Viruses

[shutterbug182]

I dont have any virus protection on my computer, i'am now downloading a free program called NoAdware 3.0 to try out. Does anyone know a good affordable program that can clean your computer of viruses and protect it from further viruses?.

Also i am concerned about images that i have saved on my drive, Can people get into your files and download them?

Thanks,

Sarah.

[Michael Fanelli]

I dont have any virus protection on my computer, i'am now downloading a free program called NoAdware 3.0 to try out. Does anyone know a good affordable program that can clean your computer of viruses and protect it from further viruses?.

Also i am concerned about images that i have saved on my drive, Can people get into your files and download them?

Thanks,

Sarah.

For virus protection, I use Trend Micro. I used to use Symantec but I like Trend Micro better.

What you have sounds like adware and spyware prevention, different than viruses. I have never heard of the one you are using. The big ones in this field, all free, are Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, and Microsoft AntiSpyware. I use all three.

Also, use a firewall other than the XP built in one. Zone Alarm is the best on the market and comes in a free version for personal use. Shut off the XP firewall and install Zone Alarm.

If you have public folders on your computer, people can access them. Spyware can also read files so make sure you download the antispyware products I've suggested.

[Mathiau]

AVG anti virus is free. - for spyware and such Spybot Search and Destroy

i would suggest buying some antivirus - trend micro is excellent and so is PCCillin - i would suggest staying away from McAfee due to past problem - norton can bbe good, but their "personal" editions tend to be slow in terms of system performance.

[Arctirus]

I'm a network admin and I run no virus scan at home. I'm just careful of what I click on and not having is a great speed boost. I use an adware program since that doesn't do anything when it's not being utilized. Adaware I think is one of the best out there and I'd also recommend AVG if you feel you need virus scan.

[Lara]

A network admin with no virus scan!?! You can be extremely careful of what you click on and still get hit with viruses. You either have extremely good luck, or you don't go to many web sites.

My husband and I are both network administrators, so I am pretty much shocked that you don't run any virus protection. I recommend anyone who connects to the internet, receives email and attachments, runs any instant messaging, have a virus program running at all times!

BTW, the newer Norton's AntiVirus software not only detects viruses, it recognizes Adware.
I use Nortons in conjunction with Adaware and on occasion Spybot anyway.

[Arctirus]

I run it at work just out of 'best practice' but don't bother at home, after years of experience I've found that I don't need it, I seldom run adaware and when I do it usually only finds cookies. I don't surf questionable sites; I don't click links that say "get stupid smilies on your desktop"; I don't open suspicious email and I keep up to date on patches.

However... I do have a second machine for p2p apps and that does run virus scan. However for general purpose I have no need for it.

Like I said, no matter what how fast your pc is virus scan will slow it down significantly. This can easily be avoided with save surfing habits, this coming from a guy with a 3500+, 2 gb of ram and 15k rpm drives.

[McMadCow]

Yeah, I'm in agreement. I've never run an anti-virus and I've never had a single infection. Most of the virus scan programs aren't very confidence inspiring in terms of the performance hit and I'm just naturally leery of allowing ANY program to stay resident. Keep your security patches up to date, run a spyware detector every now and then and for the love of Pete, don't click on questionable links. There's no need to fork over $60 to a company that markets paranoia.

[Lara]

Well, you will never change my mind, so I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

[Mathiau]

Like I said, no matter what how fast your pc is virus scan will slow it down significantly. This can easily be avoided with save surfing habits, this coming from a guy with a 3500+, 2 gb of ram and 15k rpm drives.

Many anti virus apps dont slow down your system that much - and this is a guy wit a 3.2 presscott @ 3.8 / 1g DDR500 and 10k rpm raptors drives

Also a 3.2 pressy laptop / 512 ram and a 7200 RPM HD and symantec corprate does not act slow - neither does tend micro - norton Anti V 2005 - that is another story - but there are many good anti-virus apps with real time proection that do NOT slow down systems at all.

As for not using any Anti V - you can be as careful as you want and still get viruses - even with all the patches - it is nor paranoia - it is what is our there

Yes - Anti-virus companies like any use marketing to sell - so it does work for some - but you can have sex and "pull out" as many times as you like - but all it takes is that one time and your , well, you know -- screwed. better safe then sorry, and if your a good network admin tweaking anything to not take a hit on performance should not be hard - as well with todays high end PC's if someones ssystem is slow it is highly likely due to something else.

[.tony. .riot.]

Use AntivirXP.

[Arctirus]

if your a good network admin tweaking anything to not take a hit on performance should not be hard.

Eh, I've never needed it before so why bother? In the event something catastrophic does happen I keep regular off-site backups and I have a ghost of my boot drive. If I would happen to get a virus infection I'm back up and running in 15 minutes.

[Mathiau]

Eh, I've never needed it before so why bother? In the event something catastrophic does happen I keep regular off-site backups and I have a ghost of my boot drive. If I would happen to get a virus infection I'm back up and running in 15 minutes.

What ever works for you , it is VERY assuring to know that some people out there actually know how to be careful and not be neive about the many tempting links saying click me!! click me! - i prefer to just stop the virus so i dont have to redo my system - even if it is only 15 mins from a ghost image

[JSPhoto]

ROTFLMO.... (haven't used that in a while!), but a network admin not running protection just kills me!

I got a new provider once and was online 18 seconds and got TWO virus hits from them. Turns out the provider ran NO Firewall! All in 18 seconds. I wouldn't go without a firewall or virus protection - EVER!

As for virus protection I use McAffee as Nortons missses way too much in my opinon. Thats from learning a thing or two since starting computer repair in 1983.

I also use two spyware programs #1 Spybot Search & Destroy and Bazooka

JS

[Michael Fanelli]

AVG anti virus is free. - for spyware and such Spybot Search and Destroy

FWIW, only the AVG 30-day trial is free. The product itself is $39.

[Peter_AUS]

I have found that http://www.eset.com/home/home.htm eset nod 32 is a very good program to catch viruses, better than Norton and McAfee as well. I have been using it for about 2 months now, after using Norton for the past many many years and have found it catches more and haven't had any problems with something getting through it's protection. I would highly recommend it and it is not the resource hot that Norton is.

I have used many antivirus products over the years, Norton, McAfee, AVG etc and this is the one I am sticking with, until I need to have something better. It continually has the ability to update definitions based on your choices and does so without interfering with your system other than installing the updated definitions.

Price compared to the others is in the moderate side of pricing, certainly not as pricey as Norton is. And yes it is subscription based as well, like most of the others are too.

I'm an authorised AVG reseller, but I use ESET Nod 32 instead. I found things still got through with AVG, Norton and McAfee, but not with ESET Nod 32.

Hope that helps, not just one but many users of pr.com

[glenpinn]

hi everyone.
well now i know why i dont listen to too many replies in these forums.
what i have just read here by some of you is absolute rubbish (network admins especially)and some of u need to go do an internet and computer security coarse, then you will find out what most of you have said is nonsense.

the biggest misconception these days is that a lot of people think spyware and adaware programs are actually anti virus programs as well, they are not and this needs to be pointed out, spyware programs will not detect and remove real viruses, they might detect trojan downloaders etc, which are a form of virus that go undetected in most cases.

to those of u that say u have no anti virus on your pc and never get any viruses, i challenge u to bring your pc to me and ill guarentee ill find your pc riddled with viruses in various shapes and forms, remember a lot of viruses are not malicious and dont harm your pc operation so u have no idea they r on there.

its nonsense to suggest that all u need to do is practice safe internet browsing etc and not click on suspect links etc, your kidding yourself.
virus come in all types, and not all are detected by all antivirus programs.
there are only 2 types of antivirus software on the market, those that are excellent, and those that are rubbish and unfortunately there are not very many excellent ones left out there. its the same with spyware detectors, if u havent got a spyware program on your pc that is capable of running constantly in the background monitoring all the time, then its useless.
to those who run that new microsoft spyware program and say its good, you better get yourself a copy of SPYSWEEPER or SPYWARE ELIMINATOR and run a scan on your pc because they are the only 2 spyware programs that i know of that detect all the spyware files that this piece of crappy software actually installs on your pc. i have run scans with all types of spyware removers and spysweeper and spyware eliminator have detected spyware files on my clients computers that no others can detect, thats why these 2 programs are ranked 1 and 2 as the top spyware trackers on the market without question. i run both (u need at least 2 spyware programs running) to detect everything, what 1 misses the other will get.
to those who turn off the windows firewall, good luck to you too, if u have a router with a built in firewall, use it along with windows firewall and your as good as safe without needing an external firewall, but if u really do want an ext firewall zone alarm is about the best stand alone u can get.
as for antivirus, gone are the days of mcaffe and nortons being top dog, the absolute top 3 antivirus programs on the market are BITDEFENDER Pro, KASPERSKY Pro and PCILLAN in that order. these also have built in firewalls that u can turn on or off at will, and all have anti spam modules to monitor email spam which can be turned on or off as well. unfortunately bitdefender and kaspersky antivirus are not mentioned much on the forums, its only available online from the manufacturer but both are rated the 2 bet u can get for all round performance and price. both are available as a trial version and ill put these 3 programs up against anything you throw at me.
for those who use that AVG free version u only get what u pay for, u only get definition updates once a month with that, the AVG Pro gives you definition updates every day, thats why u pay for it. if an anti virus program cant offer you definition updates at least every 3 hours then dont use it, viruses are being created more and more quickly these days and all the good anti virus manufacturers work around the clock to get new definitions for new viruses as quickly as they can.

i personally dont care for those of u that dont use antivirus, and the same goes for those who use crappy spyware as well, all i can say is ill challenge any of you that make silly comments about not having any viruses or spyware on your pc to bring your pc to me and ill absolutely guarrentee i will find your pc riddled with traces of viruses and spyware, your just kidding yourselves and giving people on here a load of misleading rubbish, its ignorance and you have no idea of what your talking about.
go get bitdefender pro, kaspersky pro or pcillan, and get a copy of webroot spy sweeper and spyware eliminator and run them on your pc and u will have about the best antivirus and spyware protection u can get today, bar none.

cheers.....GLEN

ps: i recently downloaded the latest version of mozilla firefox, i run bitdefender client pro on my pc as well as spy sweeper and spyware eliminator, and none of these detected anything suspicious during the download, i then installed the new firefox and behold, there it was, bitdefender caught a trojan download dropper virus during installation. most other antivirus programs might not have detected this trojan during installation, so u would have no idea its sitting on your pc but its there doing what its designed to do. trojans of this kind are not malicious and simply sit there indiscretely working away without you knowing it, thats why im saying to those of you who "SAY" u have no viruses or spyware on your pc cos your software didnt detect them that your wrong and u would be shocked to find out what is really sitting there.