In G <
[email protected]> had this to say:
My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Thanks for the advice Galen.
I cut off all the themes and all that already. I checked out the black
vipers site etc. I guess maybe I'm at my peak level. I have 512 RAM.
Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the Turion processor. But my computer
whiz friends said it was just as good and cheaper than Centrion.
Do you all run Norton antivirus and symantec? I know a good virus
scanner and firewall is critical but norton takes up sooo much of my
resources. And what's the connection with symantec? I guess that's
probably what I really don't undertsand.
I understand svchost.exe is critical. However... there is some sort of
virus that creates a gigantic version of it using as much memory as
IE, explorer, etc. I can disable it no problem on the task manager.
The other svchosts I don't disable because the system shuts down in 60
seconds. SO the one hogging the memory is bogus. Supposedly there is
a welcher worm or something virus that screws with svchost.exe but I
can't find this malware on my system. I am positive that disabling it
on the taskmanager does no harm.
Malware Cleaners and Repair :
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html
No, I don't use Symantec products.
Price and service and quality?
www.kaspersky.com
I don't GENERALLY use their firewall - instead I use Outpost Pro from
www.agnitum.com but I will tell you straight up I have a vested interest in
Outpost but can find ABSOLUTELY no fault in the Kaspersky Anti-Hacker and if
you're a novice user I can think of no better firewall to be honest. Outpost
is great but there's times when it will require an advanced knowledge to
afford the level of security that it's capable of providing whilst KAH is
"good enough" for almost everyone I can think of. I'd trust it as a desktop
(second tier) solution in an enterprise environment. They have bundles that
meet or exceed the price, service, resouce usage, friendliness, etc...
Wow... I'm at the verge of badmouthing Symantec and I don't want to do that.
I will say that it's likely that you're infested with malware from your
descriptions and that you're free to try some of the free products or trial
versions of the above products for cleaning solutions. KAV does a fantastic
job but if this turns out to be a trojan (you'll know from scanning from the
initial link) then grab a copy of TrojanHunter (trial at first and if it
saves your bacon you can pay if you want or you can just be grateful) from
www.trojanhunter.com and that's an application I've been following from some
very early days where the arguement was an alternate scanning process vs.
the one offered by TDS... Having used them both I can honestly say I'll
stick with the products I own and that the support has been great even when
it was for people who weren't even buying the product but rather Mischel
knew they were just using it to clean out a dirty system.
Don't think that I'm specifically targeting Symantec here. Instead I'm
saying that the most popular solutions aren't always the most effective nor
the most accurate. I think an example might be my own use of a PC. I use
Windows not because it's anything other than any other OS (they're all prone
to mishaps and insecurities) but rather because it's easier to find software
solutions, I can secure it just as much, and I say this as about the only
*NIX to Windows convert you'll probably ever meet. Do I admire Symantec? As
a business I admire their resourcefulness and their cunning. I don't have
any respect for their product for a plethora of reasons such as their
uninstall packaging, their leveraging of OEMs to foist inadequate protection
on unsuspecting consumers... Oh, wait... I'm almost saying specific things
against them again. Really though... To be honest I'd say the same thing if
you'd mentioned a couple of other brands as well. There are better, cheaper,
and some free apps that will afford you the same security but not a single
one of them will exceed the protection afforded by a couple of days of heavy
research and a solid education. Security (and this is what you seem to be
facing as the root problem) is something that you must learn to understand -
it's not an application, it's not a program, it's not something you buy.
Security is a process. It's an understanding of the risks. It's an awareness
of the troubles and the threats. It's a COMPROMISE between what you want to
do (or need to do) and the risks you're willing to take to get that done.
There are, for instance, people who are happy to reformat every 3 months so
that they can re-install the same malware/poker-playing/porn/file
sharing/chat application all over again. While they are potentially a threat
to the online community my question is who am I to judge? Instead, I point
them to the methods to repair their PC, show them the proof, and then wait
for them to return. You know what? I can pretty much bet they'll spend less
time to re-install and re-configure (thank God for default stuff) than a
responsible end-user would spend on cleaning in the same situation. So, I
guess they've said they'd rather be idle and waiting for something to
install than actively protecting their PC or keeping their system
maintained. That was their choice - security is as lax or as tough as YOU
make it - regardless of OS, regardless of your actual usage, and regardless
of the applications you opt to install.
Hmm....
Wow... I'm going to climb down off the soapbox now and send this. If you
have any additional questions then ask away. You just happened to catch me
at the right/wrong moment. Hopefully you don't take offense. Basically,
decide what you want from the PC and once you've made that choice them take
the action to get it.
Galen
--
"You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his
trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will
come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all."
Sherlock Holmes
I would ditch norton ASAP and go