What's the best software

nakiesha · 03-04-2009, 06:17 PM

Hi, I have 2 laptops & 2 desktops at home. My 10year old goes on line to gaming websites and 10 minutes later, there's adware on every computer he's touched. I had "Webroot Spy Sweeper" installed on my main desktop, which just expired. The next day, my computer was infected with spyware and I could barely do anything without it freezing. I tried installing some cheap anti-virus/spyware, and I couldn't even get it up and running. Its an HP XP Media Center edition that only had 512 of ram, so i installed 2GB. It's working fine now, but I don't want the same thing to happen. I want to What's the most affordable, yet effective software to protect all my computers?. I have 2 HP laptops running Vista, and 2 desktops (the above plus a Compaq running XP). Most multi computer softwares aonly cover 3 computers & is very expensive, Do you have any suggestions on a free or inexpensive product?

peterlakey · 03-05-2009, 02:31 AM

hello from peter in the uk . personally i use avira antivir free , drive sentry , online armor firewall, malwarebytes anti spyware, keyscrambler for internet explorer , spyware blaster . they are all free and work for me . have a look at the sticky on this site's homepage - COMPUTER SECURITY - WHAT DO I NEED . cheers peter

wolski888 · 03-05-2009, 02:28 PM

True that peter.
Also make sure you tell your son to be careful on what he's clicking.
That seems easy, right?
The best AV software is NOD32 or ESET, alternate names i guess.
That is arguable. Avira is good too and it's free.
Good luck.
Just a note: spyware blaster as mention ed in peter's sticky is amazing
just update it every week and many items will not allowed to even get on the computer

Hope this helped!!!

wolski888

Zealex · 03-05-2009, 03:08 PM

What was the website did he go to, it sounds a lot like Zango, I think spybot is the best to remove it, I have never installed it but I did some research and everyone said Spybot search and destroy was pretty good it removing it. heres the link
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
You can check his sites from history, unless he cleared that. And you can search the domain name and see the review on here...http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/tec...os_ver=6.0.1.0
just enter the site name at the top.

hydroplant · 03-05-2009, 03:14 PM

Everything I've read from reviws by magazine editors and testing says sybot sd is good at keeping stuff from being installed, but not removing it. I just downloaded mbam and it found 3 vundu and a couple other things norton 360 missed. Really fast scan too with little system resources. I'm no expert though.

hydroplant · 03-05-2009, 06:43 PM

also if you havn't been able to get rid of your malware yet I have a couple Ideas. Try booting your computer in safe mode by pressing F8 repeatedly during startup, then install/run the malware programs you have. If they are designed to run in safe mode, they should work without the malware messing with it. Also, I would recomend doing an online scan from Kaspersky or whichever can be done from safe mode. I'm not sure, but I think you could start in safe mode with networking, then do your Kaspersky scan. Thats what I would try, but like I said, I can't claim to be an expert. It pretty apparent though that your son is letting it in through your browser by accesing sites that trick your browser into letting stuff in, or is downloading things that pose as legitimate software but are designed to install spyware. I know that the free program spywareblaster is made to block that type of thing, but if your son is giving a bad program permission to install, than you need to make sure he stops doing it somehow. Also, as far as browsers go, firefox is less likely to be hijacked than Internet Explorer as it doesn't use active-x controls. Good luck.

tetonbob · 03-06-2009, 09:15 AM

Quote:

My 10year old goes on line to gaming websites and 10 minutes later, there's adware on every computer he's touched.

Monitor a 10 year old's use of a computer while on the internet, and consider setting up a Limited Account for his use if you've not already. Don't let him use an Administrator account, lock your admin account with a password. Educate him about why clicking OK on everything which appears is not necessarily a good thing.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/com...eraccount.mspx

Some good reading:

PC Safety and Security--What Do I Need?

Surf Safely, and Think Prevention!

03-04-2009, 06:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
nakiesha Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 29 OS: win xp media center	What's the best software Hi, I have 2 laptops & 2 desktops at home. My 10year old goes on line to gaming websites and 10 minutes later, there's adware on every computer he's touched. I had "Webroot Spy Sweeper" installed on my main desktop, which just expired. The next day, my computer was infected with spyware and I could barely do anything without it freezing. I tried installing some cheap anti-virus/spyware, and I couldn't even get it up and running. Its an HP XP Media Center edition that only had 512 of ram, so i installed 2GB. It's working fine now, but I don't want the same thing to happen. I want to What's the most affordable, yet effective software to protect all my computers?. I have 2 HP laptops running Vista, and 2 desktops (the above plus a Compaq running XP). Most multi computer softwares aonly cover 3 computers & is very expensive, Do you have any suggestions on a free or inexpensive product?

03-05-2009, 02:31 AM	#2 (permalink)
peterlakey Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 68 OS: xp sp2	Re: What's the best software hello from peter in the uk . personally i use avira antivir free , drive sentry , online armor firewall, malwarebytes anti spyware, keyscrambler for internet explorer , spyware blaster . they are all free and work for me . have a look at the sticky on this site's homepage - COMPUTER SECURITY - WHAT DO I NEED . cheers peter

03-05-2009, 02:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
wolski888 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Guelph, ON, Canada Posts: 143 OS: XP Service Pack 2, Wiindows 2000	Re: What's the best software True that peter. Also make sure you tell your son to be careful on what he's clicking. That seems easy, right? The best AV software is NOD32 or ESET, alternate names i guess. That is arguable. Avira is good too and it's free. Good luck. Just a note: spyware blaster as mention ed in peter's sticky is amazing just update it every week and many items will not allowed to even get on the computer Hope this helped!!! wolski888

03-05-2009, 03:08 PM	#4 (permalink)
Zealex Tech, Games Team Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: USA Posts: 2,158 OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit SP2 My System	Re: What's the best software What was the website did he go to, it sounds a lot like Zango, I think spybot is the best to remove it, I have never installed it but I did some research and everyone said Spybot search and destroy was pretty good it removing it. heres the link http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html You can check his sites from history, unless he cleared that. And you can search the domain name and see the review on here...http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/tec...os_ver=6.0.1.0 just enter the site name at the top. Last edited by Zealex; 03-05-2009 at 03:11 PM.

03-05-2009, 03:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
hydroplant Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 48 OS: windows vista sp1	Re: What's the best software Everything I've read from reviws by magazine editors and testing says sybot sd is good at keeping stuff from being installed, but not removing it. I just downloaded mbam and it found 3 vundu and a couple other things norton 360 missed. Really fast scan too with little system resources. I'm no expert though.

03-05-2009, 06:43 PM	#6 (permalink)
hydroplant Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 48 OS: windows vista sp1	Re: What's the best software also if you havn't been able to get rid of your malware yet I have a couple Ideas. Try booting your computer in safe mode by pressing F8 repeatedly during startup, then install/run the malware programs you have. If they are designed to run in safe mode, they should work without the malware messing with it. Also, I would recomend doing an online scan from Kaspersky or whichever can be done from safe mode. I'm not sure, but I think you could start in safe mode with networking, then do your Kaspersky scan. Thats what I would try, but like I said, I can't claim to be an expert. It pretty apparent though that your son is letting it in through your browser by accesing sites that trick your browser into letting stuff in, or is downloading things that pose as legitimate software but are designed to install spyware. I know that the free program spywareblaster is made to block that type of thing, but if your son is giving a bad program permission to install, than you need to make sure he stops doing it somehow. Also, as far as browsers go, firefox is less likely to be hijacked than Internet Explorer as it doesn't use active-x controls. Good luck.