My brother is driving me crazy

[Jessie]

He bought a new computer last weekend, and he's called me every day since, mostly when I'm at work, with various questions.

First he wanted to know how to get online.  He thought he could plug into his wall from his ethernet card and be ready to go.  He finally bought an external modem and got an AOL account.  So, he's off and running with his AOL dialup porn surfing.

Now he's called saying that he couldn't get online because of some spyware, and today he called saying he has a virus and can't open IE.

I'm going to burn a cd today with as many freeware/shareware programs as I can and go over there tomorrow and try to make his computer idiot proof.

I'm going to start with Mozilla, AdAware, and SpyBot.  Any other suggestions?

He says he has AV software, but that he has a virus.  So, either he doesn't have the software, he doesn't have the virus (it could easily have been just a pop-up), or he doesn't have auto-protect enabled.

Are there any decent freeware AV programs out there?

[cnamon]

Fly DS out there.  He can fix it.

[dc]

For a free AV program, try Grisoft's AVG.

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

[DownSouth]

Road trip!

[Beefy]

AVG, Zone Alarm, Spy-Bot, Hijack This, Anonymizer

[dc]

The best solution is to take a hammer to his computer.  No more spyware, no more viruses. Problem solved.

[Beefy]

The best solution is to throw a quarter at his computer.  No more spyware, no more viruses. Problem solved.

[ignom]

Jessie's brother:

[Jessie]

Jessie's brother:

Ooo Ooo

[Jessie]

AVG, Zone Alarm, Spy-Bot, Hijack This, Anonymizer

What is Hijack This?

[Jessie]

Anonymizer and ZoneAlarm aren't free.  Too bad for him. 

I can't imagine the damage he'd do with firewall settings, anyway.  He'd be calling me every day because he can't get to his porn.

That's the big issue.  He loves the porn, and the porn sites love the spyware.

[Beefy]

Anonymizer and ZoneAlarm aren't free.  Too bad for him. 

I can't imagine the damage he'd do with firewall settings, anyway.  He'd be calling me every day because he can't get to his porn.

That's the big issue.  He loves the porn, and the porn sites love the spyware.

My Zone Alarm was free. 

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1366,00.asp

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/browse/0,cat,1443,sortIdx,1,pg,1,00.asp

[Jessie]

Do you really need a firewall on dialup?

[Dry then Catch]

i disagree with AVG, i prefer the on-line

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

avg misses a lot and panda takes up no hard drive space

[Dry then Catch]

get a registry cleaner as well

porn blocker

[Beefy]

My AVG/Zone combo has served me a great deal more reliably than the Norton I used to actually pay for.

[Jessie]

get a registry cleaner as well

porn blocker

If I installed a porn blocker, he'd never speak to me again.

[Gamplayerx]

I like AVG. But then, I don't surf a lot of porn.

[Mr. Ubiquity]

Easy answer to your problem


PEBKAC




problem
exists
between
keyboard
and
chair.

[BigDun]

AVG didn't prevent my computer from catching a dozen spyware programs when I was looking up lyrics (be warned, the lyric sites are FULL of spyware). I finally broke down and purchased Norton Anti-Virus and haven't had any problems since.

If nothing else works, have him restore his system from his restore CD. Having only recently gotten the computer he won't lose much. I had to use my restore CD and I didn't lose any data/links/programs from my computer.

[dc]

Do you really need a firewall on dialup?

Using AOL?  Definitely.  AOL gets more port scans than everywhere else.

As to using a resident virus scanner versus an online one, remember that he'll be responsible for regularly going to the site and scanning.  Automatic (resident on the system) would be better to avoid that.  Reqiuring him to do it is where PEBKAC comes into play.

[Mr. Ubiquity]

try using avast.  i found that program to catch some trojans when AVG didnt see anything or a trojan  scanner.


another site to go to is www.castlecops.com  they cover all kinds of firewalls, spyware, ad-ware, security etc. issues.

[Jessie]

Ok, I burned dc's AV, adaware, spybot, zone alarm, and firefox.  Does that cover most of the bases?

[Mr. Ubiquity]

All the bases except first, second, and third.  When can we do those?

[ReBurn]

I've had good luck with avast! antivirus.  It is self-updating and has saved my rear several times.

www.avast.com