Question for Computer savy people on here. *Edit:Thanks!!*

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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:55 am

My husband and his friend decided tonight that we didn't need a antivirus on the computer, because they "interfere" with his(hubby) games. And that I should, "be careful as to what sites I go onto." The friend also said that having an antivirus up can cause DAMAGE to the computer? um. I never heard this, unless people had more than one A/V program thing.

But we had Avast, it worked GREAT. But his friend said it's not worth it... Well we've had Avast for a little over 5/6 months and we've gotten no viruses, nothing, we've had the warning that something TRIED to download onto the computer, but it aborted the connection.

So I'm asking, since I'm just the wife and I know nothing about computers <insert stupid drooling smiley> what the hell do I do? I'm bout to say f*** it and re-download it because frankly the uh safety of the computer is more important that a freakin' game. And, if you've had any success with FREE antivirus software, please send me the link?

I'm going to bed now, I'm going on 30+ hours of no sleep & my eyelids hurt and I'm sick. *cough. sneeze. sniffle. blah(upset stomach)* lol seriously though, Thanks.

-Me.

<hr>
Thank you guys so much, everything you all said was basically the exact thing I said to the hubby. And to my delight the AV is back onto the computer, apparently after I went to sleep last night he re-installed it because he didn't want to argue about it anymore.

And for the other computer thing, he is defiantly getting a new one when we get the money from social security that was for my dad, but since he um died it goes to me.. So after everything is paid and all that *good responsible adult crap* we're getting a new computer.

And about the AVG, eh, I don't really like that one, Avast works great, yea there's a few kinks(the warnings when there's nothing to warn against). but it works great for a free anti-virus.

Thanks again for the help peoples. Very Happy

On the baiting front, I've about got one wrapped up and am going to post it. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:08 am

I have been using computers since the 90s and, despite my ineptitude, I do have a LOT of experience. Now let me tell you, I have used just about every anti-virus program in existence, and they've all had some or other inadequacy. The only one that I can rate as perfect is Avast. I still use it to this day. It's free and it's better than most paid ones.

It does hog your processor though, so I can see how your husband can be pissed. But it is absolutely worth it.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

omgwtf09 wrote:

My husband and his friend decided tonight that we didn't need a antivirus on the computer

Quote:

And, if you've had any success with FREE antivirus software, please send me the link?

I have had a good experience with Comodo AV/Firewall. (Free)

http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:15 am

Actually, now that I think on it, I also use Comodo (and have had so little trouble with it, I'd forgotten it's there)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:13 am

How about hubby buys his own computer for gaming. That's what I would tell mine, except he doesn't play the games.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:05 pm

Hi folks,

i completely agree with NickTheCop. Avast is great and using the internet without av-software and personal firewall is like waving a stars and stripes banner in taliban headquarters-simply deadly. I have av-software on all my machines, including my gaming machine and i have no probs with it.

BOFH

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:27 pm

I just had the laptop of a "friend" dumped on me this weekend. It had Norton installed, and supposedly it was even updated, but Norton has deteriorated over the years anyway, and the teenage son is into gaming sites (no porn, no gambling anywhere in the history, which was not erased).

On first pass with malwarebytes (which is very effective for the rogue antivirus that I knew the computer was infected with), I found a combination of really obnoxious spyware, over 15 worms and trojans, 56 infected files (including a couple of norton files), over 100 registry keys infected. I did what I could, removed Norton, then started again with AVAST. So far I have found 3 rootkits and a handful of other viruses that were hidden thanks to the rootkits. It has taken several hours and a huge headache. I am now waiting for their windows disks because I will have to do some repairs or a clean install, not sure yet. If I ever get it running and AVAST clears it, I will do another check with a third AV to be safe.

If your husband thinks he can get away without an AV on any computer that EVER goes online, especially to gaming sites, he is nuts. I would either demand that AV be reinstalled, or he needs to get his own computer that is NOT networked to yours--and no jump drives from one to the other either.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Virus protection is essential, I've used Avast before, it's great, as is the free AVG anti virus, tell hubby he wont have to worry about playing his games if you get a virus, becuase the computer could be totally screwed by then.

Any site you go to could have hidden crap installed on the site without the webmasters knowledge, even sites you think are safe, it's just waiting to download itself to your computer when you visit, ignore hubby, install it again, imagine getting hit by a nice keylogger, which takes all your online passwords, including any bank logins you might use.

So youR computer gets a virus/keyloggers or whatever, hubby wants to play his games but can't because the computer is now a zombie machine taken over by a botmaster due to stuff that downloaded to your machine, then ask him how slow the computer is when playing games (if it's still working).

So of hubby trundles to buy a new computer replacement, only to find your bank account has been emptied due to giving away your bank login details to the keylogger, happy days, not.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:44 pm

If you can only afford 1 pc and your husband doesn't like the AV you can:

1) Desactivate the AV prog (still dangerous while playing online games)
2) Get Deepfreeze (45USD/34€) and protect your System partition. You should save personal data on another partition or USB stick/disk.

As stated by others here I still think a good AV program is essential...

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:20 pm

Maybe the interference with the games is not processorwise but it's blocking the connection for online play? In that case it should be possible to simply add an exception for that particular game...

I use Avast myself and while it's a great program I do get annoyed sometimes by the amount of fake positives (false alarms) it has. One example is some sort of system-file on my iPod, resulting in all sorts of alarm-bells going of whenever i plug it in... (that stopped a few updates ago though..)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:06 pm

Its possible to run a computer connected to the internet without an A/V. The question is how many seconds it would be before the computer was infected. A good hardware and software firewall would change my question to minutes or even hours. Good luck.

419Eater is my life Joined: 30 May 2009 Posts: 298

bohigal wrote:

How about hubby buys his own computer for gaming. That's what I would tell mine, except he doesn't play the games.

I agree with this. I'd tell my husband to do that, except I'm not married. Also I'm a straight guy.

Trophy Videos · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:24 pm

Tell your husband that his "friend" is a complete idiot. The "friend" seems to be the problem here, and hubby's priorities seem to be leaning the wrong way here, toward the moron and away from you.
The AV stays, or you go...then book a hotel room. Wait for the begging....
Or just take the whip out of the closet, and give him a good female beating. Wink

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:55 pm

I've been running the Comodo AV/Firewall for several years now and my system (XP Home) has remained clean (with an occasional "Spybot" scan). Perhaps you might consider trading in your husband, or he might consider trading in his friend.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:59 pm

If you need any proof on what viruses can do to a computer there are plenty of videos out there on YT to show Mr. Hubby of what they're capable of.

I've always used Avast on every computer I've used and built for others. I have never had a compromise with it and it has caught a number of infected files before they had the chance to ruin my computer.

419Eater is my life Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 435

There was about a 2 month period when there was absolutely no AV program running on our computer. Not a single virus. The question you have to ask yourself when you get a virus is: "What kind of sites was I visiting?"

Get Firefox 3.5 with the add-ons Adblock Plus and NoScript, that's all the virus protection I've ever needed, in addition to knowing how to identify sites as fishy before even clicking on them. A site with the title "FREE XP PROFESSIONAL CRACKS AND KEYGENS" is probably a site you don't want to click on. Also, don't use Limewire, and don't run .exe files you get in email attachments.

Viruses aren't just knocking at your computer's door 24/7 as some would have you believe. True, you should have an AV program as a backup, but they don't need to be running all the time, either. I'd say only while surfing just to be absolutely safe, but if you're just going to Gmail, Facebook, etc, then there is no reason.

Scam Patroller wrote:

Any site you go to could have hidden crap installed on the site without the webmasters knowledge, even sites you think are safe, it's just waiting to download itself to your computer when you visit, ignore hubby, install it again, imagine getting hit by a nice keylogger, which takes all your online passwords, including any bank logins you might use.

^^ Though I've never heard this before. So I guess it's all down to your own preferences, whatever makes you feel the safest.

I don't mean to come off as sounding rude, it's just that all this "virus scare" kind of gets on my nerves sometimes. Wink

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:06 pm

It could be the size of the ram that is hindering as well. You need 2MB ram at least from my experience to run any games, and still have anti-everything programmes running.

Check and increase the ram chip size and see if that improves his gaming experience while still running avast.

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:32 am

Sorry Reverse, have to agree with Scam Patroller here. You have simply been lucky.

I manage the website for the nonprofit animal shelter I work at--obviously a reliable, non-suspicious site. A few months ago, I had problems uploading and started going back and forth with my host's tech support. They gave advice which temporarily worked, then it got screwed up again. A few days later, a supporter called the shelter, saying something weird happened when she googled us and tried to go to our site--she got a screen saying her computer was infected. She was suspicious and backed out right away, but I got to sort the mess out.

Turns out a hacker had gotten into my host's system through a weak link (basically an easy to crack website or phished password - not mine of course) Then through a security hole in the host's system, they updated literally thousands of legitimate sites hosted by this company to redirect to WinAntivirus--a rogue antivirus (virus posing as an antivirus) whenever a user tried to enter from a major search engine. When you typed in the site name directly, everything was normal, effectively delaying the detection of the issue. My host didn't know what was going on until I tracked it down and told tech support (doesn't give me too many warm fuzzies about them)!

They attacked other hosts, too--hundreds of thousands of sites were impacted, and many more users ended up infected. It was a headache to fix, and the host had to upgrade on their end, but while this was all going on, all of these "good" sites were unsafe.

This kind of thing happens all the time.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 1

Avast, is the best , Five years and no problems..
Question?
Have you had no PROBLEMS with husband in 5 years lol
Stay with Avast,

Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 68

If you don't mind a nag screen once a day Avira is excellent. It's free and it's detection rates surpass most of the "paid for" solutions. It is also very light on your system, you hardly notice its there.

AV software is essential even Facebook got infected a few months back. Koobface hit a stack of Facebook users recently compromising their machines.

419Eater is my life Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 445

I don't use an anti-virus, but I have ZoneAlarm Pro installed. Its been great for me. I'll be prompted if any new programs / files are requesting for internet access or if any files are trying to access other files or services without my knowledge. (example, a virus / trojan / etc in a .tmp file trying to add itself to the registry)

419Eater is my life Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 435

@Dorothy: No need to apologize, I wasn't really expecting anyone to agree with me. Razz

Like I said, I hadn't heard of that sort of thing (or perhaps I had, and didn't think anything of it). I will keep that in mind.

Perhaps my view on this sort of thing is a bit skewed, since the only problems with our past computers were "operator error": people doing things they shouldn't, or just plain not thinking. Our last computer had to be trashed because my sister attempted to plug the headphones in...and fried the motherboard Shocked

Okay, enough off topic talk from me Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Aug 2009 Posts: 49

theres a lot of "decent" AV programs out there. most of them dont pick up everything, so I recommend keeping malwarebytes on your system. right now that is just about the best program out there (and its free).

if you ever get any sort of infection or feel that you may have one. run malwarebytes and also get a handy program called combofix. combofix is much better at removing rootkits.

to get it, goto:
download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:12 pm

don't forget; The experience of a user also indicates if an AV is good or not.
For example, if someone having problem with AVG and none with Norton he whill say Norton is better,

and we all know that isn't true
(yes i am using AVG Wink

)

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