Help!

[Biz1]

It's Christmas Eve and my former employer just unsubscribed my remote anti-viral/firewall on this computer which means I am on the internet right now unprotected. I'm switching computers(I have 2 notebooks and the other one is protected with completely different software).
Can anyone recommend the best online purchase of anti-viral/spyware?. I really don't feel like driving to Office Depot to buy a disk. I'm running windows XP software, I hate Vista plus Microsoft either has/is coming out with new windows software. Actually, I'm on the microsoft site right now. They have a new version 7 I might try.

Meanwhile, Windows on my end wants me to install a firewall and I keep getting Windows security alerts that I'm already infected, yet I have no problems with internet lag.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm looking for a top notch paid subscription on the anti-viral etc.

Merry Christmas all!

Biz

[frauschieze]

Start near the middle of this thread and read:

http://broncosforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=613997&highlight=anti-virus#post613997

[Biz1]

It turned out the entire computer needed a tune-up on software, it's now at Geek Squad for the next 3-5 days.

[UDX]

It looks like you got infected with the Antivirus Pro.

Tell you what, since you use XP - and if you browse internet a lot - no matter what antivirus software you come up with; virus is always "newer" than the antivirus.

Therefore just like you go to a dentist to clean the teeth, for computers there might be a better strategy. Use a software called Ghost 2003 - you make an image of your system - that is clean and setup the way you want it and keep the data on a different partition or so.

(for example C: is your main drive, D: is data, E: is for your Ghost image).

Then you create an image (just like software companies do when you purchase a computer) and any time you get infected or so - you just restore an image. That way you probably never have to buy an antivirus software. I have been doing it for months and it works for me (every virus I get hit with I am "clean" within 30 minutes).

This is probably the best "prevent" software ever made but people never got a hang of it since most of it is DOS based.

Another strategy is to use a Virtual PC just for browsing, but that can get more complicated with internet sharing, compressing Virtual PC file, decompressing (rar must be used if your virtual pc file size is greater than 4 Gig).

Anyways, let me know if I can help.

[Biz1]

It looks like you got infected with the Antivirus Pro.

Tell you what, since you use XP - and if you browse internet a lot - no matter what antivirus software you come up with; virus is always "newer" than the antivirus.

Therefore just like you go to a dentist to clean the teeth, for computers there might be a better strategy. Use a software called Ghost 2003 - you make an image of your system - that is clean and setup the way you want it and keep the data on a different partition or so.

(for example C: is your main drive, D: is data, E: is for your Ghost image).

Then you create an image (just like software companies do when you purchase a computer) and any time you get infected or so - you just restore an image. That way you probably never have to buy an antivirus software. I have been doing it for months and it works for me (every virus I get hit with I am "clean" within 30 minutes).

This is probably the best "prevent" software ever made but people never got a hang of it since most of it is DOS based.

Another strategy is to use a Virtual PC just for browsing, but that can get more complicated with internet sharing, compressing Virtual PC file, decompressing (rar must be used if your virtual pc file size is greater than 4 Gig).

Anyways, let me know if I can help.

Yes, it was the Anti-virus pro. It actually got through my government installed Norton package. Basically, the virus takes over the computer and holds it hostage. It even demands a ransom in effect by advertising some worthless anti-viral package.

Thanks for the response over the Christmas Holiday. Since it was working just fine before the virus, I might be able to save about $100 by just performing a removal.:beer: