Trojan Horse Pop-Up Notice! Need advice from FReeper geeks! (Vanity)

[ru4liberty]

I don't currently have an antivirus program on my computer due to very tight finances. I've been holding my breath hoping that I wouldn't have an incident before I can afford to download or update an antivirus program.

I used to have Kaspersky, and lately it has been popping up with an alert that I have a Trojan horse. The local computer geek people recommended Kaspersky when they worked on my computer a few years ago, so that's why I was using it. Since then, they have worked on my friend's computer and told her that she didn't really need to pay for a program and that Avast was an excellent free program.

I need some (simply-worded) input as to what I should do. If I download Avast, will it take care of the Trojan horse problem? Are there other free programs that are better?

I am using a Dell desktop computer with Windows 7 Home Premium. My browser is IE 11.

[huldah1776]

I just put Kubuntu on my slow laptop that will eventually need a hard drive but boy is it fun. Took 2 tries to make the dvd though. I’ve used puppy to recover all my data on another one years ago. The commands are a little overwhelming at this point but I’ll play when I can. I used to be dangerous (with a DOS system) and crashed many, but now I just read the news on the internet to stay out of trouble.

[TomGuy]

MS Essentals is FREE with Win7.

Download and install it.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

[EinNYC]

If you monitor FatWallet.com, you will see that they notify viewers about Kasperksy's FAR offers, about 3 times/year. You buy the Kaspersky product (usually it's Internet Security 20_____). You download a rebate form from the vendor (usually Frys, sometimes NewEgg) and fill it out. Then you send it or scan and email it to the Kaspersky rebate center. So, every year, I get my Kaspersky for FREE AFTER REBATE.

As a matter of fact, NewEgg is now offering Kaspersky Anti virus for up to 3 PCs for Free After Rebate, and Fry's is offering Kaspersky Internet Security for $10 after rebate. You just missed NewEgg offering that for FAR.

[SkyDancer]

He typed in www.va.gov .... there was this popup from Firefox and the line in there said “Get me out of here” with no way of by passing it ... we did the security thing and other stuff ... even IE wouldn’t let him in. I think he just went to Google and typed in VA and I he got in via some link. No problems after. There were a couple of well known sites that FF blocked also.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Same here!

[LonePalm]

I recommend ZoneAlarm. The free version is very good.

I pay for their top of the line. It's worth it to me.

"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[molson209]

There are a number of Free Online scans for a quick check of your computer,just do a search. Also search for Free Anti Virus ,uninstall the old anti virus before you install one of the Free ones

[imardmd1]

AVG Rescue Disk got the first batch of trojan/mal/PUPs. Took a long time. Malwarebytes in Safe Mode got most of the rest.

AVG Free runs in real time, and is set to automatically scan my machines while I sleep. Personally,

1. I never go on porn sites

2. I never download music, and recommend others never use Limewire

3. I never go to or download games

4. I never go to shopping sites, only eBay, Amazon, or sites of excellent repute

5. I never allow downloaded programs to con me into downloading anything else with it.

6. I never download or allow the sooooo appealing PC optimizer/cleaner/you-pay-or-else programs to take control of my machines.

7. If my emailing friends can't be trained to exercise netiquette and blind-copy their distribution lists, I strike them off my access list. Same for FB or twitter or anything like that.

8. I delete my Temporary Internet Files & cookies very regularly.

9. I never have trouble with antiviruses, nor with unavoidable PUPs.

10. I have not bought an antivirus program for about 15 years, nor do I recommend anyone to buy the popular ones, unless they are flush with money.

Even Norton and McAfee create more problems than they solve, if the owner/operator is willing use freely available tools and invest the time necessary for house-cleaning on his/her machine that one would do in one's home or kitchen. Otherwise he/she is going to pay upwards of $100 per year up to the cost of a new replacement, to keep his/her machine running smoothly and as designed, no matter how much it cost--Mac included. You can count on it.

I have repaired PCs as a computer technician for over 20 years, and owned and maintained them for 10+ years prior to that. I do not buy new machines for my own use. I get plenty of chances to work on the brand-new machines of other folks.

[chris37]

The thing is once you get a trojan on your pc, avast or some other program or malwarebuytes may or may not be able to get rid of it.

You may run a scan, and it may say successfully quarantined, and then you may run a boot scan, and it may find nothing, but it’s still there.

Antivirus is good at protecting a clean system, but if a trojan does get on there via some other method, such as you ran a dirty .exe or you ran your pc without a virus shield and got infected, you may have to do a re-install of windows to get rid of it.

[taxcontrol]

1) Eusing registry cleaner (free)
2) AVG Free anti-virus (free)
- update
- then run a full scan
- then run a root kit scan
3) Spybot Search and destroy (free)
- update
- immunize
- full scan
4) Auslog disk defrag (free)

Run in that order, rerun the registry cleaner at the end. This will take care of 99.9% of all viruses and malware.

[John S Mosby]

AVG is found at this site: www.grisoft.com

Free basic protection has constant updates on all emulations, from the same convention that all anti-virus outfits use.

[ltc8k6]

“To each his own. I find “free” versions of anti virus programs worthless and are viruses unto themselves.”

You’re doing it wrong.

[arthurus]

Get AVG and Malwarebytes free editions. Malwarebytes and Avast are, in my experience, not compatible. Avast is quite good alone but being able to add Mbytes into the mix is really good. Avg and Mbytes are compatible. Eventually you may get offers for either of them to buy lifetime and enhanced for 15 dollars. That's the best. Get Spybot, too.It's also free.

[ansel12]

Malwarebytes free doesn’t run in real time, how could it conflict with Avast?

[CA Conservative]

Okay, let me give you my 2-cents worth as a cyber-security professional. For use as a "real-time" anti-malware solution, I would recommend BitDefender Free, Avast (free version) or AVG, in that order. To clean up an existing problem, Malwarebytes AntiMalware and Spybot Search and Destroy are two of the best.

DO NOT run two real-time malware engines at the same time - you will just bog down your computer.

[TChad]

I didn't notice this suggestion above, but maybe it's there: Download a free trial version of an excellent non-free security suite, then update definitions if necessary and run a full AV scan to let it eliminate your existing infections. Don't bother trying to install a trial of your expired previous security program, it probably won't work.

Here are some highly rated security programs:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp

Links to free trials of the top three:

http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/products/trials/isp?trpd=WSAI&loc=USA

http://www.bitdefender.com/Downloads/

http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/free-home-trials/total-security

After you complete your scan and have a disinfected computer, install a high rated free security program such as Panda:

http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

Then uninstall the trial program. You may have to do that before the free security program will install.

Yes, this requires is a certain amount of work, but you should never have let your computer onto the Internet without security software, and this way you let two independent programs try to fix the damage. Don't be too confident that they will succeed. Some of the new viruses are ridiculously hard to eliminate.

[ansel12]

I run a lot of free programs, such as Avast, Spyware Blaster, Zemana anti-logger, Comodo firewall, Malwarebytes anti-exploit free, and then have a few that I use just for scans, like Malwarebytes, GlaryUtilities, Superantispyware, Loaris Trojan Remover, Unhackme, and a number of things for the browser.

I also like to occasionally use free online scanners to mix things up and get the benefits of competition.

I try to tell people that security software and scanning is kind of fun.
When ones computer isn’t being used, it may as well be doing a silent scan, and even scanning while one is using the computer, isn’t usually an issue, unless the computer is really slow.

I also suggest putting all of the settings at their deepest levels, and only using the fullest, deepest scan setting.

Scanning, defraging, cleaning temporary files and cookies, chkdsk, keeping up with software and driver updates, all those things make for a lean, clean, machine.

[Excellence]

That was what I was trying to remember. That always performed well for me.

[arthurus]

If both are on the computer they attack each other, at least that is my experience. I did fine with Avast until I put Malwarebytes in there. Each seemed to identify the other as malware. My son all that out and loaded Mbytes with AVG and it has never given me any trouble. I have the paid versions of both now. One was 9.95 and the other was 14.99.
My son who is a bona fide qomputer whiz first installed Avast for me then later, when it got all balled up after I got Mbytes for a particular intruder that Mbytes was specified for, He cleaned up my box and said the two programs conflicted.