Bad Thingy

[bkaras]

I recently got a virus/worm despite having an anti-virus program
(Symantec/Norton 2003) running all of the time. I update it at least
twice per week.

I discovered that there were four or five files that I did not
download.

I **assume** that I got the bad thingies from e-mail and/or the web.
Should I avoid being online so I can avoid bad thingies? Should I use
another anti-virus program...that's readily available online?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

I recently got a virus/worm despite having an anti-virus program
(Symantec/Norton 2003) running all of the time. I update it at least
twice per week.

I discovered that there were four or five files that I did not
download.

I **assume** that I got the bad thingies from e-mail and/or the web.

Why don't you tell us what the 'bad thingies' were,, and maybe we can
suggest ways you could have caught them. Like do you run KaZaa (spit!)?,
do you have open ports &/or open network shares (free online checkers
for those problems exist), do you religiously apply MS patches when they
become available .. more info needed.

Being offline will reduce the chance of you catching anything, but it
also reduces the usefulness of your PC.

 

[madmax]

I recently got a virus/worm despite having an anti-virus program
(Symantec/Norton 2003) running all of the time. I update it at least
twice per week.

I discovered that there were four or five files that I did not
download.

I **assume** that I got the bad thingies from e-mail and/or the web.
Should I avoid being online so I can avoid bad thingies? Should I use
another anti-virus program...that's readily available online?

Thank you,

Barry Karas

Barry,
You should use a online scanner as a supplement to your
regular AV program.
By the way Norton will be hard to get rid of.You can try but
some are experiencing network connection failures when they
try to uninstall Norton.
Also try Firefox instead of IE6 and Thunderbird instead of
OE6 or Outlook.They will help you to be safer.
-max

--
Programs that I use and recommend:

Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Spyware Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Spyware Guard
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Sygate Personal Firewall
http://soho.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

Avast! For Home
http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1016.html

Eraser 5.3
http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

This message is virus free as far I can tell
Change nomail.afraid.org to neo.rr.com so you can reply
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
Use in Usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

 

[FromTheRafters]

I recently got a virus/worm despite having an anti-virus program
(Symantec/Norton 2003) running all of the time. I update it at least
twice per week.

What was it, where was it, and how do you know this.

I discovered that there were four or five files that I did not
download.

There are probably *hundreds* of files that you downloaded without
realizing that you did. It is normal operating procedure when using a
browser - every page you viewed was downloaded to your machine.

I **assume** that I got the bad thingies from e-mail and/or the web.

Likely, "drive-by" malware is pretty popular these days - as are e-mail
worms.

Should I avoid being online so I can avoid bad thingies?

That would work, but there are alternatives.

Should I use another anti-virus program...that's readily available online?

None of them are infallible, and there *is* a way to use more than one
in a layered scheme for better protection.

Check out "safe-hex" at the claymania site for tips on safe computing
practices.

Search criteia:
===
safe-hex.html

claymania
===

...should get you started.