An Excellant Free Antivirus Program

[LazyPup]

About three weeks ago I was having serious problems with my computer. It was running slow, often locking up and was displaying incorrect websites when i ran searches.



I had already ran McAffey and Norton, both of which reported my computer clean.

After running both McAffey and Norton without results I even attempted to reformat my hard drive, but found that one of the trojans had attached to the DOS files so my reformat disc would not run. I was expecting that it was going to require an expensive trip to a professional computer shop to get my machine up and running again.

I then used my room mates computer and sent an email to Troy, the founder of this forum and asked his assistance in resolving my problems. At his suggestion I downloaded the ANTI-Vir personal edition. It is a free download.

After about ten tries I was finally able to get my computer online and I then downloaded the Anti-vir personal Edition and ran it. At first I was a bit perplexed because I thought it was running rather slow, taking more than two hours to complete the scan. To my total amazement it identified 560 trojans on my computer, all of which it was able to quarantine and remove so after a quick reboot my computer was once again running like the day I bought it.

Today I attempted to run a follow up and the program told me that it had a new updated version of the program as well as an updated "virus Identification library" I downloaded that, then ran the scan. It located another 5 trojans on my computer which it successfully deleted.

According to the information on the homepage for the download this program works on Windows 98, ME and XP and some of the lesser known operating systems.

Go to the webpage and hit downloads and you will find the Personal Version as a free download. They do ask that you might make a voluntary contribution to help support them, and you can bet I sure will. This free program bailed me out when two rather expensive anti virus programs had previously failed to find the problem. I would highly recommend this program to one and all.

http://www.free-av.com/

[md2lgyk]

Something's amiss here. First, I can't believe any computer would even run with 560 trojans. Or 560 viruses for that matter. Neither McAfee nor Norton is an anti-trojan program; they are anti-VIRUS programs. Actually, so is Anti-vir. Trojans are something different from viruses, and require programs specifically designed to detect and remove them. A-squared is an excellent free anti-trojan program.

I can't fathom how your computer could've gotten that infected, unless you don't have a firewall or just download and install all manner of "free" things from the Internet. I've been online for almost 8 years and have never had even one virus or trojan infection.

[LazyPup]

Check themout for yourself,,,here a few of the identifiers for the trojans...

Java/binny.A.1
TR/Dldr.Agent.1.Z.1
Tr/Drop.Small.I.F.1
Tr/Dldr.Adload.G.1

That is the only ones that I checked. Input that identifier in the Yahoo search bar and it will give you complete details..they are all trojans.

[md2lgyk]

Did you actually try? Except for Java/binny.A.1 (which produces a bunch of hits in foreign languages), none of the others show up at all.

[mrcaptainbob]

I loaded that in, LazyPup and it found 11 on mine. Thanks. It actually found 18, but 9 were in archive. THis was after I reformatted, reloaded all software, installed all up-to-date McAfee. It was at that time that I archived so as to not have to go through the reformatt again. Well, the short time I was on with McAfee is when they must've been planted. So, I'll clean the machine with this sytem and do a thorough check with it and McAfee and the do another archive to supplant that infected one. Pitiful. But....thanks for the info. As usuall, you always come through.

[HayZee518]

I used the av software and only found one.

[LazyPup]

Mrcaptainbob..this time the kudos go to Troy. My machine was so locked up that it would take 10 to 15 minutes to boot up from power on and would only log onto the net after 8 or 10 tries.

I actually tried to reformat my hard drive buy one of the adware was attached to the Dos files and wouldnt let my reboot disc load.

Out of desparation I used my room mates computer to email Troy and he turned me on to the Anti-vir program.

After nearly two hours of hacking away i was finally able to get my machine online long enough to download the program and now my machine is working like new again.

[montecore]

Hey LazyPup,

Sounds like your system was pretty bogged down. Maybe I can help you out like you helped me in the appliance forum. If that firg was a computer I would have it fixed in a heart beat. I work in computer sales and service. I have a few concerns of what has happened to you. Both Norton and McAfee are very intrusive and resource damanding applications. I have seen Norton and McAfee mess up many peoples systems over the yrs. Keep in mind there is NOT a single anti-virus on the market that will detect 100%, same goes for trojans, spyware and adware. That is why we use 5 different scanners if we are cleaning off a system. Usually this may work about 90-95% of the time but your best option is to backup any of your data then wipe & reload the operating system. If you are using XP then turn of the RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there. I would not use those restore points they can cause more harm than good.

Why, should you reload the OS? Because with that many infections there is bound to be more issues in the near future. Many AV scanners do not actually delete the virus completely but merely inactivate it. All the junk that those nasties left behind is still on your system. Then you can rest assusured you have a CLEAN system

There are 3 FREE AV's:

1) Avast
2) AVG
3) Anti-vir

Avast is by far the best out of this FREE group...it is all personal preference. I would also switch from using internet explorer to Mozilla Firefox. 95% of the junk will be blocked by just switching browsers. If you have broadband make sure you are BEHIND a rotuer this is a HARDWARE FIREWALL and basically makes your system invisible on the net. There is also a really nice free program called SPYWAREBLASTER. There are a few other FREE apps to have ad-aware, spy bot search and destory, if running XP MS antispyware beta and A squared.

Sorry I forgot to mention that some of these nasties will masquerade as windows system files and you you start deleting these then you will definitely want to wipe and reload.

Remember security is all about layers of protection.

Hope this helps!

[wak]

I too used to buy Norton, Mcafee and PC Cillion and have been converted to the free anti virus programs.

Of Microsoft Beta Anti Virus, Grisoft AVG, Avast and Anti Vir.

Anti Vir and Avast are close in being really good. I keep them both loaded but only use one at a time.

As far as free adware / mail ware programs.

I like Ad-Aware by Lavasoft, Spybot Search and Destroy and this new one I found is really good called Ewido.

The other three free utilities that are a must own are: Killbox, Hijack and Jv16 Power tool. These babys will identify and remove anything. Specially Killbox. Killbox will remove anything that Norton or any of them can't remove. Simply find the bug, in propertys look for it's exact location and copy it in Killbox.

I have one computer I use specifically for surfing the net and getting viruses on it just for the challenge of removal. If somebody trolled all over the net for a good solid year and did not run any anti virus software I could see picking up 500 to 1000 bugs.

[ABP]

montecore, I noticed that you told Lazypup to turn off the "RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there". Is this true? I had my pc for about 5 years and had a few issues so I opted to re format, I noticed that my pc would not respond to the disk I got from Dell. I run Winxp. I insert the disk, pushed F12, arrowed down to option 3, push enter, then enter again (It says to hit any key to boot from disk) It runs and asks me if I want to install, or repair at this time I need to select enter to continue, but it froze. I restarted several times and finly it took. Can this be due to not turning off the restore point? Also which is better, NTSF or NTSF Quick? I can not get back the Avast I was using, but I found AVG, any good?

[tuffun]

Also using Adaware personal - free spybot remover -- works well
another AV scanner that will work is at www.Trendmicro.com
follow the links to HouseCall --- it's a java based or kernel
online virus scan not bad for a free scan and is updated daily
by trendmicro -- makers of PCcillin and other progs.

oh and for a Award winning - easy to use FW -- try Zonealarm.
the makers of it are known for helping the Dept Of Def.

[handyandy]

montecore, I noticed that you told Lazypup to turn off the "RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there". Is this true? I had my pc for about 5 years and had a few issues so I opted to re format, I noticed that my pc would not respond to the disk I got from Dell. I run Winxp. I insert the disk, pushed F12, arrowed down to option 3, push enter, then enter again (It says to hit any key to boot from disk) It runs and asks me if I want to install, or repair at this time I need to select enter to continue, but it froze. I restarted several times and finly it took. Can this be due to not turning off the restore point? Also which is better, NTSF or NTSF Quick? I can not get back the Avast I was using, but I found AVG, any good?

This sounds more like hardware failure to me

oh and for a Award winning - easy to use FW -- try Zonealarm.
the makers of it are known for helping the Dept Of Def.

I like Zone Alarm, but for safety I think you are much better off with a simple hardware firewall. Dlink, Linksys, netgear, etc. You can get one for around $40 that will put a physical layer of protection between your computer and the internet (esp with cable modems), and this is much more effective than letting the outside world hit your computer and then relying on zonealarm to protect it. Don't let them hit it in the first place!

[alyssa]

Avast is by far one of my favorites used along with adaware.com but I also just invested in spy sweeper and I am glad I did. It has found a lot of stuff that these other programs haven't found.

[Chris112]

I def. agree with turning off the restore points.. Thats probably why you had 560 trojans/viruses.. It kept finding them in the restore points. If you turn them off before running a scan it deletes all the old points and will usually make the scan much faster.

[fred1949]

AVG Antivirus...free & very good.

If you want a good Anti-Virus try AVG. Just type AVG in search. I've been using it for years. It is free and has daily updates.

Fred