Hey everybody ! Long time no see. I had a very serious very nasty virus on my computer an after bout 18 hours of frustration an almost tossin my puter out I got rid of it with Norton 360. Now my puter runs slower than molasses on a hot day.

What would u recommend for an AntiVirus program? Avast any good? Everyone keeps tellin me get Avast. How about a spyware program? I've got Advanced System Care an I also run CCleaner. I'm not exactly puter literate, my skill level runs a high beginner LOL I'd appreciate some educated input.

GIVE IT THE H1N1 VACCINATION

ive used avast before.. it was good only free for what a year back then, im using avg right now it works good.. and the best free spyware ive always used is lava soft product called ad-aware really works well!

I had AVG at one time an just didn't like it. That was over a year ago though so it may have improved.

35TOO, all these hackers that keep comin up with this stuff need to be given the H1N1 virus ! LOL They need to use their evil for good.

i just loaded mine a couple of weeks ago.. i really did like the avast though!!

Here are the recommended pieces of software and their corresponding websites. Check them out, see if you like what they have to say, and some are free, others have a trial to see if you like their product. Norton itself is a virus, it just so happens to be able to take others off of your machine.

---------------- Browsers ----------------
Firefox www.getfirefox.com

---------------- Browsers ----------------
Nod32 www.eset.com
Kaspersky www.kaspersky.com
Spybot S&D www.safer-networking.org

---------------- Peer to Peer ----------------
µTorrent www.utorrent.com (for the client)
Torrents www.thepiratebay.org (search for something)



I am fond of Nod-32 (www.eset.com), and kaspersky (www.kaspersky.com) for anti-virus programs. Both have decent heuristics and are fairly cheap, free if you have some know how. As for Avast!, it is alright. Though no one program will find everything. It is up to you to try and limit your exposure to sites/downloads/applications that will render your computer a spy or bot. Whenever you decide that you are going to do a scan, let the application run with as few other programs as possible.

As for antispyware, Spybot Search and Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) has been very good on cleaning KNOWN issues, but new ones rise everyday. Nothing will be able to catch everything.

Pr0n sites are terrible as they can be hosts for exploits, or even just track your browsing habits for marketing. Granted every site is capable of that, just expect if if you like to frequent such sites. Toolbars are another piece of software to be very wary of for similar reasons.

Be mindful of your web browser as well; Internet Explorer blows monkey chunks, and that is the nicest I can put it. As many people know, and you may already know, Firefox is one of the most developed projects available for web browsing and among the most secure while still allowing multimedia. The development team keeps true to standards for xhtml and css, and even keep releasing patches based on the USER input and issues, not some megacorps' opinion of what you should use resulting from a lawsuit. Anyway, I digress. If you really want to secure your web browser, turn off cookies, java-script, and flash for all web sites less the ones you need.

Peer to Peer clients are also very dangerous. Stick with or learn about Torrents if you want to get things from the web from unknown people. A very stable and lightweight client is µTorrent (www.utorrent.com). Google torrent sites for many, many results.

Just my opinion,
-Corpsing

and macAffe was the absolute worst! even though i always had it updated i till caught two viruses while using it!

I have heard to two people recently that got viruses while having MacAffee's

tanyaann my spy ware .. lavasoft ad-aware caught it.. i knew something was wrong i updated and ran macaffe. still had issues so then i ran the ad-aware and it caught the virus... after two times of this happening i took it off! but by running the ad-aware right after my virus protection was telling me how well macaffe worked!

AVG AntiVirus Free Edition. You can get alot of Free Choices on CNET Downloads. And no spyware that I am aware of.

Avast. I have been building systems and working on computers for years, and I have tried EVERY free AV out there. Avast has proven to be the most reliable while using minimal system resources.

Avast Home and Superantispyware

Nothing has gotten past this combination so far and you have to renew Avast annually. It also allows for a boot sector scan which really gets those tough to get rid of bugs. This combination is also good against Root Kits.

COMPUTER CONDOMS...............

That is what all computers need for online sex sites!

By the way, Ccleaner is a maintenance program used to get junk out of your system. It is not like antispyware or antivirus but it can get rid of some of that too. Many kinds of malware try to hide in temp and system restore folders. Ccleaner gets at that crap by dumping the temp folders and you can delete restore point entries as well as clean up your registry which is another site bugs like to hide.

Part of a good defense is maintenance! Ccleaner is good maintenance!

C CLEANER IS C FOR CONDOM????????????

One of the best that I found to clean up windows Is Gentoos Kav rescue.
It will rid your system from virus and rootkits. You just DL the file , burn to disk , and boot your computer from it. It boots a basic linux OS that runs outside of windows, and scans you complete hard drive so it can remove everything. Works great, and is quicker than reinstalling your windows OS. But if you really dont wanna have to worry about viruses, and dont wanna play with all the little boggy programs that windows has to offer, then run one of the many flavors of Linux.