I hate virus's

[bishop245]

noob oh wait its taken me a few years to get the hang of ubuntu since I am addicted to windows

[SpikeSoprano]

I just tried Knoppix for the first time about a week ago, has a lot of apps pre installed and you can run it off the disk to see if it's for you, I used it to partition a bad hard drive , worked not bad I must say.

[Phil]

hey, Does anyone know what a good distro of Ubuntu or Linex that is good to start with. I have tried Mint and I cant get the hang on anything,,,, Please help.

Weren't you just gloating about posting from Mint a couple of posts ago?

[jackbrennan2008]

I honestly can't remember the last time I got a virus. It's unfortunate that you got a virus, but for what it's worth these are the steps I take to make sure I'm as air tight as possible on Windows 7:

 

1. Run as a standard user and leave UAC on.

2. Use a quality antivirus like Eset (low memory footprint cheap as chips, fantastic software) I use Microsoft Security Essentials free for family members.

3. Try to stay away from pirated software as much as possible, I can understand for students and low income earners that this can be difficult, but most of the nasty stuff hangs around those type of websites (and dodgy pron sites, so choose your poison with care).

 

Otherwise keep you OS up to date and implement a simple and automated backup plan for valuable data.

 

The last virus I got must have been years ago, running as a standard user pretty much makes you immune to 90% of junk on the internet as long as you don't type in your password to execute an unknown executable.

 

Oh i might also add in that Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 (I'm running 11.10 dual boot) works very well

Edited September 18, 2011 by jackbrennan2008

[VaporX]

 

3. Try to stay away from pirated software as much as possible, I can understand for students and low income earners that this can be difficult, but most of the nasty stuff hangs around those type of websites (and dodgy pron sites, so choose your poison with care).

 

 

I hate people justifying that it is okay to steal. There are great and legal free alternatives to pretty much everything including gaming. If you NEED a specific program that bad then save for it and buy it. Students get HUGE academic discounts so price is a lot less of an issue than people think.

 

While the tips provided are solid I would always suggest going a few steps further. Always use a web based email such as Gmail or Live Mail, these keep the mail and any virus they carry from actually entering your system. Never click on any popup that comes on your screen while browsing, even to cancel unless you KNOW what it is. Finally used a secured DNS server like those offered by OpenDNS and Comodo to block the various malware that uses ads to propagate.

[Waco]

I hate people justifying that it is okay to steal.

Not to completely derail the topic but pirating != stealing.

 

 

While the tips provided are solid I would always suggest going a few steps further. Always use a web based email such as Gmail or Live Mail, these keep the mail and any virus they carry from actually entering your system. Never click on any popup that comes on your screen while browsing, even to cancel unless you KNOW what it is. Finally used a secured DNS server like those offered by OpenDNS and Comodo to block the various malware that uses ads to propagate.

Good suggestions! Remember to remind people that as soon as they download any attachments they are just as vulnerable as if they'd simply had the mail on their machine in the first place. Google's virus scanners are decently effective for common viruses though.

[Stonerboy779]

Also run boot-time scans from time to time I find avast does this well.

 

I remember when my mate broke his wrist and couldnt write. So the school gave him a laptop and it was the slowest and buggiest thing ever. Naturally I did the reasonable thing of installing virus software (after removing something, trend micro or nortan, that was 3 years out of date) completely without schools knowledge or authorization. Then came the boot time scan and well after 20mins and 8000+ infected files message comes up virus chest full and then it refused to log in. To be honest to this day I was amazed it was running at all. It had some nasty viruses that had really made themselves at home.

 

Also had to explain to tech support (two ex year 12s doing some sort of work placement) how to do there job, didn't get in trouble either, somehow. New lappy was given to my mate and the old one was reformatted and fresh instal done.

[jackbrennan2008]

I hate people justifying that it is okay to steal. There are great and legal free alternatives to pretty much everything including gaming. If you NEED a specific program that bad then save for it and buy it. Students get HUGE academic discounts so price is a lot less of an issue than people think.

 

I didn't justify stealing i said "I can understand for students and low income earners that this can be difficult" where did i say i condone stealing?

 

I stated that for people with less disposable income pirated software can seem like a nice way to get a software package; simply stating a reality isn't condoning anything. Also considering i was telling people to stay away from pirated software i really don't understand how you came to the conslusion that i was justifying pirated software for certain groups?

[cirro]

id rather reinstall windows and run on a fresh copy than bog down my performance with memory hogging nonstop processes.

 

i dont keep anything really of value on my windows drive. never had anything jump to seperate hard drives.

 

after what happened to XP & spyware, anything i have experienced with 7 is tolerable lol.