Daddy Dee Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 My poor laptop has been sick. Norton Antivirus has said everthing was fine, but I didn't believe it. Well, Mcafee has a free virus scanner from their website as a single use freebie, operates while on line. McAfee found FIVE viruses that Norton missed. Went to Office Depot and got the McAfee Internet Security bundle and feel lots better. Cleaned off some crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piranha Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Try AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy freeware. They have both worked great for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meuge Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Yeah, AVG is great - I installed it on my parents' machine. I still use norton, but it's more of a tradition. I've never had a virus so far - I guess cause I have Spybot, AdAware, Norton and the best software firewall (Kerio Personal Firewall - free for personal use, very small, can be configured in enormous depth, and has no known bugs unlike Blackice, Norton or Zonealarm). Using Firefox as a default browser helps a lot too - not only is it a much faster and better browser than IE, it's also tons more secure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Good for you Daddy. This month's Consumer Reports actually rates the McAfee below Norton, but you're own experience would tend to argue against that conclusion. Another thing that may help speed up your computer is anti-spyware. If the McAfee doesn't have it try Lavasoft Ad-Aware. It's free and works quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Trend Micro also offers a free on-line virus scanner http://www.trendmicro.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meuge Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 AFAIK the best anti-spyware tool is the new Spybot Search & Destroy. The 1.3 version comes with a real-time registry protection tool, it blocks known bad websites, and acts as an intrinsic popup/ad blocker... all in addition to being the best spyware removal tool. On top of all of this, it as an Immunize tool that prevents infection by known spyware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschfoot Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 ---------------- On 8/5/2004 5:50:13 PM Daddy Dee wrote: McAfee found FIVE viruses that Norton missed. Went to Office Depot and got the McAfee Internet Security bundle and feel lots better. Cleaned off some crap. ---------------- Did you get the weekly updates for Norton? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke_in_KC Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 A different option that dismisses most virus concerns? The one I use? Use an iMac! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted August 5, 2004 Author Share Posted August 5, 2004 ---------------- On 8/5/2004 8:01:40 PM Klipschfoot wrote: ---------------- On 8/5/2004 5:50:13 PM Daddy Dee wrote: McAfee found FIVE viruses that Norton missed. Went to Office Depot and got the McAfee Internet Security bundle and feel lots better. Cleaned off some crap. ---------------- Did you get the weekly updates for Norton? ---------------- Yep, However, I think it got some kind of worm that Norton could not remove. Some months ago I took some manual instructions from the Symantec site to remove it. The live update kept thinking it was up to date. Eventually got that one off and updates seemed to be working o.k. until the last few weeks. Also run Spybot and AdAware. They are helpful. Have been a Norton user for 15 years and was flabbergasted that McAfee found these that Norton could not. Something was corrupted there. Perhaps a reinstall of Norton would have done the trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 I run Norton Internet Security which includes antivirus. I had major operating system problems (difficulty booting and resetting the XP OS) recently that included the inability to run Norton. I first noticed the problem after logging off of the Klipsch forum. I update Norton regularly and use AdAware. I reinstalled the operating system under the theory that too many of the operating system files were corrupted. Everyting is working well at this time. Now I am thinking that Norton may have missed a virus, trojan or worm that caused the problems. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 After reading this thread, I got freaked out and downloaded every anti-virus program, update, plug-in, and installed them on my computer. Didn't have enough HD space left to keep the Klipsch Forum cookie, so now I'm using the iMac... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Update: I reinstalled Spybot and it found 5 bad cookies that Adaware and Norton missed. I eliminated the bad cookies and have had no trouble logging on to my usual sites. Version 1.3 of Spybot looks like it is a significant improvement over the prior version. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 is being released for download in a few days. It is said to contain some huge benefits relative to the prevention of hackers invading your PC and it is also supposed to plug a lot of holes used by worms and other viruses. It sounds like it's going to be and important and worthwhile download. Microsoft is claiming that this will be the largest upgrade to a Windows system it has ever released thus far. The corporation I work for has McAfee installed on my machines at the office and it is all behind a corporate firewall. I use Norton Internet Security at home on my Comcast broadband setup, which has a hardwired firewall contained within my router. All of my machines at work (3) and at home (3) run XP Professional. I prefer the Norton Antivirus as it's been less problematic for me and seems less invasive to my computers. I have witnessed on many occasions how McAfee can slow down my machines. IMHO: Both brands of antivirus software are acceptable. It comes down to a matter of personal choice. I have seen McAfee find viruses that Norton has missed and Vice Versa. I run Adaware once a month and I now purge my machines cookies twice a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Picky, Are you selective when you purge the cookies, or do you wipe 'em all out? How do they affect your computer (unless you are on a particular website)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 fini: I simply wipe out all cookies at once. When I do that, it means I need to re-enter some passwords here-and-there on a couple of websites and re-check "Remember my login for next time", etc. But what it does do for me is it flushs all of the invasive "spy-cookies" away. They are the real trouble-makers here. It's a minor inconveniece that I am willing to go through for the larger benefit of speeding-up my machine and knowing I'm probably not being spied on as much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ygmn Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 ---------------- On 8/5/2004 7:29:22 PM Piranha wrote: Try AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy freeware. They have both worked great for me. ---------------- Good stuff...Free....and low headroom on system resources..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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