[SpamCop-Geeks] Re: Need free Anti-virus program

[Anonymous]

"Anonymous" <none at domain.invalid> wrote in message 
news:cuv1mg$2u2$1 at news.spamcop.net...
> So, with SpamVampire, SpamFryer by the Lumber Cartel, Mugu Marauder 
> and JackPot running, the Sygate takes it and keeps running... with 
> as much as a couple months between machine reboots.

Oh, to be on-topic... AVG. Recommend it highly.

Here's a few examples:
1)  I was working on a new machine that a lady had bought. She wanted 
the hard drive from her old machine moved to the new machine as a 
slave, so she still had her data. I updated Norton AV on the old 
machine, did a full virus scan of all files, and it found nothing, so 
I moved the drive over to the new machine, which had AVG installed on 
it. Just to be sure, I also scanned the drive with AVG. It found 5 
viruses, and removed them all.

2)  I was working on a female companion's computer. She'd had Symantec 
AV installed by her college IT staff, but I knew that Symantec wasn't 
the best available, so I installed AVG, despite her protests. It found 
two viruses that Symantec had missed. One of the viruses was the sole 
occupant of a folder which had a specifically malformed name, such 
that you could access the folder and its contents from a command 
prompt, but Explorer couldn't see the folder, and you couldn't rename, 
delete or move the folder or its contents, even in Safe Mode at a 
Command Prompt as Administrator. I ended up booting my BartPE CD, and 
using it to rename the folder, then delete its virus, then delete the 
folder. Thinking back, I guess a smarter move would have been to make 
the folder read-only, and set its permissions so nothing could access 
it. That way, if she contracted the same virus, it wouldn't be able to 
put itself back into that folder.

3)  On a business computer set up with two hard drives (one with NFTS 
and WinXP Pro, the other with FAT32 and Win98SE. The WinXP disk was 
used by the business owner during business hours for work, the Win98 
disk was used by his kid after hours for games) Norton AV was kept 
up-to-date and a daily scan performed of all files on both disks with 
Norton set at the highest Bloodhound level. This was done religiously, 
as the owner is a bit paranoid about keeping his computers running 
well. Right before his Norton subscription ran out, he purchased AVG 
on my recommendation. A scan showed two Trojans on the Win98 disk, 
which Norton had missed just a half hour prior.