Kleenex

[don]

I think it worth mention to those who have nothing better to do that they could waste some of their own valuable time cleaning up their own systems using easilly available and free programs like spybot (to name one), these are people who should read Patti's latest MOTD.

You go Patti!


+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|
| If you're a Windows user, please scan your system for viruses.
|                                                                
| My fibs.com email address is getting a triple-digit number of      
| viruses sent to it every day.  I've been able to trace some of    
| them to specific FIBSsters, and have gotten them to clean their    
| machines, but I can't identify the sender of most of them.        
|                                                                    
| If a specific address continues to send me lots of viruses, I'll  
| ban it from FIBS to get the sender's attention until the machine  
| is cleaned.                                                        
|                                                                    
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[JonJon]

Well how bout some links there Don.....

[burper]

It's getting tougher and tougher. These damn viruses are mutating so fast now the AV companies can barely keep up with writing the new signatures! Add to that, that on on modern machines with 40-80 Gb drives typical, it takes a loong time to run the scans. Having to do it daily is becoming a burden!

don mentions that AV software is available for free, but I don't think there is any decent AV software for free. He mentions spybot, which is  in the class of a spyware/adware removal tool. I think the problems Patti is having is from a viruses that hijacks peoples' machine for the purpose of sending out bulk spam.

In addition to AV software, I run both spybot and ad-aware, as I find they discover a different set of things. I haven't heard of any other software in this class that has the reputation these two do.

spybot:
http://www.safer-networking.org/

ad-aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

I also recommend people use mozilla or netscape (both free) for browsing and email rather than use IE/Outlook, or get a mac!

[amarganth]

There exists a free AntiVirus software (for all Windows Versions):

English version at http://www.free-av.com.
German version at http://www.free-av.de.

I haven't installed it, but I've heard good things about it.

Enjoy!

[NIHILIST]

Also try Swat It, a trojan horse finder/removal tool.

NIHI

[maturin]

I use Free AV and find it very good... but then I'm behind a router, too......