My computer recently suffered a virus. Every 15 minutes it would shut down and boot back up to the desk top. I called Dell and their technitions walked me through a painful process. They tried everything to keep my files but alas I had to erase

everything and reinstall my operating system.

My question is: What is the most reliable anti-virus program? I've heard Syassassin is good. Anybody any recommendations?

When the worm your speaking about was crawling around that first weekend, I was in a panic and learned that XP has its own firwall. Nonetheless, I contacted Computer Associates online and downloaded their product that automatically updates itself.

It was at the top of the list recommended by mirocsoft. What IT professionals think is another story.

I also made sure I had downloaded all patches available from Microsoft.

mate you just learned the hard way, which is the way everyone seems to learn this lesson, back up your data.

also I always have at least two partitions on my hard drive, (c: 25% , d: 75% ), which allows me to install the operating system and programs into the first partition and save all my data ( docs,photos,mp3s,program installers) to the second partition. this allows me just to wipe the first partition if my operating system goes belly up.

recently for my dell laptop I went to panthip and purchased a 30gig 2.5inch hitachi hard drive( 4k baht) and an external usb2 2.5 inch enclosure(700baht). A simple matter to swap the 30gig with the 6 gig in my laptop, partition,reinstall OS and put the 6gig in the external enclosure, and take the files from it to my new drive. New lease of life for my 5 year old machine.

first up install a firewall ( zone alarm free, or agnitium outpost free).

before you get online you need to install , sevice pack 4 for win2k or service pack 1 for winXP. Try autopatcher.com or read http://isc.sans.org/presentations/xpsurvivalguide.pdf.

if you do not have another computer handy, head down to your local DSL internet cafe and get them to burn it onto a disk or put it onto a usb ram drive. or go to panthip and buy a copy of the OS , but check they have the latest SP with the disk.

as for anti virus software, the main thing is to update it regularly, at least once a week. I personally do not use anti-virus software except spybot and adaware.

I also do not use outlook or Internet explorer, I use mozilla firefox as my browser. www.mozilla.org

also I do not run executable files unless i am very sure they are ok. note wonderful_doc.exe is not a document file, always check the file extension. Windows has a default option that hides known file extensions, it is in your best interest to deselect this option.

java and activeX can also execute malicious code, so turn them off in your browser.There should be an option in your browser where you can enable them for websites you trust, enter the names of the websites.

have a search through this forum, many people have recommended anti-virus suites in the past.

My computer recently suffered a virus. Every 15 minutes it would shut down and boot back up to the desk top. I called Dell and their technitions walked me through a painful process. They tried everything to keep my files but alas I had to erase

everything and reinstall my operating system.

My question is: What is the most reliable anti-virus program? I've heard Syassassin is good. Anybody any recommendations?

I don't know if there is actually a "best" anti-virus software, but make sure you get one with an automatic virus-definition update feature, so you don't have to update manually. Symantec is OK, but after a year I had to upgrade the software and they wouldn't accept an online sale of the discounted package outside the US, so I had to buy the latest version locally.

You can get a good free software called AVG from http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php - it has a limited interface but does the basic stuff well and has automatic definition updates.

Windows XP has a firewall (if it was switched on during installation) which will help stop malicious worms and trojans that spread via non-email means. Alternatively, you could use ZoneAlarm (free) for that.

What is wrong with people. Having a computer on the Internet without firewall and antivirus in place is asking for trouble!

What is wrong with people. Having a computer on the Internet without firewall and antivirus in place is asking for trouble!

ain't that the truth.

What is wrong with people. Having a computer on the Internet without firewall and antivirus in place is asking for trouble!

The computer came with McAfee security center. I guess it's not good enough. I'm

not all that up on this stuff, but I'm learning fast after that crap I had to go through.

I put something called Spy Assassin in there. It was recommended by the Dell Dude in India. I run it every other day, either a quick scan or a complete scan and it is supposed to flush out twirling fart knockers before I go on line or even use a program offline. I'll try the others you guys mentioned as well. Thanks for all the help, Mbkudu.

My mystery, has anyone found another user installed in the user accounts section?

have you done a search on google on spy assasin?

apart from the fact it is not free, check out other users opinions.

i still recommend spybot and adaware...and they are both free.

macfee is probably fine.. though it needs to be updated(virus definitions) very regularly.

and use a firewall!

My mystery, has anyone found another user installed in the user accounts section?

eh? Explain plz Bronco...

Its possible some software will create a user account for itself to use, this tends to be for development type software... whats the username thats been created?

will have to do a system restore to get it back wolfie, i was just very surprised to find this user account there, one thing though now I cant create another user get an error screen saying it cant log onto network.

Am gonna run house call and see, ran ad aware and just had the normal amount of miners, I run it every week.

Users you don't now about shouldn't be there.

The original posters problem sounds like a worm that has been discussed a lot recently. It enters the PC via a loophole in Microslush's software. A good firewall and/or updated OS would have prevented it.

McAfee or Norton Antivirus are two good antivirus programs. At least McAfee also comes with a firewall that's better than the default Microslush offers. For both alternatives, keep it updated and running!

Remember to keep Windows updated at least with the "critical server updates". There are bugs found continuesly! Use the "Windows Update" from the start menu, it's there for a reason!