Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Lizzie_Zoom on 13 January 2015, 17:17:38
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My friends pc had become very infected with malware and viruses galore after frequently downloading "free games" from the internet and the like off of Facebook, etc, etc.
I tried to manually to clear it all, but the bloody adverts, often shaking, along with warnings about "slow running PC", and the so called "search engine" Websearch kept on taking over, and making her PC unworkable, still were doing their worst. Spoke eventually to the computer building and programming company who built both of our PC's and they said it takes them "hours" to clear the worst infected systems. However was advised to try the Malwarebytes Corporation anti malware and everything else paid for (£18 PA for 3 PC's) package.
Downloaded it to her computer and installed. It took a few scans and reboots, but this programme was marvellous with all the infections being cleared. Her PC now runs like it should with no corruption of internet searches!
Bloody great! I would highly recommend for the many who apparently suffer from these dreadful attacks to their PC! :y :y :y :y :y
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I always use the free version at least a couple of times a week.
I wonder what the paid for version offers over the free one?
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I always use the free version at least a couple of times a week.
I wonder what the paid for version offers over the free one?
Ditto, been using it for years, good bit of kit. :y
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Ive recently uninstalled Malwarebytes (free version) and Avast (free version) and installed MS Security Essentials (free) which includes anti spyware as well as anti virus.
Apart from speeding lappy up.....I shall see how it performs :y But pleased so far :)
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Paid one can do realtime antimalware
I use Ms security essentials, with malwarebytes free for occasional scans
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Paid one can do realtime antimalware
I use Ms security essentials, with malwarebytes free for occasional scans
......and more. See the list on here:
https://www.malwarebytes.org/lp/lp4/02_r/?gclid=CO-y64DQkcMCFQrpwgod9BMAWA
For under £18 per year for up to 3 PC's I cannot see why not to buy the premium package for the extra advantages :y :y
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Paid one can do realtime antimalware
I use Ms security essentials, with malwarebytes free for occasional scans
Me too. Malwarebytes gets on me tit a bit, though. Telling me my licence has run out and I've only got the free version. I KNOW!
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The free version is fine Lizzy, just doesn't give realtime protection but the Scan is the same, ideally a full Treat Scan with all 3 options ticked in Settings/Detection Options/ to include Root Kits and best done in Safe Mode. ;)
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Recommended here too, paid for version well worth it imo.
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Learn how to use a computer on the Internet and you'll never require any form of protection.
They are just Memory Hungry (TSR for the old school) Resource hungry applications which are not required.
I've recovered many a system (usually Vista, XP, Win7) from the brink of death when so called 'experts' charging proper money have failed by simply editing the registry and only allowing Windows to boot what I tell it to load.
A simple and fool-proof method is to find out what is loading during start-up using 'msconfig' and disabling them from that application. To double bag the situation, manually change the .exe filename and it'll never start again!
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Learn how to use a computer on the Internet and you'll never require any form of protection.
They are just Memory Hungry (TSR for the old school) Resource hungry applications which are not required.
I've recovered many a system (usually Vista, XP, Win7) from the brink of death when so called 'experts' charging proper money have failed by simply editing the registry and only allowing Windows to boot what I tell it to load.
A simple and fool-proof method is to find out what is loading during start-up using 'msconfig' and disabling them from that application. To double bag the situation, manually change the .exe filename and it'll never start again!
Only a small part of the story mate - use Autoruns (free from Sysinternals, now owned by MS) to se full picture for "startups". ;)
The freeby version of Malwarebytes is also perfectly adequate.
Another good free tool for anti-malware is HiJackThis - altho experience required to interpret results
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TSR for the old school
There's a term I haven't heard in a lot of years! Terminate and Stay Resident.. takes me back to the good old days of conventional memory vs. UMA vs. HMA vs. extended memory, forever tweaking config.sys and all that good stuff.
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Personally if I ever see a disk that infected I recover the files I need and scrap it as you can never fully trust it. I would also flash the BIOS just to be sure before starting a fresh install from scratch.
Malwarebytes is good but very little can be done to rid a machine of any rootkits, RATs and anything that has infiltrated the BIOS unless you literally wipe the slate clean.
At £40 for a half decent disk drive it is worth it, especially if you conduct financial or business affairs on that machine.
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Personally if I ever see a disk that infected I recover the files I need and scrap it as you can never fully trust it. I would also flash the BIOS just to be sure before starting a fresh install from scratch.
Malwarebytes is good but very little can be done to rid a machine of any rootkits, RATs and anything that has infiltrated the BIOS unless you literally wipe the slate clean.
At £40 for a half decent disk drive it is worth it, especially if you conduct financial or business affairs on that machine.
Malware (paid for) did that on my friends PC as advertised :y :y
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TSR for the old school
There's a term I haven't heard in a lot of years! Terminate and Stay Resident.. takes me back to the good old days of conventional memory vs. UMA vs. HMA vs. extended memory, forever tweaking config.sys and all that good stuff.
<shudder> Me too. brought back horrible nightmares, that one. Memories of a machine that required a TSR of about 250k to operate, and there I was trying the shoe-horn the rest of the software around it into the meagre memory space that was left. (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26795734/Smilies/allrun.gif)
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Lizzie - don't trust the promises. I could easily hide stuff from malwarebytes ;)
BM - being a full multitasking os, windows is full of processes that use TSR principals. As does Linux, Mac, and any other modern os.
The best solution is to limit access by reducing attack surface (firewalls, running only critical daemons), a good patching strategy, intrusion detection (such as av and malware, or proper intrusion detection on important systems) and user education.
On desktop systems, any suspected compromise should always be met with a full format, as guffers suggests. Also, putting on a manufacturer supplied bios, even same version, is prudent
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And if you are really paranoid and how some IT skills, slap the Security Onion on a spare client and plug it in to your router. I think you will be suprised at the results. It's probably the best IDS you can get for free but it also gives you full forensic abilities too :y
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Lizzie - don't trust the promises. I could easily hide stuff from malwarebytes ;)
BM - being a full multitasking os, windows is full of processes that use TSR principals. As does Linux, Mac, and any other modern os.
The best solution is to limit access by reducing attack surface (firewalls, running only critical daemons), a good patching strategy, intrusion detection (such as av and malware, or proper intrusion detection on important systems) and user education.
On desktop systems, any suspected compromise should always be met with a full format, as guffers suggests. Also, putting on a manufacturer supplied bios, even same version, is prudent
But TB, most of us "out here" have not got that depth of computer knowledge. Yes, I have completed two college courses on computer usage plus a basic programming course, but when it comes to the knowledge professions like you have, I am nowhere! :o :o ::) ::)
Reading many other users experiences on internet sites, and then a piece by the editor of a PC magazine, let alone my conversation with a computer building company who supply university students and other authority users, it is clear there is a major problem with malware, trojans, PUP's, full blown viruses...............well you know the rest TB! :D :D :D ;)
I personally keep my PC well protected from attack, and I do not accept offers of "free" games, along with using sites like Facebook and the rest. The problem was my friend does all that, against my repeated advise, and allowed her Norton360 to expire! I had to reinstate Norton for her, clear Omiga, then Bing, and via Malwarebytes rid her computer of some vicious and persistent malware, viruses, trojans, and Websearch that had basically invaded her Internet Explorer and even blocked off my attempts to enter certain programmes and menus. Once Norton was reinstated it was constantly warning of it blocking repeated attempts by certain suspicious/dangerous sites to enter the PC. It was that bad, and whatever had infected her PC even stopped me from doing an F8 into Safe Mode! Malware though cleared all that and with repeated re-boots all became well.
I really think that for the average PC user this all becomes very overwhelming and all we can do is use Norton, F-Secure, etc, and Malwarebytes Corporation to bail us out. This certainly is cheaper than using PC professionals to resolve issues, but for some that is the only option! :y :y
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Lizzie, get your friend to scrap IE and install FireFox. Install the AdBlock+ extension and 99% of the problems will fade away.
Internet Explorer is pathetic.
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Lizzie, get them to stick with IE, it's more secure than the alternatives.
But after any suspected compromise on a desktop, don't use software to clean, rebuild ;)
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Lizzie, get them to stick with IE, it's more secure than the alternatives.
But after any suspected compromise on a desktop, don't use software to clean, rebuild ;)
Thanks TB. I am keeping to IE on her system, with the search engines Google and Yahoo, and now it is all cleaned up it is running very well :y :y
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Lizzie, get them to stick with IE, it's more secure than the alternatives.
But after any suspected compromise on a desktop, don't use software to clean, rebuild ;)
Cite your source my friend. With the exception of Chrome, IE is the worst of the mainstream browsers.
FF with some handy Add-On's is perfectly safe, perfectly stable and far quicker than any other browser out there.
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I use Chrome as I've always found it the fastest and smoothest. :-\
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Lizzie, get them to stick with IE, it's more secure than the alternatives.
But after any suspected compromise on a desktop, don't use software to clean, rebuild ;)
Cite your source my friend. With the exception of Chrome, IE is the worst of the mainstream browsers.
FF with some handy Add-On's is perfectly safe, perfectly stable and far quicker than any other browser out there.
I disagree, IE is the most secure of all Windows based browsers, with the added bonus of updates being built into Windows, so soon becomes blatantly obvious if the update mech has been compromised.
My source? The myriad of security notifications I have to sign up to in a professional capacity. These range from the standard government CERT organisations around the Western globe and vendor notifications, to the commercial based threat warning organisations.
NOT from lazy, useless IT journalists writing in popular IT journals, who simply do not know their arse from their elbows (and spout crap like "Vista is shit" when it came out, as they were too lazy to work out how to use it).
Not much comes out from IE. That and its inbuilt, secure update mechanism would make me recommend it for most Windows users.
A reasonable amount comes out for FF. I use this as my secondary browser, but would only recommend to IT savvy people (which rules out most who think they are*)
Tonnes comes out for Chrome, as its inherently broken (on all platforms)
Safari under Windows leads to interesting vulnerabilities that are not the fault of either software per se, but what is called a blended threat. Best avoided on Windows.
Opera uses a different model altogether, not really relevant for Windows PCs.
HTH
* Most people who use known/common fault or primarily (in this day and age) Google as primary sources for fault finding.
I have a knack for spotting them - probably all those interviews I've had to do every time we've needed staff. I've been on a Redhat 7 rapid track course all week (Redhat 7 is very different from earlier versions - init process replaced with system, firewalld replacing iptables ifconfig's deprecation in favour of ip and nmcli etc etc), and at the end of day 1, on the way home, I said to a colleague who was on the same course, 2 people I said were out of their depth here - both were the "I've had 30yrs experience, and I know all this stuff, no idea why I've been sent, yada yada yada.
During yesterday's exam, one left after an hour with some excuse about not being able to do it, other was getting examiner over constantly with complaints about mouse and keyboard not working, all of which were user error.
That said, my results haven't come through yet, so suppose it'll be Monday now. Squeaky bum time ;D
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That said, my results haven't come through yet, so suppose it'll be Monday now. Squeaky bum time ;D
And I know I screwed up one question, as even after spending over an hour on it, I couldn't get a process to start :-[
//edited, italicised bits changed as I forgot I was under nda :-[
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Lizzie, get them to stick with IE, it's more secure than the alternatives.
But after any suspected compromise on a desktop, don't use software to clean, rebuild ;)
Cite your source my friend. With the exception of Chrome, IE is the worst of the mainstream browsers.
FF with some handy Add-On's is perfectly safe, perfectly stable and far quicker than any other browser out there.
Hmmm, I use Waterfox (FF 64 bit version) and it frequently hangs on random websites, even though updated, reloaded etc., so then I revert to IE for the same sites and it works perfectly. Annoying, because I prefer Waterfox overall. ??? :y