What's one of the better anti-virus programs one can run - I've got XP pro on this machine and I was running McAfee but it's due for an update and I was just wondering if there is a better one out there or maybe a free download that's just as good.

 

For a Free Program Use AVG. www.grisoft.com I think the link is.

If your going to pay for AntiVirus Software I recommend Trends. PC-Cillian. www.antivirus.com

Stay away from Norton and Mcafee as Most Virus's are written to disable these two by default.

I don't know how many times Ive repaired PC's infected with Virus's and the users are running One of these.

 

Thank you for the information - I wasn't aware that my McAfee was that useless. I removed the McAfee firewall and I'm currently running the XP firewall - is that sufficient? I downloaded the recent upgrade and everything is a touch faster than before, so I'm happy with it. I'm running ATI's 9800 pro and went to their site for an upgrade - didn't notice any improvement except in the control center. Damn wild Tangent somehow got on my machine (kids?) and after I removed it, I keep getting the cda engine 0400.dll popup - would you know how I can disable that popup screen - I can't find anything associated with wild tangent on my hard drive.

 

Windows XP Firewall is NOT very good. Better than nothing... But

A very good Firewall is Black Ice Defender. But not the easiest to use. A fairly good one is Zone Alarm and is very Easy to use.

As for your Pop Ups. You have Spyware/.Adware loaded on your system.

Download Ad-Aware SE (its free) at www.lavasoftusa.com

Also use these two programs: HiJack This
and About Buster

I've found with these 3 programs I NEVER have any problems

 

Thanks

 

I second the free version of AVG, and that's what i'm using since my Norton subscription ran out. Seems to have good reviews.

 

The free version of AVG works fine, if you don't mind not being able to change the definition update times. I used it for a while until I got ahold of a copy of Symantec Antivirus Corporate, which I'm using now, which also works fine... but now I don't have to leave my computer on all nite to keep it protected.

 

You can change the update times on mine. Maybe it's a newer version.

 

Why would you have to keep your computer on all night to keep it protected using AVG?

 

I have my AVG set to update at 2 pm if the database is older than 1 day. You can also update it manually whenever you want.

 

Ok, it's either the scan time or the update time... I can't remember which... but both are equally important in keeping a clean machine. One of them is set at 1am, and from all I looked at, couldn't be changed.

 

On mine you can change the scheduled scan time too. I guess they updated the free version.

 

Well, that's good to know. That's the only qualm I had with the program.

 

Well, I just downloaded it again to see what was up, and I still can't change the scan time. Are you sure you're running AVG 6.0 Free Edition? All I see under the Scheduler tab is "AVG will automatically perform the complete test every 24 hours..... You can enable/disable scheduled tests here."

 

Yeah, i'm positive it's AVG 6.0 free addition. You have to click on the AVG desktop icon, or run AVG from the start menu. Then you go to scheduler in the bottom right hand corner, to adjust the time. The AVG icon in the running programs list will not allow you to adjust the scheduling time, but just allows you to see if it is active like you said.

 

D-oh! And all this time it was right in front of me. :pat:

Thanks for the help.