how to save my windows XP from viruses?

[akshayakrsh]

hi
i have a serious question about how to save my computer from incoming viruses!
i have got a Original WindowsXP on my pc and i also have an original Norton Antivirus2004
i scan my computer once a week regularly but still i see no improvement
i have got dsl connection at home and have tried to install WindowsXP service pack 2
but due to some virus i m not able to download it completely as the downloading speed goes on decreasing to zero and hece i m not able to finish the job.
so people i ask u some serious help? i'll be greatly thankful!!
waiting for the replies!

akshaya

[kittgordon]

1. Have you been updating XP and Norton?
2. I'd wait a while until they work some more of the bugs of SP2 before I go diving in.

[akshayakrsh]

yes i have been updating my norton and xp regurlarly to all the updates availabe

[SirDice]

but due to some virus i m not able to download it completely as the downloading speed goes on decreasing to zero and hece i m not able to finish the job.

Doesn't sound like any virus I know of.
How do you know it's a virus? What virus would that be?

Are you sure it's not your link being saturated with P2P?

[Irongeek]

Hate to say it, but your best bet is to nuke and rebuild (format the drive and reinstall Windows). Nuke it, get a friend to put SP2 on a CD for you and install that and some AV software before you ever hook your computer back up to the net.

[akshayakrsh]

i have actually already formatted my pc but what can i do if i have no one to get SP2 from!
coz all the peolpe i know use pirated XPs so still problems and moreover why i suppose that there's a virus coz as i run ping command it works very much fine so i suppose somethin is wrong!

[SirDice]

What does Windows Update do?
It installed SP2 perfectly on my laptop.

[akshayakrsh]

thats what i m saying, it starts perfectly but the speed dies later hence i m not able to finish the task!! what can i do then?

[unixjim]

hmmm, maybe the connection is timing out, to many people downloading SP2 of MS website.

i havent downloaded SP2 yet, however if it is just a exe download, get a download manager like gozilla or the one builtin with Mozilla FireFox webbrowser. if you use a download manager, if the connection drops again, you just restart the download in the manager and it starts from where it stopped.

(These are pure guessses)

cheers,

[spamdies]

unixjim is on the right track. If your trying to use windows update and it dies, don't use it. Goto the MS website and download the network install for sp2. Then run the update from your local computer., use a download manager if need be.