Anti-Virus

[LoneStar]

Well we have Road Runner. This whole problem started when I woke up to see a new default home page. It was a Road Runner message stating our account was in Quarantine due to possibly 2 reasons: Illegal software was downloaded or Virus software on a computer on the network. After getting off the phone with the 'wonderful' tech service, another default home page came up, giving me a link to direct me to scanning software and help. We have 3 computers in the house and I narrowed it down to one of them being the culprit; my roommates.

I would run the EZ Firewall but the account is under another roommates name. She is a little 'nieve' about things and does not know any of her account information. Its a wonder she can figure out how to pay the bill :roll All I can say is its not under my name! :lol

But anyways Spybot worked out great and I'm going to reboot and try out AVG next.

[erikharrison]

www.avast.com

It's fantastic, real-time protection, free and updated often. You have to register it though. There is an option for a boot-time scan in the settings menu. Viruses for the most part attach themselves to files that are in use by windows. Those files for the most part attach themselves to services in windows. That's why people always talk about starting your computer up in safe mode because in safe mode most services are not running. The boot time scan runs in a pre windows environment, therby making the files deleteable. First thing I would do is run avast, but when it's opening cancel the memory scan. Do this at least the first time. Go to the settings (eject looking button) and go to IAV update and update the virus database. After that has completed, schedule a boot time scan. It will ask to reboot windows, and let it do it's thing. If it finds a virus, select "delete all" so it will just run through and delete all of the files. It is a fantastic product IMO. Use that in conjunciton with spybot and adawareSE for a smooth running pc! If it gets to be too ram intensive, you can tune the settings down. HTH!

[rocketeer]

Lavasoft AdAware SE personal is a great adware scanner. It's the only thing that automatically got rid of "nail" The free version scans and gets update but not in real time.

I use Trend Micro PC-cillin for virus protection. They have "house call" which is a free online virus scanner. But again, no real time care unless you buy the product.

Jack

[erikharrison]

That's why I suggested avast, has real-time scanners built in! IMO it's pretty close to bullet-proof (don't shoot!) :P

[kendsley]

heres the setup my hubby and i use. we've been virus-free for well over 10 years. we survived the CIH virus, msblast, all the various worms that have appeared in the recent years. the CIH virus was by far the worst, as one of his work machines caught it and formatted itself on the 26th.

we're partial to AVG free edition. we also use spybot with teatimer. *always* install tea timer. itll pick up any registry changes that are made and will give you a chance to undo any changes that you didnt make. pc-cillin by trend micro is also good, but their free software is limited to 30 days.

i suggest you try a few of the programs mentioned, find the one you like, then buy a subscription for it and update to the full version. id stray from things like norton and mcaffee, all they seem to do is lag your system down. the notebook i got for my birthday had norton loaded on it. once it was formatted and the usual list of software was installed, it ran 20x faster than when we got it from dell.

if you need any help, im sure i can convince the hubby to take a look at it.

[erikharrison]

i suggest you try a few of the programs mentioned, find the one you like, then buy a subscription for it and update to the full version. id stray from things like norton and mcaffee, all they seem to do is lag your system down. the notebook i got for my birthday had norton loaded on it. once it was formatted and the usual list of software was installed, it ran 20x faster than when we got it from dell.

if you need any help, im sure i can convince the hubby to take a look at it.

Avast is completely free, and if you have not tried it, do so. AVG is a fine product as well!!!! I AGREE ABOUT NORT/MCAFFE, IT"S BLOATWARE!!! If you have it, get rid of it and install avast!