Yep. I'm screwed. Some git has managed to infect my PC with a virus that has knocked out both my firewall and antivirus so now going on the net from home is absolute suicide (thank god for the local library! :P). No idea how it's gunna get fixed but I'm sure we'll find some way... hopefully within the next week. If I'm not around for the next 2-3 weeks though don't be surprised. *Sigh*. While I'm gone if some of you could post some good alternative firewalls/antiviruses to Norton that would be good. Everything's been getting through it as of late. ;)

See you soon (hopefully).

EDIT: Oh, and I won't even ask what Dark0ne's done now. I'm not sure I want to know. ;P

Eep. Sorry to hear of your computer problems - do you know which virus you've picked up?

Norton is the spawn of the abyss (where indeed those who write viruses in the first place should be sent), a horror of the elder days (but without a shoggoth's style and grace).

I'm using AVG as my antivirus program - during its first sweep it found a couple of things McAfee appears to have overlooked.

As for firewalls.... the only one I can recommend is Sygate....

Hmm nevermind then (freaky smilies) and problem is over (it would be, just cos I posted about it on all the forums I'm on yesterday!). A friend managed to install Norton 2004 (I was using 2003) and it seems to be immune to the virus... I'll stick with it until I get any more major problems. It's better than trying to adjust to a new system :P

Norton is the suck. Norton is the balls. Don't use it.

AVG Free is the way to go, free updates, free download and install..free free free and still better (better better) than Norton. Get rid of that Norton crap and install AVG. Your life depends on it.

As for firewalls I hear nothing but good things from Zone Alarm. Once again it's free free free.

I got broadband less than a week ago, and i have, so far, been attacked by trojans and other such bastard spawn tweleve times. That's twelve, count 'em. Thats just the ones that Norton has caught. If i go on trust with this am i going to get boned? I'm downloading the free trial now, and to be honest i'm not sure if its a good idea. But if u lot think that its a decent product, i'll give it a try. But if i suddenly catch a host of viri (plural of virus ), then it'll be more than just flames. I know where u live Dark0ne

Heheh, yeah, that's why I don't want to try it unless Norton is absolutely useless. I have a motto: "If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it!". It's an overused cliche but it works. Often meddling with new software/hardware just causes more problems. And it's always different for different people. For instance, Theta swears by Sygate Firewall, yet when I used it I got a multitude of worms in a matter of seconds, and I couldn't connect to any of my online programs until I completely uninstalled it.

That's probably because you had Norton running....

Norton is the evil spawn of the abyss which does not like co-existing with other internet security software.

How did the last attack get past Norton?

I had Norton disabled when I was running Sygate. ;)

And no idea... it just suddenly became disabled and said that there was an internal program error. Happened every time I reinstalled too.

Ive downloaded and installed AVG Free, which found a trojan which had gotten past Norton, so i guess thats one-up for AVG. I also had three intrusions detected during the download, which shows just how god-awful the Net has become. I've got Norton running alognside AVG and as yet neither program has complained. Cheers for the advice (this is still conditional on me not becoming wormed to death )

EDIT: WOOHOO!!! My 500th post! I now have the gratification of knowing that under my little picture of a penguin holding a sword is the word Champion. I hope that with the past bi-millenial posts i have not committed too many atrocities or angered too many people (but come on, how many is really too many?). Cheers for drawing me back here, and i hope to one day reach that mystical four-figure mark. See you all there!

Wow nice... it runs alongside it?

Let me know how it goes, I may get it too ^^

How about you take the big leap of faith and click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Software -> Norton

... eternal worship of Dark0ne awaits all those who do it

I've never had Norton installed on my system and am only using AntiVir ... does that earn me extra brownie points?

Avast! Antivirus is what I suggest. ALways worked for me. You can try the new Ad-ware SE, but it crashed my computer, so I wouldnt run it with anything important up.

Ha ha, that's one leap that could take me over the edge. As much i would follow our divinely-appointed leader into the depths of Hell, there are some things that i am not, as yet, ready to do. Ive been scanning my PC once a day and there's been nothing found, so i think i'll continue like this if its all the same .

Well I downloaded zone alarm but when I run it my internet speed is slower then dial-up ( I have cable by the way ) and when I try to play the MMORPG that I subcribe to it either wount let me play or the game is so slow that I cant play it. any of you have any sugesttions on what to do? I got zone alarm because a trusted friend of mine sugestted it and she got it because a hacker friend says it really works ( he was dateing her at the time so he had a motivation to protect her comp lol) I do have nortion 2004 as well as spybot, and spywareblaster. these seem to work well together but norton does become a bit schitsoied ( sory about the spelling) when I try to play the online games and online radio at the same time ( the music for most games becomes annoying after a while) BUt other then that no problems.

Now here's my question. How do I get a firewall? I dont think I've ever had one
>.<

heh. Id like to know too! All i've got is an outdated version of AVG and whatever crappy free protection aol offers...

Edit: STrangely, though, the only problem i ever had was a bunch of porn sites that i had never visited, get put on my favorites list, and something keeps changing the homepage on internet explorer, but aol is unaffected (having no homepage), and explorer doesn't work anyway... so... i guess im not as bad off as i thought...

Crim, Crim, Crim. What you need is Lavasoft Ad-Aware
Also, get Mozilla Firefox. No Active-X == No Spyware/Adware autoinstalls

Also do a search for Spybot -- Search and Destroy on Google. In my experience it far surpasses Adaware in both adware/spyware removal, and adware/spyware installation altogether.

yes, but how much of this will be compatible with AOL? (Or with the AOL access numbers...) I ask because things that are 'supposed' to work with AOL (like getright) don't, despite my setting them up...

Darkone, i have spy-bot search and destroy, but that didn't take care of the stuff on my system right now... not last time it ran it anyway, ill try again. Maybe i didn't do something right, who knows? as for it's preventing the auto-installs, do i need to have it running with my browser? or is it a background thing? (I am rather ignorant when it comes to this...)

Edit: Another example would be that AVG does NOT automatically update if all you have is AOL... the update fails, every time... mine like, a year out of date now... (it doesn't do me much good, does it?)

Ad-Aware is still a must. Even better - Ad Aware and Spybot running together. I haven't had any problems so far, computer relatively ad- and spyware free, despite the fact that I'm running Norton. I'm going to try an AVG/Norton/Ad-Aware/Spybot combo, see how that works, and give the results.

As far as getting Spybot to auto-protect, start it up and click the "Immunize" tab. [Search for updates first.] It should automatically search for "bad" products, and then it will protect your PC against them after you press "Immunize."

Like he said, he's using AOL. Would ports 5190-5193 be the right ones?

You might want to use a port scanner to find out what's open. (Link takes you to GRC ShieldsUp!'s Disclaimer/Proceed page.)

I have Ad-Aware SE, full version, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Spybot Search and Destroy and a Microsoft anit-virus program and I'm still having problems. The same thing with the porn sites and changing the home pageis what I get. And I never got to any. Its rather frustrating. I just have to hope that my dad doesnt come in one day and decide to hop on my computer if I forgot to remove them. Good lord I would be deal and none of you would ever see me again.

Run msconfig and check your start-up programs for something that might re-direct your browser.

Sometimes you can get really nasty resurrecting registry spyware/adware that, even when removed come back to life. You can tell if such a thing is on your system if you run Spybot, get it to clear all problems, restart your PC and run spybot again -- if there's still a problem you got a nasty.

To fix it you'll have to do a google search on the specific spyware/adware that SpyBot mentions.

that's what i got alright, darkone...

Adras, you might consider GENTLY getting someone who trusts you to know what happened, and break the news to your dad... just in case. That's what i did. (My shrink told my mom...) No problems now, save that it's still there. I think i do know where mine came from though. (Stay away from bad emulation sites)

Or he could just fix it? LoL.

Well I've finally downloaded AVG Free and so far it seems to be making a pretty good impression. No conflicts with Norton, and I just started a virus scan. Admittedly it's very slow, but I can still browse and everything while it's running, whereas Norton scans always lagged my PC to a near stop. Not only that but it's found 4 infected files that Norton missed.

I was finally pushed over the edge when Norton suddenly decided it wouldn't let me run any more virus scans with it until I completely reinstalled the AntiVirus. No thanks.

Thanks for the advice.

I know it's been a while, but I have something to add - avast! Antivirus. The home edition is free, and it's gotten 100% ratings [and still gets them] from Virus Bulletin. So if any of you are still having trouble, try checking it out.