Anti-spyware

[mark61]

    Verizon Yahoo going to end  the "free"  spyware for those of us you use their dsl connections.  Will they reduce the prices since they are reducing the services provided?  Yeah  right!!!   What  are  you all using and liking now a days?  What  are some you DO NOT like and I should avoid them?

mark61

[Faast Ed]

Comcast Cable has been pretty good for me.  Has the free McAfee firewall and Anti-Virus.

[DGlide04]

I have Time Warner cable for my IP and they have free Anti-Virus and Spyware software available for download.  Personally, I don't use them but have relatives who do and they are very happy.  For a very good and free spyware program, take a look at Spybot Search and Destroy.  It is a free download with free updates every week and has a resident feature that runs in the background while you're on the computer if you want that set up.  I do make donations to the programmer through PayPal every once and a while as it is expensive to keep up with updates, etc.

[96flhpi]

I'll second suggestion to check out Spybot.  I've used it for years.

[dakota224]

AVG FREE is very good 

[jimrookie]

on my young sons laptop I use AVG and also AD-AWARE
we had a machine get hit bad and the Computer Doctor told us about these
and they have worked great for over a year

[Glenn W]

AVG free and Adaware from Lavasoft for me, too. No probs ever.

[tireater]

CCleaner...free and works good...

[88b]

I've used AVG free for years, they no longer support version 7.5 so I upgraded to V 8, still free but it slows everything down almost like Norton    I'm looking at Avast

[HV]

I have AVG 8.0 dont see any change in speed... Norton SUX ... My ISP offers it free... full version... I refuse to use it ..even free

[Ed Y]

Check out Vipre from Sunbelt Software. It's a very good anti-virus/spyware software package rolled into one, has a very small footprint, and is reasonably priced. Even more so today with a special for $9.95. I've been using Vipre since it came out last summer and one of their other products for a few years. I'm more than happy with them.

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/

[marc]

I use AVG and Ad-Aware....

[HDDOC]

AVG Free,  Doc

[Wingnut]

The I.T. geek at work loaded Webroot into my laptop.  Works great.  Protects and scans for spyware with no noticeable slowdown.

[Coasty]

    Verizon Yahoo going to end  the "free"  spyware for those of us you use their dsl connections.  Will they reduce the prices since they are reducing the services provided?  Yeah  right!!!   What  are  you all using and liking now a days?  What  are some you DO NOT like and I should avoid them?

mark61

I use Verivon wireless broadband with Norton AV with spyware works great, no issues

[dohmixer]

    Verizon Yahoo going to end  the "free"  spyware for those of us you use their dsl connections.  Will they reduce the prices since they are reducing the services provided?  Yeah  right!!!   What  are  you all using and liking now a days?  What  are some you DO NOT like and I should avoid them?

mark61

Kaspersky Internet Security, not cheap about $70 a year for up to 3 machines. Kaspersky uses 2/3 of the space required for McAfee and ¼ of the space required of Norton. I’ve tried McAfee and Norton and consider them both too full of bloatware using too many resources and slowing the computers they are supposed to protect down so much you’re ready to stop using the internet.

[truck]

Some of you know Pierre, he is an A+ computer guy that finished top in his class and I stole this from his site.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pierre-F.  (Original Message) Sent: 3/12/2008 9:05 PM
One more time and updated for all my good friends here.

What you should do every week (maximum) to every 3 weeks (minimum). Also what you should do every month (maximum) to every 3 months (minimum).

Before you do anything, you should, you must; do a backup of your files. If you don't ever do this you will come to regret it. Trust me on this one. Do this at least every 3 months.

I assume you have installed:

1) A good anti-virus program like Avast (free) or ZoneAlarm Pro or Suite (paid).

2) A Fireall like ZoneAlarm (free) http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en or ZoneAlarm Pro or Suite (paid)

3) SpywareBlaster 4.0: (Free)  http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

4) ATF Cleaner: (Free) http://www.majorgeeks.com/ATF_Cleaner_d4949.html

5) SuperAntiSpyware: (Free) http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispyware.html

6) JK Defrag: (Free) http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/

OK! Here goes.

1) SpywareBlaster: Read what it does at the site listed above. Basically prevents bad stuff.
- Click on icon.You simply updated every week and make sure you enable Protection. That is it.

2) ATF Cleaner: Read what it does at the site listed above.
- Click on icon to start
- Select All
- Uncheck Prefetch ( Grayed out in Vista)
- Empty Selected
- Exit when done.

3) SuperAntiSpyware: Read what it does at the site listed above. Basically finds stuff if it bypassed Spyware.

4) More cleaning:
- Click on Start
- Click on My Computer
- Right click Local Disk (C:)
- Click on Properties
- Click On Disk Cleanup (beside the colored disk)
- Click on More Options
- In System Restore click on Clean Up
- Click Yes
- Click OK
- Click Yes
- When done, close all opened windows.

5) Anti-Virus program:
- Now is the time to run your anti-virus program

6) JK Defrag:
- Click on the icon and let it run
- When done, do not forget to remove the JK Defrag note pad icon it created on the Desktop.

7) Reboot.

Also, once a month, or at least once every 3 months, do an Error-Checking process. This check the health of your hard-drive and, in some cases, it repairs itself. It can also tell tell you when it is defective or about to die. By then, I assume that you have Backed Up, right? )
- Click on Start
- Click on My Computer
- Right click on Local Disk (C:)
- Click Properties
- Click tools
- Click on Check Now...(in Error-Checking)
- Add a check-mark in both boxes
- Click Start...and a strange message...lol!!! Once you have rebooted, the program will start.

Some of these programs are short in time, some are long. All will assure you of a healthy 'puter.

Enjoy!

Pierre-F.

[mark61]

   Thanks to everyone for the info and ideas. After checking  them out I decided to go with the AVG security bundle. Before I down loaded it I had the Verizon program do it's thing. Dumped the Verizon-not as straight forward as you would think it should be! damn they hide stuff down folders!-and had AVG  do a search. WOW!  AVG came up with about 35 cookies and 1 possible Trojan program Verizon never touched or showed! So now I feel better protected. As for running the various "tune up tasks", I always have done them regularly except this Windows XP does NOT seem to have a "error check/repair" step unless I am missing something. Quite possible, since I have basically stumbled and bumbled my way to using the computer/internet.  Much like how I learned to ride a bike and then a motorcycle LONG before the MSP program was offered!!   Any more help or education would be greatly appreciated and I am sure would increase you "get in to heave points" so please  bring it on!

mark61

[Kansas]

I just did the same AVG bundle on my office computer.  I was shocked how much faster the computer runs than with the old MicroTrend software.