Virus/Spyware Information
I have been at AO not as long as some, but longer than others and I continually see a lot of posts about either someone being infected with a virus, or spyware running rampant on their box. We need to fix this. There is no reason to have a million posts that in general have the same basic replies so I am going to address this right now even though I am by no means an expert, but this should be useful for people who are new, or don't use the search function.
[Rant]
JUST BECAUSE IT'S ON YOUR BOX DOES NOT MEAN SOMEONE ELSE HASN'T GOT IT! THERE IS NO REASON TO MAKE A NEW THREAD FOR A VIRUS ON YOUR MACHINE!
[/Rant]
That said and done here is a general formula (intended for home type users being that I have no experience dealing with large networks).
1) Get some anti-virus software.
2) Get ad-removal software.
3) Get a firewall (software in addition to the one that should be part of your router).
4) Update then run all of the products you have just gotten.
Now for a small list of software for this "gargantuan" task..
Anti-Virus Software
+Norton Anti-Virus [http://www.norton.com/] [COMMERCIAL]
+McAfee [http://us.mcafee.com/] [COMMERCIAL]
+AVG [www.grisoft.com/] [FREE]
+avast! [www.avast.com/] [FREE]
Spyware Removal and Defense
+Spybot-S&D [http://www.safer-networking.org/] [FREE]
+Ad-aware [www.lavasoftusa.com/] [FREE/COMMERCIAL]
+Spy Sweeper [http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php] [COMMERCIAL]
Firewalls
+Sygate [http://soho.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm] [FREE/COMMERCIAL]
+Zone Alarm [www.zonelabs.com/] [FREE/COMMERCIAL]
+Blackice [www.networkice.com] [COMMERCIAL]
+Outpost [www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/] [FREE/COMMERCIAL]
Other links as provided by ComputerNerd
-Cheers-
