Week 5: Anti-Virus, Malware & Cleaning
// February 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group
Welcome back gang! Melody and I just retuned home from a week in New Brunswick, Canada to have a great class about all the nasty horrible software out there ready to infect your windows PCs (sorry mac users, you’ll just have to suffer through this on!)
The first point we discussed in class, is that there are some significant ways you can change your computer habits so that you will probably never have to deal with spyware/viruses. The most significant of which is:
USE A DIFFERENT WEB BROWSER THAN INTERNET EXPLORER (or yahoo’s excuse for a browser)
Ok, so we didn’t talk about the yahoo browser in class, but I had to throw that in there. The only people who will be using a yahoo browser in the first place will be people who use ATT/Yahoo DSL and installed the disc supplied with their “self install kit” which loads a whole bunch of bloated software on your poor computer, including a useless copy of antivirus (more on this later) the yahoo instant messenger (train wreck!) and the infamous yahoo web browser, which seems to use the same engine as Internet Explorer (which we’ll refer to as IE from this point on).
IE used to be the only game in town a few years back. Microsoft had “won” the browser war by default (kind of like a hockey game where only one team showed up – they werent necessarily the best team, just the winner ’cause all the other teams were too scared to play) IE was awesome for a while – it was faster than netscape and came already installed on a PCs and was FREE – why bother with anything else?
Fast forward to 2006 – Pop-Ups have become an everyday term, and many of the “holes” IE had in it’s infastructure had begun to be exploited by bad people. We summed up in class that the best offense is a good defense – so use a different web browser for your everyday surfing, and your chances of ever getting a virus or spyware will significantly be reduced. A couple great alterantive web browsers are:
Oh, and by the way, one of the best sites to get most of the software we’re using today is FileHippo.com : bookmark it! it just makes sense 
Oh no! I have something on my computer that has: (please choose one)
[] Slowed my computer down to a crawl
[] Making more popups than a redneck campsite
[] Been telling all my friends and family to download some crazy file I never sent them.
[] Made my control panel disappear, and all of a sudden I have a new antivirus that finds a TON of viruses! what the….
Here are my recommendations for getting your computer back in shape quick. (well, this may take some time, so grab a coffee)
Step 1: Clean your temp files
Even though we went through this step last in class, it’s a good place to start. The fewer files on your computer to scan, the faster you’ll be happy. Two of the best cleaners out there are ATF-Cleaner and CCleaner. (just make sure you “uncheck” the yahoo toolbar installer when you install CCleaner)
Step 2: Have ONE antivirus program, and keep it updated
In the sea of antivirus programs, there are only a few that work really good. The rest do work (or at least we hope) but are mostly marketing fluff these days (yes, even the commercial version of Norton). Keep in mind, you should only have 1 real-time scanner installed on your comptuer at any given time. Too much of a good thing is bad when it comes to this stuff – your computer can become like a sleepy sloth while your virus scanners duke it out for who is king of the hill.
…so here are my recommendations:
- AVG Free Edition: this is an easy favorite. It’s pretty easy to install, it updates itself, and best of all, it’s free! It may not be the best program to clean an already-infected computer, but is just fine for everyday protection.
- ESET’s NOD32: If you really want to pay for antivirus, this software is worth it. It has a small footprint (which means your compy will run faster) and is better for older PC’s that don’t have a ton of RAM.
- Kapersky: We didn’t discuss this one, but it’s another good choice if you really want to pay for your protection. This is also a good solution if you’r trying to clean an existing infection.
If you have a virus already, use NOD32 or Kapersky to clean it off, and then un-install your free trial and put AVG on there, you should be good to go.
Step 3: Check your malware at the door.
Malware (or “badware” for all your linguists) is software that is bad. We talked about all the bad stuff in class (spyware, viruses, keyloggers, phishers, etc..) so here’s the links to get it clean:
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware: if this link dosen’t work, just go to Download.com and click it off the top 10 list at the bottom of the page. Make sure it’s updated before you scan. The quick scan is usually good enough for most cleanings.
- Adaware & Spybot: these have both been great in their time – the both still work good, but I find they aren’t needed as much thanks to Malwarebyte’s awesome program that is so tiny and quick!
- If your computer is REALLY infected (like a process-killer that will keep you from installing any of these great tools) you may have to do some drastic cleaning with programs like “combofix” (google it) or follow some of the great tutorials on “bleepingcomputer.com”
That pretty much wrapped up the suggested downloads for this week – let me know if there are any questions! Till next time…
