An Excellant Free Antivirus Program

[tuffun]

Also using Adaware personal - free spybot remover -- works well
another AV scanner that will work is at www.Trendmicro.com
follow the links to HouseCall --- it's a java based or kernel
online virus scan not bad for a free scan and is updated daily
by trendmicro -- makers of PCcillin and other progs.

oh and for a Award winning - easy to use FW -- try Zonealarm.
the makers of it are known for helping the Dept Of Def.

[handyandy]

Originally Posted by ABP

montecore, I noticed that you told Lazypup to turn off the "RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there". Is this true? I had my pc for about 5 years and had a few issues so I opted to re format, I noticed that my pc would not respond to the disk I got from Dell. I run Winxp. I insert the disk, pushed F12, arrowed down to option 3, push enter, then enter again (It says to hit any key to boot from disk) It runs and asks me if I want to install, or repair at this time I need to select enter to continue, but it froze. I restarted several times and finly it took. Can this be due to not turning off the restore point? Also which is better, NTSF or NTSF Quick? I can not get back the Avast I was using, but I found AVG, any good?

This sounds more like hardware failure to me

Originally Posted by tuffun

oh and for a Award winning - easy to use FW -- try Zonealarm.
the makers of it are known for helping the Dept Of Def.

I like Zone Alarm, but for safety I think you are much better off with a simple hardware firewall. Dlink, Linksys, netgear, etc. You can get one for around $40 that will put a physical layer of protection between your computer and the internet (esp with cable modems), and this is much more effective than letting the outside world hit your computer and then relying on zonealarm to protect it. Don't let them hit it in the first place!

[alyssa]

Avast is by far one of my favorites used along with adaware.com but I also just invested in spy sweeper and I am glad I did. It has found a lot of stuff that these other programs haven't found.

[Chris112]

I def. agree with turning off the restore points.. Thats probably why you had 560 trojans/viruses.. It kept finding them in the restore points. If you turn them off before running a scan it deletes all the old points and will usually make the scan much faster.

[fred1949]

If you want a good Anti-Virus try AVG. Just type AVG in search. I've been using it for years. It is free and has daily updates.

Fred

[tekman22003]

I would like to weigh in on this topic. I use AVG on a regular basis. I also have a linkysis router, is the firewall protection built in by just having the router? In other words if I have a router do I have a built in firewall?

[Troy]

Originally Posted by tekman22003

I would like to weigh in on this topic. I use AVG on a regular basis. I also have a linkysis router, is the firewall protection built in by just having the router? In other words if I have a router do I have a built in firewall?

An antivirus program is much different than a firewall, and addresses separate issues. Firewalls prevent (or attempt to) unauthorized access to a network. Antivirus programs attempt to prevent (usually) malicious applications from being installed on a computer. By a strict definition, a router is not a firewall. It does, however, provide some of the same security benefits.

Traditionally, a router uses something called NAT (Network Address Translation) to give the computers on the "protected" LAN side of the network a different, unaddressable set of IP addresses. On the WAN side of the router are the unprotected, ISP assigned, routable set of IP addresses (in most homes, only one).

Some routers do have rudimentary firewalls built in, so you may be provided with some extra protection.

Nonetheless, a router such as a dlink or linksys does provide you with an excellent layer of protection between the internet and the "fake" network on the LAN side. It is, in my opinion, much preferrable over any computer based firewall. With software based firewalls that are installed on your computer connected directly to the internet, the potential hacker is accessing your computer directly to try to hack it. With a hardware router between you and the internet, the potential hacker has to breach the router first, then after a complicated series of steps, your computer. This is quite unlikely, when properly configured.

So in my opinion, never connect your computer directly to the internet, always use a router, at a minimum.

This is a bit of a tangent from the original post, so if we are going to discuss routers, please start a new topic.

Let me know if you have any questions...

[hankhill]

i downloaded Avira AntVir and it bogged my system down 50%. i have uninstalled program from add/remove program but there is still (avgnt) in the msconfig start up screen. i use windows xp and the program worked well but i'll stick with mcafee and ad-aware for now. i tried the search option and eliminated everything with AntVir . i am not that tech savvy so maybe i'm missing something simple. any help appreciated..........

[ockster14]

well yes that is alot of trojan but i just had my computer scan and i had 1050 virus and its not that you download everything youhave to remember you can just download music or videos and get some and pictures so it depend on what you are really doing if you are opening things your friend send you, now i never heard of anyone that has never gotten a virus on there computer, NEVER, so if anyone say they never please tell me the secret cause firewall, norton and mcafee is not always the answer, especially norton, so i need help as well, yes i put alot of music on my computer, so yes that might be my problem but to be honest i always feel that all these company work together, if you are a computer wiz a hacker then you know nothing is 100% good, you just have to fine what helps you with your computer cause people do different things all the time that is why, they warn you to watch out for what you open and what you down load