online scans vs resident anti-virus?

I reccomend mcaffee's online scan.. but generaly, I dont recommend online scans... I got directly to having an anti-virus..

here are some things to know if you have a virus..

First, you may think you have a virus, but how do you really tell? Viruses often cause erratic behavior, smiley faces may pop up, your screen may disappear, or your computer may crash. The trigger that activates the virus can be almost anything. For instance, the virus can be activated the minute it is installed. Or it may start its dirty work the next time you start your computer. In many cases, a virus can reside inside your computer in an inactive state, waiting for a certain event (like a certain date) to happen.

From the moment the virus infiltrated your computer to the time that it made itself known to you, you could have innocently spread the virus to others. A very disconcerting sign that you have a virus is when friends call or e-mail to let you know you have sent them a virus-infested e-mail. It can also be transfered via IM's and Peer to Peer's like limewire, Bearshare and Kazaa... SO beware!!!

Now... If you notice any of this CRAPS (lol) in your system.. The first thing you gotta do is STAY CALM.. lol... because people tend to panic when they notice something like viruses... Thats what I did sometime in the best and I deleted some of my system32 thinking the virus is there... and KABOOM!!! I cant start my pc anymore...LOL!!!!

What you gota do is, download an antivirus... My personal reccomendation is AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/... Because unlike Norton and PCcillin or Mcaffee.. It's not resource hungry.. It's simple.. lol...

another recommendation is zonealarm.. but... It cost like 50$ for the fulll version... but you can email me for a serial (LOL!!).. anyways...

other programs are:

Anti Vir www.free-av.com

Panda anti virus www.pandasoftware.com

Avast! www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home...

My etrust antivirus.cai.com

clam win anti virus www.clamwin.com

and Last but not the least.. KAPERSKY... ( I dont actaully know if it's free or something.. But because it's not that popular, There's less hacks for that program...)

But.. if you dont want any programs.... Try just to scan first...

housecall.antivirus.com

or jsut use free mcaffee virus scan...

but.. remember,, better be safe than sorry!!LOL!!

anyways...

They say only use one anti virus program... I say not... Because... base on my experience... There was this virus that got scanned by Avast but not by AVG.. Well thats just my opinion...

Now... sometimes... your anti virus says they have scanned something.. But cant delete it... what your gonna do is, google the virus name.. then there should be some step by step instructions in some forum... Try that... lol...

anyways... last but not the least but the most annoying and irritating and pissing (lol)

If you still cant delete it.. the last way is to reformat your PC... that sucks I know.. but... It'll surely kill the viruses.. and your files.. LOL!!

And ya... before I forget...

Sometimes... viruses seem to restrict you from accessing the net.. sometimes... it kills your connection or something... now great.. you cant download softwares.. what you gotta do is go to a clean PC.. then download the latest installer from there... now... burn it to a cd or something... then load it to your pc... it shall work... lol

now good luck with you!!!!

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Free Online Virus Checks:

http://onlinescan.avast.com/

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

http://www.kaspersky.com/scanforvirus.html

http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

Free Online Spyware Scan:

http://www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php

On-line scans are no more effective then a scannner on your computer. However, every "brand" of anti-malware has it's own strenghts and weaknesses. Symantic A-V is just that...an anti-virus. Spybot is strong on detection and removal of spyware. AdAware...adware, etc.etc.etc.

Ewido is very strong dealing with trojans. No doubt that is what it picked up. Add Ewido On-line to your regular stable of protection.

New malwares are created literally hourly, so no single anti-malware can really detect all malware at any given point in time.

Trend Micro tends to miss things that even Norton will pick up.

AVG is probably your best bet (for the moment - until AVG hits the same notoriety as Norton)

Some Viruses are written to be undetectable by the more 'mainstream' virus programs. (IE Norton and McAfee)

try housecall. every different kind of anti-virus scan or software has its own database of known viruses and spyware. make sure you keep ad-aware, symantec, and mcafee up todate. new updates come out almost everyday. plus some virus programmers may know one software over the other and would design their virus to elude that software. either way, it is always safe to scan your computer with various software/online scans.

Resident.

Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Malware, Dialers, Popups:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.htm...

http://www.download.com/Bazooka-Adware-and-Spyware...

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sgdownload.html

http://www.safer-networking.org/

http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-103...

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/

Online Scanners:

http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/spysweepe...

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan....

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.h...

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/

http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

http://www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.php

http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/

Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Malware, Dialers, Popups List:

http://www.softpedia.com/catList/104

http://www.download.com/Adware-Spyware-Removal/315...

Antivirus:

http://www.grisoft.com/

http://www.avast.com/

http://www.free-av.com/

Antivirus Lists:

http://www.softpedia.com/catList/1

http://www.download.com/Antivirus/3150-2239_4-0.ht...

Firewall:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/prod...

Firewall Lists:

http://www.softpedia.com/catList/97

http://www.download.com/Firewalls/3150-10435_4-0.h...

IP Blocker:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/peerguardian/pg...

Browser:

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Email, News, RSS:

http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

System Cleaner:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

System Cleaning List:

http://www.softpedia.com/catList/98

System Info:

http://www.softpedia.com/catList/92

Virus definitions are updated in real time on online virus scanners. I think the best for a commercial virus scan is about once a week.

I use Trend Micro PC-Cillin as my resident virus scanner and have never had a problem that could not be fixed quickly and easily. The best free antivirus is AVG.