It seems that when I use my lan, it sometimes takes executables as sacrifices. One time it was Might and Magic's executables, the other time it was Tribes and the next it was a different game. It only seems to do this to games in the C:\ directory and more often to ones that have been copied from the one computer to the other. This is a network between a PII 450 Windows 98 computer and an AMD (Pentium 4 equivilent) with Windows Xp. Could this be a virus? We just scanned the Xp computer for virus, none. Although it did try to eat windows. (Nothing in recycle bin, but if you hit empty it asked "Are you sure you want to delete Windows?", a restart fixed this problem)

The Win 98 computer had the virus I-Worm/Opas.D in C:\WINDOWS\SCRSVR.EXE. But AVG killed it as soon as it before it could run.

What else would cause this? (Seems to have no viruses now. EXEs still go missing)

Also, some games can't use the lan for some reason. Tribes 2 base cant, but Tribes 2 mods can...

I smell malware. Run SpyBot S&D and Microsoft Defender.

for the winXP comp, just use the built-in windows restore, he's how:

pop in your XP cd

restart comp

boot to CD

hit enter (or whatever key it specifies) to enter setup (do NOT do the R for recovery console!)

it *should* detect your old windows, and present you with the option to do a repair on it

do the repair

it will look alot like the normal windows setup (copying files, installing, etc...) except there will be 1) less questions and 2) you won't lose any data or preferences

Then, before doing ANYTHING else, immediately head to windows update and keep rebooting/updating until there are no more

the winXP box should now work just fine (assuming no more viruses), i'm not so sure about fixing a win98 box tho, as its been many years since i've used one, lolz

BIG HUGE MEGA NOTE AND WARNING: BACK UP ALL IMPORTANT DATA BEFOREHAND! While you aren't supposed to lose anything, 'tis better to be safe than sorry (plus, backups are always good)

Win Xp computer has Adaware and Spybot S&D. Will get Spybot for win98.

@Kllrnohj: Win Xp is only having trouble with networking between games now. Nothing seems to have dissapeared lately. Maybe it was that worm that the 98 computer had. Just virus scanned and spyware/malware scanned the xp computer, turned up clean. Win 98 came up clean of viruses.

Anyone know why some games would work and others wouldn't?
Some can't find games, a few can't initialise IPX, some join a game but don't finish loading (connecting bar stops).

Yup, sounds like spyware's doing funky stuff with your connection.

Well, if you games still dont work, it may be damage done by the worms/viruses yo u previously had. You might want to reinstall your games or recopy them to your computer. Check with Kerm or one of them first, there always smarter than me. You may want to back up your saved games folder so you dont lose saved data, but I personaly would reinstall the program due to damage that may have been caused.

-Swivel

I'm almost thinking that a complete reinstall might be in order. And it can't be repeated enough times: BACK UP BEFOREHAND!

just because a virus is removed doesn't mean any damage it caused has also been fixed

Do the complete winXP repair that i posted, re-install any affected games, and it should all work just fine.

Indeedy. Tell us how it goes.

If a game need IPX, then you have to install it. It usually isn't installed on computers. IPX is Novell's conectionless network protocol. Look at MS for info on installing it

He said that it used to work fine though.

games are always distributed as completely self-sustained and never require any extra software to be installed aside from whats installed during the initial setup.

For example, Eve Online uses python for its scripting, but you do not need to have downloaded and installed a copy of Python, as one is built into the game.

Same with Blender3d.,

Games have stopped disappearing, so I'm pretty sure that it was the virus.

My LAN gaming problems are not so easily fixed. It seems that it is caused by Windows Xp SP 2, which nicely messes up quite a few online games. Go MS, you make Windows better with every update! (I saw a condensed version of the list and it includes a few of the games that I've been having trouble with, my other games are too old for the list.)

Even shutting off the built in firewall doesn't work. (I have Comodo firewall, which I only have because it's free. Other than that it isn't very good, keeps warning about stuff even if it's trusted.) I even opened up the port for Tribes 2. (only for Lan though, not dial up adapter).