Posted on 04/14/2005 9:25:57 AM PDT by processing please hold
I think it's pretty funny when Norton either 1) detects viruses but can not delete them; 2) itself becomed damaged and unrepairable in some cases (EX: live update will not work or the virus - which Norton missed - will not work or it will not connect to the Symantec site, even manually); etc
AVG has its own problems, but that's another story.
Sybari, Kapersky and Trend '05 eat AVG for lunch and that's a proven fact. Avast is a good free one for those with no dough.
Most people don;t have a hardware firewall, sfw FW like Sygate 5.6, or scan for viruses and spyware daily, delete temp files and cookies daily, have IM running, have P2P and other "sharing" sfw installed, no daily security patches, no strict security checklist, etc.
Some people do not want to take the time to learn about how computers work, what drivers are, what the registry is, what viruses and spyware are, how hackers operate, proper computer maintenance and security, what patch management is, etc etc. etc. etc.
The problem is that they do not listen to metal bands from the 80s! ha ha
All your virus are belong to us.
My service provider tech staff told me the AVG virus database is the biggest of all. I get daily updates automatically. I am very happy with AVG.
Ditto on the Norton toss....trash it. Hang the CD with yer windchimes near the car port to scare off the sh*tbirds !
Freebies .......aka must haves
Spybot Search and Destroy w/ spywareblaster included
AVG from Grisoft
Ad-Aware, free SE edition
CC Cleaner
IE privacy Keeper from UnH Solutions
Microsofts Antispyware Beta (works great with all the above)
All updates are free.........FREE !
Norton, McAfee, Symantec, AVG: what IS this stuff? I've gotta trade in my Mac for a PC so I can join the fun.
(quickly puts on asbetos underwear ... very itchy)
No really needed on dialup
Lighten up. You're supposed to come here to have fun. And what's with this jive rappin' you be dissin me stuff. Speak English man.
Click on START
Click on RUN
Type REGEDIT
Hit OK
That is your system registry.
If you want to play with it, be very, very carefule. If you want to get rid of AOL (likely loaded on your machine when you bought it but definately bad to have on it) try this.
Click on EDIT
Click FIND
Type in AOL
Click FIND or FIND NEXT
DON'T delete anything in your registry if you don't know what you are doing. Entries will show up under AOL that may not be related to AOL
And if you have AOL and use it, definately do not delete it.
There is one in every....2 million users - smart alec
Oh....could that be why I catch a glimpse of the Spyware icon every so often when I boot up? Because I didn't think I had Spyware. I just thought maybe son had put it there LOL. I do have Norton BTW.
Well .. if you want a person to "lighten up" - then accusations don't get you that result.
And .. your insinuation was that I was not with the program because I was supporting Norton and not some other software .. which is still stupid and juvenile.
I come here to be truthful - the fun will naturally follow - and I don't go around accusing people when I don't have any facts to support it.
Inferior product. Had nothing but problems with Norton as well. When I saw rebate forms online, I submitted them with all the proper documentation. Both were rejected by Norton. One of them was purchased online FROM NORTON. Never again in our household. And if you buy it thinking rebate, good luck!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Sorry .. I'm very happy with what I have.
Luckily for me, he's very patient (I know zilch about 'puters) and talked me through all kinds of techie-type things but none of them helped. Now I'm waiting for disks to fix it, to arrive-he said this will solve the problems.
I fully expect bats to fly out of the screen, or that the monitor will start spinning around by itself and displaying images of pea soup. I'm thinking maybe I need to call a priest to perform an exorcism.
I just got Norton, but any advice on better security would be most appreciated. I have been using Fire Fox for a web browser - it is great. (read about here of FR).
Nothing wrong with a bare metal restart but I've found since Win 98 if you watch what you install and use a registry fixer it's rarely necessary.
I've heard "Backup, backup, backup!" since DOS 3.1, and I'm still guilty of losing data-- it's easy to forget that stuff when you are preoccupied with other systems problems.
You can "import & export" cookies, bookmarks, and email addresses to another file or disc, using the options in IE or OE... in IE, it's under the "file" tab, in OE it gets tricky-- you have to open the "address" folder and then poke "file" to find it.
Just some random thoughts on computers, data, and misc. tech stuff
( and I'm just getting up to speed, my @#$^! old dog got me up a while ago to go out, saw a cat [ Hate kitty! HATE kitty, kill, kill! ] and I'm trying to get everybody calmed back down... )
Always save stuff you can't replace to some other storage device outside of your computer- floppy, tape, CD, an old spare hard drive, or another computer. As long as it's on something else in a readable form, somebody can get it back for you. I clone the drives on the home PC's simply because it's easy for me to do it, but you can get USB or firewire standalone drives to do the same thing.
If you have to do a bare-metal recovery ( wipe the drive & reinstall ) be aware that format is not enough-- you have to fdisk the drive-- write zeroes to the whole thing. Needless to say, your old data will be long gone.
When "bringing a new machine up from a bare-metal recovery," the first thing you wonder is, "how do I get on the web, and get all the updates and patches, without getting reinfected by malware."
Well, gee! That's a really nasty question- last time I did it, 4 viruses jumped right in the PC while I was on Microsoft's site updating the OS.
Get as much stuff as you can offline, first. MS will send you a free ( except for shipping ) update for the OS, which is the first line of defense.
Get AVG, MSantispyware, and Kerio's personal firewall via another computer and save to separate discs or drives. A Jump Drive ( RAM stick on a USB port ) is very handy for that.
Once you have antivirus, antispyware, and a firewall in place, you can get on the web, update all the anti stuff you just installed, rescan, and go from there. Yes, it's a pain. I hate the vermin who propagate malware- they should be horsewhipped in the public square.
The online scans are worth running from time to time-- they always have the latest definition tables, and sometimes catch stuff others miss.
Yes, Mr. Wizard, I do know that I can "altar" the Norton settings (sometimes praying does help with Norton, though), but how many people out there who use this product know that? Or, do they just scratch their heads over a missing image or a page that won't load and decide the website designer has screwed up? They move on to another site and take their business with them.
Did you sign up today just because you like Symantec, or do you work for them? If so, why don't you tell them to send me the rebate they cheated me out of?
Between you, your wife, the dog, ear drops, and the various maladies, I get a lot of laughs. Maybe we have a similar sense of humor, or maybe it's just me, but whatever the case, I find some of your comments to be hilarious. Were you in the FR 'room' on a voice/text program called FireTalk back in the Spring and Summer and on through the highly contentious Presidential election of 2000?
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