The main thing is that for every antivirus program, theres a virus that can get through it. Thats why I like a constant running program like Macafee, but also a couple of user activated programs too. If you can use each once a week, you wont go far wrong.
BTW if Ceri is recommending Avast, thats well worth a look at.

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No no and no

It updates itself all during the day. Sometimes several times a session when I'm online!

One other good habit to get into is to do some daily(or several times a week) maintenance on your computer. I'm constantly deleting my browsing history and temporary Internet files. It helps keep things working faster and gets rid of all of the links to who knows what that are on the forum.

Sorry to hear your bad news Rhumba, like everyone else has already said, McAfee is weak man. I lost my PC a few years back, running McAfee, I've been using AVG pro for about three years now, with little or no trouble at all. Keep yer chin up mate, hope things get back to normal soon. It's great to see you again, keep on keepin on

Cheers Snowy, Good to hear from ya man, I've just downloaded a free version of the Avast antivirus program and it looks good. I'll see how it goes and look at AVG as well. I'll have more time tomorrow, it's getting late for messin' around.
Keep rockin' dude.

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McAfee might actually be responsible for some of those machines not booting:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36694120/ns ... d_gadgets/


Security Essentials is free and is one of the best out there:
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

You need something with RealTime protection that can block infection attempts, not just something that you can scan with daily to clean up whats already there.

Hope this helps for next time.

-Eddie

Hey, thanks for that Eddie, it was Wednesday when mine went down, very interesting, I'll look closer at that tomorrow.
Cheers man.

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+1
This is most probably it, the toxic update from McAffee created quite a few problems.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/n ... iasco.html
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... onomyId=17
etc, etc

I was on CA eTrust for a couple of years, on Microsoft Security Essentials for over 6 months now and totally happy with it.
It's a complete anti-malware suite (antivirus, antispyware, anti nasty critters) and it's free.
You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

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La vie est belle, le monde est pourri, make the most of it!

I use Avast on my wife's and son's PCs - it's free but you have to register. I used a spare email address I had for the registration and it's never received spam so I trust them. It also has a good reputation on sites like slashdot.

We have McAfee at work and I hate it. Apart from not having a better reputation than other checkers it's a resource hog when it decides it needs to scan something that I'm trying to use.

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Steve

Rock on Rhumba, glad you got it sorted......I've always heard McAfee is a real hard disk hog.... Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

The free versions are fine but you really need to upgrade and pay for the pro version. I think it's only 30 or 40 dollars a year and well worth it.

Good to have you back Rhumba, I use McAfee but I had to remember to get the key from their website to uninstall completely before I installed again, I run Spybot and malaware weekly, I also do a crap-cleaner once a month.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Rhumba sorry to here about the problem pal and glad you are back in action as you are by far one of the classiest guys on the forum. I dont understand these geeks that have nothing better to do than wreck havoc and cost people money who never did a thing to them. A good beating is what they need and then they will see if it is funny.

Thanks Purple, that link definitely hits it right on. I have XP Pro service pack 3 and everything described there occured, my Network actually vanished and they have somewhat under stated the effects it all had. Total devastation.
I've re-installed McAfee and it's still wobbly but I am sure I will be removing it now anyway. Put something stronger in.
It's bad enough when we have the pond life that Straycat described roaming loose in the world, without McAfee buggering things up for us. I feel pretty sure now that it was their update and not a virus that did me but I can't be certain. My first thoughts were that it actually came from McAfee but I thought a virus had sneaked in. Anyway, must go forward.

Thanks to all of you wonderful peeps for the help, suggestions and support you have imparted my way. I am looking at these other security programs.
Straycat, I think you know how I feel about those geeks you described, I am in total agreement with you.
Solid B, Cherokee, Fenderstrat, Supro, thanks guys, you are the tops. I think I've thanked everyone now, sorry if I've missed anybody.

You guys are somethin' else, keep it rockin'

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I use AVG, luckily Binterz did Computer Science at Queens University so I never have to pay for a fix. It's handy having him around!

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

My pleasure, Rhumba.
Eddie was the first to pinpoint it, I only supported his view.

CC, I tried AVG, was ok.
Now, the thing is most antivirus programs will mostly detect viruses, ie things that do nasty stuff to your computer.
There are other forms of malware that don't cause problems, but are just as bad, like spyware (trojans recording what you do and sending info from your computer to the outside world, etc). You don't want that either.
Microsoft used to have a free antispyware program, called Windows Defender, which worked like a champ; I used for maybe 2 years and was great.
Now, the Security Essentials is a suite of an antivirus, an antispyware (the former Windows Defender), an all-in-one tool.
Whatever the reason Microsoft is giving away this for free I don't care, it's really a good one, I reccomend it wholeheartedly.
And it's fully supported, a 2010 version of it is in testing, should be available really soon.

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La vie est belle, le monde est pourri, make the most of it!