Norton 2004

[Howling/Pepper Chef]

Today I found I had 436 viruses on my PC. Is norton 2004 antivirus software good and will I have any trouble downloading waypts to my meriplat with it running in the backround? thanks

[+Renegade Knight]

NAV is good you shouldn't have any problems downloading waypoints. Your PC however may be FUBAR and need reformating to work correctly ever again.

[+bons]

Norton is ok for anti-virus but I reccomend not installing anything else they make.

[+TresOkies]

If you have that many "viruses", I'd suggest doing the following...

1. Go to www.lavasoft.de and download AdAware. While you are there, download the latest "reflist.ref file". You will have to manually copy this file to c:\program files\lavasoft\adaware".
   
2. Run AdAware on your system. It will take 10-30 minutes to scan your system. Let it find whatever it can and let it remove it. This may take some of the items that are being mis-identified as viruses out.
   
3. Download and install AVG. AVG is a free version of a commercial anti-virus. You can get it at www.grisoft.com. Make sure you get the free version instead of the "for pay" version. Why AVG? Some of the viruses specifically target Norton and McAfee and prevent their proper installation after the virus infects your computer.
   
4. Run the AVG update utility and let it get the latest definitions file.
   
5. Run AVG and let it disinfect your computer. This will take an hour or so to scan your computer. Let it isolate everything it identifies as a virus.
   
6. Reboot. Reboot into safe mode if you need to by pressing F8.
   

At this point, your computer may be unusable. If it's _that_ infected, it may be beyond reasonable repair. You will just have to install Windows again. I assume it's Windows if you are that infected.

 

If you do get it running again...

1. Pay for antivirus and keep the payment up to date. Allow the antivirus to download new definitions at least once a week.
   
2. Scan the CNet and Yahoo! Tech news pages to see if new viruses are out. When you see that a new virus is out, update the definitions right then and there.
   
3. Update AdAware reflist occasionally and run it to keep spyware off your machine.
   
4. Don't install software off the internet!!! This includes file sharing apps, screen savers, cursor toys, Date managers, time managers, etc. They all install stuff without your knowledge, suck CPU cycles away from you, and provide a back door for viruses and other spyware.
   
5. If you are on Cable or DSL, get a broadband router. Right now. This will prevent 90% of the silly sh*t from attacking you. Go to Wal*Mart or Office Depot and get one. It would be nice if you changed the default password if you can figure it out.
   
6. Don't open email attachments unless someone calls you on the phone and says "I'm sending you something". If you can't stop doing this, at least think about using a mail reader _other than_ Outlook Express. At least turn off the preview pane. I know it's hard. Eudora stinks to high heaven, but you have less chance of getting infected if you will just stop using MS products to read email.
   
7. Get a spam blocker. The best way to do it is to have your ISP install something like SpamAssassin on their server and SpamCop to throw it in the bit bucket. That way you don't even have to download it.
   
8. Back up your "My documents" folder occasionally to CD or a USB flash drive.
   

Virus writers and malware authors are the lowest form of scum on the planet. Even beneath lawyers, pornographers, and politicians. They should be shot without trial.

 

Unfortunately the world is moving at a fast pace and you probably didn't know you had to be so vigilant. It happens to a lot of people. I get at least one call a week from a friend/relative/co-worker/teacher etc. with this exact problem. Some of them I charge a case of beer and some of them I charge $100 to do exactly what I've outlined for you.

 

Good luck.

 

-E

[Howling/Pepper Chef]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It has been very helpful. I spent 120.00 for someone to help me get my system back in working order. It took about 3days but we got my computer to run again. I have no viruses as of now. I don't open any email at home but my wife uses outlook for her email and I have repeatly told her to switch to yahoo or something similar for her email but she has not yet done this. I am pretty sure this is why I had so many viruses on my system. If I buy NAV2004 and install it and keep it updated I am thinking that I should be ok.

once again thanks for your advice.

chef

[+Alan2]

Virus writers and malware authors are the lowest form of scum on the planet. Even beneath lawyers, pornographers, and politicians. They should be shot without trial.

 

Not beneath divorce attorneys!

[+bons]

1. Go to www.lavasoft.de and download AdAware.
    
   
2. Download and install AVG.
    
   
3. Run the AVG update utility and let it get the latest definitions file.
   

If you do get it running again...

1. Don't install software off the internet!!!
   

And this pretty much sums up why people have problems.

 

While I agree this is a good chunk of software to download, the kind of person who is going to download software off the internet because a stranger told them to is going to have problems.

[+S&G.Davison]

..........I buy NAV2004 and install it and keep it updated I am thinking that I should be ok.

I have been a Norton Anti Virus users for years, since it was freeware. I recently upgraded all my machines to Norton AV 2004 and I have to say I was very dissapointed, performance is very bad and its buggy ie with XP you have to turn off "scan within compressed files" option otherwise it locks up. Norton 2003 is far faster and more stable. Look on some of the Anti Virus and Windows OS forums re 2004 issues and you will see many others have the same problem.

 

I have tried Panda AV and it was OK, auto upgrades where a bit unstable some times, but they want something like 75GBP a year for the upgrade service, so IMO expensive.

 

IMO If you can get it get Norton AV 2003

[+GOT GPS?]

I been using McAfee Anti-Virus and FireWall. Nobody talked about firewall.

I had a problem with a computer getting a worm because it was exposed to the internet without a firewall.

 

Id imagine that this Geocaching server would be protected, and not infect our computers.

[+Stem]

Nobody talked about firewall

 

If you are on Cable or DSL, get a broadband router. Right now.

 

Routers have built in firewalls. It is refereed to as a hardware firewall.

 

I use Alwil's Avast AV and Spybot S&D to keep my computer clean (and a d-link router) Both avast and spybot are freeware. Both work very well. Avast updates at least once a week automatically, which isn't very common among freeware AV software.

[+TresOkies]

1. 
    
    
   
2. Go to www.lavasoft.de and download AdAware.
    
    
   
3. Download and install AVG.
    
    
   
4. Run the AVG update utility and let it get the latest definitions file.
    
   

If you do get it running again...

1. 
    
    
   
2. Don't install software off the internet!!!
    
   

And this pretty much sums up why people have problems.

 

OK, I guess you caught me in a bit of a contradiction. How about this...

 

Don't install untrusted software off the internet. Before installing anything you download, google the software title and the word "spyware". If you get hits, don't install it.

 

While I agree this is a good chunk of software to download, the kind of person who is going to download software off the internet because a stranger told them to is going to have problems.

 

Well, he did come to strangers for help. It so happens that I have unwanted experience in this field. I don't see where it's any different from any other type of question posed on the forums. For instance, I had questions about the Rino a couple weeks ago. Some folks answered them. I don't know these people. It's up to me to determine whether they are full of it before I act on their recommendations. Fortunately for the original poster of this thread, I'm not a rotten SOB. I could've just as easily told him to install Morpheus, Gator, and Weatherbug.

 

-E

[+Jeeters]

Routers have built in firewalls. It is refereed to as a hardware firewall.

Not all routers have firewalls. Only some do. i.e., you can't just go to Best Buy and buy the cheapest router there and expect it to have a firewall. You need to verify.

[clintb]

Routers have built in firewalls.  It is refereed to as a hardware firewall.

Not all routers have firewalls. Only some do. i.e., you can't just go to Best Buy and buy the cheapest router there and expect it to have a firewall. You need to verify.

Very true. Most of the cheapie routers are just providing a very basic level of security in the form of NAT (Network Address Translation). The true firewalls have SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection), which looks inside the the data packet to make some intelligent decisions about how to handle the traffic. Either way, both of them are better than no hardware based router. I love the Netgear line of products; most of them are SPI equipped these days and have great features.

 

www.netgear.com Check out the WGT634U.

[+pecka]

I'm using <a href="http://www.my-etrust.com/">CAI eTrust AV</a> 'cause it's fast, cheap and since I started using I'm clean - that's more than 2 year now. I find both Norton and McAfee too big and slow. For firewall I've been using Kerio Personal FW and Sygate Personal FW (both are free), I use Sygate now

 

I think that FW is a MUST these days...

Edited May 6, 2004 by pecka

[vagabond]

Hmmmmmm no one mentioned ZoneAlarm

[schon]

Not all routers have firewalls.

Most 'real' routers (as in the ones that run the internet, and cost many thousands of dollars) have limited firewall capability. You won't be finding these at Best Buy though.

 

you can't just go to Best Buy and buy the cheapest router there and expect it to have a firewall.

Totally false.

 

The 'cheapest' Best Buy routers do NAT, which (almost by definition) is packet filtering (AKA 'firewalling'). They have to - there's no way for them to work otherwise.

 

If it routes by doing NAT, then it's a firewall. If it's a cheap router, it does NAT.

 

You may be thinking of switches or hubs - which are not routers.

[schon]

Very true.  Most of the cheapie routers are just providing a very basic level of security in the form of NAT (Network Address Translation).

NAT (as used in 'cheapie' routers is stateful. It has to be, in order to work. If it wasn't stateful, sessions using the same ports/hosts would get crossed.

 

The true firewalls have SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection), which looks inside the the data packet to make some intelligent decisions about how to handle the traffic

Stateful firewalls grew out of NAT. Designers recognized that simply filtering traffic based on source/destination ports was less secure than NAT, so they decided to apply the concept of NAT state tables to non-NAT connections.

 

Stateful inspection is a requirement for doing most forms of NAT (including all forms of NAT in devices you'd buy at a retail outlet.) - it's impossible to do one-to-many NAT (which is what broadband routers do) without maintaining state.

[+IV_Warrior]

I have been a Norton Anti Virus users for years, since it was freeware. I recently upgraded all my machines to Norton AV 2004 and I have to say I was very dissapointed, performance is very bad and its buggy ie with XP you have to turn off "scan within compressed files" option otherwise it locks up. Norton 2003 is far faster and more stable. Look on some of the Anti Virus and Windows OS forums re 2004 issues and you will see many others have the same problem.

I have Norton 2004, and Windows XP, and don't have that problem with compressed files. I actually only had one problem, for some reason I couldn't get it to update the "virus list". Un-installing and re-installing and setting it to "automatic updates" fixed that.

 

I have mine set to auto-update, auto-protect, scan incoming and outgoing e-mail, and scan the IM programs. I think it checks for updates every 4 hours, when I'm online.

[clintb]

Very true.  Most of the cheapie routers are just providing a very basic level of security in the form of NAT (Network Address Translation).

NAT (as used in 'cheapie' routers is stateful. It has to be, in order to work. If it wasn't stateful, sessions using the same ports/hosts would get crossed.

 

The true firewalls have SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection), which looks inside the the data packet to make some intelligent decisions about how to handle the traffic

Stateful firewalls grew out of NAT. Designers recognized that simply filtering traffic based on source/destination ports was less secure than NAT, so they decided to apply the concept of NAT state tables to non-NAT connections.

 

Stateful inspection is a requirement for doing most forms of NAT (including all forms of NAT in devices you'd buy at a retail outlet.) - it's impossible to do one-to-many NAT (which is what broadband routers do) without maintaining state.

Sorry, but you're thinking of NAPT (Network Address Port Translation), not SPI. The two do not go together as you imply. SPI works higher in the OSI model, whereas NAT and NAPT work at layer 3-4.

 

"ports/hosts"? There again, not interchangeable. A port is a service ON a host, not the host itself. One host, as in a server, can have many ports that it's listening on/to. FTP, Web, etc...

 

Some simple, but effective definitions:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/stateful_inspection.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/NAT.html

and here

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101218.asp

[Rex&Punzie]

Just one last plug: Trend Micro has a FREE online scan. If you are the kind of person who can remember to schedule this on a regular basis, its a good deal.

 

http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

[+TotemLake]

..........I buy NAV2004 and install it and keep it updated I am thinking that I should be ok.

I have been a Norton Anti Virus users for years, since it was freeware. I recently upgraded all my machines to Norton AV 2004 and I have to say I was very dissapointed, performance is very bad and its buggy ie with XP you have to turn off "scan within compressed files" option otherwise it locks up. Norton 2003 is far faster and more stable. Look on some of the Anti Virus and Windows OS forums re 2004 issues and you will see many others have the same problem.

 

I have tried Panda AV and it was OK, auto upgrades where a bit unstable some times, but they want something like 75GBP a year for the upgrade service, so IMO expensive.

 

IMO If you can get it get Norton AV 2003

I discovered a few years back that legacy Norton references in the registry keys cause occasional problems with random systems when installing NAV and they do need to be manually removed to get past those issues. These legacy references are part of the XP installation and they don't affect all systems the same way.

 

When you find those problems happening, uninstall NAV then remove all references to NAV in the registry (standard backup the registry partyline here). Then you can reinstall NAV and you'll find it works much better.

 

I do agree with a previous poster, stay away from their Internet Security software.

[+TotemLake]

Hmmmmmm no one mentioned ZoneAlarm

ZoneAlarm a couple years back used to be defeatable by 3 simple systems. I've seen it done. Two do the attacking and the third can slip right in. I couldn't say whether or not their updates have fixed that. But you're still talking about a software solution on a system not dedicated to do firewall work.