How to remove Asprox Botnet

GlennPa210 wrote:

I'm still wondering about this thing called ASPROX Botnet that the Brother support person I talked to last Friday. Yesterday, I called Brother technical support back and talked to a supervisor. He reviewed the case notes and launched into a "over my head" lecture that this Bot thing's purpose is to track my IP address. Has anyone heard of this ASPROX Botnet?

Are you sure you're talking to Brother Support? It sounds very much as if you were talking to someone who was trying to scam you into buying the above mentioned "Webroot" app (kudos to you for not falling for that!). If Malwarebytes didn't find anything, I'd guess you've nothing to worry about.

How did you get a botnet on your computer? Botnets distribute malware.

No idea if this would work, but download and run the free version of Malwarebytes for Mac.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

So while attempting to download a printer driver on my M1 iMac for my Brother MFC-J1010DW printer, I got a "failure to download error". I contacted Brother Tech Support and they told me the failure is caused by the ASPROX Botnet. They suggested I contact a company called Tekwire and purchase their Webroot App for $99. I didn't do it. I did run Malwarebytes but still get the download error. Does anyone know what this ASPROX Botnet is and how to remove it?

Hi GlennPa210,

The Brother MFC-J1010DW is listed as a supported model in About AirPrint - Apple Support. AirPrint is compatible with macOS. This means that you should not have to download a printer driver. In fact, Brother recommends using AirPrint for macOS 12 Monterey (https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfcj1010dw_us_eu_as&os=10072). AirPrint can be used without additional drivers, provided that the printer and the Mac are connected to the same network (Wi-Fi router).

You may also want to check that the printer has the latest firmware (there appears to have been a recent update).

BTW, when you were attempting to download a driver, was that from an official Brother web site? There are several dubious third-party web sites on the Internet, often with names implying a connection with a printer manufacturer, so be careful.

Add a printer to your printer list so you can use it on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Reset the printing system on your Mac to solve a problem – Apple Support (UK)

I'm still wondering about this thing called ASPROX Botnet that the Brother support person I talked to last Friday. Yesterday, I called Brother technical support back and talked to a supervisor. He reviewed the case notes and launched into a "over my head" lecture that this Bot thing's purpose is to track my IP address. Has anyone heard of this ASPROX Botnet?

Well, the initial conversation was via Chat on the Brother Website, then I was transferred to phone. I'm pretty sure the Chat and phone conversation was with a 3rd party support service. But all is well.

JDC50 Said:

"How to remove Asprox Botnet: How do I remove Asprox Botnet from my MacBook Pro?"

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Ask the Developer for the proper way to remove it.

Thanks for your response Jan,

I added the printer via AirPrint and it's working. I was attempting to download the print driver from the official Brother website.

Thanks for the update. Good to hear that it is working.

Hopefully, it will stay that way!