Recommendation

[manchild]

For all those looking for antivirus program I have to recomend AVG antivirus. http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5 It is free, simple, works perfectly. Definitely one of the most usefull programs I've ever downloaded. It's "fire and forget" kind of program with amazing reliability. I'm using it for several years and today I've downloaded updated version and thought that some of you might find this info usefull.

On that same link you'll also find free AVG Anti-Spyware program.

[erikf1]

I use AVG for a year now. And your right its really a good program

[Spyker MF1]

I use AVG and think its good but if it finds trojans or anything like that it doesnt get rid of them it just puts them in a different folder

[manchild]

It puts them in "virus valut" which is at similar programs usually called "quarantine". When placed there they are prevented to affect the system and you can delete them with one click on "empty virus valut".

Virus valut or quarantine whatever it is called exists to prevent that some possibly non-harmfull programs that are detected as possibly harmfull by antivirus be deleted automatically. It also enables computer admin to see what type of virus it is and from which url or email address it came.

After clicking "empty virus valut" everything that was in it will be deleted from PC forever.

[Saribro]

all anti-virus software does for me is waste system resources :p
I scan my system every once in a while, and after 4 years, still at 0 virusses without virus scanner ;-).

[Rob W]

Yeah, AVG is great. Been using it for about a year also with no probs.

Rob W

[manchild]

all anti-virus software does for me is waste system resources :p
I scan my system every once in a while, and after 4 years, still at 0 virusses without virus scanner .

That's because you don't surf porn sites

[Saribro]

all anti-virus software does for me is waste system resources :p
I scan my system every once in a while, and after 4 years, still at 0 virusses without virus scanner ;-).

That's because you don't surf porn sites :lol:

Bold statement :p
Anyhow, it does help that I use Opera as a browser, not many people trying to find exploits for it, pop-up blocker, no activex,... :)

[DaveKillens]

The best defence is the surfing habits of the user. And it's important to setup the computer and files not "if", but "when" a virus wipes you out.Any suspicious files I quarantine in a separate partition, wait a week, update anti-virus, then scan. When the Tommy Lee and Pamela harcore home porn movie broke on the net many years ago, everyone wanted to see it. I did a scan before opening the file, and found 8 different virus's embedded in that one.

[Ciro Pabón]

For some links with antivirus software you can check here (yes, this list includes AVG, but also Antivir and Avast, all of them for free).

If you are in this mood, you can find that anti-ad programs are also useful. I recommend Ad-aware, Spyware or CWShredder (the entire list is at the bottom of the page whose link I give). Better yet, if you have the time, run the three of them.

I bet that if you don't have Opera, as Saribro recommends, you'll find you have a lot of spyware programs installed in your PC without your knowledge. They may not be that harmful, but surely they will slow your internet connection, sending info about your surfing habits.

MC, I am shocked. I've been told you can download porn in the Internet, but I never imagined you doing that! Seriously, I must be the only guy in the world that has not downloaded the "Pamela video".

Anyway, I always recommend Opera because it saves you a lot of time. For example, you can have the program read aloud a page for you (this is how I "hear" Principessa's news or your posts while I work).

You can also see a list of links to pictures or videos in a page and download them at once withouth having to right-click every one of them. The download manager, mail, RSS feed and contacts list included in the "basic Opera" save you a lot of time. If you download "pictures" at least you don't spend the entire evening getting them.

I know you can do the same with FF, but I don't like that you have to download a lot of widgets to do the same (and a separate mail client) and then, if you change your FF version you have to download all the widgets again. Does FF still behaves that way?

[joseff]

On my XP computers I use avast AV (updated regularly), and run a non-admin account. My (admittedly not-tech-savvy) staff STILL managed to catch worms. Apparently even with the multi-condom approach we caught it from those usb thumb drives. And it uses windows file sharing to spread, so it took me weeks (YES WEEKS) to clean the whole network.

You have to realize that there are homebrew 3rd-world viruses that aren't taken seriously by AV companies. This is what we got, and even after avast could detect it, it couldn't be automatically removed.

Solution: we migrated all but 2 computers to ubuntu linux, replaced one with a Mac mini. No more crap.

[manchild]

MC, I am shocked. I've been told you can download porn in the Internet, but I never imagined you doing that! Seriously, I must be the only guy in the world that has not downloaded the "Pamela video".

You'll be surprised but I've never seen it (because I really don't like Pam). Regarding porn in general - if Fox Mulder can like porn why can't I? All I'm missing is Gillian Anderson but I hope Dave will fix that up for me with his Canadian connections

Mulder's porn habits are a recurring joke on the series, and are alluded to in several episodes. In the third season episode Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose (3x04) the psychic Bruckman implies that Mulder will die from an act of autoerotic asphyxiation. Mulder normally watches porn to sleep; at other times, he does it out of boredom or habit. At times it is implied that he watches porn as other people watch TV shows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Mulder

[Scuderia_Russ]

MC, I am shocked. I've been told you can download porn in the Internet, but I never imagined you doing that! Seriously, I must be the only guy in the world that has not downloaded the "Pamela video".

It's over rated

[Tom]

I thought it was just a teenage thing

[DaveKillens]

I'll try, Manchild, but up here we're pretty confused. Beavers really are a hairy rodent that eat trees, and a fox is a carnivore that eats beavers.....

And it was my patriotic duty as a Canadian to watch anything with Canadian content anywhere concerning media. Maybe Tommy should get a tattoo of the Canadian flag and run it up his (flag)pole, since Pamela sang the anthem, or at least did some kind of oral patriotic thing...