nortons sucks

get avg from here: http://free.grisoft.com/

free and more lightweight and does the job.

sounds like the damage has already been done. do you update your virus definition files often? you should be able to configure any a.v. software to do this automatically.

can you backup to an external hard drive, rebuild and then install something like symantec? some sort of intrusion protection (like blackice) might be worth getting too.

horsefucker will post here in a sec and contradict everything i've just send.

Anony - I knew you would be the one to come to my rescue.

This is no fun.

do the reverse of whatever ken is about to say

crap, he beat me

there is a free downloadable one... i got it on mine. "avg" ... granted - i know nothing about computers.

Sir Ken, I backed everything up and rebuilt on Tuesday.

Last night, I reinstalled Nortons AV 07 and then the clunky processing commenced immediately afterwards.

Prior to that, all my programs seamlessly with no delay.

What is blackice please?

more here

take off nortons

restart

install avg

restart

do a scan.

probably not viruses per se, probably just nortons being retarded.

i'll fix you up on the weekend billybob.

hmm...sounds fucked, bb.

maybe do what anonymous said.
blackice is just an intrusion protection program and personal firewall. i use it, but i didn't have to pay for it.
zonealarm is free, and apparently very good:

Thanks you Lane

And thank you anonymous. You're a champion. X

Cheers Ken.

And applecrunch, you have done quite enough for one week young lady.

bah!

anonymous/horse/etc, does Norton 'cause' crashes? My system is clean (i.e. no viruses etc), S&D is run regularly, and yet it still carks it, probably once or twice a week. Painful.

Wow! Not one snooty BUY A MAC yet... Amazing!

BUY A MAC!

/snoot

I'm gonna become a programming genius and write a killer Mac virus to explode all your hard drives.

Nah, Modi, just make it so the paperclip keeps asking things like "It looks like you're trying to be an elitist fucklord, would you like some help?" and when you click "no", it installs a Windows ME emulator.

Hahahaha.

Yep.

And says "All your OS are belong to us"

Ok Modi, you just took it too far.

OH NOES!!!!!

*apple E!!!! apple E!!!!*

dude... You did asterix without italicising?!?! HE'S A WITCH!!!!

Someone set up us the Internet Explorer!

*I is teh warlock of teh markups*

• wooooooooooooooo *

Bloody apprentice, get out of my tower!!!!

You have no chance to survive, make your quicktime

like 66er says

buy a mac

yes, buy a mac

Or just try Ubuntu & don't buy anything. Get the Mac benefits without the cost.

Crashes could be anything Clem, overheating, bad memory, conflicting programs/drivers, malware. Might be worth trying the fully working trial version of System Mechanic to see if it fixes things.

Argh, how do I make MemTest run? Sad face, my computer is dying. I feel like I'm in the intensive care ward, watching someone drift in and out.

Posting on M+N in safe mode, surely that deserves some kind of medal?

*pins medal on clem's chest*

*cops feel*

*runs away*

memtest? it's a ram tester, why do you need to run that?

it's a free downloadable program that you can get from here

or here. this one seems to be a bit more highclass and reliable than the first link.

Clem, there's some details on how to dl & run memtest here. Memtest needs to be run from a "bootable" item like a floppy disk, cd, or flash disk (ie: so there is no operating system running).

It may be worth trying to get hold of an Ubuntu "Live CD" that you could boot & see if your PC/laptop works & does what you need it to do. In addition to giving you a good, stable operating system to try, the Ubuntu Live CD will already have a memtest item to run as you boot it up. Could save some hassle by doing it this way.

I can burn up an Ubuntu Live CD if you can't get it anywhere else (newsagent PC magazines sometimes have "Live CD/DVDs" on their giveaway disks). You can also dl Ubuntu as a 700 Mb iso file that you burn to a CD as an "image file" using your Nero type program. This then becomes a "Live" bootable CD.

If Ubuntu doesn't crash then you can consider that it's a fair chance that Windows XP that's giving you the problem. If Ubuntu doesn't run then there's a fair chance that your pc hardware may be at fault somewhere.

Oh my god, I want to MARRY System Mechanic. I liked it so much I went home and "did" the old computer (family one); 2.48 GB of clutter, woo hoo!

glad to hear Clem, hope it might get your pc working well enough that you don't have to try all that other crap I've rabbitted on about. PCs are sometimes just painful...

Which antivirus / internet security would you folk stick on a netbook?
Everything wants to come with Norton. Apparently the netbook version is designed not to be system heavy, but... Norton has always irked me & I'd like alternatives to consider.

i'd like to hear this too actually.

i got a new laptop yesterday (via blessed insurance) and had my first experience with that whole packaged windows thing (windows 7). i had to use task manager to close the 'activate nortons' window that eventually came up, all other options to close were unavailable and there was no cancel option. promptly uninstalled it (i hope) and then went to avg's site only to find that they've basically turned into a web site that tries to trick users into installing all kinds of other crap they don't need. also surprised that the installation downloads ballooned out to ~70Mb these days.

what's the next free, and most importantly light weight virus software that's come along to the party (used to be avg, clearly isn't anymore).

they're almost as bad as viruses themselves these days.

oh also kcor, i had a eeepc replaced in this insurance bizzo as well. have you considered the ubuntu netbook remix? i installed it last night and it's a pleasure. it'll certainly solve your anti virus problem.

free virus software is not worth the cost savings. it's like hiring a security guard and paying them nothing.

I've never had any portable computing device so am starting with zero information in regards to which what where etc. Have more or less decided on an Eee, though a couple o people have recommended Toshiba.
Am looking at this ubuntu doodad now. Many thanks! Yep yep yep-yep-yep. Uhu.

Another recommendation for eeebuntu. Worked out of the box (and with better network throughput than XP - odd).

If you're dual-booting it, make sure you press Fn-F2 when you go back into Windows, as it seems to turn off the wireless networking on reboot.

I'm running AVG on my eee though, and it seems fine. Didn't need a huge installer, either...?

clamwin is cool, though its not in memory, so you have to do scans (or at least schedule them)

pretty up to day db and is free.

I went with AVG. Fixed the shit right up.

Do you think I can and it's safe to uninstall Mcafee now? It fucking shits me and makes it run like a dog.

my Trend Micro just run out...

anybody got a Serial Key for 2010 i can use... or can I find them on the web??

or should i just go and pay for one?

I guess i need to install the 2010 version form a program disc anyhoo huh?

?

Fuck paying for it.

AVG + Spybot Search and Destroy + AdAware = Super happy free fun times.

Spybot can give false positives, though, so be careful: my brother borked his computer with it, but YMMV.

hmmm... so what should i do then?

Use AVG Free. That's what I use (well, that and CCleaner, on occasion, in tandem with Adblocker Plus and NoScript on Firefox) and it works fine for me.

so you use 4 programs?

Not at once. CCleaner is a HD/registry de-crapifier (which you could skip, but it does free up a lot of space and fix a lot of reg problems) and the other two are plugins for my browser, so they run when FFX runs (and save me from seeing those shitty ads on here that seem to cause so much discontent).

If you want free antivirus software, just choose one. You don't neeed an ad blocker or script blocker, but they're useful in reducing the amount of a) crap you see online and b) possibility of trojan/virus/crossscripting/whatever.

Spybot can give false positives, though, so be careful: my brother borked his computer with it, but YMMV.

It's not just the free ones that can fail in that way; I once ate a computer with McAfee when they pushed out an update that gave false positives on some critical parts of the operating system.

so you use 4 programs?

For the free stuff, i use three. AVG for viruses (daily), and the other two for adware, malware and trojans and shit.

But, when it comes to the Interwebs, it's best to be like a catholic - the only way to entirely avoid getting dodgy shit on your computer is to avoid dodgy sites.

downloading the AVG now

will i have to remove the Trend Micro so it doesnt keep asking me to re-subscribe?

I use 3 on the PC network..

a paid one.. CA INTERNET SECURITY SUITE (spread on 3 computers across the network)

and 2 free ones

SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Superantispyware sometimes picks up things that Anti-Malware won't.

Botched antivirus knocks out 10% of Coles registers
ASHER MOSES
April 22, 2010 - 2:55PM

  Comments 32

Havoc descended on Coles stores across the country this morning after 10 per cent of the company's cash registers were knocked out by a botched McAfee anti-virus update.

Virgin Mobile was also affected, a spokeswoman for the company confirmed, but she did not know off hand how many computers were knocked out.

The routine anti-virus update confused a valid Windows file with a virus, disrupting millions of computers around the world.

Universities, hospitals and businesses were among those reporting problems after the update misidentified a valid Windows system file as malicious code and caused computers to continually reboot.

Coles spokesman Jim Cooper confirmed today that 1100, or 10 per cent, of Coles's cash registers were knocked out by the issue.

''It's a moveable feast with us but we have been affected by it - so it's been a pretty tough morning out there,'' Cooper said.

''The registers that were affected couldn't be operated and there were a number of stores that actually had to be closed because there were too many registers down in those stores for the store to be able to trade.

''So at this stage it's been 14-18 stores [that] were closed at any point in time. Some of them are still closed. Most of them are coming back online as we speak.''

Cooper said the issue predominantly affected stores in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia.

It is not clear how many other Australian businesses were affected but it is believed the issue is widespread among McAfee's business customers. Several affected workers in Australia have vented on Twitter.

The problem hit corporate users of Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 3 operating system, according to McAfee, which released another update later in the day to fix the problem and urged customers to download it.

The Internet Storm Centre, an initiative of the SANS Technology Institute which monitors problems on the web, said ''the affected systems will enter a reboot loop and lose all network access''.

The centre said it received reports of ''networks with thousands of down machines and organisations who had to shut down for business until this is fixed''.

The McAfee software slip ''pretty much took Intel down today'', said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

Enderle told of being at the computer chip titan's headquarters in Northern California for an afternoon of meetings when laptop computers began crashing around him.

''Much of Intel was actually taken out,'' Enderle told AFP. ''I imagine most companies running Intel and McAfee were literally taken out.''

But McAfee's head of global support, Barry McPherson, said the company believed less than one half of 1 per cent of its enterprise accounts globally were affected.

Is zone alarm any good?

Works a treat.