Fixing an Infected Computer

July 22, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber
avg30495

I’m horrified at the rampant spread of malware and viruses that are hitting computers. That junk used to be a threat for people who visited “seedy” websites, or who opened up email attachments (which I don’t). Now, your computer can get a viruses or trojan just by VISITING an infected website. Disgusting!

I found a good tip regarding removing infected PCs. I am of the sort who just wipes the hard drive clean and restarts from scratch, but some folks don’t want to do that. So AVG (who makes the AVG anti-virus software) has a program, a rescue program, that you can run from a CD. It’s here. Read the directions first– this program isn’t something you can run after you boot up your computer. You must burn it to a CD or USB flash drive, and run it from one of those. It’s a wonderful tool to have on hand– just in case.

Hat tip Kim Komando for the heads up about the AVG rescue CD! Thanks!

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Posted in anti-virus, free programs, help, security programs. Comments Off »

Top-Rated Anti-Virus Program

June 30, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

Continuing my series on various anti-virus programs, here’s another I’ve found, newly released: VIPRE Antivirus Software. This one caught me by surprise; I hadn’t heard of it until the good folks at Sunbelt asked me to take a look at it. I’m familiar with Sunbelt programs, having the old Kerio/Sunbelt Firewall on one of my other computers. (Kerio was going to discontinue the firewall, but Sunbelt snatched it a few years ago and renamed it Sunbelt Personal Firewall).Sunbelt has been busy, chugging out some high quality software recently.

The VIPRE software is a suite– a combination anti-virus/anti-spyware. Such combos are becoming more popular, but not every company can get it right. Judging by Sunbelt’s record of reliable software, I’d say VIPRE scores big. There’s a free 15-day trial, and then the software is about $30. VIPRE promises not to slow down or bog down your PC (like the notorious Norton and McAfee programs do). And it was rated 5 out of 5 stars by Download.com (my primary software-download website). Very impressive!

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Go to the Sunbelt website; there you’ll see a plethora of screenshots, FAQs, lots of other information, and the link to download your free trial.

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Posted in anti-virus, security programs. Tags: , , . 3 Comments »

New Site For Downloading Software

June 25, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

The folks at DownloadSoftwareHere.com (also know as Softry.com) wanted me to let you know about their new website offering tens of thousands of free software downloads to quickly find and download software you want. I’ve been puttering around the site quite a bit, testing out what they have to offer. A lot of the downloads are for web developers (database management, website development tools like chat rooms, etc), although they have stuff for the “average” computer user (like games, network chat and chat programs, some educational programs like typing, dictionaries, and languages programs). The website is extremely well-organized: There is a long list of basic topics in the left-hand side, and when you click a topic, you’re taken to a page with more defined topics. From there, you can click to see available downloads for the specific thing you’re looking for.

The search feature is very impressive. I’ve been looking for a LAN Network chat program for a looong time, and when I typed it in the search bar, I got a page of software titles and very descriptive paragraphs. This is so helpful, because I don’t have to click and click and click just to see if the software is what I want. I was able to determine from the descriptions whether the software suited my needs or not. (Unfortunately, I didn’t find a suitable chat program, so my quest continues).

Anyway, if you are a web developer, you might want to check out the site. DownloadSoftwareHere.com promises that they use anti-virus tools to check all software (as any good download site would). With ANY website, please do your homework when downloading any software from the Internet. Be sure you have an updated anti-virus and firewall program. Check out the program thoroughly, do a search for reliability, bugs, etc.

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Posted in anti-virus, desktop utilities, free programs, security how-to. Tags: , . 1 Comment »

Microsoft to Release Anti-Virus Software

June 15, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

Seriously, I don’t know why such things make headlines anymore. When Microsoft was king of the Internet, I’m sure it was relevant. But there are so many other good antivirus programs out there already. Still, Microsoft is Microsoft…

Microsoft will soon unveil free anti-virus software
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) and McAfee Inc (MFE.N).

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world’s biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would “soon” make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

The nice thing is that it is free.

It’s good, having security software separate from your operating system. I think this makes it more difficult for hackers to tinker with it. We’ll see how this develops.

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Compare Your AntiVirus Programs

May 21, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

Here’s a great site that has a terrific comparison table of the various antivirus software programs out there: AntiVirusWare.com. The comparison table gives a very readable breakdown of all the various features for the most popular antivirus programs, including Norton Antivirus, Kapersky, BitDefender, Avira, and more. I don’t know about you, but I like to be able to compare the various software programs, especially if there are a lot to choose from– and with antivirus programs, there ARE a lot to choose from. I’d been using AVG for years, but now that I use Windows Vista, I’ve had updating problems and a lot of false positives in the virus vault lately. Right now I am using Comodo’s free antivirus program, but I’m still staying on the watch for other programs. And I also like to know what’s what with them all. :D

Anyway, if you have a hankering to know everything there is to know about antivirus issues and software, check out the AntiVirusWare.com website. They also offer the ability to download the antivirus programs, including the newly released Norton AntiVirus 2009 download. There are also great articles at the site, like “What is a Computer Virus,” “How to Avoid Infecting Your Computer,” and a history of viruses. Great site!

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Posted in anti-virus, Internet, security programs. Tags: , . 3 Comments »

Malware Killers Software

April 6, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

Continuing my series on securing your computer, I’ve talked about the importance of a good firewall, an anti-virus program, and now I’m going to address the necessity of good malware and spyware programs. While a firewall and anti-virus are absolutely necessary for a computer on the Internet, you can live without a malware/spyware protection. But I guarantee you that at some point you will need one. As you surf the Internet, your computer collects loads of small files (cookies) and other files (tracking files, etc). And your computer also may pick up a worm, trojan, or virus. Spyware and malware programs detect these files and the good ones will wipe them out.

All the ones I mention here are free as of this writing:

MalwareBytes
a-Squared Free
CrapCleaner
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
Spybot Search and Destroy

There are many more. And programs like WinPatrol and Spybot’s TeaTimer monitor your computer activity for changes in the registry.

Unlike firewalls and anti-virus programs, where you can only have one software program running– you can have multiple spyware/malware programs installed and running on your computer. In fact, it is recommended. Some programs are better than others at finding bugs and threats. I have five various programs installed on my computers. Always check for updates before scanning your computer.

In the next few posts, I’ll be addressing the issues of safe surfing, safe email handling, and other things you can do to protect your computer from harmful threats.

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Posted in anti-virus, firewalls, free programs, security programs. Tags: , . 2 Comments »
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