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Chock · 11-06-07, 10:46 PM

You may find it useful to check the task list at this site:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/

Compare it with what processes you have running in the task manager, and it should point you in the direction of your issues. This is useful because there is a lot of misunderstanding where virus scanners are concerned.

For example, Ad Aware (which many people will recommend) is not a virus scanner in the real sense (this comes as a surprise to many who have it), it attempts to block things getting ON your system in the first place as a firewall, and has a few concessions to scanning your drive, but not being a dedicated anti-virus SCANNER, it is not often successful at this (it missed two on one of my computers just the other day). Conversely, stuff like AVG and Kaspersky (the best free and payware virus scanners by most accounts) attempt to clean up the mess AFTER the thing has arrived, but are less successful at stopping things getting on there in the first place, such as browser hijacks and the like. This is an important distinction, because many people will say 'oh use such-and-such, it always works for me', which is like saying, 'oh use a spanner to fix your car, I did that last week and now it is fine'.

So, you actually need two things (at least). One, a firewall, to stop the sh*t getting on there, and two, a decent virus scanner to clean things up if your firewall misses anything. Now, there are plenty of free ones out there, but like everything else in life, you get what you pay for with software too, so the free ones may indeed be very good, but they often lag behind the payware ones in terms of up to date databases and such, if they were as good as the payware ones, nobody would buy the payware ones. This is the trouble with free versions of stuff like Zone Alarm and AVG, so the thing to ask yourself is, how much do you want to pay for protection? which is annoying, but not as annoying as thinking 'sh*t, I knew I should have not relied on that free one' when you are faced with formatting your hard drive and re-installing all your stuff.

When you've got a virus scanner and a firewall, then you might want to consider a registry cleaner and a look at the dedicated DOS programs your virus scanner devs provide to clean out the really nasty ones, such as trojans like BackDoorFlood (which is well named, as it is a pain in the ass).

Personally, I use Ad Aware 2007 plus, Ad Watch 2007, AVG (bnot the freebie one), RegSeeker and VCleaner, plus a few others too occasionally, I don't like Zone Alarm myself, but many people do. So don't take my word for it on those, type a search into google or whatever for 'best virus scanner' and 'best firewall' and read some reviews, then compare prices with features. You may well find some free ones suit you, many payware ones have a chopped down freebie version (but you don't get the support you do with a payware one), and they aren't THAT expensive if you look around, so you may want to cough up some cash.

I know you probably know a lot of this stuff already by the way, but when you are looking for suggestions, everything helps.

Chock

11-06-07, 10:46 PM	#11
Chock Sea Lord Join Date: May 2005 Location: Under a thermal layer in chilly Olde England Posts: 1,842 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	You may find it useful to check the task list at this site: http://www.answersthatwork.com/ Compare it with what processes you have running in the task manager, and it should point you in the direction of your issues. This is useful because there is a lot of misunderstanding where virus scanners are concerned. For example, Ad Aware (which many people will recommend) is not a virus scanner in the real sense (this comes as a surprise to many who have it), it attempts to block things getting ON your system in the first place as a firewall, and has a few concessions to scanning your drive, but not being a dedicated anti-virus SCANNER, it is not often successful at this (it missed two on one of my computers just the other day). Conversely, stuff like AVG and Kaspersky (the best free and payware virus scanners by most accounts) attempt to clean up the mess AFTER the thing has arrived, but are less successful at stopping things getting on there in the first place, such as browser hijacks and the like. This is an important distinction, because many people will say 'oh use such-and-such, it always works for me', which is like saying, 'oh use a spanner to fix your car, I did that last week and now it is fine'. So, you actually need two things (at least). One, a firewall, to stop the sht getting on there, and two, a decent virus scanner to clean things up if your firewall misses anything. Now, there are plenty of free ones out there, but like everything else in life, you get what you pay for with software too, so the free ones may indeed be very good, but they often lag behind the payware ones in terms of up to date databases and such, if they were as good as the payware ones, nobody would buy the payware ones. This is the trouble with free versions of stuff like Zone Alarm and AVG, so the thing to ask yourself is, how much do you want to pay for protection? which is annoying, but not as annoying as thinking 'sht, I knew I should have not relied on that free one' when you are faced with formatting your hard drive and re-installing all your stuff. When you've got a virus scanner and a firewall, then you might want to consider a registry cleaner and a look at the dedicated DOS programs your virus scanner devs provide to clean out the really nasty ones, such as trojans like BackDoorFlood (which is well named, as it is a pain in the ass). Personally, I use Ad Aware 2007 plus, Ad Watch 2007, AVG (bnot the freebie one), RegSeeker and VCleaner, plus a few others too occasionally, I don't like Zone Alarm myself, but many people do. So don't take my word for it on those, type a search into google or whatever for 'best virus scanner' and 'best firewall' and read some reviews, then compare prices with features. You may well find some free ones suit you, many payware ones have a chopped down freebie version (but you don't get the support you do with a payware one), and they aren't THAT expensive if you look around, so you may want to cough up some cash. I know you probably know a lot of this stuff already by the way, but when you are looking for suggestions, everything helps. Chock __________________