best way to save from virus

[neohunk]

i wanna kno
wt is the best way to keep ur neck away from being cought by a virus while online

i recently got a virus on my compu & it did some nasty harm b4 being get caught
it neither allowed me to get connected to net nor to append files

so if anybody of u know how to recognize a virus please tell me

[theeon]

U dont got antivirus on your pc??? If not, get it! And download virus updates often!

Check out some freeware first!

Panda antivirus, Norton (Norwegian =)), Norman, McAfe

[MrLinus]

Some of the ways to ensure you don't get viruses:

1. Install Anti-Virus software and RUN IT. Actually keep it up to date with the latest virus signatures and have it running constantly. The slow downs from AV is minimal compared to the grief a virus causes. If you don't have any, invest some cash into one. It's actually one of the things worth investing in. McAfee, Nortons (eh... I dunno about these guys any more), Symantec, Phobos, etc. are good progs to consider. http://www.openantivirus.org/projects.php <-- OpenSource AV Project (haven't looked if there is a Win32 version)

2. If you download items, scan them. Never assume that people won't try to infect you.

3. In regards to email, never double-click on anything without at least scanning it first. And even then, be careful about clicking on something.

4. Have email as plain text rather than HTML formatted. HTML formatted emails can have scripting languages hidden in them that can infect your system.

I assume that you are running a windows system of some type since this is the main system that gets viruses.

[Nokia]

Dont forget to scan Floppy's and CD/DVD-ROM's too!

[|The|Specialist]

Stay away from p2p software. If you have never scripted mIRC then script.ini in the mIRC directory should not exist. When in mIRC never download stuff #warez. The same can be said for pirch only the file is called events.ini I think.

Get some AV & FW. Grab a program that can both audit/edit your registry. Click start, programs, startup, (there shouldn't be alot of strange files here. If you have the right admin tools installed & running then you should have the ability to audit changes made to files... this way you can see if something tries copying to shared directories or append to files such as dllhost.exe (which this method makes a stealthly startup... if you check processes it looks normal). Appenders are also hard to remove.

[thadbme]

I think user awareness is one of the most important pieces of the antivirus puzzle. Be aware of where you are going on the web, (as some websites contain malicious logic these days) be aware of what you are downloading, whether off of the net, or P2P or that matter.

Stay aware, and keep your virus definitions updated, keep the latest microsoft security patches installed, as some of these patches are released to fix vulnerabilities that some virus's exploit.

Take the awareness it what everyone else has said and you should be pretty set!

[VanEck]

There is also one more piece of advice I can think of that no one has mentioned yet... watch your file extensions!

Many times, a virus can slip by users because they were not paying attention to the file extensions, or have them hidden. Sometimes malicious users will use multiple file extensions to trick those not really paying attention. For example, if you see BritannySpearsNude!!!!!!!!.jpg.exe, it is obviously not a picture. The .exe is the actual file extensions, which means that it is an executable program or application... msot likely a virus or trojan install. If you have your file extensions disabled (which is the windows default setting) you would never have known until it was too late.

To enable the viewing of your file extensions, go to start/settings/control panel/folder options. Once there, click on the "view" tab. Toward the top, you should an option that says "hide file extensions for known file types". Make sure the box is NOT checked to view all file extensions.

[L1nk]

well the best way to be safe from viruses is being offline *not that i'm suggesting that*. Its sorta like abstinence. LoL, anyways, as it was mentioned above by mittens and all, installing an antivirus, keeping it up to date. I'd also recomend keeping yourself free of trojans, spyware and stuff as they can open doors for viruses to get in and trojans can download viruses to harm your computer even more. A good program for spyware is spybot S&D, and adaware. these two should be kept up to date at all times and do scans on your comp every week or so.
Good Luck,

[nihil]

Hi neohunk,

I am guessing that when you say "virus" you really mean "malware". Malware is anything that someone else gets onto your machine by any trick or treachery that you do not want there and does YOU no good. The difference is getting more difficult to detect these days.

You need an AV and a Firewall for starters. You must set the firewall to operate in "stealth mode" so it hides your computer from the bad guys. To test this go to:

http://www.grc.com and run "Shields UP" This will test your firewall. Also look at the other stuff like UnPnP...if you don't use it, disable it.

You must set your AV to run its realtime/online scan, and at maximum settings. This means scan ALL programs, heuristic scanning on, scan e-mail, scan attachments and so on.

YOU MUST UPDATE AV AND FIREWALL AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK


Go to: http://www.winpatrol.com and get WinPatrol
Got to http://www.diamondcs.au and get RegistryProt

Also AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy (You can do a Google to find these)

Then:

http://www.swatit.org Get SwatIT 2.1

Then:

http:// www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html

And get "HijackThis!"...................be careful....it shows what is running on your computer, not just the bad guys.

I will post back in a little while with a few more, just in case you have aspirations of becoming a professional paranoid like myself

Good Luck!

http://www.winpatrol.com and get WinPatrol. It monitors cookies, startup program, run once. So is a bit different, and has a great selective (with wildcard) cookie blocker.

Neohunk,

I am back!

http://www.mo-ware.com The application is called MoOutlookSecurity. I am not sure if it will work with your OS as you do not state what it is. It blocks executables from running from where they should not. [You guys with little brothers and sisters who keep letting things lose on your shared systems might like this one ]

If you actually get a problem:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger this is a free tool that can sometimes help, but you need to download it "fresh" as it is frequently updated.


http://www.wilderssecurity.net You want "spywareblaster" and "spywareguard" by javacool. If this link does not work, try http://www.javacoolsoftware.com

Not sure if this still works:

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/lice....php?menuid=21

Hunt around the Bitdefender Site......the link is for a "free" windoze/ linux AV

They also do windows stuff and free protection tools for:

MSN IM
Yahoo! Messenger
Windows CE
ICQ
mIRC
Palm
Net Meeting

and so on.

I am sure that lot will keep you occupied for a while

[neohunk]

well thank u all 4 ur nice advice. actually i ve got norton av but it got its subscription ended recently & it is when it all happened