That banged it

[jebbypal]

So...figured I should do a virus scan after the problems earlier this week and all (plus, hadn't run one since midlast month since I can't figure out how to set the weekly scans on the new norton). Guess what happened? System slowed down, microsoft word froze midsentence, and all manners of evil. ctrl+alt+delete took ten minutes to pull anything up and when I did, there were like 50 of the ctrl+alt+delete windows running supposedly (I hit it three times, that's all!).

Finally managed to force a shutdown despite my screen losing it's start button and all.

Guess what I just finished doing? Finding the hidden customer service page and submitting a request for a refund (I thought the deadline was thirty days, but I'm overjoyed to find it to be 60. Not quite squeaking under the line like I thought).

So, my "letter of destruction" (I kid you not!!!) should arrive soon, I'll uninstall this evil thing and then install zonealarm. Must remember to go searching for shareware virus protection as well. (tech people: are viruses email only? I mean, I know trojans can find computers over the net, but do viruses work the same way? If I just never click on an infected email, do I really need an antivirus program?)

Seriously, almost the worst performing computer protection software ever. Which I'd been very happy with norton's previous incarnation...but this new one, whew boy. It coulda used some extra beta time. McAfee is still more annoying, but auugh.

So yeah, if you don't see me online much tonight it's because I'm offline as I do firewall installs and such.

ETA -- forget the Q --> I got the zonealarm antivirus as well. :):P Thanks.

Comments

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

(tech people: are viruses email only?

Any file you download and click on can contain a virus - any MP3, any JPG, any Word file. The email itself isn't infected, it's file in the attachment. You can, for instance, badly infect a machine just by Napstering a lot of music. A good anti-virus app will give you a little righ-click option to scan a file for viruses before you double-click it. Websites can run malicious code; generally if you click on the wrong thing, but sometimes anyway. I think those you need to stop with your browser settings.

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

YES! YOU NEED VIRUS PROTECTION!

Viruses can also come over any network port; you need a firewall to block traffic on ports that you might not think about. You may inadvertantly take on a virus by opening any infected file that comes via disk, cd or what have you. Particularly if you use any sort of file sharing software, you need virus protection.

[jebbypal]

I actually don't do file sharing.

And I just installed the firewall;) Was just wondering if virus protection itself was worth anything if you didn't open emails from people you didn't know.

But no worries, zonealarm actually offers a free virus protection program after rebate. so all good.

[tori-deathangel.livejournal.com]

sugar norton is a big memory hog, majorly can't run anything if you have it scanning, i swear by it though. you do need some sort of virus protection, hell clicking on a link in a website can do it to you as well its not just dls and emails, you can also suffer from a hacking attack and delivered one that way.