[Possibility of harmful programs]

codemage · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:58 am

Back in the day, there were all sorts of sleeper viruses that did just that. Most of them would trigger on a certain date, like Halloween, or every Friday the 13th. Much more effective to spread through the ranks & then strike in a coordinated fashion, ninja-style.

Hardly any viruses are date-sensitive any more. They start their obvious corruption the moment they enter the system, pirate-style.

md · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:57 pm

Virii would be the one place where ninjas do indeed beat pirates. Unless they are sneaky pirates.

Dan · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:55 pm

To Codemage: I whould blame that in the increase of script kiddys that write up viruses in VB with litte work or thought. Hell there are scripts out there that will make a virus for you and put your name in it, lol.

I rember the days where peoleop where toald in the newspaper to turn there comps off on firday the 13th so there computer whould not been infected. Tho i was like 7 at the time.

It's probly for the best that the level of quality of virues writener has goen down or it could just be that the peoleop who know what they are doing just do not realses them past there zoo (network for testing a virues that is not lineked to a WAN or the public).

Mr. Gruntsworthy · **Posted:** Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:10 pm

I've tried many different things to finally rid my computer of all the spyware and invalid registry key values, but the stuff i have on my computer (first McAffee, then Norton) does not detect this stuff. Only free scans from anti-spyware programs and online scans seem to pick up on this stuff in my system.

Could someone please point me to a free (that means FREE, for the whole version, not some crappy scan-then-pay-for-removal version) antivirus/antispyware program that i can download? And note that i am not asking for something pirated, there has to be a free antivirus out there that works.

NikG · **Posted:** Thu Nov 23, 2006 11:12 am

I've been using AVG Anti-Virus Free for a long time and it's awesome!
http://free.grisoft.com

That site also has AVG Anti-Spyware Free, but I haven't tried that.

Mr. Gruntsworthy · **Posted:** Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:41 pm

okay, now will it detect everything it should AND get rid of it?
im tired of all these supposed things that are free, only to say you have to upgrade for it to remove the stuff from your computer

NikG · **Posted:** Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:31 pm

It should detect and remove everything.
There are updates for it almost daily, so I'm sure it's up-to-date in terms of the latest viruses and stuff.

That site also shows what's included in the retail version, so why don't you read that? From my use of it, it works very well.

On a related note, the other virus scanners you've used probably can't detect the viruses/spyware because they have the ability to hide from installed anti-virus progs (or so I've been told). That means that if you install avg, it'll work. But if you allow yourself to get infected again (by going to warez sites for example), avg may stop working too.

My point is it's YOU who has to be careful, because no program is absolutely perfect.

Mr. Gruntsworthy · **Posted:** Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:38 pm

i originally got infected from a Trojan masquerading as a BitTorrent file. anyways, i installed Norton while it was already on my comptuer, but ill try AVG. Thanks for the link.

wtd · **Posted:** Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:25 pm

Note: Norton and McAffee software is pretty much malware. Unfortunately, AVG also has a tendency to occasionally eat 100% CPU on my Windows system.

Currently having no problems with Avast.

[Gandalf] · **Posted:** Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:28 pm

wtd wrote:

Unfortunately, AVG also has a tendency to occasionally eat 100% CPU on my Windows system.

Currently having no problems with Avast.

Really? Personally I've noted the exact opposite, Avast eats up a whole lot of RAM and CPU power, while AVG runs quietly with a mere 4700K memory usage. Surprised

Guess you'll have to try 'em out yourself, and judge based on which works on your computer.

wtd · **Posted:** Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:38 pm

AVG runs fine about 99% of the time. And then every once in awhile... BOOM! Out of nowhere CPU usage spikes and it takes me ten minutes just to get to the Task Manager.

Mr. Gruntsworthy · **Posted:** Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:16 pm

it was like that constantly with Norton... which for some reason wont let me completely uninstall. AVG isn't doing what i need it to either... but at least it's not eating up my processing power.

wtd · **Posted:** Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:19 pm

Mr. Gruntsworthy wrote:

it was like that constantly with Norton... which for some reason wont let me completely uninstall.

Yes, lots of people have this problem with Norton and McAfee products. It's why no savvy individual can, with clear conscience, suggest those products.

Mr. Gruntsworthy · **Posted:** Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:21 pm

well.... could i enlist your help in helping me completely get rid of Norton? I had to open up msconfig to stop the firewall from booting up... Norton also seems to scan my system out of nowhere, completely eating up my computer. I can't even delete the processes.... Norton is gay.

wtd · **Posted:** Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:38 pm

Most such people I've encountered with these problems have resorted to formatting and reinstalling.

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