Re: Resources for a Healthy Computer

[MagicalPen]

I think I have a virus on my home PC. It's only active when Firefox is, and pops up random sites (in a new tab or browser window) from time to time, that are adverts for crap, basically. Its fine if I am not using the Web (aka playing games, messenger etc) and I am 100% its not just random popups from websites. Of course, I have no idea where it came from (only started over the weekend) since I haven't gone to any websites I haven't visited in the past.

[Revolverman]

might be Spyware.


Also, Veks, check out winpatrol

[Maeven]

I think I have a virus on my home PC. It's only active when Firefox is, and pops up random sites (in a new tab or browser window) from time to time, that are adverts for crap, basically. Its fine if I am not using the Web (aka playing games, messenger etc) and I am 100% its not just random popups from websites. Of course, I have no idea where it came from (only started over the weekend) since I haven't gone to any websites I haven't visited in the past.

Hah. You are in for it. I think it's what I had.  I just had to have my entire hard drive wiped to get rid of this thing.  Is one of the windows you get labeled Antivirus2009?

[MagicalPen]

Nope. That one has been going around at work. I close to .exe that are running that i've never seen before and it goes away.

[Vekseid]

It sounds like you might have a malicious firefox plugin. Uninstall firefox, nuke all folders involved, but save your bookmarks of course.

Reinstall and see if that fixes it

Edit: If it does not, it's something a bit more fundamental and I suggest you install and run the first three anti-spyware programs in safe mode with explorer.exe shut down.

[Apple of Eris]

The Anti-Malware gets rid of that Antivirus2009 one. That thing is nasty and annoying!

[Vekseid]

Made an important note about clearing out old Java versions.

[DavidLandry]

It is absolutely important that everybody listens to the above mentioned point about "Using security Programs for Spy- and Ad ware removal" in SAFE-MODE.

I killed my Windows just a few days ago by not doing so.

What actually happened was that any of my internet Browsers turned into some sort of slow motion mode. It took forever even to load the cached Google page. After deleting the basic stuff and rebooting my background had changed and was a blinking Message telling me i should get anti spyware and ad ware software. I did, but not the ones mentioned there. Installed them, ran them, rebooted and BOOM. I selected my user, Windows would pop up and immediately close kicking me back into the select user screen.

Only reinstalling windows solved the problem. A unnecessary amount of time used up for that.

[pianoman7117]

hey guys currently have AVG, prolly will get rid of it soon, i tend to go thru antiviruses alot, but i recently had kaspersky and you made no reference to that, personally i liked it, any opinion on kaspersky?

[Vekseid]

This Kapersky?

I'm... pretty narrow. Eset Nod32 or Avira Antivir for my rec list : )

[pianoman7117]

yep that one, i THINK i had eset NOD on my comp at one point im not sure tho, i have a folder named it but its empty kinda forget lol
tbh i feel that the best antivirus is simply knowing what to look for and knowing common sense on how to get rid of it
also i have malwarebytes anti-malware and its quite good :D

[Jack]

I've always had AVG as an anti-virus purely because our family has a disc for it and we use it on all our computers. As for internet browsers I normally use Firefox, however a few days ago I downloaded Safari, purely because Firefox wasn't installing the add-ons I wanted and was being a general pain in the arse. Yeah, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but it didn't work and so it just got to the point where I couldn't be bothered with it. I've had experience from Safari before due to my iPod having it and it seems to do the job.

Cheers for the links for Adobe and Java though, always useful!

[kylie]

I'm... pretty narrow. Eset Nod32 or Avira Antivir for my rec list : )

Vek, can you say something about how much you gain over Avira, from purchasing Nod32 ? 

Also, how is their full security suite as opposed to just the antivirus program?  Is it worth the money, or are there better substitutes for parts of the suite? 

Appreciate the advice.  :)

[Vekseid]

Updated, and apologies for missing this... in future feel free to poke me with a PM to answer >_>

Vek, can you say something about how much you gain over Avira, from purchasing Nod32 ? 

Far fewer false positives, and a slightly better virus detection rate. Also 'someone to sue', so to speak.

Also, how is their full security suite as opposed to just the antivirus program?  Is it worth the money, or are there better substitutes for parts of the suite? 

Well, extended suites usually offer spyware handling (which I've never heard of them doing better than the free MBAM + Roguefix combo above) and a firewall. Firewalls can cause a lot more headaches than doing good, and Windows Firewall in XP SP2 and Vista works fine if you keep an eye on it. For inbound connections, you should be using a router to filter them.

[Revolverman]

Another good PDF I found is Foxit PDF reader.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/


The only part that needs money is editing PDFs.

[Talk2meguy]

Also a good site to do PC scans:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/


For a PC cleaner of unused files and junk:
http://www.ccleaner.com/

[Bayushi]

Speaking of browsers.

If you're using Firefox, please PLEASE PLEASE look into getting the No Script addon. It's a bit intrusive and annoying at first, as you have to tell it to allow scripts on all new sites you visit, but it can be a boon when you accidentally or maliciously get rerouted to a site loaded with ugly-nasties.

I do not recall if it is available for any other browsers as yet. However, this is considered by a lot of people as an absolute MUST HAVE if you use Firefox.

MUST. HAVE.

Another handy Firefox addon is WOT, or Web of Trust, a social-networking style of malicious site identification. Yes, it has the capacity to be abused maliciously by people out to 'get' specific websites, but overall it tends to be very helpful and spot-on.

Lastly, for now, there's yet one more Firefox Addon that I've been using that can help identify malicious sites. FlagFox will warn you if you are connecting to a site with a domain extension that does not match the physical location of the server that hosts said website. For instance, a .CA site can be hosted on an American-based webserver.

OR, you could end up looking for something about, say, World of Warcraft, and go to an "American" site hosted in China. This has been a rather common ploy used to lure people to Chinese-hosted sites that have keyloggers and/or trojans with which they attempt to hijack your game account for purposes of spamming and/or gold farming. Even given that, the domain name can simply be a mask to obscure the actual .cn domain extension. NoScript cannot help you if you 'allow' the site to perform its scripts.

[Bayushi]

Separate post so that it doesn't get mired up in the longer post prior.

This is a question for Vekseid. Veks, I don't know if you know anything that can help, but I seem to have a TON of memory leaks with FireFox; to a point where I can start a new session of the browser following a cold startup(so memory is flushed clean), and YouTube videos or anything else flash will stop/start, or stutter.

I've had to resort to using Chrome for YouTube, since I'm not worried about NoScripting YouTube atm.

Any suggestions?

[Morven]

I used to work for an anti-virus company (Sophos in the UK) — too long ago to be much help for this, and I don't run anything Microsoft anymore.  It just seems too painful.  But then, I'm a UNIX sysadmin; it's easy for me.

[Vekseid]

Updated. Will probably place this on the alert bar >_>