PC Security - Spyware, Adware, and Virus Information - Page 9 - EvBoard

Diamon · 04-16-2006, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

First off, Windows has a tendency to degrade its self in a timeframe of 6-12 months.

Sorry but wrong. Windows does suffer from dll rot which occurs when you install a program that uses a different version of a dll you already have on your system. The new program often installs the dll without even checking to see if the dll already exists on your system, and without checking that if it does exist if the version it is installing newer or older than it. So what happens is the new programs downgrade the dll causing possible incompatabilities with other apps that require the newer version. But this happens from installing additional software.

The other thing that will cause worse performance as time goes on is disk fragmentation which NTFS (what Win2K & XP use) is much better than FAT was but it's not as good as it could be. The thing that causes disk fragmentation is creating, moving and deleting files, the more and the larger the worse fragmentation will be. But this is not something that just happens automagically as windows ages.

If you do a clean install of windows (and it's in no way compromised by worms, viruses, trojans, malware) and leave it sit untouched for 5 years it would be just as snappy as the day you install it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

Every time you move, copy, or delete a file, it leaves short cuts all over the place that the system can't seem to help but try to find these files without you even knowing it. Thus helping to "bogg" down your performance.

Huh? Like I said fragmentation is a problem but I'm not sure I'd describe that as leaving shortcuts all over the place unless you're taling about the actual addresses to the file fragments itself but in that case it's not a shortcut to the file but the address of the next segment of the file when it's non contiguous.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

Me Personally, I reinstall windows every 6-12 months. (especially if I have been installing and uninstalling a lot of programs)

When I used windows I reinstalled at least once a year and sometimes more often, but then again I'm the type of person that usually was installing and uninstalling a bunch of software and it was fighting the dll rot that I mentioned above.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

Norton System works, will help you clean your registry, Defrag your harddrive correctly, if you have professional it will include ghost for backups.

And Norton is also infamous for burning CPU cycles at least with earlier versions. It used to at least do silly things like if you had a monitor set up to run once a day to see if the drive was too fragmented it would check every 30 seconds to see if it had been a day yet. Add additional monitors and it just got outright ridiculous to have it running all the time because of all the hits checking to see if it was time to run something that was only supposed to be run infrequently. Regmon and filemon from www.sysinternals.com did a very good job of illumnating the problem, at least it did back when I last ran Norton, which was probably on WinNT 4.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

System restore is garbage, but you can't turn it off because it will throw a fit. I would recommend setting it to 1%.

I'd hardly call it garbage, but yes by the time you add things like System Restore, Temporary Internet Files, and the Recycle Bin together you can find that a great deal of your disk is being tied up storing things that you probably don't need anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

If your serious about saving your data, invest the money in somthing like Norton Ghost. Store this image of your Harddrive on a DVD or another drive if possible.

System Restore has nothing to do with saving data, it protects key system executables and dlls. Ghost is great for what it is, a means to make an image of an entire drive, but doing so is prohibitively time consuming. Because of the time it takes to image the drive most users wont do it regularly which makes it worthless if you're using it as your sole means of keeping your system backed up. To be honest a good strategy would be using Ghost to make an intial image and periodic (perhaps quarterly) backups to provide a restore point in case of a catastrophic failure. Then use System Restore to create checkpoints before you install any software so that you can roll them back out if they hose any other apps. Then for data keeps things segregated into at minimum a separate data directory, possibly even hosted on another drive, that is regularly backed up which can be done with your favorited CD writing software (or evein the windows built-in).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

Now, I used to Use Internet Explorer. But I also had to use Norton Anti-Virus, lavasoft Ad-Aware, and Panicware Pop-up Stopper. This is how I kept my computer clean.(this was also really really annoying.)

For the Last 4 months I have been using Mozzilla FireFox 1.5. Since then I haven't had to use my pop-up stopper, Ad-Aware, and NAV hasn't told me that anything is trying to attack my system.

I would have to say that about 98% of all Viruses, Spyware, Worms, and Tojan Horses are desigined for MS Windows Internet Explorer. Thus explaining why NAV as kept quiet.

Sorry gain, but while there are lots of viruses that use IE exploits there are also those that use IM programs, e-mail, holes in windows default services and other things to propogate themselves. Virus scan and a firewall are pretty much bare minimums these days, anti-spiware/malware scanners are still a good idea for all users regardless of what browser they use.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

I'm going to leave everybody with some good browsing tips. Stay away from filesharing sites, and Porn Sites because this is where the majority of these little bastards are hiding.

Before you close your browser, go to a general search site IE: Yahoo, MSN, Google. Clear your Tempory Internet Files, Cookies, and history. Some malicious files will remain dormant in your caches, untill a later date. Cookies are good if they are used correctly. (this site uses them to help your browser remember where you are in your journey) but other sites can use them to track how, where, when, what, and why you were online. This is why I clear my cookies.

Having multiple protection programs running in the back ground will noticably slow your computer because they are scanning every single file passing through. IE, NAV, McAfee, Ad-Aware, and so forth. (this pulls from your processor power)

IE is not a background program
NAV and McAfree (anti-virus I assume you mean) do the same thing and you should never run two real-time virus scanners at the same time.
Ad-Aware while I believe there is a real-time component to it, is not a real-time scanning program in it's free version.

The two things every user should have running are anti-virus and a firewall. One scans files, the other watches tcp requests, they don't monitor the same things and as such don't step on one anothers toes. Apps that you run periodically (Ad-Aware, Spybot) don't suck up any processor power just by having them on disk and not running.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

Do the simple thing. Make sure Windows is updated, Use FireFox, and keep a Anti-Virus Handy for scanning files comming across the network, and email.

A few things to add would be a firewall (or at least make sure you're behind a NAT router) and just some comments about safe browsing/computer use. Be suspicious of any exe that is not downloaded directly from a reputable site (preferrably the programs publisher). No you're not going to see Anna Kournikova naked, you're just going to infect your machine. How you browse is a bigger factor than what you browse.

RedRooster · 04-16-2006, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeloader Joe

whats that thing called?? oh yea, Temporary Internet Files. Isn't that where your computer DOWNLOADS webpages for cacheing?

hmmm....interesting.

I won't use red no more. But thanks for your input.

You've seen a lot of html, jpeg, and gif files containing viruses? I haven't.

Freeloader Joe · 04-17-2006, 04:36 AM

Sorry I'm a little rusty on my windows. I've been spending 12 hours a day digging through Unix.

but hey, lets keep up the good work.

Leanne · 04-30-2006, 05:28 AM

Hey, I thought best not to start a new thread. But, with my internet package I get PC Duard free for like a month. But Ive been having problems with it and it's always "Not Responding" and stuff. So I aint installed it again. But my computer keeps saying I have virus threats or something and things like that but I don't know what to do. I have Ad-Adwar personal which is good but nmothign for viruses. Any suggestions? I don't want my comp breaking, yet again.
Also, I keep getting this coming up (see attachment) and I don't know how to get rid of it......

RedRooster · 04-30-2006, 09:57 AM

Well the first post contains a few links to anti virus programs. A few of them a free too. Give AVG a try and see if it finds anything.

I find it weird that you get a warning like that in safe mode. It mentions getting a antimalware program and not an anti virus one. Scan your PC for viruses and see if you still get that message. If you do we'll look at something else.

«Vampire» · 04-30-2006, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leanne

Hey, I thought best not to start a new thread. But, with my internet package I get PC Duard free for like a month. But Ive been having problems with it and it's always "Not Responding" and stuff. So I aint installed it again. But my computer keeps saying I have virus threats or something and things like that but I don't know what to do. I have Ad-Adwar personal which is good but nmothign for viruses. Any suggestions? I don't want my comp breaking, yet again.
Also, I keep getting this coming up (see attachment) and I don't know how to get rid of it......

That's pretty much BS. Has the typical look of adware.
Run AdAware and SpyBot and see what gets cleaned out. (just google them, easy to find)
And if you have a legal version of Windows XP installed on your computer,
go get the new Windows Defender Beta 2, install it and run it.
You can't have too many safeguards for spyware! That crap will eat up your computer!!!

Leanne · 04-30-2006, 02:04 PM

I've done scans with both AdAware and Spybot and removed the things it came up with or whatever, but that things still keeps coming up.....

RedRooster · 04-30-2006, 02:12 PM

Both programs were updated before you scanned with them? You've done a virus scan too?

If you've done all this one thing we can do is check out a log from HijackThis. Get the program here: http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/ Then follow this instructions:

When you install Hijackthis, put it in e.g. C:\Program Files\HJT, NOT in Temp and NOT on your Desktop!
Otherwise HJT can NOT make backups of the 'fixes', in case you want to UNDO a fix!

Run Hijackthis.
Click on Do a system scan and save a logfile.
This will open a file hijackthis.log in Notepad (or some other text-editor).
Click on File, then on Save As ..., change the filename from hijackthis.log into hijackthis.txt, and click Save.

Then post again and add that log has an attachement to your post. If you can just post what's in the log in your post. We might be able to find the source of your problem that way.

Leanne · 05-01-2006, 05:04 AM

I have updated all the ones I can and scanned and removed everything it came up with. AVG detected 2 viruses and I clicked "Heal" for them cause I didnt know whether to do that or the Vault thing. Anyways yeah, the attatched things are what my computer has come up with recently. The worm thing just now, is this real or fake and how do I get rid of it :S I'm going to do the HiJack thing in a mo. I really need to buy somehting I think...

RedRooster · 05-01-2006, 06:54 AM

You don't have to buy anything if you use the free programs listed on the first page. Those programs are all good even if they are free.

04-30-2006, 02:04 PM	#87 (permalink)
Leanne Gay Monkey Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: England Age: 17 Posts: 2,064 Points: 4,573.96 Bank: 154,014.67 Total Points: 158,588.63 Donate	I've done scans with both AdAware and Spybot and removed the things it came up with or whatever, but that things still keeps coming up..... __________________

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04-30-2006, 09:57 AM	#85 (permalink)
RedRooster Fledgling Post Monkey Join Date: Dec 2003 Age: 26 Posts: 1,348 Points: 3,477.91 Bank: 0.00 Total Points: 3,477.91 Donate	Well the first post contains a few links to anti virus programs. A few of them a free too. Give AVG a try and see if it finds anything. I find it weird that you get a warning like that in safe mode. It mentions getting a antimalware program and not an anti virus one. Scan your PC for viruses and see if you still get that message. If you do we'll look at something else.

04-30-2006, 02:12 PM	#88 (permalink)
RedRooster Fledgling Post Monkey Join Date: Dec 2003 Age: 26 Posts: 1,348 Points: 3,477.91 Bank: 0.00 Total Points: 3,477.91 Donate	Both programs were updated before you scanned with them? You've done a virus scan too? If you've done all this one thing we can do is check out a log from HijackThis. Get the program here: http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/ Then follow this instructions: When you install Hijackthis, put it in e.g. C:\Program Files\HJT, NOT in Temp and NOT on your Desktop! Otherwise HJT can NOT make backups of the 'fixes', in case you want to UNDO a fix! Run Hijackthis. Click on Do a system scan and save a logfile. This will open a file hijackthis.log in Notepad (or some other text-editor). Click on File, then on Save As ..., change the filename from hijackthis.log into hijackthis.txt, and click Save. Then post again and add that log has an attachement to your post. If you can just post what's in the log in your post. We might be able to find the source of your problem that way.

05-01-2006, 06:54 AM	#90 (permalink)
RedRooster Fledgling Post Monkey Join Date: Dec 2003 Age: 26 Posts: 1,348 Points: 3,477.91 Bank: 0.00 Total Points: 3,477.91 Donate	You don't have to buy anything if you use the free programs listed on the first page. Those programs are all good even if they are free.

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