talkmagic.co.uk

Hi Everyone,

The magic gig with P & O went very well, but .......that didn't prepare me for what was waiting for me when I got back......although I have a virus checker on my PC, unfortunately it was not up to date and some nice person sent me a virus.....I had to rebuild my computer from scratch...which has been a nightmare....but now I am back....

Ouch.... Soooo annoying when you have to start all over. Did it affect your MBR then as well?

MBR? Sorry maybe I am a bit slow today....

Master Boot Record

i know of a amazing anti virus if you are intrested, http://www.kaspersky.com but it has one problem it conflicts with a lot of other anti virus, so it makes the pc run really REALLY slow, as of yet i dont no how to stop it so i dont use it, but if you know why it does that it works great, i think there is a 30 day trial on it

The problem with Kaspersky is that as brilliant as it is you need to run it thru a dedictaed pc just for Kaspersky. The Kaspersky PC then acts as gateway to the net giving you a solid piece of protection. It is because of the need to standalone that it will cause your pc to run slowly.

If you dont have the luxury of an old pc to run Kaspersky gateway then I recommend either PANDA or Symantec Corporate.

To run a Kaspersky gateway doesnt need a super pc as it will only be hosting kaspersky. A P2-400 would be perfectly sufficient.

For an antivirus, AVG Free Edition has always worked fine for me. I don't see any reason to pay for a 'good' antivirus suite when AVG is one of the best ones on the market today.



Kati

avg's a fine free product but its worth backing it up with zone alarm firewall also free and microsoft antispyware then do periodical scans with the free antivirus teaters on the net, norton has a good one beware though the online virus and spyware programes don't filter out false positives so you may think you have a problem when you don't a good example of this is our own tracking cookie always comes up as spyware on thease scans.

iv'e had no problems with thease three programes and they don't slow down the system like nortons and macafee.
in all the magazine tests avg has come in second to norton and has stopped anything thrown at it as long as you keep it regularly updated.

Master Boot Record......how silly of me, I must be going mad today, I just couldn't think of that sorry!

I don't think my MBR was infected but my system locked up so I thought it best to just Fdisk it and start from scratch....

Thanks guys for your help, I was using Norton Anti Virus but had found it takes up loads of memory so I now use Avast http://www.avast.com

It is free (Avast believe that all non-commercial computers should have free antivirus software available) Avast will auto update, so far it seems brilliant.

I have been recommended Spyware Doctor....is this one ok......also where do you get zone alarm from?

Thanks for all the helpful tips.

Jack

Jordan C wrote:The Kaspersky PC then acts as gateway to the net giving you a solid piece of protection.

So you recommend an old PC, loaded with Kaspersky and kept up to date, and have any other PCs accessing the internet via this machine? I have an ADSL router and work wirelessly from a laptop directly to the router.

On another point, I know that interference between AV software is common and that none of the AV software is 100% effective in trapping viruses/worms. I've been recommended to have one piece of AV software running constantly (I have McAfee) and a second one (perhaps Norton etc.) but in the disabled state. Once a week, disable McAfee and run Norton on all files. Obviously, both McAfee and Norton are updated regularly from the internet. Is that sensible?

I know that it's belt and braces but either approach will require additional cost. However, if it's going to stop my laptop being infected, I'll do it. I do a backup maybe twice a month but dread to think what I might lose if attacked just before a backup

Probably the safest thing to do would be to set the computer to backup once every few days.

Apart from that, the strategy with having 2 or even 3 AVs, and just scanning with 2 of them is a good one.

Remember, it's practically impossible for you to be infected through a hardware firewall, software firewall, several AVs, and a spyware checker (Adaware, Spybot, Microsoft). Just don't download stuff, and don't click Yes on any dialog boxes.

Kati

As well as whatever firewall and av you choose I would highly recommend the following.

AdAware - get it here http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Per ... ag=lst-0-1

Spyware Blaster - get it here http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/ ... ag=lst-0-1

SpyBot Search and Destrot - get it here http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-D ... ag=lst-0-1

You shouldnt need any other spyware and malware solutions if you have these 3 products installed.

AdAware picks up your ad trackers and malicious cookies etc. Picks up somethings Spybot doesnt.

Spybot does some of the same things as Adaware but it picks up things adaware cant such as rogue diallers and stuff like that.

Spyware Blaster prevents most spyware from ever being able to be placed on your pc in the first place minimising the number of bots that will need to be removed by the above 2 progs.

So AV, FW and the 3 above should make for a secure PC!!

Hardware firewalls are always most effective but not always practical for most.

Wouldnt say an old PC is the greatest option for Kaspersky but that a p2-400 is the minimum you should use, if you want speed then obviously use a faster rig the point is that whatever you use should only have kaspersky on it. Then ALL (MOST) of that systems resources can be devoted to Kaspersky. As there wont be any conflicts in cpu requests K should and normally does run smoother and quicker. And you could still use wireless and adsl, jus make your devoted rig a fast one.[/url]

PS: One of the best online scanners after Symantec Security Response is PANDASCAN go here to run it http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/ It requires the downlaoding of an active x control but I can assure you its totally safe and this has picked up stuff that symantec didnt!

Oh you PC users do amuse me

What's spyware? What's a virus? and what on earth is a master boot record? Most importantly, why should an average user have to know about such a thing?

That said, despite being a Mac user, I still have a firewall and virus protection and I do regular back-ups, just in case anyone ever gets round to writing a virus for us too.

Sorry for poking fun at you, but when will you learn to move away from the dark side?