1)If you have been using avast!, this is most likely NOT a virus infection, but a spyware infection! The best antivirus programs in the world stop approximately 95% of virus’, and 70% of spyware. We have been relying on Microsoft Windows Defender for years now, but that program has become worthless, and all it does is slow your machine down. We actually remove Defender from all of our systems. We have found that some users will be re-infected until properly protected. The best protection that money can buy is avast! Pro and Malwarebytes Pro combined. Over 95% of systems,...
Security
When all else fails, discovery and removal of antivirus leftovers!
Antivirus software is the most invasive application we will ever install on our systems. Even when the products are properly removed by “Add/Remove Programs”, pieces of code are ALWAYS left behind, and these leftovers can and do conflict with the current antivirus products installed in your system. This situation has occurred throughout my entire career, and is effected by most antivirus vendors (Symantec, Norton, and McAfee just to tag a few.) These symptoms range from no Internet access, system errors, revolving “boot looping”, and the dreaded Microsoft BSOD (blue screen of death) Windows XP appears to be much more...
Risks of Online Banking as a Business Exposed
The banking laws/regulations have changed and are continuing to change. Federal banking regulations provide broad protections to consumers (personal bank accounts are liable for only $50 from online fraud). But consumers who are unaware of their rights might end up unnecessarily footing the bill. Banks are no longer required to carry insurance on business/corporate bank accounts, and they have not been informing their business customers of the change. This means if your business does any type of online banking, bill payment, online statements (which we all are being pushed to); you will most likely need to sue the bank...
15 causes of Hard Disk Corruption
Everybody hates to lose data. Many of the issues proven to cause hard disk corruption can be avoided, if you know what they are. I have writen articles on almost every aspect of this list. Most are avoidable, some are not and we are just taking chances, such as Solar flare activity. We are in a hightened Solar storm now for the next 1.8 years. About the only thing we can do is to reboot our computers daily. So here they are, in no particular order: 1)Bugs in O.S. (Vista is the worst, but can be fixed) 2)Solar Flares...
Business Protect clients are ignoring URL site blockings when deployed by the SBC.
We found avast! Business Protection clients are ignoring URL site blockings when deployed by the SBC. Here’s how I solved this issue! Thanks to this post by Yanto.Chiang: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=82234.msg671729#msg671729 “Dear All, Ok, finally we successfully found how to set URL blocking with SBC. 1. SBC >> Network >> Group View >> Choose the group that administrator would like to set a different policies (click Edit Group Settings) 2. Go to Expert Settings and clicked >> Then you can choose avastcfg://WebShield//WebScanner/BlockedURLs (define the site that administrator would like to blocked and use semicolon as separator 3. To enabled Site Blocking...
avast! Pro 6 conversion from avast! Pro 4
1) Download avast! 6 Pro here: http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_pro.exe and save to desktop 2) Save the new avast! license file on the desktop: “license.avastlic” 3) You must remove the old antivirus first! – so go to Control Panel, then Add / Remove programs (if XP) or Programs and Features (if Vista / 7) 4) uninstall the old antivirus first: avast! 4 5) reboot system (finalizes removal process) 6) now install avast! 6 by executing the file saved on the desktop “setup_av_pro.exe” (from step 1) 7) go with defaults, select Yes to “Community IQ”, select “Trial” reboot system (finalizes installation process) 9)...
Correct Outlook Settings for MSN accounts
Most posts for Outlook settings for MSN are wrong. So after trial and error, here is what works: In Outlook 2007, click on the Tools menu, and then click Account Settings. • Click the E-mail tab, and then click New. • Click to select Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP, and then click Next. • Click to select the Manually configure server settings or additional server types check box, and then click Next. • Click to select Internet E-mail, and then click Next. • On the Internet E-mail Settings screen, type the following setting information: a. In the Your...
Discovery and removal of previously installed antivirus leftovers! including avast’s special tool
Here is an Article I wrote about discovery and removal of leftovers from previous anti-virus products, my “when all else fails” procedure Antivirus software is the most invasive application we will ever use on our systems. Specifically here, we are addressing the upgrade of avast! 4.8 to avast! 6.0. However, this situation also occurs with other antivirus vendors (Symantec, Norton, and McAfee just to tag a few.) What has really occurred here, is that there are left over pieces of previous antivirus software, and they are conflicting with the current antivirus software. And the classic symptom is Internet access...
Windows Registry Cleaning Exposed
1) The Windows Registry is very fragile, like a raw egg. Every time you handle it, you risk breaking it. Handle it enough, and it will break. 2) Due to the sheer size and complexity of the Windows registry, manually cleaning up redundant and invalid entries would be practically impossible. Registry cleaners try to automate the process of searching for orphaned entries, missing file references, and broken links inside the registry, and remove them. 3) A popular misconception is that the value of a registry cleaner exists by reducing “registry bloat”. Over 99.99% of registries will not have this problem. It is so rare, that I have hardly...
“avast! license violation” being sent to Business’ using avast! Free
The avast! free for home use is in specific license violation if you use your computer for a home business. That is a commercial use. I have personally witnessed mass piracy of our free product in business. I have knowledge of computer vendors loading avast! free in corporate environments. I have had customers say to me “your free product is too good, you just lost a customer” It’s the same as walking into Walmart and stealing a DVD. It seems that because it is online, it is OK to steal. In the avast! 4 Free, the network shield was...
Open Cloud Security / Zenton System Guard Removal
We were successful @ removing these infections “Open Cloud Security” & ”Zenton System Guard Removal” I always check with Bleeping Computer, as these guys are the best at R&D. There post was from early September. The Malware authors also checkin with Bleeping Computer to modify their code to thwart infection removal. My (J.R. Guthrie @ Advantage Micro Corporation) “scrape” process did not work. Bleeping Computers removal process did not work. Previous “hard core” dis-infection has dictated this process (last resort before “format C:”) I pulled the hard drive, and connected it to a highly protected system running avast! Pro antivirus, and...
MAC vs PC for browsing safely!
I believe that virtulizing one’s browser in a “SandBox” is really the only safe surfing technique. It’s certainly NOT the Mac. All browsers are vulnerable by nature. Here’s the last 3 months of vulerabilities: Win 7 @ 67 – Linux @ 59 – Mac @ 379. So why so many on the Mac side? It’s Karma! Too many “I have a MAC so I don’t get infected!” The ROI (I hate that term) is now very beneficial for Organized Crime and Terrorists to target Mac. They are playing catchup! SO, quality FREE antivirus for the MAC:
Last 3 months – MAC 379 VULNERABILITIES – Windows 7 @ 67 – linux @ 59
I believe that virtulizing one’s browser in a “SandBox” is really the only safe surfing technique. It’s certainly NOT the Mac. All browsers are vulnerable by nature. Here’s the last 3 months of vulnerabilities: Win 7 @ 67 – Linux @ 59 – Mac @ 379 (reTweet) So whay so many on the Mac? It’s Karma! The ROI (I hate that term) is now very beneficial for Organized Crime and Terrorists to target Mac. They are playing catchup! avast! is my primary tool in the battle against Cyber Crime!
How to use Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware to scan and remove malware from your computer
Introduction: As you may have noticed, we use MalwareBytes’, or MBAM, in a lot of our removal guides. We do this for no reason other than the fact that the program simply works well and that we can count on it to remove what it says it can. It is updated constantly throughout the day and has excellent protection on all the new malware that comes out. With that said, we feel that MalwareBytes is an important tool to have as part of your computer’s security arsenal. One of the program’s nicest features is that it is free and easy to...
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