All of what I mentioned is free, and for the record, I personally would never pay AOL for anything. I've heard too many horror stories about how they don't stop billing you when you cancel service with them. They are also heavily ad based and don't give any better protection than you can get free. I've never heard of Spyware Begone but AVG is pretty good.

What I don't get is if AOL is giving you an "active virus shield" why you have AVG? As I said AVG can be had free and you should NEVER have more than one antivirus program installed. Maybe they're just packaging AVG with their ISP if that's what your connection is. Wouldn't surprise me that they'd try and make that look like a great deal.

Anyway, as long as you have some kind of protection and it's keeping the junk away, better than nothing. I did help a friend once though that had Trend Micro AV/Firewall and a Registry Pro registry cleaner. He had it all paid for and updated but had lots of junk it wasn't catching.

I uninstalled it all after verifying myself that it's manual scans weren't helping and installed all the above I mentioned and caught over 200 items it had missed. He now uses that same set of freeware on the new rig I built for him and even the old email address he had that I advised him not to and still he's had no more problems.

Don't be fooled into thinking a good set of security progs is all it takes though. Once you start downloading stuff you leave yourself vulnerable to what you allow on your system. The one type of security progs that remain pay only are dedicated anti-trojan software.

Trojans are some of the nastiest bugs you can get. It often takes a specific tool written just for each bad trojan to get rid of them and if it's a complex bug it can take a while for such a tool to be written. Some of the worst trojans are called "polymorphic". These are rare but highly advanced trojans that can change code with each server mutating into thousands or even millions of states making them very hard to detect.

Really ? I downloaded AVG myself just in case AOL avs doesn´t catch something.

Check out Spyware Begone,it´s also a good progy.

I once got Trojan Downloader.I have read something about it that he " keeps the gates opened " letting hundreds of other Trojans on my PC.
Is this what Trojan Downloader does ?

P.S. Why in gods name do people make Trojans ?!?!?!?!
Get a life you scumbags ! Do not make viruses ! :mad:

I think I just found out why AOL's "Active Virus Shield" is not conflicting with AVG, it no longer exists, LOL: http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp? Smart of you to install AVG then. Just don't get sucked into McAfee. Avast or AVG are probably better protection and free.

Trojan Downloader does indeed do what you asked and big names such as Symantec and others have issued alerts about it. If you are using a p2p service and\or surfing porn sites, etc, that is likely how you got it.

I agree that the ones that write such crap are scum. You never can tell if it's someone just playing pranks, someone paid by those trying to push their ads, or some lunatics thinking they can save the world from sin by putting little "booby" traps in certain places.

We'll never be totally rid of them, but we can to some degree minimize their success by taking precautions. The more that don't know how to protect themselves the easier it is for them.

Indeed.My worst nightmare was when I first got Trojan Downloader and few minutes after that I got hundred of pop-ups and those little anoying messages in my bottom right corner of my desktop " Threat detected ! " .Omg I was scanning and scanning and no matter what I did more and more of those came onto my PC.But,that was a year ago when I had nothing that could protect my data.;)

Just a second off the topic here,that movie with Angelina Jolie and that guy(forgot his name) where they compete who will do " nastier sh** " is just utter bull****.I mean,leave the half of the city without light/electricity,messing with bank accounts......those hard core hackers/or any other possible threat.should be cought by police and higher authority,taken to interogation room and there beat the crap out of them.

Can´t people just leave normally,make money as other people do ?
What´s the point in hacking ? If I want a money I´ll organise a proffessional bank robbery as in movie " Heat "(never going to do that).:nodding:

And I totally agree with the thing you said:
I just feel sorry for people ,like my dad,who doesn´t have a clue about PC and when he turns it on,he sees 100 incoming viruses and dies out of a heart attack.:rofl:

I am now using Kaspersky Internet Security Suite which is awesome IMO. I was looking for a good 3 in 1 (Anti Virus, Anti Spyware and Firewall) few weeks ago and a friend suggested Kaspersky. I haven't get any kind of virus or spyware since I installed it. I really suggest it to anybody looking to improve their security..
Unfortunately it's not free but there's a 30 days trial (which I am still using.. only 1 week left though :( ) and it's a bit annoying at first when it asks for permission for every program trying to access the internet.

OK this thread has gotten derailed a bit, but I'd like to address a few things.

Done. They come up clean.

The only ones that can interfere with gaming are those that use real-time protection. Firewalls are an example of this type of thing, because they are constantly active, and may block key ports needed for online gaming unless you make a specific exception rule.
For all other programs you can choose to enable or disable real-time protection, but it's very important to keep it enabled for your main anti-virus program, such as Avast! or AVG.
Using multiple programs to scan for malware is not a bad thing, because each specializes in certain areas. Avast! is for the prevention and removal of viruses. Ad-Aware and Spybot for prevention and removal of spyware/adware. Spywareblaster takes measures to protect your browser(s) from things like dangerous websites (that perform drive-by downloads, for instance), tracking cookies, and ActiveX controls. CCleaner and Hijackthis are special tools used for a very specific purpose. What CCleaner does is instantly cleans up various stuff that is no longer needed or could be used to collect personal information about you: memory dumps, old logs and broken registry entries or files from programs that are no longer installed, and can clear MRU lists, browsing history and other temporary files. Lastly, Hijackthis is a tool mostly used to generate a log file listing such things as active processes and services so that you can immediately check for suspicious stuff, or upload it to a tech forum like the one at spywareinfo.com so that they can analyze it and assist you. Only attempt to remove something with it if you are instructed to do so by a professional or are an expert yourself.

I have 156 GB of data on one of my hard drives alone, including some important documents I've saved and transferred to various computers for more than a decade. So yes, it's important to me, and it's worth protecting.

No legit program could do such thing. At worst, using multiple anti-virus programs with active scanning could cause a resource conflict and you would occasionally get errors and have to reboot until you resolved the issue.

Yes, I've heard good things about Kaspersky, and although it offers good varied protection, but no program can do everything all at once, and to be safe it can still help to do an occasional scan with Spybot: Search and Destroy, or an online scan for viruses with Trend HouseCall.

Just be sure that whatever program(s) you use are from a reputable source. This site has a great list of known rogue anti-virus programs and other fraudulent products and websites. Everyone should see this: Spyware Warrior: Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites

SpyBot also does some trojan and worm checking, though of course not as thoroughly as dedicated anti trojan programs. The main things that keep me from not recommending Kaspersky are the testimonials I've heard of software conflicts and being a bit harder to understand for beginners than some aside from no free version for extended trial purposes or those on a budget. Avast and AVG are easy to use, have minimal intrusion, and of course can be had free.

WiC, I read your PM, don't worry about the sig unless FF tells you it's too big. Looks pretty good btw. Don't worry about me offering help either, though I'm not sure if you were joking about that. I offer help to anyone whom asks if I can as long as they respect others on the forum. It's something more out of doing my part to keep the net communities I visit in the know rather than vulnerable and is in no way anything personal. The more we help one another the less a a feeeding frenzy for those writing bugs.

Anyways, back to the subject at hand. I just want to say one more thing about AV use. Some people I've met choose to use what they feel is one of the better AV progs in yet another way. Rather than buying one that cannot be had free they use their automated free online scan service regularly. I must say this is really a bad idea and tempting fate. It is ALWAYS best to have an AV prog installed on your system for real time protection.

I´m glad you like the sig.Oh about that P.S I mean don´t let my current account concieve you.I was banned permanently once.I got back and now I keep it clean.;)

Anyway,back to the subject.
I noticed that almost every anti-virus program after scanning puts all found infections to the Virus Vault.What happens if I remove them from the Virus Vault ? Do they get back to my PC or something........?

This will help you understand it more in detail:

The AVG Virus Vault:

When AVG detects a virus that cannot be removed by healing, it uses a
special way of deleting the infected file - AVG moves it to the AVG Virus
Vault.

What is the AVG Virus Vault?

The AVG Virus Vault is a special directory that stores infected files. The
name of the files are changed and their content is encrypted so they cannot
be used and virus infection cannot spread. It is almost the same as ordinary
deleting techniques; however, the AVG Virus Vault gives you the ability to
restore the files, if necessary.

� Delete File � deletes � finally removes the file. It cannot be restored
later.

� The AVG Virus Vault has its own automatic maintenance - files stored in
the AVG Virus Vault are deleted automatically depending on the parameters
set.

OK,I see.
Thx.;)

I know when I was just a little kid I thought computer viruses are something like, " eats " all of your data/system files and your PC is practicly useless.
Is there a virus like this ? Lethal for PC ?
What is the maximum damage that new(today´s) viruses can do ?