Okay so first off, i've had like 3 super bad viruses this week. Its sucked and when i've called geek squad they couldn't get it off. When they were trying the virus was so bad we could hear a phone convo coming through the speakers. Scary lol

So 3 times we had to wipe clean the hard drive and reinstall vista. Which sucks. Our Anti-Virus is Norton provided free from Comcast. Is norton good? Also is there a good, free anti-malware? I absolutely HATE malware. I get it about every 2 months and have to back up my computer which is time consuming IMO.

Dont know if this matters but im using a Dell inspiron 5 something something desktop with Vista and an Intel Pentium processor.

Help and advice would be good.

thanks,

Collin

Hmmmmmm, a 15 year old male with computer viruses? Stay off the porn sites! ;D ;D

And DON'T even try to say you didn't.  I had more computer viruses when my kids were teenagers then there are members on this site.

No, Norton is not good.

Hmmmmmm, a 15 year old male with computer viruses? Stay off the porn sites! ;D ;D

And DON'T even try to say you didn't. I had more computer viruses when my kids were teenagers then there are members on this site.

Haha I do that sort of thing on my phone's internet 

so thats not the problem lol.

Are there any good FREE anti-viruses besides what in using now? (norton)

I am not really a computer guy but I will throw in my two cents. I run Avira, CCleaner and Malwarebytes - all free - and have never had a virus or any major issues for that matter. My computer is almost five years old. I also use Mozilla (with the ABP addon) which seems more secure than Explorer.

Do you get a lot of adult website pop ups too?

I am not really a computer guy but I will throw in my two cents. I run Avira, CCleaner and Malwarebytes - all free - and have never had a virus or any major issues for that matter. My computer is almost five years old. I also use Mozilla (with the . Plus addon) which seems more secure than Explorer.

Do you get a lot of adult website pop ups too?

No. If i ever do get a pop-up (almost never) its usually for netflix or something.

And I hardly ever watch porn on the computer, mainly because I have my girlfriend

Is there a place I can securely download those programs?

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

CCleaner: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Malwarebytes: http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html

The free version of Avast is what I prefer for anti-virus. Don't use Norton anything.

MalewareBytes is a great program for dealing with malware.  Download it from their website.   

If you get infected with a sneaky virus that won't let you run MalwareBytes or download it, you may need to download it to a flash drive from another computer. When you try to install it from the flash-drive, make sure to change the name of the .exe file (some viruses will recognize what it is and not let it load if you don't).

There's a free program called Rkill that you should also download and run (it kills the malware processes so you can run your removal programs without the interference).

There's a lot of reading you can do on the subject.....the best thing you can do, obviously, is not get the viruses in the first place, so be cautious of the warez.

AVG free is pretty good, but there premium is on sale for like 40 bucks, and its pretty darn amazing.  I was running MS Onecare, after my subscription ran out I switched to the AVG, and it found 4 spyware things that onecare let go, my computer is running very nicely now.

Swilly thanks, but i'm looking for free 

Hmmmmmm, a 15 year old male with computer viruses? Stay off the porn sites! ;D ;D

And DON'T even try to say you didn't. I had more computer viruses when my kids were teenagers then there are members on this site.

HAHHAHHAHA this had me laughing hard!  ;D

Edit also I knew Norton sucked cuz i read it somewhere BUT, my mom doesn't know ***** about computers, and thinks Norton is the best and is ignorant to anything else. Can I download those programs and just hide them, while keeping norton working to make my mom happy? I know I can just rename the above programs and just store them in my C drive and she wont know (ignorant part kicking in) mainly because if it's titled "Abraham Lincoln Project" she wont look. So my main question, can i use these programs AND norton?

Edit also I knew Norton sucked cuz i read it somewhere BUT, my mom doesn't know crap about computers, and thinks Norton is the best and is ignorant to anything else. Can I download those programs and just hide them, while keeping norton working to make my mom happy? I know I can just rename the above programs and just store them in my C drive and she wont know (ignorant part kicking in) mainly because if it's titled "Abraham Lincoln Project" she wont look. So my main question, can i use these programs AND norton?

No, you can't, the other programs will try to delete Norton as a virus.  ;D

Edit also I knew Norton sucked cuz i read it somewhere BUT, my mom doesn't know crap about computers, and thinks Norton is the best and is ignorant to anything else. Can I download those programs and just hide them, while keeping norton working to make my mom happy? I know I can just rename the above programs and just store them in my C drive and she wont know (ignorant part kicking in) mainly because if it's titled "Abraham Lincoln Project" she wont look. So my main question, can i use these programs AND norton?

No, you can't, the other programs will try to delete Norton as a virus. ;D

So just to make sure, I cant have both?

Edit also I knew Norton sucked cuz i read it somewhere BUT, my mom doesn't know crap about computers, and thinks Norton is the best and is ignorant to anything else. Can I download those programs and just hide them, while keeping norton working to make my mom happy? I know I can just rename the above programs and just store them in my C drive and she wont know (ignorant part kicking in) mainly because if it's titled "Abraham Lincoln Project" she wont look. So my main question, can i use these programs AND norton?

No, you can't, the other programs will try to delete Norton as a virus. ;D

So just to make sure, I cant have both?

The above comment was made in jest. However, I don't THINK you can have both, but I'll let someone less smart alec-y and more knowledgeable answer your question.

Don't run two antivirus programs.

Free antivirus programs are not all that great. They will get you by but they won't give you the best protection.

Anyway this is my moms computer and i'm going to buy one for myself soon. My main question is is Linux a good OS? I've heard Mac's with OS X are good, and have almost no viruses written for both because they're not the majority like windows.

So is Linux and Mac OS X good? which is better (Im assuming Mac?)

I use malwarebytes and advancesystemcare , both free and between them my computer is healthy.

Between Mac and Linux go with a Linux. There are many options, I would suggest Ubuntu to start out. The OS is free and applications are free to use. Just keep in mind its not point and click computing. You will have a learning curve but well worth it.

If you run Firefox as your browser I would suggest running the addon called ****. Will stop any scripts on websites from running without your permission. Greatly reduces the chances of getting infections.

Get Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, doesn't bog your system down like others and never bugs you. I used Avast! for a LONG time and thought it was great, but MS Security Essentials is better (I know, it's odd to suggest an MS product, but this one is good).

I also run Spybot Search and Destroy every month too. Just run the Immunize feature and it will block most of the bad sites and IP's from connecting to your computer. I also have MalwareByte's but only run that when I feel something isn't right.

NOD32, and be done with it.

Norton has been getting better.My computer guy recommended it to me.I told him i had bad experience in the past with Norton and he told me they made a lot of good changes.So far I've had ZERO problems with mine after i got hit by a virus from this site.

Never ever use free virus protection.It's gonna bite you back in the butt sooner or later.Like dan said it'll get you "by" but you really need to invest in one. I can't stress how bad free virus downloads really are.They "miss" a lot of stuff but you won't know it till it's too late.

Norton has been getting better.My computer guy recommended it to me.I told him i had bad experience in the past with Norton and he told me they made a lot of good changes.So far I've had ZERO problems with mine after i got hit by a virus from this site.

Never ever use free virus protection.It's gonna bite you back in the butt sooner or later.Like dan said it'll get you "by" but you really need to invest in one. I can't stress how bad free virus downloads really are.They "miss" a lot of stuff but you won't know it till it's too late.

This would be the last place I would expect to get a virus  :-?

It could happen from any site, some obviously more then others but its possible anywhere. Thats where the **** option in Firefox helps, reduces the chances of getting a drive-by virus.

Thanks I just installed **** as an add on for FF. Thanks! I guess i'll just stick with Norton, i think. But does anybody else have any experience with Linux?