sissy
sissy
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I have been using a free anti virus for years called avast .
The fake FBI froze my computer and demanded $200 ramson for phony cyber crime offenses!
- Thread starter Johnnie
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Last resort, if all the usual online assistance is unsuccessful or not relevant
http://www.yoocare.com/
basic assistance is ~$70
http://www.yoocare.com/
basic assistance is ~$70
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Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year for a prosperous lucky 2013 to you all.
Thankyou for the info. I've checked out the shop, and it looks good. Well at least I'm going to get some options:
1) buying a new computer from Costco for $500+
http://www.costco.co....100015144.html
2) paying for the repair at the rate of $70 per hour. (Repair may take hours to find & made because sometime the "automatic power off" never comes about for a whole day.)
3) waiting to see what other options I will get as time goes by.
McAfee? Someone still runs that piece of crap? Seriously, the last time McAfee was worthwhile was back in the 1990's. Prime example, a lady brought me her computer which had obvious virus problems. McAfee was paid for and up to date, but it couldn't find anything wrong. I removed it and installed AVG, which immediately found 78 major viruses. After getting it all cleaned up and running smoothly again, she took her computer home. I heard about a month later that she was having problems with her computer again after reinstalling McAfee "because that's the program she knew"...
Personally, y'all can keep your Microsoft crapware. I've been running Linux exclusively since 2006. Viruses? Malware? I only know of them because I get paid to clean them off other people's computers.
Personally, y'all can keep your Microsoft crapware. I've been running Linux exclusively since 2006. Viruses? Malware? I only know of them because I get paid to clean them off other people's computers.
j.w
I Love my Goldies
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What's your feeling on Norton that comes free w/ a Comcast account Shdwdrgn? Sounds like you thing AVG is the best.
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Norton is a resource hog JW, at least imho. I remove it from any computer that it comes pre-installed on. Currently I am using eset for my virus software, have used avg which also worked great.
I have a computer with linux on it, but not a lappy, it does work well.
I have a computer with linux on it, but not a lappy, it does work well.
j.w
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I've used Avast and AVG but never heard of eset and just using Norton cuz it came free w/ the Comcast provider. I go w/ the free ones. I'll have to check and see if my Norton is hogging my puter! Do a check on process explorer.
JohnHuff
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Wow, I thought these viruses were old news, I guess they are still around.
I have AVG and Lavasoft Adaware. I used to have Spybot but found that to be a huge hog on my resources. I also had MS defender on XP. But I've upgraded to Windows7 so not sure if MS defender is built in here.
I think either AVG and Adaware have safe search. There have been a couple of times when AVG has warned me not to click on links.
And use Firefox. I have Firefox with ant-script. It does not allow websites to run scripts on your computer.
I have AVG and Lavasoft Adaware. I used to have Spybot but found that to be a huge hog on my resources. I also had MS defender on XP. But I've upgraded to Windows7 so not sure if MS defender is built in here.
I think either AVG and Adaware have safe search. There have been a couple of times when AVG has warned me not to click on links.
And use Firefox. I have Firefox with ant-script. It does not allow websites to run scripts on your computer.
j.w
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So far no problems w/ the free Norton from Comcast so think I may leave well enough alone for now. I do have Firefox and the no-script add on.
Windows Defender has been superseded by MS Security Essentials, so if you downloaded/installed Essentials it will have disabled Defender.
Windows Defender has been superseded by MS Security Essentials, so if you downloaded/installed Essentials it will have disabled Defender.
Whoa, busy thread today!
FWIW, my opinion on virus scanners is outdated. As I mentioned, I don't use any of them personally. Disclaimers aside, what I have always heard is that Norton corporate edition is some of the best AV software you can get... while Norton home edition is some of the worst. I have had similar circumstances with customers using the free Norton, where I installed AVG and discovered a small handful of viruses that Norton missed.
My experience with Avast is limited, but when I have seen it on customer machines, what I noticed is that it seems to ask you about things all the time. AVG just runs in the background, takes care of things, and leaves you alone unless it finds something. The only notices I remember from AVG were every year or two, I'd get a pop-up that a new version was available for download.
As for resource hogs -- I think ALL virus scanners are that way to some degree. When you're trying to scan every single file on your computer, its going to take time, and its going to make heavy use of your processor. That's why I generally set AV scanning for 3am - it doesn't affect most people (except addy!).
Now about AVG itself... It is still one of the better-rated virus scanners, and the home edition has always been free. As with many other programs, when you go to download, make sure you select the free edition without all the extra toolbar additions and such. A LOT of companies are packaging browser toolbars with their free software these days, and those toolbars are one of the big reasons your computers are getting infected. TOOLBARS ARE EVIL! I do know there are some other virus scanners that are better than AVG, however its been some time since I did any research to determine what was available for free, and what version operated smoothly without getting in your way.
Regarding Spybot Search&Destroy... yeah it can be a bit of a resource hog, but it does a very good job. As JohnHuff mentioned above, do yourself a favor and run Firefox, or chrome, or anything else beside Internet Exploder (typo intentional). If you absolutely must run IE, Spybot has an immunize screen which will plug a huge number of holes in IE and make it somewhat less likely to get infected. Keep in mind if you have any privacy concerns that IE will gladly share every bit of personal information that Windows knows about you to each and every website that requests it. This is their idea of providing a more user-friendly experience...
FWIW, my opinion on virus scanners is outdated. As I mentioned, I don't use any of them personally. Disclaimers aside, what I have always heard is that Norton corporate edition is some of the best AV software you can get... while Norton home edition is some of the worst. I have had similar circumstances with customers using the free Norton, where I installed AVG and discovered a small handful of viruses that Norton missed.
My experience with Avast is limited, but when I have seen it on customer machines, what I noticed is that it seems to ask you about things all the time. AVG just runs in the background, takes care of things, and leaves you alone unless it finds something. The only notices I remember from AVG were every year or two, I'd get a pop-up that a new version was available for download.
As for resource hogs -- I think ALL virus scanners are that way to some degree. When you're trying to scan every single file on your computer, its going to take time, and its going to make heavy use of your processor. That's why I generally set AV scanning for 3am - it doesn't affect most people (except addy!).
Now about AVG itself... It is still one of the better-rated virus scanners, and the home edition has always been free. As with many other programs, when you go to download, make sure you select the free edition without all the extra toolbar additions and such. A LOT of companies are packaging browser toolbars with their free software these days, and those toolbars are one of the big reasons your computers are getting infected. TOOLBARS ARE EVIL! I do know there are some other virus scanners that are better than AVG, however its been some time since I did any research to determine what was available for free, and what version operated smoothly without getting in your way.
Regarding Spybot Search&Destroy... yeah it can be a bit of a resource hog, but it does a very good job. As JohnHuff mentioned above, do yourself a favor and run Firefox, or chrome, or anything else beside Internet Exploder (typo intentional). If you absolutely must run IE, Spybot has an immunize screen which will plug a huge number of holes in IE and make it somewhat less likely to get infected. Keep in mind if you have any privacy concerns that IE will gladly share every bit of personal information that Windows knows about you to each and every website that requests it. This is their idea of providing a more user-friendly experience...
JohnHuff
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Shdwdrgn, why do you recommend Chrome? Does it have built in protection against scripts and stuff like that? I have and use all 3 browsers but I only run Chrome and IE on sites that I'm familiar with and need to be totally unblocked for it to run.
IE9 now has an add-on manager just like Firefox but it's hard to use and I've never tried it so I don't know if it has adblock or anti-script.
Funny but unbelievable story. Until about 5-6 years ago I did not have any anti-virus on my computer. That's because I did not surf the internet. I only used it for business purposes and websites. And then I started surfing the internet and wham, I got infected almost right away. It's unbelievable that at one time I was completely unprotected. To me now, it was like going out of the house naked.
IE9 now has an add-on manager just like Firefox but it's hard to use and I've never tried it so I don't know if it has adblock or anti-script.
Funny but unbelievable story. Until about 5-6 years ago I did not have any anti-virus on my computer. That's because I did not surf the internet. I only used it for business purposes and websites. And then I started surfing the internet and wham, I got infected almost right away. It's unbelievable that at one time I was completely unprotected. To me now, it was like going out of the house naked.
I don't specifically recommend chrome, and I don't run it myself because I'm not happy with their tab management, however I have heard good things about it... and really anything is better than IE.
I started running AV on the desktop back in the 90's, and of course had virus scanners for my disks even before the Internet. Quite frankly, I'm happy to be running an OS now that has decent security and doesn't need any AV software or daily malware scans.
I started running AV on the desktop back in the 90's, and of course had virus scanners for my disks even before the Internet. Quite frankly, I'm happy to be running an OS now that has decent security and doesn't need any AV software or daily malware scans.
I've used AVG free for years, with pretty good success (w/ some minor issues related to my x64 system) tried avast for a short period but had too many instances of bad server connections for their updates.
Also tried the ZoneAlarm, but they kept harrassing me to buy their paid software.
Have used both Norton and McAfee in years past but no longer trust them to any better and their software leaves too much registry trash behind when uninstalling them.
On my file server which I do not use except to back up files, I use the Microsoft Security Essentials.
I now supplement my AVG free with Ccleaner and Malwarebytes
Also tried the ZoneAlarm, but they kept harrassing me to buy their paid software.
Have used both Norton and McAfee in years past but no longer trust them to any better and their software leaves too much registry trash behind when uninstalling them.
On my file server which I do not use except to back up files, I use the Microsoft Security Essentials.
I now supplement my AVG free with Ccleaner and Malwarebytes
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There is no such things as free lunches.
AVG is not free anymore. AVG now charges a user 40 bucks per year.
http://www.avg.com/us-en/trustav_bt...SCH_AVG Free&gclid=CNyjlc6z1LQCFUOK4AodSwcAQw
Where as, Kaspersky (the greatest one) charges a user 50 bucks per year. I bet that your local library most likely uses it to shield its sytems from all harm.
https://store.kaspersky.com/store?A...erus&id=ThreePgCheckoutAddressPaymentInfoPage
How many of you guys are willing to pay 40 or 50 bucks annually for AV programs? No, not many when you can get free programs such as
Microsoft Security Essentials, McAfee, Ccleaner and Malwarebytes
AVG is not free anymore. AVG now charges a user 40 bucks per year.
http://www.avg.com/us-en/trustav_bt...SCH_AVG Free&gclid=CNyjlc6z1LQCFUOK4AodSwcAQw
Where as, Kaspersky (the greatest one) charges a user 50 bucks per year. I bet that your local library most likely uses it to shield its sytems from all harm.
https://store.kaspersky.com/store?A...erus&id=ThreePgCheckoutAddressPaymentInfoPage
How many of you guys are willing to pay 40 or 50 bucks annually for AV programs? No, not many when you can get free programs such as
Microsoft Security Essentials, McAfee, Ccleaner and Malwarebytes
@Johnnie - That's the business edition you are looking at, with paid support. The free version of AVG has always been at http://free.avg.com/