pity?

I don't see how bragging about how another platform "doesn't suffer from viruses" is intended to help the OP. Of course, the idea is to entice them to switch, but alas, the question wasn't "How do I get rid of Windows?", so I would think that it may not be an option.


Personally, I've been using eSet NOD32 for a few years now and I rather enjoy its low CPU utilization for its active background scanner because its written in Assembly, and it seems to have the best scanning protection around. They were voted number one in virus protection and scanning speeds for a couple years running.

For malware/spyware, I like to use a dual combination of Ad-Aware and Seek & Destroy (love the Metallica song by the same name too!). I have no problems on any of the machines I manage with this combination plus the AV scanner mentioned above.

this is what i used for a longtime.. eset/nod32 is not the best.. but good enough and as u get it with firewall now, it does a darn good work stopping attacks. and does not bother you to much. It has saved me at least 3 times.. and yes in combo with ad-aware you will be protected.. only problem is protection from root kits. well that was a problem when i used it.. it has prolly changed in latest version. Low footprint as mentioned above + a long history of making a-virus program (the original creators, as i remember, was active way back when amiga was active :) )

overall high score by me :)


Brgds Dagar

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This morning my online bank did not allow me to make a payment. I telephoned them to ask why and they told me there had been a phishing attack. I had warned them of this attack and immediately changed my password. This morning they told me to change again the password via telephone and not via Internet because they were afraid I might have a virus on my PC. I told them I was using Linux but had to obey and change again the password via telephone. Then I phoned again the bank and they unblocked my account,so I made the payment.
But a Linux user is a kind of white elephant for most banking accounts.
Tullio

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I'm willing to be that the folks you talked to at the bank didnt understand what a linux OS is let alone that it can't be infected by a windows virus.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I'm willing to be that the folks you talked to at the bank didnt understand what a linux OS is let alone that it can't be infected by a windows virus.

Yes, sure. They insisted that I made a virus scan and I had to explain them that I had no antivirus on my system.

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Let me guess. they then explained that your system was not secure and blah blah blah you aren't going to get to connect to their site.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Let me guess. they then explained that your system was not secure and blah blah blah you aren't going to get to connect to their site.

Yes. And I had to explain them that I am 74 years old and live 15 km away from their office, so they let me in.

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... I had to explain them that I had no antivirus on my system.

I bet they were utterly horrified at that in their utter obliviousness :-)


A some good Doctor is sure to have said:

'Tis better to cure the disease rather than treat the symptoms.


My best advice for remote banking is to use "telephone banking" if you can put up with the robot voice and "press option 1...". That method of access is far far too slow and expensive for the external spammers to hack.

(Avoid the human operator call-centre banking also. Error prone, frustrating, and you can get your id details copied...)


Good luck,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I'm willing to be that the folks you talked to at the bank didnt understand what a linux OS is let alone that it can't be infected by a windows virus.

Yes, sure. They insisted that I made a virus scan and I had to explain them that I had no antivirus on my system.

The agent at the bank is likely very little more than a phone jockey, working off of a script.

They would not know the difference between a phishing attack and a virus, nor do they care, they read the script. Script says "tell the customer to do a virus scan" when a phishing attempt is not a virus.

So, you need your own counter-script. When they say "run a virus scan" you say "of course" or "I'm already doing that."

These people are not allowed to think. They are required to mindlessly follow the script, even if they know better.

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I had to recur to telephone banking to change my password. But my voice was not recognized, so I had to recur to pushing the asterisk symbol and digit my new password on the phone. How much secure this is I do not know but they asked me to do it. I have the habit of telling the truth and this has already cost me a good deal in my life. But my parents taught me so. Sorry and thanks.
Tullio

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In any event, my personal favorite right at the moment is Avast!. It generally gets good reviews for detection performance, and is one of the few remaining that you can use on older systems without bringing them to their knees with a lot of unneeded background overhead and a sluggish UI.

Alinator

I have had just over 16 years experience in both hardware and software tech fields. I have dealt with small to big worms/trojans/malware/spyware/virii, in removal and testing with applications and manually.

As far as *my opinions of McAfee and Norton.. They are like a wad of bubblegum in your OS.

I have used various antivirus, anti- trojan/spyware/malware/etc applications. My most recent switch was from Comodo to Avast. I have used Avast in the past too. Currently it seems to be working flawlessly on my 64bit OS.

Avast seems to accel in preventing website based infections. While using Avast, I have found sites (gray area/hat here :) that i was visiting that were running infectious methods through gif/scripts/etc (many more methods than I thought). Those sites were never detected/prevented while using comodo or avg. Avast prompts immediately to terminate connection to the site, (I am guessing also has a log of harmful sites too, that supercede the browser securities of I.E./Firefox), preventing the site from even displaying if it is unsafe or is a reported attack site.

On a fresh install of xp pro x64 avast runs smoothly and seems to be very lightweight. Avast is also catching/preventing a lot of web based infections that others are not, currently. So it's my current choice and reccomendation.

In any event, my personal favorite right at the moment is Avast!. It generally gets good reviews for detection performance, and is one of the few remaining that you can use on older systems without bringing them to their knees with a lot of unneeded background overhead and a sluggish UI.

Alinator

I have had just over 16 years experience in both hardware and software tech fields. I have dealt with small to big worms/trojans/malware/spyware/virii, in removal and testing with applications and manually.

As far as *my opinions of McAfee and Norton.. They are like a wad of bubblegum in your OS.

I have used various antivirus, anti- trojan/spyware/malware/etc applications. My most recent switch was from Comodo to Avast. I have used Avast in the past too. Currently it seems to be working flawlessly on my 64bit OS.

Avast seems to accel in preventing website based infections. While using Avast, I have found sites (gray area/hat here :) that i was visiting that were running infectious methods through gif/scripts/etc (many more methods than I thought). Those sites were never detected/prevented while using comodo or avg. Avast prompts immediately to terminate connection to the site, (I am guessing also has a log of harmful sites too, that supercede the browser securities of I.E./Firefox), preventing the site from even displaying if it is unsafe or is a reported attack site.

On a fresh install of xp pro x64 avast runs smoothly and seems to be very lightweight. Avast is also catching/preventing a lot of web based infections that others are not, currently. So it's my current choice and reccomendation.

running spybot with immunization and teatimer on do about the same thing

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Get yer ANTIVIRUS fix here:

Securing the Desktop: Eight Internet Security Suites


I run none of that rubbish! No need to and a silly waste to do so.

Happy (fast clean) crunchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

except that most of viruses etc now, cones through javascript in normal web pages, so it is not related to windows but all computers which allow to use javascript, so beware linux users, there is a new kid an a block.(and it will bully you)

Use Firefox and add NoScript.
Tullio

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Use Firefox and add NoScript.
Tullio

NoScript will only help one after the fact, Not before You go to a website, Unless You want to stop all scripts from a website before You get there and then You'd be throwing the Baby out with the bath water.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

NoScript blocks all scripts except those coming from sites in your whitelist. So if you go to an unknown site it will ask you for a permission to execute its scripts, one by one. Sometimes it takes ten minutes if you do.
Tullio

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yes, but new attacks comes through links, which happen to be whiter than white, they can put their code to innocent web page, and it starts when you just open attacked page.

Like this:
beladen
What do you suggest?
Tullio
Also here:
The Register

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hard to tell what was on those links, i read that on paper, but i suggest that was same kind of thing, fortunately for me i visit only here and then my two accounts of mail and facebook and myspace account, so i really don+´t surf anywhere, so i am quite safe here, and don´t like cold water either, so surfing is out of question, succestion: do not surf, live a life instead.