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Thread: Computer woes, computer wizards.

  1. #16
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Just a word to the wise. Benny Hinn, the Faith healer, came to my town for a revival a while back. I figured if he could do this for humans, just imagine what he could do for my computer!



    Alas no. His techniques were somewhat less effective with computers.

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    Last edited by DaveP; Thu, May 24th, 2012 at 08:51 PM.

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    Canadian Guru hollyquaiscer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DaveP View Post
    I don't have a laptop, so unfortunately can't help with that one. Anybody else?
    I downloaded on of the links you put up, and amazingly after it cleaned like 397,876 errors
    it hasn't happened since, so I will keep my fingers crossed.
    DaveP likes this.
    We all need a little sunshine every now and then

  3. #18
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hollyquaiscer View Post
    I downloaded on of the links you put up, and amazingly after it cleaned like 397,876 errors
    it hasn't happened since, so I will keep my fingers crossed.


    I hope whatever the problem was, is now fixed. Wow, that's alot of errors!

  4. #19
    Canadian Guru macw1960's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoJays View Post
    yes, you download avast once but every year you have to re-register it (don't worry, it's free), it updates automatically while you're online (scared the crap outta me the first time lol), they also send you notices when you have to download an upgrade
    malwarebytes you update every couple/few days before you run a check on your system, they're both easy peasy programs

    So, basically I don't have to try and figure out how to load this McAfee Anti Virus 2012 that I have as 1 of the above links will do the exact same thing. If so, which one is the best?





    No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever forgotten...Aesop

  5. #20
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by macw1960 View Post
    So, basically I don't have to try and figure out how to load this McAfee Anti Virus 2012 that I have as 1 of the above links will do the exact same thing. If so, which one is the best?
    Avast and Malwarebytes. Use both.

  6. #21
    Canadian Guru macw1960's Avatar
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    Thank you. I now have a project for the weekend as I won't be home tomorrow.





    No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever forgotten...Aesop

  7. #22
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by macw1960 View Post
    Thank you. I now have a project for the weekend as I won't be home tomorrow.
    If McAfee is still installed on your computer, uninstall it before installing Avast. Anti-virus programs don't like each other.

  8. #23
    . DH666's Avatar
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    I use Norton, but that's because I'm in the business and get it for free.

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by DH666 View Post
    I use Norton, but that's because I'm in the business and get it for free.
    Well it works and we've only had 1 problem in all the years

  10. #25
    Canadian Guru macw1960's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DaveP View Post
    If McAfee is still installed on your computer, uninstall it before installing Avast. Anti-virus programs don't like each other.
    Good to know, thanks again.





    No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever forgotten...Aesop

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    Misanthrope GoJays's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by macw1960 View Post
    So, basically I don't have to try and figure out how to load this McAfee Anti Virus 2012 that I have as 1 of the above links will do the exact same thing. If so, which one is the best?
    mcafee is the scourge of the world of anti-virus programs.. i suggest you run it over with a big truck... or even a tank, if you can get your hands on one
    hollyquaiscer and DaveP like this.

  12. #27
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoJays View Post
    mcafee is the scourge of the world of anti-virus programs.. i suggest you run it over with a big truck... or even a tank, if you can get your hands on one
    McAfee must die.

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  13. #28
    Senior Canuck Speckled28's Avatar
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    I love this thread!! Especially since I just posted a week or two ago looking for information on anti-virus programs! Great to see that there's a few of the free ones that seem to work well! I always thought paying $50+ a year was a bit of a money grab.

    I've been using Norton for years.....but as my laptop ages (significantly, lol) I've found that everything is running slower and slower. I do realize this happens with older computers anyway.....but from everything I've read Norton certainly won't help with keeping things speedy, lol.
    Natalka, hollyquaiscer and GoJays like this.

  14. #29
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Speckled28 View Post
    I've been using Norton for years.....but as my laptop ages (significantly, lol) I've found that everything is running slower and slower. I do realize this happens with older computers anyway.....but from everything I've read Norton certainly won't help with keeping things speedy, lol.
    Download CCleaner and run it. Gets rid of the tons of junk that slow down your computer. I just ran it and removed over 3,300 MB of crap. You'll see a difference.

    Edit: CCleaner isn't anti-virus, it gets rid of temp internet files, internet history, empties the recycle bin - that sort of thing. Frees up memory and makes things run smoother and faster. You still need anti-virus in addition to CCleaner.

    Double edit: It will also delete cookies, so if you want to keep them uncheck them as something to be cleaned from the browsers you use. Before it runs it will show you a list of what it's going to go after. Super easy to uncheck what you want saved and it will leave that alone.
    Last edited by DaveP; Sat, May 26th, 2012 at 01:25 AM.
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  15. #30
    Canadian Guru DaveP's Avatar
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    Ran across this on foxnews.com.

    Google warns hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July

    WASHINGTON – Google plans to warn more than half a million users of a computer infection that may knock their computers off the Internet this summer.

    Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system will be shut down July 9 -- killing connections for those people.

    The FBI has run an impressive campaign for months, encouraging people to visit a website that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

    On Tuesday, May 22, Google announced it would throw its weight into the awareness campaign, rolling out alerts to users via a special message that will appear at the top of the Google search results page for users with affected computers, CNET reported.

    “We believe directly messaging affected users on a trusted site and in their preferred language will produce the best possible results,” wrote Google security engineer Damian Menscher in a post on the company’s security blog.

    “If more devices are cleaned and steps are taken to better secure the machines against further abuse, the notification effort will be well worth it,” he wrote.

    The challenge, and the reason for the awareness campaigns: Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

    Last November, when the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers, the agency realized this may become an issue.

    "We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get `page not found' and think the Internet is broken."

    On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers.

    But it wasn't enough time.

    A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.

    Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem." And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.

    'We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands...'

    - Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent

    This is what happened:

    Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.

    The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address -- such as http://www.foxnews.com -- into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.

    The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.

    When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.

    The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

    Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

    FBI officials said they organized an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the Internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won't be the last.

    "This is the future of what we will be doing," said Eric Strom, a unit chief in the FBI's Cyber Division. "Until there is a change in legal system, both inside and outside the United States, to get up to speed with the cyber problem, we will have to go down these paths, trail-blazing if you will, on these types of investigations."

    Now, he said, every time the agency gets near the end of a cyber case, "we get to the point where we say, how are we going to do this, how are we going to clean the system" without creating a bigger mess than before.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report
    Here is the link for Canada to check if your computer is affected:

    http://www.dns-ok.ca/

    I checked and my computer isn't one of the affected ones.

    Only takes a few seconds to check.
    Last edited by DaveP; Sat, May 26th, 2012 at 07:57 PM.

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