looking for AV

[jim2112]

Hi all not too happy with AVIRA AV, looking for aother AV any suggestions? I use online banking so passwords and other stuff are used by me, so need a good one...

The windows XP recovery virus or whtever has popped up 4 times in last 4 or 5 months

Jim

[SpywareDr]

looking for AV

http://www.av-test.org/certification...n_desc&lang=en

The windows XP recovery virus or whtever has popped up 4 times in last 4 or 5 months Jim

There is no such thing as a Microsoft "windows XP recovery virus", or anything even close.

Recommend visiting our "Intensive Care Unit" forum and follow the "malware removal instructions". This will guide you through a few preparations, as well as instruction for posting your logs in that forum.

If you are still having the same issue after being given a clean bill of health from one of our malware experts, then please return to THIS thread and we will pursue other options to help you solve the problem.

[HAN]

Jim: Avira is good stuff. IMO, although I don't personally run it, it's high quality antivirus. So if you are having scary situations (you don't really give many details) fairly often, as Doc notes, there may be some other things that can be tweaked for more safety. Things like ad blocking (which reduces temptation to click on the wrong things), safe search results ratings (like WOT), browser tweaks (in both IE and Firefox) and more. I feel confident that your security can be enhanced...

[Train]

Been using Avira free for 4 years now and ain't had a nasty yet.

[jim2112]

Yeah if tweaking is what I need for a confident AV suite then I Gots to get it done. In process of scanning as per Broni's thread. Soon as I get the all clear I'll keep AVIRA and reinstall/ update Adaware and Spybot? Also curious as to the tweaks mentioned for IE or Firefox or maybe try Safari? Any help or pointers is most thankful

Thanks
Jim

[fink]

reinstall/ update Adaware and Spybot?

Both well past their prime. You'd be better off with Malwarebytes free scanner and do a manual scan every week as well as using Spywareblaster, which will not effect performance and will add protection for IE and Firefox.

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

Also, WOT (Web Of Trust).. http://www.mywot.com/

[jim2112]

Does the Spywareblaster just add into IE and Firefox?..I have Malwarebytes already and do runit

[fink]

Does the Spywareblaster just add into IE and Firefox?

More than those...

SpywareBlaster provides protection for your favorite web browser(s):

Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox
Netscape
Seamonkey
Flock
K-Meleon
and browsers that use the IE engine, including:
AOL web browser
Avant Browser
Slim Browser
Maxthon (formerly MyIE2)
Crazy Browser
GreenBrowser

Specific details from Spywareblaster site...

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spyw....html#Browsers

[buf]

Notion Internet Service (NIS) is the best available I think. Nortons was taboo big time a few years ago but has come back strong. Do yourself a favor, swing by Staples there on US1 across street from Office Max and within throwing distance of Barnes and Noble. Pay them $50 and send away for a rebate of $30 for a net cost to you of $20. You have to do that this week while the special is going on. I once said I would never have a Symantec product on my machine again; after it took hours to remove a NIS a few years ago. No comparison now!! Now marks the second consecutive year I have run NIS of two home machines and without a problem. It certainly offers the protection you seem to need. Good luck whatever you decide to do. And if you get any of those nasties, do me a favor and kill them there. Don't send 'em 30 miles south.

[Train]

Take the nasties down to Fort Matanzas and drown them. The tide will wash them away.

[jim2112]

Im wary of Norton too, they fell out of favor didnt they. Ill look into it though..Thanks for the info...Ill just feed the nasties to my praying mantis,..

[buf]

A "wash job" at the fort will take care of matters just fine and you'll find the fort on A1A about 8-10 miles South of the oldest, but beautiful, city in America.

[buf]

YES Jim, Nortons most definitely fell from grace but now they seem to have resurrected themselves and instilled some faith in their users. Well, at least I am now sold on the NIS now offered; a carry over from 2010. Good luck should you spend the $20.

[HAN]

Some random thoughts (hopefully useful )...

What are the issues to be concerned with? Viruses in email, bad links (or ads) a user clicks on while browsing, unknown downloads without any user action while browsing, unsafe downloads a user (for reasons beyond all understanding) somehow magically believes are safe (such a torrents), nasty stuff being spread by autorunning/autoplaying CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives and who knows what else (new stuff appearing daily!)

Beyond the method of infection side of the issue, the other big question is how we go about lowering the possibilities of infection from all these sources.

In my approach, I use a few things at home that have nothing to do with traditional antivirus. Old school AV is based on blacklisting. If something nasty is found somewhere, the first few users that stumble into it get infected. The AV companies finally round up a sample, build a definition to prevent it and then send it out to their users. This system works to a point for most of us but with all the new slimeware that keeps coming day after day after day, how many of us really want to be the ones who are the first users that don’t have any protection? I know I don’t want to be!

I use 2 tools, 1 Windows setup option and a firewall as the basis of my web facing security.

The first one is EMET (which helps prevent memory overflow issues that allow malware to run from programming bugs) from Microsoft http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archi...et-v2-0-0.aspx

The second one is Sandboxie (which runs programs totally isolated from Windows) http://www.sandboxie.com (I use the paid version but a free one is available.)

The third one is the creation and use of a Windows limited/regular user account when surfing. (Severely limits malware from making fundamental changes to Windows.) Setup for one in Windows 7 is here (similar method for Vista) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...8WS.10%29.aspx
And XP is here http://uis.georgetown.edu/software/d....accounts.html (Note that with XP, running as a limited user is, permission-wise, more confining than it was later with Vista and Win 7.)

Finally, firewall-wise, I use free Online Armor (no HIPS, firewall only). But for many users, the Windows Firewall would be adequate.

When these 4 items are in place, up to date and configured appropriately, there is virtually no chance that I can become infected from web surfing, even from new, unknown garbage. (FWIW, I still keep an antivirus on my PCs but its there more from habit than need. Also note that Sandboxie is only one of several programs that can “virtualize” Windows. IMO, it just happens to be the easiest one to use.)

Beyond these items, I also have…

A “managed” HOSTS file (helps block troublesome sites) http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

WinPatrol (notifies the user of things happening to Windows that are normally “under the hood”. I use the paid version but a free one is available.) http://www.winpatrol.com/

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (excellent manual malware scanner. I use free but available as paid too.) http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Autorun and Autoplay disabled for CDs, DVDs and USB flashdrives. (This can be done using Windows in Vista and Win 7. I recommend Panda’s USB and AutoRun Vaccine for XP (covered in great detail at this Virtual Dr thread http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=238013 This was also addressed in a recent XP patch too.) http://majorgeeks.com/Panda_USB_and_...ine_d6029.html

Firefox as my default browser with 3 free key extensions… WOT, Adblock Plus and NoScript. (NoScript is probably not practical for many users because it takes a great deal of patience to use it. But it does prevent (to my knowledge) nearly all drive-by downloads if you use it carefully.) http://www.mozilla.com https://addons.mozilla.org (Adblock Plus’s best filter subscriptions are, IMO, EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and Malware Domains. The Fanboy List is also good but I don’t currently run it.) (My opinion about ads… Ads are needed for the web to continue being mostly free. But we all know that there are wild and crazy ads out there, not to mention the malware laden ones just daring us to click them. My position at this time is that there are so few good ads and so many that aren’t, I am personally ok with ad blocking software.) (And WOT is the best, least invasive tool I’ve found to help protect users from traveling to risky (as determined by other users) sites.

Last but not least is VirusTotal http://www.virustotal.com/ They offer file scanning by 43 anti-malware companies (for files up to 20MB in size.) This is helpful in deciding if a file is safe or not (and not relying on just the AV on your PC.) Of course, it’s not perfect but what is??

These are the apps and features I use to protect my computers and I feel fairly confident that I am well protected. It doesn’t mean I can’t do something dumb and still install something bad. But my chances are highly reduced…

[jim2112]

WOW Han thans for the info. Lots of great reading there. I appreciate all the input from you folks