Virus Prevention 101

Beta

EGO Is My Life!
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
5,891
hey guys. some of you may know but a month ago i had a serious virus issue that changed the habits i did on my PC. after so many reformats and reinstalls i finally found some helpful programs to keep my system safe. i would like to share some with everyone because some of these programs you may or may not have ever heard about. i have them running constantly on my comp to make sure i get the needed protection.

First, lets talk Antivirus software. most systems come pre loaded with Norton AV, but its usually a trial. then you would have to pay to get its full benefits. not to mention NortonAV is a memory hog. if your like me, you dont have the cash to put up to get norton. theres a solution my friend.

AVG is a free anti virus software. i use it currently on my machine. it comes with:
-anti virus
-anti spyware
-email scanner
-firewall
-a plugin for the IE/FF users out there that can scan web links for malicious cookies or programs
-program scanner

AVG is a trusted AV software. i have been using it for a month now and it does not affect any aspect of my system. it quietly runs in the background of your comp.

AVG can be downloaded here:
http://free.grisoft.com/


Maybe you want to do a quick scan? PrevxCSI is a small app that scans your entire comp in under 2 minutes. the trial software cannot remove threats but can detect how many your comp has. then it can also run in the background in case you have any more threats on your system after you scan. PrevxCSI can be downloaded here:

http://www.prevx.com/

finally, im going to talk to inform you all on another app that i think every windows user should have. Comodo Firewall Pro is an incredible firewall that is free. it monitors what goes in/out of your IP, detects floods, detects .exe and .dll files and informs you on what could possibly turn into a threat on your PC. it detects almost anything. best thing about this firewall is that it learns from you. a blue box pops up when there is a program trying to access the internet or come onto your comp. for the sake of this lets say its named 'pizza.exe'. pizza.exe sounds pretty suspicious. and since this is the first time its been encountered, Comodo will see it as a threat. you can deny its access from your comp. as you go along it will help you block out unwanted programs.

if you ever need help with computers, http://www.techguy.org/ has a very active forum that have members that can answer your questions on almost any computer program.

Q & A
- Where did you get all these sweets protection apps?!
= techguy.org/forums

- I think these are all nice, but i just want to be free of all of these. what can i do?
= switch to linux. linux does not need firewalls or virus software because linux is virus free.

- Linux? i dunno, i heard its a big switch and im not a computer savvy person.
= dont worry, linux comes in different distributions, Ubuntu is probably more user friendly for beginners. and its free. support the open source community.

- It sounds nice, but on windows i have all my apps like photoshop and all of my steam games. i dunno if i could go on without my TF2 fix. =/
= you can always install WINE to run your windows programs. WINE stands for 'wine is not an emulator', people think that it emulates windows. it simply lets .exe files run as if they were applications made for windows. thats putting it simple.

- linux sounds awesome! but im not ready to leave windows just yet.
= most linux distributions come with GRUB, a bootloader. GRUB starts up when your system does and lets you choose either linux or windows.

- !!!!! thats awesome! and if i ever need help?
= most mainstream linux distros have a support forum.

i felt i should share this with you guys. we all love our comps and if your like me you would want to die if anything ever happened to them. so i wrote this for everyone to read and get info from. any comments or questions post them.

love, beta
 
WOW nice work Beta... Downloading this programs... I let you know my opinion...
 
i use spyware doctor, but i never have problems with viruses
 
I just use the default vista thing and no spyware or adware removal. Nothing. Just stay away from the porno sites and dont use p2p stuff like limewire and youll never have a problem.
 
I just use the default vista thing and no spyware or adware removal. Nothing. Just stay away from the porno sites and dont use p2p stuff like limewire and youll never have a problem.

EXACTLY!!!!

lol yeah i dont use anything, but im thinking a good firewall program could do a bit of help with that i do, so ill give comodo or whatever it is, a try :D
 
I just use the default vista thing and no spyware or adware removal. Nothing. Just stay away from the porno sites and dont use p2p stuff like limewire and youll never have a problem.

says you >.> lol
 
I have always used AVG and it works great. No need to pay for Norton or Mcafee when you can get AVG free...ITS GREAT.
 
i have a dell computer and i use mcafee computer protection. it works really well. there are other programs out there also that works as good. never use free internet scans online because thats how u get more problems that u already have.lol.
 
i also used avg free for some time, and it worked great, that 1 did not have firewall, and avg free still dont have firewall, also it dosnt protect you against phising, and dont have antispam,
, and dont have safe instant messaging, i am not trying to dispute that avg free is good, because it is, but its not good enough (not for me ).i defenilty would recommend to buy the full packet, and be safer than safe.
Anyhow thanks for the tips, there are some i did not know about, and i am def gonna use it, thanks for the info, just sad that that was the way you had to find that out, trust me i know how it is, i just a week ago got hacked bigtime and that took me 2 days to get rid off.
 
Another antivirus like AVG, Avast antivirus is also free and pretty much does the same thing.
 
Avast is a trial. After 1 month it told me my subscription was up, and I needed to purchase some stuff.
Although I do not use Avast, I love the fact that when it detects something harmful on your computer is plays a LOUD (VERY LOUD) siren. Best hope your kids aren't asleep or you have headphones on. your ears will be blasted away.

AVG is pretty decent. Although, when you start up your computer a bunch of different windows pop-up slowing your start up time. I'm sure there is a way to disable it but so far I can't find it.

Spy-bot is pretty awesome. It's a spy ware program that cost about the same as Norton, but with a recent encounter with another client, Spy-bot said it had removed the Trojan virus, then did a re-boot and the virus was still there. It can remove smaller things, but the bigger more higher risk viruses will not be completely gone.

Norton is pretty good. They block the hell out of everything though. I have had troubles with my wireless Internet and Xbox Live just because Norton is so paranoid about everything.

Final thoughts:

Someone is not always trying to haxors your computer. You don't really need anti-virus if you don't:
-Look at bad things
-Download bad things
-Download things you don't know about
-Download free music
-Download any type of Key-gen/Key scrambler
-Download any type cheat
-Download "free games"

On a side note this is a very good post by BetA. If you are looking for help then this is it. I'm not trying to put him down or anything, I'm just sharing my personal experience. So far though, as mentioned before, a product you buy is always better than something you get free. If someone can prove me wrong and bring up legit reasons, then I will definitely consider listening to what you have to say.
 
I know a little about computers :)

So I would refrain from buying and even TRYING Norton (~100 meg ram used) and McAfee I have found that it can actually block steam / other games at times.

Kaspersky, was a great program but with the introduction of KSP 2009, I have found that, while it does work well, it takes an extra 5-10 seconds on boot-up and takes about ~75 meg of ram.

As MrAswesome mendtioned.
Nod 32 works wonders, as does AVG Free.

I have also found that while both of these are great preliminary defenses'. Every so often I go to Trendmicro.com and use their online anti virus- just to be sure. Not all anti-virus programs catch the same things

Also be sure to download a bootup / register monitor such as HiJackThis!. This way you can run it one a week and keep that startup / boot registry nice and clean.

Also, while I am sure most of you know how to use Torrents, always check the comments; often times with programs you want to test; the keygen has a virus in it. So be sure to test something that you know is clean- more often than not you will get feedback from previous testers to let you know if it installs clean.
 
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switch to linux. linux does not need firewalls or virus software because linux is virus free.
It's not really clear to me at this point if this statement was supposed to be sarcastic or serious. In any case, it is certainly NOT true that Linux is virus free. Here is a list of some viruses from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_computer_viruses

You might also look up the Adore rootkit in google.

The market share for Linux is much smaller than Windows however, so many virus authors write viruses to target Windows machines...there are just more of them out there to target. There are certainly vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel however, and certainly more for the applications that run on Linux. A very popular application is the Apache http server, and it and other applications can certainly be exploited (take the Slapper Worm for example...it affected Apache on Linux).

In my personal opinion, I think viruses have more to do with your usage habits than it does with the OS you use. If you are downloading illegal programs and music from p2p programs and the like, you're probably going to get hit (eventually) by a virus whether you're on Windows, Linux, Mac, or whatever.

I just wanted to make sure that people don't think that using Linux will make them virus free as that's just not the case. You're probably less likely to get a virus, but it's still possible.
 
Avast is a trial. After 1 month it told me my subscription was up, and I needed to purchase some stuff.

Avast is completely free.

avast! 4 Home edition works for 60 days after the installation in demo mode. You will obtain your FREE license key by E-mail after the registration. The license key is valid for 1 year. After one year you will need to just re-register.

Just hit the "Registration" button on this link to unlock it.
 
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My $0.02:

1. If you use Vista, please keep UAC on. I know it's annoying, but it saves your posterior. If you use XP, try switching from an admin account to a regular account.

2. AVG is a good anti-virus and I've used it for a while. Another good free product to consider is Avira Anti-Vir.

3. As posted earlier, it is strongly suggested that you use a firewall like ZoneAlarm or Comodo (I prefer the latter). A firewall will ensure that programs that have no business connecting to the internet won't do so.

4. DON'T use Internet Explorer. Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome are excellent alternatives.

5. If you feel compelled to download a keygen or other suspicious software, you have two options:
a. Use a sandbox like Sandboxie or Comodo diskShield to run said suspicious software.
b. Run another copy of Windows in Microsoft Virtual PC. Virtual PC has a feature called Undo Disk that'll protect the virtual OS from any permanent damage. Virtual PC also isolates the Virtual OS from your primary OS.​

6. Backup, backup, backup. Use an imaging software like Acronis True Image to take a monthly snapshot of your primary HDD or partition (if possible, move your Steam install directory to another drive or partition). Save these backups on an external drive. If anything goes wrong, Acronis can restore your computer to the last working backup in under an hour. Acronis has saved my life on many occasions.

While prevention is important, take Murphy's Law to heart. Someday, your computer will be FUBARed. Plan on how you can recover from total failure. This includes backing up your documents/photos/movies/music regularly. If you use POP for email, try switching to IMAP. Use Acronis to image your primary HDD. If your HDD fails, you can buy another one that may be larger or of a different brand, and Acronis will still restore it.
 
Im gonna show my opinion, as you may know I had a serious problem with spyware/malware from my post. Avast is a load of crap, for the more complicated things anyway, it shut my Avast off therefor rendering it useless, I downloaded Avira AntiVir and Im pretty happy to say its working fine, I also recommend Ad-Aware for anti-spyware protection. Ill need tocheck out nod32 or kaspersky.

~midget31394~
 

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