[RESOLVED] A O L Security (?)

[terryZ]

We recently replaced a Windows 98 SE machine here at work and gave the 98 to a co-worker's 70-year-old mother (for email & web surfing). We are in Chicago and she is in a small town in Michigan so there is very little "hands-on" help.

She indicated that she was going to install AOL 9.0 Security Edition on her machine. Because I am unfamiliar with AOL in general and did not know whether software like AVG or ZoneAlarm would not play well with AOL, I did not put any other anti-virus or firewall software on it before I gave it to her.

Well, she's had the machine for less than two months when AOL froze her account. AOL said that she had a trojan and that she had spread it to other AOL members. AOL had her change her password and asked her to do so on a regular basis. I'm not sure how this got rid of the trojan but ...

Is anyone familiar with this Security Edition of AOL? I know that running a disk scan with Norton would discover any trojans, viruses, etc but does AOL have a disk scanning routine? Would Norton Anti-Virus interfer with any AOL "security" software that might be running on her machine?

The same concerns apply to installing a firewall like ZoneAlarm on a machine with this version of AOL.

Any comments (except getting rid of AOL) would be appreciated. Thanks in advance,

Terry

[rednek tek]

SECURE?? AOL??? OK, since getting rid of AOL isn't an option, if it would be possible to close all running programs via program manager to ensure no conflicts, you could then scan using NAV. ZA should peacefully co-exist with AOL, and in fact could be helpful in determining the source files of the trojan through program alerts when it attempts to phone home. Of course, I don't know how much of this will be possible since I don't know the users skill or comfort level. This may be a tough one to resolve without a knowledgeable friend or relative going to her computer.

[terryZ]

Thanks, Tek.

From what I could see surfing, some people have problems with AOL and ZA not playing well together.

So, maybe she needs a good anti-virus to scan her disk. I'm not sure if AOL's "security" software actually does that.