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Question about anti-virus programs:

Question about anti-virus programs:

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zeeblebot

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when i take a work laptop on travel i generally use Linux on a USB stick to boot it with. Windows is too slow.

d

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Originally posted by sonhouse
Since you asked, the problem seems to have come from facebook and myspace, I have both, for instance, facebook has a new trojan that says something like 'hi, my name is Donnie and I want to be your friend' but it's not really Donnie, its a link to a nasty scumware. Its called koobface something like that.
Does "Donnie" have big tits and come-hither bedroom eyes?

zeeblebot

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if you boot Linux with a USB stick, you could install and run F-prot to scan and clean your Windows drives with Windows down.

then you may want to clean up your registry, since you have a lot of problems with it. probably by installing and running Registry Mechanic while running in Windows. it costs around $40. after a year or so it will ask you for more money (it needs ongoing updates like a virus scanner does). i let mine lapse because i don't use Windows much.

the older kid still uses Windows for his iTunes but i'm thinking i can get around that with Amarok, a freeware (open source?) music app. it might be able to update iPods, etc. not sure yet.

edit: it's been a while since i did a Linux pen drive install and i didn't have much luck getting installed apps (like F-prot) to persist between boots from then pen drive. so you may need to install F-prot every time you want to use it from a pen drive.

zeeblebot

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Originally posted by darvlay
Does "Donnie" have big tits and come-hither bedroom eyes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime#Eye_styles

C
Not Aleister

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LOL zeeblebot, you just never give up, eh?

But in sonhouse's case, I'm actually with you. This dude needs Linux like prostitutes need Vaseline and good shoes.

zeeblebot

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๐Ÿ˜€

both of the Linux CD vendors that advertise on distrowatch.com sell USB sticks with Linux installed.

but osdisc charges about $8 less, plus they have the 64-bit version, with Gnome window manager (link below). $13.95

if his computer is old and less-powered, he'd probably want the XFCE version and 32-bit.

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/usb/linuxmint

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/usb/linuxmint/linux-mint-9-2gb-usb-flash-drive-64bit-pc.html

s
Fast and Curious

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Originally posted by zeeblebot
๐Ÿ˜€

both of the Linux CD vendors that advertise on distrowatch.com sell USB sticks with Linux installed.

but osdisc charges about $8 less, plus they have the 64-bit version, with Gnome window manager (link below). $13.95

if his computer is old and less-powered, he'd probably want the XFCE version and 32-bit.

http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.c ...[text shortened]... disc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/usb/linuxmint/linux-mint-9-2gb-usb-flash-drive-64bit-pc.html
Thanks Zeeb, do any of those sticks have networking and upgradable AV built in? I went to that site and asked in an email to sales but haven't gotten a reply yet. That seems like the best way to do AV, before windows comes up. What do you think of my alternate method, taking the HD out and sticking it on another comp as slave and doing an AV that way, wouldn't that do the same thing as linux on a stick with AV built in? Of course the stick method would be a lot simpler for sure but aren't the two methods about the same?

It would seem worthwhile to have a 32 and 64 bit version and mac for that matter to run other machines also.

One thing I saw, went to Bios and saw there were 4 boots available, floppy, HD, CD, and LAN.

If booting to a thumb drive is possible does it specifically say USB as a bootable? Or is that what LAN means? I think of LAN as Local Area Network. Would that include USB support?

If not, could I upgrade to a BIOS that has USB boot available?

zeeblebot

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Originally posted by sonhouse
Thanks Zeeb, do any of those sticks have networking and upgradable AV built in? I went to that site and asked in an email to sales but haven't gotten a reply yet. That seems like the best way to do AV, before windows comes up. What do you think of my alternate method, taking the HD out and sticking it on another comp as slave and doing an AV that way, would ...[text shortened]... that include USB support?

If not, could I upgrade to a BIOS that has USB boot available?
Linux Mint does have networking. it probably doesn't have AV built in but you can download it and install F-prot with a few clicks for free, with the software package manager.

LAN boot is booting over a network, it's probably difficult to set up. so is flashing a new BIOS. you probably want to buy a Linux CD, then, and boot from that. Buy Puppy Linux if your hardware is old. Look on distrowatch.com for Mac-compatible distros if you want to boot a Mac to Linux. Yellow Dog is one such.

taking the HD out and scanning on a different computer should work. you probably want to back up the drive before you do that.

i'm thinking you really should find the Linux User's Group in your local area and attend their next meeting and ask them about it. maybe bring your machine. call their contact before the meeting for details. they might be able to give you free Linux CDs, too.


http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=puppy

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=yellowdog

P
Mystic Meg

tinyurl.com/3sbbwd4

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Originally posted by zeeblebot
i think Phlab is being facetious and doesn't much mind if you screw yourself over.
Much mind? I couldn't stop it if I wanted.

P-

s
Fast and Curious

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Originally posted by zeeblebot
Linux Mint does have networking. it probably doesn't have AV built in but you can download it and install F-prot with a few clicks for free, with the software package manager.

LAN boot is booting over a network, it's probably difficult to set up. so is flashing a new BIOS. you probably want to buy a Linux CD, then, and boot from that. Buy Puppy Li ...[text shortened]... .com/table.php?distribution=puppy

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=yellowdog
Hey thanks again! My field is in semiconductor manufacturing, ion implanters, chemical vapor deposition, electron microscopes, optical microscopes, horizontal furnaces, vertical furnaces, cyropump vacuum technology, calibration, circuit design and the like. I started on computers in the analog days and worked somewhat with them all along so I am not exactly a dope when it comes to machines. Some of the machines I worked on took a year of technical training to learn. I am in it to learn computers at the atomic level and I mean that seriously. The software end I am not as familiar with, being stuck in the hardware world for 30 years. So people like Crawley who seems to think he is the god of computers, good luck with that but there is a lot more to the world of technology than computer software, even though he may not think so. We all spend our time in our field and I would love to see Crawl try to fix a vacuum leak on an ion implanter.

One thing I am trying to figure out, with several AV's running, (not at once!) there seems to be this leftover redirect I can't get rid of, the last one being to a site 'Studpoke'. It at least can be X'd out in a civilized manner but there is still something lurking behind the wheel that I would love to figure out, for the learning of it and to get rid of it. I want to know what is going on with software like that. I read a couple of books on malware, scary stuff and it will only get scarier as time goes on I guess. It sucks that a single AV program can't get all the ratware out of the system which is why I have several installed. After running Trojan Hunter, Superantispyware, Malwarebytes several times, each time they find new stuff, like a new one sniffed out by Malwarebytes, a rootkit, I downloaded another one, Ad Aware, which now is 170 megabytes download! and it is finding yet more stuff the others haven't found yet. Do you know of the strongest ones to use? I heard good reports about the ones I have now and used Trend Micro in the past but now I hear Norton has cleaned up its act a bit, not as intrusive. So do you have any experience with Trend Micro or Norton or Macafee? I never liked Macafee.

zeeblebot

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i used to use Ad Aware, later i just used McAfee because my company provided it.

i don't worry about it much any more because i almost always use linux.

you might try googling Studpoke and seeing what turns up.

the reference cited below is from 2006. still, i wonder how many different viruses/etc. were found to be targeting Windows in 2006, when only 836 were found targeting Linux. and it must be a lot easier searching for 836 on a computer than for multiples of ten thousand. AND ... read the top of the wiki article, it indicates why Linux is safer.

actually, ref. 5 at the wiki indicates the number of viruses was to have topped one million by 2009 (the article was written in 2008 and was forecasting one million by the end of 2008). most of those have got to be Windows viruses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware

The number of malicious programs — including viruses, Trojans, and other threats — specifically written for Linux has been on the increase in recent years and more than doubled during 2005 from 422 to 863.[3]

zeeblebot

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here are the abbreviated comments from ref. 5 noted above ๐Ÿ˜ต:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/040408-number-of-viruses-to-top.html

Comments (3)
3

Clearly its time to use Linux or Mac ...
By Anonymous on November 1, 2008, 4:11 pm
Clearly its time to use Linux or Mac and avoid the malware problems of Windows. MS cares not to fix the malware problems, but would rather sell you OneCare, to...

Reply | Read entire comment

companies
By Anonymous on April 15, 2009, 5:23 pm
well,you know it,i know,companies dont give a damw about the viruses,worms.....,because te user s PC is destroyed,you ll need to buy a new one,and that goes and...

Reply | Read entire comment

MicroSoft A WorldWide Security Disaster
By Anonymous on March 24, 2010, 10:25 pm
Your article about the number of known viruses topping 1,000,000 in 2009 is gutless because if fails to state that ALL OF THESE VIRUSES ARE DUE TO MICROSOFT'S TOTAL...

Reply | Read entire comment

zeeblebot

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Originally posted by Phlabibit
Much mind? I couldn't stop it if I wanted.

P-
he took your advice seriously! was it serious? ๐Ÿ˜•

s
Fast and Curious

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Originally posted by zeeblebot
i used to use Ad Aware, later i just used McAfee because my company provided it.

i don't worry about it much any more because i almost always use linux.

you might try googling Studpoke and seeing what turns up.

the reference cited below is from 2006. still, i wonder how many different viruses/etc. were found to be targeting Windows in 2006, when ...[text shortened]... has been on the increase in recent years and more than doubled during 2005 from 422 to 863.[3]
Wow, all the way up to 800 now๐Ÿ™‚ I thought it was more like 10 to 1 in favor of MS. Looks more like 1000 to 1. I heard there is a whole department at MS just devoted to the 2 million emails Gates gets each day๐Ÿ™‚ I'll bet half of them are trojans! And I thought I had problems๐Ÿ™‚ Well that settles it, I am going to switch to linux. I bought a version called Kill Bill at a computer show, know anything about that one? Boots from the CD, haven't loaded it in yet, need to do some prep work first I think, partitions and such, unless Linux automatically assigns itself a partition. Do you know how strong AV's are, that is to say AV's that can kill the multitude of crap on windows, from a linux partition? I imagine AV for linux would be a breeze since only a few a week would come out at any one time, so you wouldn't have to upgrade every day like windows.

That was another thing that bothered me. For instance, Superantispyware upgrades definitions, several times a day sometimes, but each load is about 5 megs. That has to start adding up after a while. 1000 such upgrades and you have 5 GIGS of shyte on your HD just for AV definitions. That bothers me. I know HD's advance weekly, I just saw an online deal for an external box, 1 terabyte for under a hundred bucks, that would go a long ways but still, the AV files are getting bigger and bigger all the time, also running slower and slower as more and more shyte is added to the system, photoshop, Skype, RHP๐Ÿ™‚, Google Earth, to say nothing of the run of the mill stuff like Excel, Open Office. Heck, even today's download of Ad Aware ran over 170 megs. I also have Mathematica, running over a gig just for the one program. It seems windows machines are destined to run forever fat, while Linux will run forever young. HEY that would make a great song๐Ÿ™‚

zeeblebot

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never heard of Kill Bill, maybe this is it:

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/SLAX-KillBill-Edition-1957.shtml

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