Your experiences with viruses and anti virus software

[trawler69]

We hear a fair bit here about anti virus / spyware software and the diseases they try to prevent. How many of you have been attacked by viruses or saved by software from an attack. Have you been attacked and your software has not spotted it.

We hear all the scare stories but it would be interesting to find out the reality as you see it.

For myself whilst using a pc I have been successfully protected online perhaps 6 times, scanned off line and found maybe 50 things that got through. I have been completely fucked over by Anti virus software once and it was Norton, turned out to be worse than what it was supposed to be protecting me from. Bit like wearing a condom lubricated by Herpes.

What are your experiences? what is the reality minus the hype?

 

[trawler69]

Very good and thanks. It is a genuine question, I am interested in the hype versus reality question. The symantechs of the world want to convince us we need them and I wonder where the reality is. A re they just trying to scare us into paying them?

 

[MetaKnight]

You know, I havent had any virus problems in a long long time. I have AVG Free. It updates itself amd scans the PC by itself as well. So I dont have any scary stories so far.

 

[splurge]

I use AVG (free) and Firefox and haven't had a virus since I started using them.

Noelie, I haven't used any before, but what plugins are good for FF?

 

[provenlogic]

I've always used Symantec Antivirus Corporate (not Norton), it's saved me a dozen or so times over the years. And it's especially helpful if you must visit certain websites you know are going to try and hook a worm or trojan onto your computer. SAV Corporate is a no thrills-just the meat version of norton, with a lot better support and stability. No excess windows and managers and helpers, just the AV program. It auto-updates on it's own of course, and i've never had any problems with it.

Of course it costs a lot to get your own private copy, but if you can get a liscense through work or school, it's great.

As for a firewall, since i'm running a 64-bit O/S now, i just stick to the Windows Firewall, it does just fine.

 

[Kins123]

In my opinion the best protection is common sense. You can have all the protection in the world but until the user is educated on what they should and shouldn't do then there will always be a way for viruses and other malware to get on to a system.

I'm currently reading a book called "The Art of Deception" and some of the stories are very frightening. It's not entirely just about the technology side but it's also about social engineers and how they can manipulate people to do anything they want. It's a good read and would recommend to anyone who is interested.

I also think some of the anti virus makers do use scare tactics to get people to buy their software. Some anti virus *cough* Norton *cough* cause more problems than they prevent. Not only do they hog system resources and mess up program installs, I've seen some cases where Norton completely breaks network connectively even after it has been uninstalled. The best anti virus programs are the free ones in my opinion. Unfortunately that's not how most people think. They will go out and pay £50 for some bloatware anti virus which will just cause problems.

I would be interested to see how much time is wasted fixing problems with anti virus programs compared with the actual viruses people get.

 

[TriBi]

Well - I'm as "non geek" as you can get - deciding what "protection" I should has beeen done by evaluating the tips provided by the knowledgable ones here at JUB.

I use AVG, Spybot, AdAware and Spywareblaster - oh, and Firefox.

In the last few years I have had one (surprisingly) Trojan get through - but that was fairly easily fixed, so it seems to be effective - bearing in mind that I am not stupid about "what I open" - I tend to be quite cautious.

Would be interested to hear from the experts whether they think I have adequate (or too much?) protection - bearing in mind that geek speak completely confounds me, LOL.

 

[bbya2064]

I have a Mac

on my PC's tho I use AVG Free

 

[BrandonSBCA]

I haven't had many viruses, just mostly had spyware issues that I usually fix with Spybot - Search and Destroy.

The Anti-Viruses I've used which had major problems with are

Norton Internet Security 2007
McAfee (Stuff they make now is shit)

These ones I've had no problems with

AVG (It's good if you don't want to pay for a AV program)
avast (Also nice too if you want a free AV program)

 

[JOUPER]

I Use A Combination Of "Ad-Aware","Norton" And "Spy Sweeper".They Work Well Together For Me.I Go Everywhere And So Far No Problems.I Want To Tell You Though ,I Started Out Using "PC-cillin",That Is The Worst,I Had Virus After Virus Using That Stuff And Spyware Too!!

 

[sonny10305]

I've always used Symantec Antivirus Corporate (not Norton), it's saved me a dozen or so times over the years. And it's especially helpful if you must visit certain websites you know are going to try and hook a worm or trojan onto your computer. SAV Corporate is a no thrills-just the meat version of norton, with a lot better support and stability. No excess windows and managers and helpers, just the AV program. It auto-updates on it's own of course, and i've never had any problems with it.

I agree, my new computer came loaded with Vista and a free trial SAC membership
After the trial expired I bought it for a year and love it. I used to have McAfee but SAC is far superior, and you are right about the support, I have used the chat which was very helpful. I browse the net worry free with the protection SAC offers.

 

[splurge]

Hi ya splurge,

I use an extra popup blocker for starters - it gives me a lot more control over popups:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1648

Next I use Flashblock - stops all flash in both web pages and in popups and it shows me a little icon on the page where the flash object would have been - it also saves a lot of bandwidth so web pages load faster:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

I also use a cookie manager - currently it is View Cookies CS combined with the Firefox cookie options - I block all cookies by default and allow only the ones that I want:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3587

I'll probably get a different one soon though cos there's a bit too much clicking on my part with that one.

Finally I use Adblock Plus - with that I can block adverts and images that I don't want to load - I currently block all kinds of banner adverts and a few Jubber's avatars and siggy pics that contain pornographic images because I use Firefox portable and take it into college with me:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Hope that helps -

Cheers Noelie,

I'm going to give them a go today.

 

[-live-]

When I used XP, I used Windows Defender and Avast Anitvirus. And was using Opera web browser most the time.

-Only ever had a few problems with viruses and that were down to my own fault.

Now using Vista, I use Windows Defender and Windows Live OneCare. And am using Internet Explorer 7.

-Never had a single problem with viruses or anything I dont think. (But then it does cost so it should work I suppose!)

I prefer now to stick with Microsoft goods!

 

[Lucas07]

When I wsa using windows (xp) I never used any antivirus software, I mean never. And I never got any viruses or serious threats for some reason... I do use spyware scanners often, that's the only nasty thing I got.

(sun)