[dabigkahuna]

My nephew just arrived for duty (Marines) in Hawaii and he needs me
to help get his computer working properly. Right now all I know is he
says it is very slow and he thinks he has a trojan or virus.

I
have Zone Alarm security suite on my computer, but I assume that is for
one computer. So I need to get some stuff to protect his computer from
further problems as well as find and destroy anything that may already
be there. Right now I'm looking for free stuff to start since he needs
to keep a tight budget for awhile.

I've thinking of the free AVG
(seems to me there is another free one that many recommend but the name
escapes me). Maybe the free Zone Alarm for a firewall?

Any suggestions for things I can download to clean his system
will be appreciated. I just need to get things fixed as fast as I can.

I'm sure he has XP on his system. If not, then it would probably be 98. I hope to ge ahold of it later today or this weekend.

[mphenterprises]

Hi DBK. Since your situation is relationed to security, I have moved this Discussion from the Windows Community into the Privacy & Security Community.

Now, since security is one of the most important aspects of maintaining your computer, you are going to get a host of suggestions from many of our members. There are two main general themes within this Forum:

- Free applications perform as good or out-perform paid applications

- The layered (or tiered approach as I like to call it) is better than relying on one application



Other than that, before anyone can offer you any suggestions, you should really verify what Operating System your nephew has on his computer. There is a big difference between Windows 98 and Windows XP.

[lilxkid24]

If he is running xp heres a good list of free protection.

Antivirus- you can pick avast or avg, there both free
antispyware- superantispyware, avg antispyware, lavasoft 2007, spybot search and destroy
firewall- zone alarm, commodo
spyware preventer- spywareblaster

All those are free but remember only to have 1 running antivirus and 1 running antispyware program and firewall. Its ok to have more than 1 antispyware, just don't have them running at same time because they can conflict.

[coastie65]

Lavasoft 2007 is good for a redundant anti spyware app, it is passive and does not actively monitor the system. I do a scan with this after I've scanned with the others to make sure nothing was missed. I have Webroot ( only free because it came with the ISP) and AVG anti spyware. I have AVG anti Virus as well. (free). If the machine is running XP SP2, then you have a firewall. As has been stated, security is very big issue, and there are a number of good free solutions and I'm sure you will get a whole lot of good suggestions. coastie65

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi Dabigkahuna :
My Recommendations AND philosophy concerning computer security is contained in the "Document"

I created in this Forum located at forums.pcworld.com/docs/DOC-1141|d-1141 ; the "Philosophy"

portion MAY apply to you !? I definitely recommend you do NOT put Ad-Aware 2007 on his computer

and I used to advise on the Lavasoft Ad-aware Support Forums .

IF your nephew has NOT had any functioning security for quite a while AND has been accessing

the internet on a frequent basic during that time, the ONLY "solution" MAY be to reformat the computer;

I saw a Malware Expert recommend that course of action recently because he felt the computer was

beyond being "cleaned" by security-oriented programs .

[coastie65]

Hi spiritwind, that is one reason why I'm reevaluating keeping it on here as it is "passive". It will find stuff if YOU run it. I have two that are active, that have to be shut off if I install anything. Both are set to do periodic scans as well as my anti virus. I stopped short of the drastic solution to ridding your machine of virus's. But reformating, and reinstalling and updating everything will definately take care of a virus or trojan problem, but sure is a pain. coastie65

[Number3124]

I've heard that you should never have more than one AV program running at
once, but I've never heard that you shouldn't have more than one ASW
program running at once.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Number. You can have as many security applications as your heart desires. However, as has already been mentioned, you should only have one security application providing real-time protection. That would be only one anti-virus, one anti-spyware, and one firewall. Having more than one of this providing real-time protection can cause conflicts.

Additionally, you should only have one firewall on your computer. Using more than one can cause a bottleneck, blocking just about everything.

[piyushsingh]

getting viruses out of an already infected system can be tough when some dirty ones dont allow an AV to be installed, boot time scan will be efffective in that case.

[dabigkahuna]

I'm still waiting to get details from him. All I know is that he has a "hand me down" computer from family. His father periodically upgrades and passes his old computer down to one of his kids. Occasionally he'll buy them a new one. I just don't know what hand me down he got yet!

[dabigkahuna]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I wouldn't think he had no protection, but I'll have to see. I also thought I'd use his computer to visit the Trend micro site for their online scan.



But what do you mean by "boot time scan"?



I'm hoping this doesn't come down to a format and reinstall - I don't know if he brought the disks, especially since it is a hand me down computer. I did mention to his father to bring them, but I don't know if his son came from "home" or from another location yet.

But speaking of formatting, etc, I've been thinking of doing that with my computer as well (or possibly buying a bigger hard drive since mine is only 30 GB and 5400 rpm). But my XP system came with XP before Service Pack 2. Am I correct that I would just use the original disks and then online it would upgrade to SP2? Or I can download the file and put it on a CD or something in advance rather than have to go online to update after starting over?

[piyushsingh]

boot time scan has nothing to do with format. so chill.
it is as if u r scanning ur HDD on another PC without running an OS from it.Certain viruses become active when OS loads and prevent from cleaning or installing files etc . when u run a boot time scan of HDD from some other bootable device then there is no chance of viruses in the drive to get active and pose a problem . but i think it requires a stand-alone virus scanner for this. Someone else who has actually performed this can explain better.

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi :



I have no idea if the antiVIRUS component of a "Security Suite" has boot-time Scan capabilities, but

do know the FREE Avast Antivirus Home Edition ( www.avast.com ) that I frequently recommend

here AND on the PC Mag Forums ( "thercf" ) has that capability within its programming . Best to stop

thinking in terms of "viruses", since they are very few, if any nowadays, and think in terms of "malware" .

[piyushsingh]

ya u r correct . I have also personally used avast boot time scan a couple of times and it had helped.
but what can be done in a infected PC that doesnt allow any AV to be installed. boot time scan with some standalone virus scanners is a way out or to get the specific virus stingers.
One specific example that i remember. a virus named W32.brontok is common at my college , now what this thing does is it will disable regedit, taskmanager, any AV installations,folder options any many other things.what i did was to get a specific washer for this when after some digging i discovered the name of this one.
can someone recommend anything else that could help in such a situation.
thanx

[lilxkid24]

http://www.mycert.or...104.032006.html

that should get rid of w32 virus

[piyushsingh]

thanx for ur concern but i dont have my system infected with any virus.I just gave a past example .

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi Piyushsingh :

In the case you just mentioned, the person would go to a Malware-fighting Support Forum where there

are experienced, trained, certified, Volunteer Experts who would ask the person seeking assistance to

Post Logs from Analysis-type programs such as HijackThis & ComboFix ; based on what those Logs

reveal , the Expert would then recommend using specialty designed programs . An Example of

"Beginning Instructions" on a Forum like this is at :

forums.maddoktor2.com/index.php?showtopic=9590 .