Virus Creators are scum.

[rumples riot]

I hope that this has not happened to anyone else, but it happened to me. Some scum bag created a virus which deleted my boot sector on my computer and the crap XP firewall did not detect it, it just let it walk right in and do all the damge it liked.

I lost a day in work and I still have not finished, plus a hard drive.

What does everyone else think of these scum?

Paul

[Rex Grigg]

Sorry about your problem. But I work with people who have broad band connections, don't run a virus checker, open every email attachment they receive, and don't run any type of firewall. And I think that people who don't run virus checkers with up to date definitions and people who don't run REAL firewalls and have broad band connections are sheep in a world of wolves. I have three computers connected to a broad band connection and while I have been getting scanned thousands of times a day with the blaster worm I have yet to be infected. In fact since I started using Windows which was early 1996 I have not had a virus.

Practice safe hex!

[aquaverde]

I notice there are a number of free firewalls avalable out on the web. Is there one that gets your recommendation for use with W2K?

James

[GDominy]

Heh... I work in IT for the government.... I've been removing that damn blaster worm for a week now.. don't even get me started on viruses.....

[Saluki]

You will never completely eliminate the risk of viruses/worms/trojans, etc., but if you do the following, you can minimize your risk greatly:

1. Make sure you keep current on your updates from Microsoft at www.windowsupdate.com . There is a reason they do these updates. They can save your computer if done in a timely fasion.

2. If you have an always-on connection (broadband), get a router, even if you have only one computer. Routers have hard firewalls that are virtually impossible to penetrate. Soft firewalls will always have some vunerabilities.

3. Run your virus software and keep the definitions updated.

4. Keep up on the current viruses. Sometimes getting an update fast will save you from problems.

[aquaverde]

Sounds like good advice. I really need to set something up, as I have blaster on my home computer. NAV found it, but can't get rid of it. There's a fixer that I intend to download at work, but for the future I need to set up some sort of firewall. Don't have broadband, so a router is not going to be an option.

That's why I'm hoping someone can make a recommendation for one of the softwares available.

Like Linux

James

[dosmond]

You can try Zone labs- zone alarm they have both a free version and a pro version and they claim both will stop the blaster virus. I believe the web site is www.zonelabs.com. I'm using the free version and I've never had a problem. Hope this helps

[KyleT]

This is the exact reason why I run 2 firewalls, one hardware and one software. I have tried black-ice and zone alarm before, but now I am using sygate's personal firewall and I have been more impressed with it than the previous 2 mentioned software firewalls. I also keep my virus information up to date and dont' open an attachment unless I know who it is from.

Kyle

[kutothe]

The biggest tip I can give is to turn off the setting that hides known extension types. Click Tools then Folder Options. Then select the View tab. Turn off the check by Hide file extensions for known file types.

You will now be able to see the full filename of all files. If something ends in .vbs (visual basic script), oh dear lord, please do not run it. I've had to fish one to many vbs script infected computers. Also, anything that ends in .scr (screensaver) in an email is usually not good. Another to be skeptical on is .exe (executable).

Remember, even an email from a friend might be a virus that they don't know they are sending. If something looks a little odd, scan it. If it's not a picture, scan it.

[kutothe]

This also makes me think of another good point. Always backup your files.

Harddrives can go at any time, be it from a virus or bad hardware. If you have an extra harddrive, backup crucial files there. If not, backup to cd.

The only problem is having a 200GB harddrive with almost 150GB of it full... time to buy another 200GB drive, I suppose.

[Saluki]

The problem with backing up to a hard drive is that it will be infected too if it is connected to the system. I suppose you could have a USB and/or firewire hard drive, and only connect it when backing up, but it is still not a true back-up because of the inherent frailty of hard drives. Your best bet is CDR (or DVDRW if you are lucky enough to have a recorder) for crucial files. Dont copy the whole drive. You can reconstruct application software from the installation disks. Just copy files that cannot be replaced. This will be a mamoth chore if you have a lot of MP3s and/or mpegs, but it is the safest way.

[Wasserpest]

Just another vote for ZoneAlarm... after some initial setting it just does it's job, and you get a good laugh at the many attempts to get into your computer. And it's basic version is free.
It's in my startup group, no worry about forgetting to start it.

[rumples riot]

Well not to worry people, I did not lose any files, but I lost time that I could have spent working on my business. Now have new hard drive and the old one is a slave. I am just reformating it now. I ended up getting the Panda Antivirus platinum 7.0. It contains a professional firewall and has a virus checker. It found five viruses on the old hard drive and one on the new hard drive. Cleaned them all up and now everything is sweet. I will look into getting a hardware firewall, as this seems to be a good option.

Last night I went to a trusted site and tested my ports for attack. The Panda went off its brain and sealed every point within a second. No traffic in and none out. Once the attack stopped it montiored all ingoing and outgoing. Now it is set correctly I should feel safer.

Incidently I am in the habit of doing backups and I have a CDR to do the backups on. I believe in protecting my info even if it does contain a virus.

Anyway my main gripe is with those out there, who infect the innocent. If they want to annoy people like Bill Gates, why don't they directly attack them instead of acting like cowards and sending a worm to destroy other peoples files.

Or could it be that the Virus scanning Companies are just doing a bit of creative employment, by making the viruses sending them out and then forcing people to purchase their scanners???? Might be a conspiracy theory, but its one that is plausible.

Paul

[KyleT]

Originally Posted by rumples riot

I ended up getting the Panda Antivirus platinum 7.0. It contains a professional firewall and has a virus checker. It found five viruses on the old hard drive and one on the new hard drive. Cleaned them all up and now everything is sweet. I will look into getting a hardware firewall, as this seems to be a good option.

Good choice there. Last year PC World did a test of all the popular virus programs and Panda outperformed all of them in scan time and virus' caught, including Norton and Mcafee. Just some information for you.

Kyle

[Guttboy]

Virus creators SUCK!

Another vote for Zonealarm! Have that on my laptop. Run xp pro firewall and a router hardware fire wall on this machine...zonealarm on the other...they work great.

Mike