My email account was hijacked so if any of you received mail from me of a questionable nature I apologize. A curse on all spammers and their progeny!!

Hey Wendy:

Got one. AVG was vigilant.

Happened to me a couple of years ago. Someone got my email address and my ebay account. Of course both ebay and hotmail denied the possibility of the hacker getting the accompanying account through theirs but both accounts at the same time? Too coincidental. Anyway it was a real headache getting it all straightened out. Good luck to you Wendy.

Isn't McAfee awesome.

Ok. What's the best antivirus program out there?

Contact your buddies at PETA and see if they will help you out.

Saw that one coming from a mile away.

I think Gunnar's a bit miffed about something.

Ok. What's the best antivirus program out there?

I'm pretty happy with this: http://mythtv.org...

Wendy Wilson wrote:

Ok. What's the best antivirus program out there?

The latest versions of Norton/Symantec.

Abstinence is the best protection Wendy.

On the Windows side of my mac I use the free version of AVG. Mind you, I use the Windows side of my mac about once every two weeks. I am sure norton works pretty well. It might lock your computer down more than you'd like. On the mac side I use an AVG scanner that looks for suspicious sites when I am surfing the web.

Avast is supposed to be a good free solution. Microsoft's free spyware scanner is pretty good as well. I haven't used Norton or McAfee in a few years but I have always considered them a cure that is worse than the disease. I can't tell you how many times someone has asked me to look at their computer because it's unbearably slow and I fixed the problem by uninstalling McAfee. Personally I use nothing except a savvy approach to web surfing and the fact that I know I can nuke my computer and reformat if I have to.

AVG

AVG is absolutely horrible. I would recommend not installing that. The old Norton would slow down your computer. The new one has been rewritten and optimized by Symantec to hardly use any resources or cpu cycles.

This might be helpful:

http://anti-virus-softwar...views.com/

This might help a bit more:

http://us.norton.com/prod...titive.jsp

Sorry Larry but I have seen you sing Norton's praise far too often. It has caused me and countless others nothing but slow downs and problems. The only fixes I've had from Norton came after the fact telling me how to manually remove the problem, after I had been attacked. Even trying to remove everything that Norton attaches is a pain. Norton may be expensive but at least it is horrid.

AVG works silently in the background and updates everyday. It has worked flawlessly for me the past eight years and I would recommend it to anyone. That even includes AVG Free over Norton.

Sorry, but this is my area of expertise, and I have two experiences to convey.

(1) I installed AVG and it ate through my CVS tree, deleting software I wrote due to false positives. I had to restore my hard disk from a backup.

(2) I also handle product support constantly, and have had to deal with that piece of crap. It is not worth it. It does too many false positives and also does not truly detect the same stuff as the better anti-virus providers.

There are independent websites out there that prove the same.

I'm with Larry. AVG is bloated garbage that interferes with a ton of common applications.

Does the way one use their computer have any bearing on what virus software one uses? Example, one who writes software versus someone who just does light duty web-surfing.

I have had numerous experiences like Tucker with Norton. Somehow having to ask the virus softwares permission to use the computer was not a productive experience. My last experience with Norton and then Sophos (a corporate decision) is the straw that moved me to the Mac camp. No doubt Norton is improved but once bitten twice shy.

Norton was bought out by Symantec, it took a while, but the software was completely rewritten. It now does not have the same problems from the past. It is now fast and the most accurate. Do I have to pound that in to your head?

Apparently.

I like and use Trend Micro for environments like the workplace. It's easy to deploy, runs in the background and the dashboard lets me manage the push to the user's desktop very well. It does a very credible job of keeping out the bad stuff too. Most users here aren't going to need to deal with this stuff though.

For home I use Kaspersky AVG. It has one drawback...when scanning programs it can be very slow...especially on new installations. Sometimes, if it is a known product I am loading from a CD set from a known vendor (like Microsoft Office) I will disable the AV until the installation is ready to go look for updates. However, it is VERY thorough. I also make use of the Trusted Program feature which allows execution of certain products with minimal interference. This make it easy to run World of Warcraft..

It's added benefit is about $45 for renewal of the Internet Security package, which covers three computers. It's email scan is pretty darn good and easy to manage too.

I'm still a fan of no virus protection. I don't really care how good Norton is now, they have caused me too much pain in the past to ever get any of my money, especially now since it's apparently $40 a year instead of $59.99 a computer or whatever it used to be.

To be without an antivirus on your computer, if you are online, is like going to a whorehouse without a condom.....just my opinion.

Well, I've been doing it for 10+ years now, and I've had a few infections and helped other people with many more so I know what I'm getting into and it's still the way I feel.

I wish you continued luck! I've tried the non-antivirus route and crashed.

I used to hate Norton too. But starting with Norton AV 2009, it's a completely different animal.

I tend to prefer plain AV though, and don't use full system security suites.

For paid AV, Norton is what I'd pick today. Before that it was Kaspersky. Still a pretty good choice. They've had some issues with x64 platforms though.

Not a big AVG fan. I've seen it overwhelmed too many times.

If you're looking for free, I'd go with MSE before AVG.

If I was sure it was only me using my computer(s) I'd probably feel more comfortable without AV. Plus nowadays you can't count on viruses acting so obnoxiously that you'll notice right away.

The big risk is a low-key virus that you don't notice for awhile, while it monitors you.

Larry, what is your opinion of M$ Security Essentials?

I'm not Larry....but I'll chime in. Microsoft Security Essentials is better than not having anything, it's free, and updated regularly.

There are more sophisticated packages, and will do more exhaustive checks. If you are a relatively savvy computer user, MSE should be fine.

A lot of malware is installed through Social Engineering...or convincing you to install software through deception. Malware can slow down or destroy data on your computer, or get personal information from it.

The biggest issue will be exploits that install software without your knowledge, making your computer part of a botnet. They're tough to avoid and the scammers are getting really sneaky with the tricks they use to gain control of your computer. For them, it's about money, as they sell time on 'their' botnet to distribute SPAM, other Malware, or for use in various attacks such as Denial of Service attacks where they try to blackmail someone doing web commerce or put competition out of business. Botnets can also steal information from the computers they have infected, and that can lead to identity theft.

All this may seem complicated if you haven't been exposed to it...here's a decent explanation of what one is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet

Many AV scanners don't do a good job of inspecting for Bot malware, and there are specialized tools for searching for and removing Bot malware from your computer.

This is just a small subset of what can happen out there if you don't use some kind of protection, and pay at least some attention to what you are doing. Needless to say, if you go to websites that are not mainstream, you increase your chances of being infected.

I'll defer to what Tracy just said, since it seems pretty accurate and I haven't used the latest MS AV stuff.

Perhaps what MS provides is now better (I don't know), but the previous version (OneCare or whatever it was called) was a bloated pig that would bring a computer to its knees and probably wasn't very good at much of anything.

I only used Onecare once. I think the UI is similar, but the current engine has a really small footprint. You hardly notice it's there, even on a netbook.

It's detection rate is reportedly pretty good, as far as basic AV packages go.

The market is headed to collective prevention more than 'cure' though (blocking access to known hazards before infection) and the free products like AVG and MSE still lack those features, as far as I know.

I'm pretty sure the issue was an email that I shouldn't have opened. My concern was that someone had my password but I understand that these types of viruses don't require the password.

Some of them do lurk and keylog your passwords for various things. Some target gmail or yahoo mail and then log into your account and start spreading themselves to people in your address book.

Some grab your facebook password and spread through facebook messaging.

You might want to look up the virus you had to see what it's capable of. Or if in doubt, change your passwords anyway.

Yeah, if it's running on your computer while you're logged in to Facebook or Gmail or whatever it doesn't need your password at all.

Right. I have changed my passwords and run some heavy dute virus detection software. No viruses were found.

For the past two years i have been using Webroot Spy sweeper with Antivirus. In that time i have never had a virus that has not been caught and deleted. I know that my computer is clean due to the fact that i have it in at my work at least twice a year for a complete and thorough scan of anything and everything on it. I also purchased the software at Walmart while in Miles for my moms computer, and besides her HDD going bad, the program works great for her also. I have not seen any major system impact while the program is running scans. Its not as good as Kaspersky. But is good for my budget and use.

I've used AVG and Trend Micro and ended up getting a virus with both of them. I've switched to Norton (I used to use it and it slowed down my system) but the new version is great and I've had no problems. I asked the people at our local computer store (which is excellent) and they said to used Norton. I asked them the same question a few years ago and they said NOT to use Norton. I asked them why the change and they said that it is much improved and they are right. I'm with Larry all the way on this one.

GO LARRY! Norton 2011 FTW! I even have Symantec.com as my homepage. (Not even joking)

What's the best anti-virus software for Macs? We just got my daughter a Macbook and she won't be on the internet much but will have to be connected to use iTunes.

Warning, Macnut condescension ahead

What's the best anti-virus software for Macs? We just got my daughter a Macbook and she won't be on the internet much but will have to be connected to use iTunes.

I don't use virus software on any of my macs, so I couldn't tell you what is best. The likelihood of getting a virus through iTunes is pretty low.

Richard,

Have you ever transferred itunes from a pc to a mac? Is there a way to do it without using an external hard drive? Our modem only has one port so we can only have one computer at a time hooked up to the Internet. We don't have (and don't want) wi-fi at this point.

I have never done that, but here is an explanition of how it is done.

http://www.macworld.com/a...ws_mac.htm

Why don't you want wifi? And even without wifi you could get a router so you could plug in both of your computers.

We don't need wi-fi. We really don't want our daughter having 24 hour access to the Internet right now. I've also found an alternative method that uses an external hard drive which is probably a good thing to have for back-up purposes anyway.