me today and told me my email through them has been sending out Spam and that if the problem isn't resolved they will have to disconnect me until it is fixed. Does anyone know how to remedy this without having to resort to a total reformat (I have 2 machines and a Laptop through a router) Cheers, Nic.
Welcome to HWF It is possible that your computer is a victim of a botnet. To fix this, install a virus scanner and scan for malware. If you are unable to install an anti-virus solution, do an online scan with Housecall.
Yeah start doing all sorts of adware/malware scans. If you don't already know, the obvious thing to try, besides antivirus, is spybot. It's free.
Malwarebytes is your friend. Download it at Malwarebytes.org This will help in a ton of issues not just the one you are facing now. Take your ISP seriously, if they have detected it...it exists (unless you just love to send out tons of spam trying to sell your oversupply of Viagra :chk
They will also sometimes accuse you of this if you're running a lot of torrents. My GF's little brother had this happen. He runs about 60 torrents non-stop all the time. The ISP said he was spamming, and needed to stop. He shut off the torrents and they said all was well.
Spam bots are pretty common, and can be tricky to clean at times. If your router supports egress filtering, you could block port 25 outbound until you have a chance to resolve the infection(s).
