Hello,
I've been a bad boy and used warez (multiple times). I've since seen the light but I am concerned that trojans, viruses, and/or worms have permanently entrenched themselves on the HD.
Short of a low level format, what are my options? Are antivirus programs sophisticated enough to remove everything? Are some better than others, meaning I'd have to use more than one?
From what I understand of trojans, they're extremely difficult to discover if not impossible until they've been opened/installed.
I'm guessing my punishment is that I'll have to reinstall everything anew. BTW, I have two computers, one with Win98 and the other is a multiboot with WinME and Win2k. I've never detected anything in my scans with NAV or Trend Micro's Housecall Online.
Give me some good news, please.
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thanks fixit164
I know what Ad-aware and Spybot do and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the dangers in warez.
I'm looking for a more technical response along the lines of: NAV will remove A, B, , and C but not D. McAfee will remove D. Ad-aware will remove E and F. Nothing will find G and H.
Is it possible to completely "disinfect" my computer? Yes or no?
Yes, just make sure your NAV is up to date with all the latest patches and run the latest version of adaware and you will be fine. That's what I use and that's what multi-billion dollar corporations use. If you need to be any more sure than that, then reinstalling windows won't help either. It's going to involve a low level forensic scan that you probably aren't willing to pay for and.
http://housecall.trendmicr
This is a free online virus scan. For those who wonder about the integrity of their own anti virus program. You may have to accept a small file download before you can begin.
TYLEY... "I've never detected anything in my scans with NAV or Trend Micro's Housecall Online."
Well - here's the good news, if you did run Trend Micro's housecall, then you don't have a virus / backdoor / trojan on your hd.
Maybe you should find out, if you still got any add-ware
Ad-aware Standard Edition is THE award winning, free*, multicomponent adware detection and removal utility:
http://www.lavasoft.de/sof
BTW - here's how to protect you in the future:
Use this free online Trend Housecall scannner to find and clean every known virus/rootkits/backdoors:
http://housecall.trendmicr
Some viruses can't be removed by housecall. If so, use the free Trend Micro system cleaner:
http://www.trendmicro.com/
If you want to secure your one workstation in the future, consider to purchase PC-cillin with builtin firewall:
http://www.trendmicro.com/
If you want to secure your company's workstations in the future, consider to purchase OfficeScan:
http://www.trendmicro.com/
If you can afford it, you can get an url-scanning engine installed on a server with workstation, server-, email and url-scanning engine from
http://www.trendmicro.com/
Review of the best antivirus solutions:
http://www.cnet.com/softwa
Download the free version of ZoneAlarm firewall
http://www.zonelabs.com/st
Many Regards
Jorgen Malmgren
IT-Supervisor
Denmark
:o) Your brain is like a parachute. It works best when it's open
Hi ok is it possible to completely disinfect my computer Well no to do that you need to distroy the HD. The diffrent AV products that there are all pretty much catch the same forms of malware nortons mcafee trend even panda will have pattern files for the viruses, trojans and worms that are running around out there. How ever there are some forms of malware that none of these companys can do anything with so then you would need to have a really good knowledge of what to look for to clean them up yourself. However doing a reformat and install of your operating system and software would be the way to go if you want to make sure your clean. If you have run the Av product you have on your system and it found nothing you would be pretty safe to say your computer is ok that combined with running your system through the other free programs offered by symatic, mcafee, panda and trend all showing nothing then if it was me i would be pretty sure my system was fine. If you need more let me know hope this helps.
DOMINICCRONIN..."unknown to the makers of Housecall"
If so - unknown to every other antivirus software
http://www.trendmicro.com/
:o) TYLEY - did you search for any AddWare ??
trywaredk - Yes, Of course, but you said "If you did run Trend Micro's housecall, then you don't have a virus / backdoor / trojan on your hd.",
which is of course, not true. The whole point about viruses (virii, if anyone's feeling pedantic) is that the bac guys are constantly trying to
come up with new ways of defeating anti-virus software. Not all that infrequently, they succeed. You just can't make statements like
"you don't have a virus". Especially in a forum like this - where there is a mixed level of ability, someone could easily take you literally.
Anyway - let's not get into an argument - I'm sure we all have the best intentions, but as I said - it's very easy for people to misunderstand
each other. Actually - I think I owe you an apology, because in retrospect, the tone of my last posting didn't really contribute much to the discussion.
tyley:
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by: fixit164Posted on 2003-05-13 at 18:39:30ID: 8521779
Hi if your AV didnt find anything you can be pretty sure you are safe but its never 100% there could be something hidden on your system that could come up to bite you. There are 2 more things you can do to see if your ok http://security.kolla.de/ http://www.lavasoft.de/sup