# AntiVirus 360



## blhowes (Mar 12, 2009)

Today my wife was having trouble getting onto the internet. A message kept coming up saying viruses were detected on the computer and kept prompting us to fix them - and of course you have to pay $55 or so for the program to work. When I got home, I got past the messages long enough to get onto the PB - turns out a message came up warning me that the website was dangerous and I was in danger of getting viruses. lol

Turns out our computer was infected by AntiVirus 360 program. I had to work at it, but managed to get onto google long enough to find a program that'd removed the program for free. What a pain in the ...um...neck!

After, that episode, I think it's time to get some software to protect my computer. What programs do you use to protect your computer?


----------



## Skyler (Mar 12, 2009)

blhowes said:


> Today my wife was having trouble getting onto the internet. A message kept coming up saying viruses were detected on the computer and kept prompting us to fix them - and of course you have to pay $55 or so for the program to work. When I got home, I got past the messages long enough to get onto the PB - turns out a message came up warning me that the website was dangerous and I was in danger of getting viruses. lol
> 
> Turns out our computer was infected by AntiVirus 360 program. I had to work at it, but managed to get onto google long enough to find a program that'd removed the program for free. What a pain in the ...um...neck!
> 
> After, that episode, I think it's time to get some software to protect my computer. What programs do you use to protect your computer?



I've heard AVG Free Edition is a good antivirus. I used Comodo Internet Security before XP molasses-ed on me; that was a firewall and antivirus and something else all rolled into one.

Those are both free; on the non-free end of the spectrum you have McAfee, which if I'm not mistaken is one of the better ones out there.


----------



## Scottish Lass (Mar 12, 2009)

avast! - Download antivirus software for spyware and virus protection is free and rated well by _Consumer Reports_, as is AVG Free Edition. They don't like to run on top of Norton, etc., though. so make sure the one you choose is the only one running. We've trusted avast for several years now and have never had a problem.


----------



## Grymir (Mar 12, 2009)

Zonealarm Internet Security Suite. I pay for mine and get much better results than the free stuff. Worth every penny. I love it.

Firewall, Virus, Spyware and Operating system. All protected and happy.

And not a memory pig either!


----------



## Carolyn (Mar 12, 2009)

I fought with something similar the other night. It was a pain in the neck. My son recommended "Malwarebytes". I downloaded it and it got the bits and pieces that AVG, Spybot, and Adaware missed.

It's been a month: our bank/debit card number was compromised at the bank, our Visa card number was hijacked by a vendor, and then my laptop got attacked by this dumb thing. Ugh. And nothing like this has ever happened to us at all before.

At least I didn't use a credit card to contribute to Norm Coleman's Senate campaign in Minnesota.


----------



## JohnGill (Mar 12, 2009)

MajorGeeks.com - Download Freeware and Shareware Computer Utilities.

Check out some of the free stuff there.


----------



## Scottish Lass (Mar 12, 2009)

Yep, we use Malwarebytes.org too


----------



## panta dokimazete (Mar 12, 2009)

Avast is the best way to go - I swapped over from AVG. No need to pay


----------



## Jesus is my friend (Mar 12, 2009)

McAfee is great if you have Comcast Hi-speed as they will provide it free,other wise the AVG is fine too


----------



## blhowes (Mar 13, 2009)

Thank-you for all your recommendations. After yesterday's "battle", I'd be willing and eager to try any of them - even if I'd have to pay money (never thought I'd say that, being the el-cheapo I am). 



Carolyn said:


> I fought with something similar the other night. It was a pain in the neck. My son recommended "Malwarebytes". I downloaded it and it got the bits and pieces that AVG, Spybot, and Adaware missed.


Yeah, that's what I used also. Worked very well, once I was able to access the sight long enough to download the program.


----------



## Quickened (Mar 13, 2009)

I've been testing alot of different programs over the years and had some successes and failures.

For free Avast seems to be the way to go. It seems light and it isnt hogging any resources or memory.

If you dont mind paying I absolutely loved Kaspersky. I payed for the full year for their internet security suite and it worked fantastic. It out preformed my previous AVG choice when i started testing.

What i will *never* recommend is NOD32. I read good things about it but it has acted poorly out of all programs. From signing up to get a trial version (you have to get a user name and password for a trial???!!!!) to random internet disconnections.

Also worth noting when i installed Kaspersky it picked up things that AVG missed (For what it's worth)


----------

