Can you suggest a fix?
 

I think my home comp was attacked. Using Firefox (and IE explorer--I checked); it's now clearing all my cookies all the time, so I have to reenter name and password for every site.

I've scanned with all the virus software that I have. I have checked to make sure that the privacy settings in Firefox are not set to delete cookies all the time.

What else can I do?

Just a thought: maybe it's the anti-virus software that's doing it? All the AV software I've seen has deleted cookies that they find abusive, such as from doubleclick and the like. I've never seen one that deletes all cookes, but I bet some of them have the option, in case somebody wants to be really overprotective. Public libraries would use that setting for example.

I thought she wanted some smack.

I would be surprised - shocked even if either an attack or AV software deleted all your cookies. IE7 has a menu item to clear browsing history which presumably includes cookies so maybe that somehow got clicked on.

Firefox has a similar setting as well to delete cookies on demand which overrides its cookie handling setting.

Its probably not a bad thing not to store all that in your browser anyway. If you have scanned your PC with the latest AV software and nothing turned up you are probably (probably) ok.

except that it's still doing it. Every time I start up I have to enter in my id and password for every site. On both IE and Firefox, so it's not the browser settings.

It's very inconvenient. Guess I'll be taking it in to the doctor tomorrow.

I do have a stupid question though: The first thing they tell you to do in case of a viral attack is to back up your system. Fine, but doesn't that mean you'll back up the virus, too?

Both browsers? Very weird. They manage cookies in completely different ways.

I've often wondered that as well, so don't feel stupid! (Or maybe just feel stupid with me by your side?)

Did you try something like Spybot Search and Destroy?

When you back up your system, you should really only need to back up your data - word files, mp3s, etc. You'll want to reinstall all your software - which is where most viruses live.