Anti virus software......

Avast is good. and it is free too.

 

I have Trend micro antiviris. A condom would have been a better idea. It let some stuff through.

 

Mac - My anti-virus...

 

There is a virus that came out of Poland on Feb 4th. It is spreading like widlfire. It is called W32.VIRUT!.HTML

It infects every .exe, .htm, and .html file on your computer. It writes itself an entry in the HOSTS file, it creates its own firewall rule, and redirects IE to one of two servers in Poland for possible remote control of your system. It sits and pulls down more infections from those two servers also. Since it infects Explorer.exe one of the first symptoms is you'll lose your desktop, will have to fire off explorer using task manager. Since there are backup copies of .exe files in the System Volume folder, it will get in there, and you'll have to give EVERYONE full permissions to look in there, where you can delete everything in the folder.

It will jump over a network, it will jump though flash drives, over floppies.
It's a nasty bastard.

There is one, just one, anti-virus program out right now that will actually clean it. Symantec Corporate, version 10.1 and up. The rest find it, pretend to clean it, but it's still there. Malwarebytes doesn't see it at all. SpyBot sees it, says it cleans it but doesn't. McAfee is useless, as is AVG and Avast against it.

 

Avast and Spybot.

Been running this for two years, not a single issue. And both programs are 100% FREE.

 

My favorite freebie security "suite" :

AV = Avast!
AS = Spyware Terminator
FW = Comodo

The big free three (AV) are:
Avast!
AVG
Antivir
I like Avast! because it works and is the least intrusive when it updates.
Antivir is the worst with the popups.

Spyware Terminter because it's about the only free AS that will auto-update, all the other freebies require a manual update.

Comodo because it works and is easy. Other fave FW's are Zone Alarm and Outpost. Lots of nagging with Kerio.

 

Well I don't do too much with my computer other than log on here, facebook, do all my online banking, search Romainian, Hungarian and Russian hardcore porn sites and online poker. I think I have Norton 360. So I'm good right?

 

Dowload and update the free version of MalwareBytes and run a manual system scan.
You can also run the free version of SUPERAntiSpyware, updated of course.
Those are two favorite AS solutions that the pros run on your machine when you take it in for a "cleaning".

 

I was just kidding....

 

Doh! I bit, reel me in

 

I wish it was a joke. I brought it in here on one of my customers machines. Damn thing infected my laptop, my kid's computer, my file server, my music server, and three other customer machines I had running.

It took me two weeks to get rid of it. I tried everything (yes including what the "pros" use when you bring a machine in for a "tune-up" seeing how I AM one of those "pros"). The ONLY thing that took care of it was what I posted.

For those who think their favorite brand of free or home-version anti-spy/mal/virus ware is gonna protect you...once you get it...see ya back on line in a couple weeks.

 

Not Norton...Symantec. Norton is Symantec's "home" version of their software. The corporate stuff (the good stuff) is sold under Symantec.

I do like the apple idea though...

 

http://forums.maddoktor2.com/index.php?showtopic=11259&hl=w32.virut!

That's the only thread I could find there that mentions the W32.virut! infection. It's from 2008. This flavor came out February 4th, 2009.

It is kind of a ponderous item how the OP there suddenly disappeared while someone was trying to help him. Wonder if the infection finally did his box in?

 

I heard that...had some old guy bring his system to me totally hosed. A repair reinstall didn't fix it, the problem was in the one profile on the machine. His "computer expert" teenage son fouled it all up with HJT. I ended up saving his docs and pics and .pst file and favorites, reinstalling. He was tweaked at ME because he couldn't replace all his "borrowed" software (EG Office suite)!

 

I get Norton Free through work. But it has gotten to bulky & slows my PC down.

So I dumped it & loaded Avast. It was ok, but was not free as advertised. After the 30 day trial, they wanted $$$. F' That.

So I loaded AVG. Works great! It doesn't use that much of my PC's resources.

 

You didn't download the free version of Avast then.

 

I got it off of CNET as the free version. I was shocked when it expired.

 

i have a mac and got norton for free from my university so i should be double protected!!