Norton Anti-Virus (1 Viewer)

Lizzybif said:

My computer went a bit doolally today in that I couldn't connect to the Internet and when I checked Internet Connections my home page address had disappeared. When I was checking through the addresses to restore the home page there were a lot of web page addresses for 'dictator'. This sounds suspicious to me?
If this is a virus why didn't AVG catch it? :h?:

The only way I could sort the problem was to use System Restore.

I don't know whether to blame Service Pack 2, AVG or Zone Alarm?

Also someone has told me that Sygate firewall is better that Zone Alarm (which I use) and so I would appreciate your advice on this now please!

Trying to make my computer secure is giving me a headache! :eek!:

Liz

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Download (free) Microsoft Spyware softare (search Google) and run - it should solve your problem. Alternatively try AdAware or SpyBot. I've found the MS product the best and easiest.

scampo said:

Download (free) Microsoft Spyware softare (search Google) and run - it should solve your problem.

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Sigh.

To fix the problem, don't use Internet Explorer.

It's that simple. You can apply all sorts of bandages, but the real cure for any recurrent infection is to stop exposing yourself to high-risk situations.

Tannin said:

Sigh.

To fix the problem, don't use Internet Explorer.

It's that simple. You can apply all sorts of bandages, but the real cure for any recurrent infection is to stop exposing yourself to high-risk situations.

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Or use IE and use regularly firewalls, anti spyware and antivirus and all will be well, too. And you wouldn't want not to use those with other browsers, either.

Sorry I made you sigh Tannin! I have had a lot of advice and info (all very gratefully received) and it all gets a bit confusing! :h?:

I did try Firefox but found that there were connection problems with it but I will try again.

Steve I do have anti-virus (AVG) Firewall(Zone Alarm) and use various spyware including Ad-aware but still the Hijacker got in.

Someone has told me that Zone Alarm can cause problems?

Liz

Lizzybif said:

Sorry I made you sigh Tannin! I have had a lot of advice and info (all very gratefully received) and it all gets a bit confusing! :h?:

I did try Firefox but found that there were connection problems with it but I will try again.

Steve I do have anti-virus (AVG) Firewall(Zone Alarm) and use various spyware including Ad-aware but still the Hijacker got in.

Someone has told me that Zone Alarm can cause problems?

Liz

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Liz, ZA (and all other software firewalls) CAN cause problems (usually related to the user or conflicts with other software and sometimes, even Windows!).

Please try Firefox or Opera etc. again and save IE for Windows Update.

Thanks!

I have downloaded Firefox again (Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1) and am using it right now!

Which firewall would you recommend?

Liz

Lizzybif said:

Which firewall would you recommend?

Liz

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Difficult call, Liz!

They all (usually) work well, as you're already used to using ZA, why not continue with it?

Andrew Rowlands said:

Difficult call, Liz!

They all (usually) work well, as you're already used to using ZA, why not continue with it?

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You're probably right. Hopefully Mozilla Firefox will make a difference.

Thanks!

Liz

"I have downloaded Firefox again (Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1) and am using it right now!"

Good for you!

Firefox will make a difference, Lizzie (and it has all the other benefits that go with the modern browsers, such as freedom from pop-ups, tabbed browsing, freedom from glaring HTML rendering errors, 1st class password management, and so on).

But what it can't do is get rid of any spyware or other nasties you already have. (Connection problems, by the way, are often a sympton of spyware infection, though I suspect that you just needed to dial manually, which you might not be used to.)

Cleaning out existing infections can be quite complex (though sometimes you get lucky and it's easy). Te best easy thing you can do (short of taking it to a competent technician) is to run Ad-Aware or another quality anti-spyware tool in safe mode. Do that, then do it again, then reboot and do it once more (still in safe mode). If it comes up clean on that third scan, you are probably OK. If not, post here again and we will walk you through the next steps.

Then, once your system is clean, you can keep it clean by avoiding high-risk things such as running Internet Explorer.

PS: Steve writes: "Or use IE and use regularly firewalls, anti spyware and antivirus and all will be well, too ... you wouldn't want not to use those with other browsers, either."

Maybe so, maybe not. Let me put it this way, you are much, much safer running a modern browser, following the simple and basic security practices I listed earlier, and not having AV and anti-spyware software than you are running a high-risk browser (IE) with all the bandaid bells and whistles you can imagine. Much safer.

If the nasty can't get in, then it can't get in.

End of story.

If your browser invites nasties inside your system, then it becomes a competition between your AV/AS software and the virus/spyware writer. You can lay London to a brick that the virus/spyware writer will win at least some of the time. You lose.

If you want to have AV/AS software, sure, go right ahead. I can't do much harm and might just save your bacon. But regard it as a fire insurance policy. Yup, pay your premium and breathe easier. But first reduce the risk of fire!

PPS: A firewall is a really, really good idea. I mostly use hardware firewalls, so I can't really recommend the best software one. Andy R seems to think that Zone Alarm is as good as any, and in his earlier posts to this thread Andy has demonstrated that he knows what he is talking about. I'd go with his advice.

Tony

Tannin said:

...

PS: Steve writes: "Or use IE and use regularly firewalls, anti spyware and antivirus and all will be well, too ... you wouldn't want not to use those with other browsers, either."

Maybe so, maybe not. Let me put it this way, you are much, much safer running a modern browser, following the simple and basic security practices I listed earlier, and not having AV and anti-spyware software than you are running a high-risk browser (IE) with all the bandaid bells and whistles you can imagine. Much safer.


Tony

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You make it sound so definite. I have said it before; I'll say it - briefly - again. I run three PCs and maintain a number for friends of varying ages. All run XP2 and its excellent free firewall, all run IE6, all run auto-updated AV (mostly NAV, one Trend PCillin - my favourite for its speed and small 'footprint') and now all run Microsoft's new (free) anti-spyware software.

The truth is that I have had very, very few problems indeed; and where problems have occured it has been owing to virus and spyware definitions being not updated, and in one case, it seems AVG failed.

I tried Firefox and their email software for a good long time but just didn't find them any faster (to my surprise) or safer. I suppose, too, I just preferred the ease and familiarity of IE6 and MS Outlook.

I just can't believe that if folk keep their surfing to safe sites and take care with opening email attachments and closing pop-ups they will meet with problems. Where problems have occured on the machines I maintain I am sure they have been caused by the likes of teenagers downloading from Kazaa and the like, or surfing dubious sites or, perhaps especially, innocently trying to close down dubious pop-ups by using the fake "X" icon in their top right-hand corner, thus allowing a trojan or the like into their machine.

I think it is a bit unrealistic to refer to other browsers as "modern", btw - they are not; many are developments of the Netscape source code, I imagine. If people like them and can get on with them, that's fine, of course. But XP2/IE6/FW/AS/AV works for very many people most of the time, and works very well indeed.

scampo said:

I think it is a bit unrealistic to refer to other browsers as "modern", btw - they are not; many are developments of the Netscape source code, I imagine. If people like them and can get on with them, that's fine, of course. But XP2/IE6/FW/AS/AV works for very many people most of the time, and works very well indeed.

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Steve, IE6 was released August 27th 2001, hardly 'modern' in browser terms!

Andrew Rowlands said:

Steve, IE6 was released August 27th 2001, hardly 'modern' in browser terms!

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True, Andrew - but it's latest build is much newer. I think XP2 upgraded it significantly, didn't it?

I think it does its job very well indeed. I tried others but genuinely found no worthwhile improvement - and I truly wanted to! I felt a sense of disappointment that the difference was not more obvious and if anything, there were more gripes than I have with IE6. I must be too set in my ways!

And I have to add that the Outlook 2003 spam filter is top class. I've stoppoed using Qurb since upgrading my Office software.

scampo said:

True, Andrew - but it's latest build is much newer. I think XP2 upgraded it significantly, didn't it?

I think it does its job very well indeed. I tried others but genuinely found no worthwhile improvement - and I truly wanted to! I felt a sense of disappointment that the difference was not more obvious and if anything, there were more gripes than I have with IE6. I must be too set in my ways!

And I have to add that the Outlook 2003 spam filter is top class. I've stoppoed using Qurb since upgrading my Office software.

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Patches on patches on an insecure browser on an insecure OS.

I don't like having to check for the latest patches before I can use the 'net safely - I'd rather use a browser that isn't tied into the OS.

The biggest difference between IE and non-IE based browsers is that IE was designed to allow software to be installed into and from it. The others were designed to surf the 'net.

M$ are due to release IE7 in August - perhaps that will be worth using, until then - keep IE for Windows Update.

I take your point and do know your loyalties are not really with Mr Gates. But it couldn't be easier to keep IE6 and Win XP2 up-to-date - it's fully automatic. And as for patches, surely Netscape and the others have gone through a whole raft of versions?

scampo said:

I take your point and do know your loyalties are not really with mr Gates. But it couldn't be easier to keep IE6 and Win XP2 up to date - it's fully automatic. And as for patches, surely Netscape and the others have gone through a whole raft of versions?

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Couldn't be easier? Up to date?

I had to search the MS site for a fix for a new, fully-updated XP SP2 machine that had an issue with NAV 2005! Found the 'patch', installed it fine. It was WEEKS before this was available on Windows Update! Let's not forget that some of these 'patches' break other programs, too!

Loyalties? Does he show any for us? No - unless he can write it off against tax!

Andrew Rowlands said:

Couldn't be easier? Up to date?

I had to search the MS site for a fix for a new, fully-updated XP SP2 machine that had an issue with NAV 2005! Found the 'patch', installed it fine. It was WEEKS before this was available on Windows Update! Let's not forget that some of these 'patches' break other programs, too!

Loyalties? Does he show any for us? No - unless he can write it off against tax!

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(-;

As a matter of interest, a friend is having problems with a new HP laptop - when he phoned HP they said SP2 wouldn't work on it "yet". I think it needs a BIOS update - but, to be fair, I think it's HP as much as Microsoft.

scampo said:

(-;

As a matter of interest, a friend is having problems with a new HP laptop - when he phoned HP they said SP2 wouldn't work on it "yet". I think it needs a BIOS update - but, to be fair, I think it's HP as much as Microsoft.

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Sounds like that subject merits a new Thread.

scampo said:

I think it is a bit unrealistic to refer to other browsers as "modern", btw - they are not; many are developments of the Netscape source code, I imagine.

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This is simply not true. There is zero, repeat zero, old Netscape code in Mozilla (and thus Firefox, which uses a lot of Mozila code). This was a decision taken by the development team some years ago: essentially they said "the old Netscape code is just too old and too hard to fix; it will be easier to start with a clean sheet of paper". So that's what they did - despite most of the rest of the world (including me) criticising them for it and complaining about the delay.

The same goes for Opera: it was re-written top-to-bottom for the release of Opera 7.0.

Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox, in other words, are all based on a modern, secure codebase.

Internet Explorer, on the other hand, has not had an update of any real substance since IE 4.0 was released in 1997. It it eight years old - and in computer terms, eight years is an eternity. IE 5.0 was a bugfix release for IE 4.0, the unlovely IE 5.5 was another, and IE 6.0 continues the tradition. They have fixed about a third of the horrendous HTML rendering bugs, but the other two-thirds remain to torment web developers and make writing cross-browser code near-impossible. They have not adopted more than a handul of the ease-of-use features that all the modern browsers employ - and most important of all, they have utterly failed to address the massive security problems.

We see dozens of machines every week for spyware infestations, and (outside of Kazaa and the like) all of them can be traced directly to Internet Explorer. People who follow our advice to switch to a better browser don't come back with repeat infections. People who continue using Internet Explorer do.

It really is that simple.

Well I've changed to Mozilla Firefox and used Ad-aware, Spybot, BT-Yahoo Anti-Spy, AVG and ewido security to check for viruses, spyware etc. I did this a few times and it is now clear.

However, I am still having connection problems and today Windows wouldn't even start up. The little blue lights which appear (sorry not very technical!!!) just stopped and I had no option but to switch the computer off.
It worked ok the next time.
Then there were two dial up connections and they failed a couple of times.

Could this all be caused by Service Pack 2 as it seems to be since I installed this that I am having problems?

Sorry I really am trying to learn about my computer but it all gets very confusing! I don't have time to watch the birds!!!!!!!!!!!! :bounce:

Liz

Can anyone help? Funnily enough, just bought NAV 2005, for a mere £17 actually, which seemed good value at the time.

But I installed it, and since then my PC has gone AWOL. It has virtually stoped working. Tried to uninstall to remove the problem, and it took an hour, and even then didn't go away. Now the PC takes ten minutes to shut down!!!

I have installed loads of software into my PC in the past, and it is relatively new and fast, so I really do think there is something wrong here.

I can go into more detail if anyone is willing to have a go. Will be back on tomorrow.

Thanks in advance

Sean