Can someone recommend a free anti-virus program that I can download to disc on my XP/pro
cable modem to use on a friends Win/2000 dial-up 18gb work cast-off computer.
She uses it for e-mail, pictures and instant messaging. She also surfs the web.
She has AOL which offered it's own AV- firewall suite that I thought she had been using for
the last year. Wrong. I had put on Adaware and Spybot S&D last spring but she never used it.
By the way her only complaint has been some pop-ups and the inability to get her new digi-cam
to be recognized by her computer.
So I reloaded Adaware and Sb-S&D last week and the scans on both found a lot of stuff but
Adaware SE found a lot but couldn't get rid of what it found. (Sorry about THAT sentence)
Anyway I'm thinking virus. I also loaded CWShredder which came up clean.
I'm also thinking I may have to upload this to her computer in SAFE mode just to be err....safe.
I need to know how to do this in a step-by-step manner. Starting with how DO you get into
SAFE mode with Win/2000, she has password activated on her startup.

Okay lets get this out of the way, I KNOW I should (pick one) reformat, switch to Win/XP,
buy her a new cheap box, switch to another op/system, whatever! It ain't happening now!
Lets just see if I can deal with what we've got. After all, the damn computer still works
enough for her to use everyday, the pop-ups are under control and I only started F*ing with
this box because she can't get her camera to download to it.
(BTW it's a Canon and I did reload the disc that came with it, didn't help)

Mini-rant: you know what I don't understand, I know that I know damn little about
trouble-shooting computers yet her best female friends husband does this for a living and he
wanted to charge her for it. All I'm getting out of it is dinner.

Thank for the help!
Lloyd

I run Avast! anti-virus... free and it works good.

Combined with "Spybot search and destroy"
And "Spyware blaster" and the occasional "ad-aware" scan.

I don't have any problems ever.
But then again, I know what not to open.

AVG is what I use on all my PCs.  It's lightweight and not intrusive, and it works very well.

Highly recommended.

I like AVG.

Find the free version of AVG free.. Ive been useing it on all my PC's and any PC I repair gets it installed. Runs by itself and always updates automaticly. I havent had a single issue with any PC its been on since I started useing it.

Quoted: AVG is what I use on all my PCs.  It's lightweight and not intrusive, and it works very well. Highly recommended.

Same here

Thanks guys! I forgot to mention that I tried to download what AOL was giving for free,
(75 plus minutes!!!!) and when it was done it wouldn't load/run the AV portion.
Even after retries. So sense I have NO MORE patience for 56k I figure I'll download it at
home to a disc and force feed it to her computer.
Do you think I should do this in safe mode? And how?
Post 308, timeout to run and caress my SA M1a NM.
this may take a while.

I use AVG. No complaints.

i don't like free antivirus.   you have no support, and you are at their mercy for virus definition and virus removal tools.


nod32  has both.   it also has a DOS scanner that WILL scan NTFS hardrives in safe mode with command prompt only.   what other antivirus has that............. that is this simple?

nod32 does have a trial version you can try trial page

Quoted: Mini-rant: you know what I don't understand, I know that I know damn little about trouble-shooting computers yet her best female friends husband does this for a living and he wanted to charge her for it. All I'm getting out of it is dinner.

That's beacuse those of us that do it for a living get tired of CONSTANTLY helping people out free of charge. Basically, her friend's husband was saying "I do this shit all day, and I'm really not in the mood to fuck with your spyware-ridden machine. I don't want to deal with it right now. If you pay me, I might see things a little differently".

Every computer guy here - whether they will admit it publicly or not - distilled the information you posted like this:

* Female (sorry ARFCOM ladies, you know I love ya, but your "sisters" have a miserable track record )
* Uses AOL
* AOL-provided firewall and AV
* Spyware and virus problem (suprise, suprise)
* and the big one...it's a home pc. Yup, it's a computer used by a regular person at home.

Her friend's husband isn't a dick, he just aware of the worms in the can he's opened all too many times. I could write a book (or at least a lengthy post) explaining why he did what he did.

Anyhow, download a copy of AVG, Spybot and Adaware, keep them updated, show her how to use them, realize that she won't, and be happy.

Quoted: i don't like free antivirus.   you have no support, and you are at their mercy for virus definition and virus removal tools.

I've never needed support. It just works.  And if it didn't work, I'd just browse the web for answers rather that trying to contact them.  And you're just as "at their mercy" with paid-for AV software.

Well, I guess I'll be the first to reccomend Panda's free anti-virus. Won't remove them, but will tell what and where. Run this all the time on work boxes, Friday found one user's box that had 99 spyware, 1 adware, and 30 back door kits. I knew I needed to run it when adding to AD failed, followed the logs to a cookie that kept changing it's name-as I watched!

Nick

MicroSoft has a sight with free Beta applications for anti-virus - Anti-Spy - and others.

MicroSoft Security