AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye computer help please

There are quite a few. I've tried several, including Panda, and probably the best I've found is Sophos, developed by and for Oxford University. Great for a commercial installation but when I last checked the affordable domestic version didn't update automatically. I use Bullguard, which I find very effective and which is updated automatically. It cost me US$90 for three years, which is so cheap it's trivial.

Many anti-virus applications, including Bullguard, are anti-malware of any sort. Spyware is increasingly at least as serious as viruses, and the free ones such as AVG don't check for that. And they also usually include a firewall, to help prevent people hacking into your computer.

The only anti-malware software I hate and distrust and will not use is Norton. I have used it in the past and found it severely wanting. And well-nigh impossible to uninstall when I wanted to get rid of it.

One other thing about anti-malware software in general. It can only protect you from threats it knows about, and by definition the bad guys are always ahead of the game. Even with the best automatically updated protection software it's still perfectly possible to get malware onto your computer, if it happened before the protection software had been updated to deal with it. This can happen during normal internet access, or if you're not connected to the internet and plug in a flash drive that's come from an infected computer.

One professional office in San Pedro recently had at least 4 different viruses, because they gave me a flash drive with a file I needed that Bullguard found 38 instances of them on. They were running anti-malware software but they thought that protected them and they didn't do a periodic scan of the complete machine. So it is ESSENTIAL that as well as ongoing real-time protection you do a full system scan periodically, I'd say at least once a week. Make sure to scan all external drives (flash drives, hard drives, etc) that are ever connected to that machine. And always scan an external device you plug in before you start copying any files.

If you use Limewire beware that it's used by many bad guys to spread malware. After downloading anything scan it before doing anything with it, and scan your whole machine directly afterwards.

the link AC mentioned DID work. 85+ possible infections found since january 4th.

on my PC's that matter, we use Kaspersky Labs AV software. (to cover 3 pc's was $79.99/year for all 3). one can download it directly to your PC online.

i am loading it onto my ancient laptop today.

You can buy the full version of AVG plus firewall for $24 for 2 years. I love it and it doesn't take over my computer. I hate that! I also run Ad-aware and sometimes Spybot just for GP.

The important thing is to USE the software you have. Set it up on a schedule. I run a full scan everyday...without fail.
And I don't use Limewire!!!!!!! Cost me $150 to get my puter fixed after using that crap. That was the most expensive music I ever downloaded....LOL I just buy it now.

A lot of modern computers are shipped without disks, but instead include a second hard drive partition which includes a restore image allowing you to reinstall that way. Also, most give you a way to build restore CDs (or more likely DVDs these days) yourself from the restore image when you boot your computer for the first time.

In those cases you should create the backup CDs or DVDs at the earliest opportunity. If your hard disk crashes or becomes so infected you have to reformat then you've lost access to that partition.

6string said:

"If you can afford to, do this:
Save your data (personal things) to an external backup
Make sure you have all your apps and specialized software on CDs
Make sure you have your original Windows OS
Wipe the hard drive
Reninstall Windows OS
Run updates
Download the spyware/malware apps - run them
Reinstall personal and softwares
Run spyware/malware again
Install anti virus (purchase this!) run it
Stay up to date on Windows Critical updates
Stay up to date on spyware/malware and anti virus

Whew...have a few Belikins in there somewhere too."

Ok......Ive ordered and received the OS discs from Lenovo. I copied my personal document files to a flash drive. I'm now running malwarebytes to see what that does. How can I find out how to "Wipe the hard drive" and then re-install the OS? Is there anywhere I can find a tutorial? I have another desk top that I can use todownload and print. Thanks

bam, sailfish, you could try the software first. worst case it doesnt work. best case you dont have to reformat etc. its a pain you are going to have to get all your drivers etc.

AC

Read the instructions that came with your Lenovo disks and follow those. Only if there aren't any then do the following.

Put the Windows CD into the optical drive and shut down the computer, then restart it. It should boot from the CD.

If it doesn't you need to shut down again and restart, but this time press the "setup" key repeatedly as soon as the machine starts and before Windows does. The key varies from machine to machine and you'll have to experiment until you find it - it may be [Esc}, [F2] or almost any other key. It won't be [F1] or [F8] as they have standard meanings. Once you're in setup you need to follow the instructions carefully and change the boot order so that the CD/DVD/Optical drive precedes the hard disk.

Once you have the machine set so it will go to the optical drive before the hard disk then save your settings, make sure the Windows disk is in the drive, and restart the computer. This time it WILL start from the CD. Follow the instructions to reformat the primary partition. If there is more than one partition I recommend you to combine them into one large partition - there will be instructions to do this. Once you have one large partition, format it with the NTFS file system (will take ages). Then load Windows into your (sole) partition.

You will need device drivers for your computer to work, and once Windows installation has completed hopefully your Lenovo disks will include those. Otherwise you're getting into complicated territory and you'll probably need help.

ps - hey sandshaker sweetie...nice to see ya back on, girl!

Peter.....thanks for your detailed info. Thats exactly what i needed. I ran the software(malwarebytes)and so far everything looks to be running properly. I am still considering starting all over and completely cleaning this thing up. I have a friend that might be able to advise me today. thanks again