Simplify your laptop buying
Community weekly poll: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus?
- 11/18/05 4:17 PM
Never, I have a PC!
by dennmahn - 5/10/05 10:02 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've had a PC for about 14 years, and an Amiga for 5 years before that, and never had a virus. I have all the standard protections, the most important being common sense. Clicking on some of the viruses (virii?) out there is like getting a donut in the mail with a note that says "Eat thes fud. It gud." and you do it! But I understand that with families having computers, not everyone has complete control over their computer, so it's important to keep virus scanners and firewalls updated.
I also have to admit that I've had relatively few virus emails sent to me. I guess I'm just not on many people's mailing lists.
Yes, the results were disasterous.
by mattkenseth17 - 5/10/05 10:06 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My old Gateway was infected with the Navidad virus in December 2000. I used GoBack, but that was only a temporary fix, the Gateway died about nine months ago, now I am running on a PC built by a local company called Netux Solutions.
Got one of the old "Satan" DOS viruses years ago.
by drpruner - 5/10/05 10:09 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
A co-worker with a penchant for porn sites passed on the office copy of a training floppy- bingo!
Regards, Doug in New Mexico
Never
by cpo99 - 5/10/05 10:18 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have been using a Mac since 1993 and been on the internet for most of that time and I have never had a virus. I know Macs aren't perfect and there may come a time when I do get one but it hasn't happened yet.
I keep my firewall up and I keep my OS (OS X 10.4) up to date with the various security updates that Apple puts out.
Sometimes, it pays to be a lesser target. Which makes me appreciate all of the Windows users out there. You go guys, keep on attracting all those viruses.
cpo99
No virus's ever stuck!
by tek-ed - 5/10/05 10:28 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've been computing since the early '70s. I was there in the beginning when the first virus was released to the wild. I helped friends recover from MBR blaster virus's. I used Norton disk editor to reassemble a disk scrambled by a virus...But never once have I had any issues on any of my personal machines with Viruss's. And I've been using Windows back when it was Version 1! (came bundled with Pagemaker)
Now, that's not to say I NEVER gave myself a virus...in fact I have several of them running in my lab network I run just to see how virus affect certain mission critical services I need.
And I use these captured virus's to strengthen my web condom. Like anything else in this world, you should never go off and just go "do something" without first investigating the ramifications of your actions. Unlike that Nike slogan, don't "just do it". If you do, you may just get in trouble!
Like unprotected sex, traveling the information highway is fraught with potential disasters. Take precautions and keep yourself protected and use common sense... Use the free tools available to everyone (that's not using a Mac) to aid themselves in protecting from baddies out there...It's not that difficult people!
If you have questions on just some of the things I use to protect myself, I'll gladly send you my list of precautions...just ask...
Ed
web/gadget guru
Never & I run Windows....
by skon - 5/10/05 10:39 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have been using DOS and then Windows when it came out since MFM hard drives and DOS 2.x The first time I encountered a virus was at work on a customers system. I had heard about them in the news and took the basic precautions that were available early on... i.e. don't ever put a floppy in your disk drive that you didn't create yourself. At least on my home system I could do that. As soon as anti-virus programs hit the market I jumped on the band wagon and have updated everytime there was a definition and/or version update available. I've tried AVG, Solomons, PC-Cillin, Norton, McCaffe, Avast, F-Prot and a whole bunch of others both free and commercial. So many that I can't even remember the names of all of them. If you take the basic precautions of having an AV program installed and GETTING THE UPDATES the likleyhood of getting a virus on your system is pretty low. I have worked for several major computer Corp.'s doing tech support (among other things) and it always seemed to me that 90% of customer calls were related to virus infections on systems that came with an AV program but the customer NEVER even KNEW THAT THEY NEEDED TO UPDATE the deffinitions. If Dell, Gateway, etc etc would just print on the opisite side of there setup poster that goes in the box "AV PROGRAMS WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT REGULAR UPDATES!!" in 6 inch high bright red letters, with a small note on the bottom saying see booklet & then have a 6 page booklet telling them how in "Idiot's guide" format, these companys could save themselves millions in tech support. Of course that may not work. I swear I've told the same non-tech oriented accquaintances this same thing at least the thousand times...........
Viruses
by redhlr - 5/10/05 10:42 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have always owned Macs, never a virus since 1985.
Never had a virus
by ThePreacherMan - 5/10/05 11:08 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The secret? Own a Mac. I switched a few years back and will never own an operating system built by microsoft. However, the make a great office suite for the Mac that is completely compatible with windows. Oh well all you that have been hit with a virus, live and learn not to open any attachments.
Never been infected(knock on wood)
by imjdg - 5/10/05 11:12 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
So far, no, I've never been infected. I keep well protected, and am very careful with my mail. But I said SO FAR. I feel you can never let your guard down.
Once, it was a generic Trojan horse
by saxjan - 5/10/05 11:22 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have Norton Internet Security, and it has been pretty good in stopping infected e-mails so far. Except once, it seems. One day, not so long ago, Norton gave a red alert, telling me there was a Trojan horse, and that it was unable to remove it. I had to work for a solid 3 hours to get it off my PC, removing it via regedit... the first two attempts failed, but finally the third time around, I stabbed it to death.
I wonder why NIS was unable to spot it in time, and to remove it though.
Continual virus
by teltrabs - 5/10/05 11:31 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
A couple of months ago I suddenly had many viruses on my computer. AVG found them, deleted them, and lo and behold the next day many of them were back again. Avg clean up but they still came back. This went on for a couple of weeks.
Eventually, after reading one of your articles, I ran Spybot search and destroy and adware 6 followed by AVG. I now have one virus that lives with me. Every day AVG zaps something called 'NCasePackage.exe'
How is this still getting onto my computer? I am at present trying to find time to read thru your Firewall lessons in the hope I find a way to set up a firewall, while still allowing access to the internet via a cable modem.
Any help would be appreciated.
Steve Bartlett
Actually not many times, just a few, but ,more than once.
by jackjack - 5/10/05 11:36 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I was using Norton Anti-virus but it gave me all kinds of problems. So I uninstalled it and then reinstalled it. Then it wouldn't download updates of virus definitions and some viruses snuck in. I changed to another virus protection program and had satisfactory results. Later, because I got it for nothing with a rebate, I reinstalled Norton Internet Security 2005 and so far I haven't had any problems, except that everytime I download updates and install them, Norton reboots my computer without my permission and to me this is a serious flaw.
Several Times
by Flirkann - 5/10/05 11:48 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I can't remember the ones the machine got, but it wasn't the AV app's fault they got in - my siblings shut both the AV and firewall down because they wanted the system resources to run MSN messenger and AOL at the same time. They were quickly reminded how bad this was when a trojan "stole" the pc from them a minute after logging on. They now put up with AOL's resource hogging and leave the AV and firewall alone.
Nope - I don't use untested source
by kohcherp - 5/10/05 11:52 PM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm glad to say that i'm one of those whom viruses "bounce off". in over 16 years of using computers, i have had no infections on my work computer. I did, however, activate a virus on a test computer intentionally to evaluate the effects sometime ago, but that was intentional and for research purposes.
I believe that my "luck" so far has to do with me being a hyper-critic. i don't trust easily.
** not a troll - i don't think it is a matter of the OS. from a computer scientist's perspective, a virus is just another computer program which is written to achieve a purpose on your computer. regardless of whether the OS running is linux, MAC, sun-OS, windows or even MS-DOS. if it can run on your computer, and if i can trick the user into running it,the computer are vulnerable.
notice that i used the phrase "if i can trick the user into running it". if i told you that i am sending you a virus, you would probably not activate it unless you are
remember all those times when your parents told you "don't accept rides from strangers, don't accept candy from strangers, don't talk to strangers"? to a certain extend i applied it to my way of using computers.
back in the days before i had antiviruses in my computer, each attachment i opened would be first saved to my computer - that way i would know if it is an executable or really a picture or a PDF or whatever it was intended to be. its still scary, because i had to disable any "auto-access" features in my mail program. nowadays, with a combination of rules and anti-virus programs, i actually get to do a better job at avoiding infection.
i have a couple of rules.
1. if i see an attachment, i isolate it first. that way, even if it is a new virus, its separated from the rest of my mails.
2. i ask before i open it. if the purpose of the attachment is not stated, i would be highly suspicious - why would anyone send me an attachment? if it is stated, i would mail the sender to verify that his address was not faked.
3. assuming that the author stated that he did sent the attachment, i would normally check if i really need the attachment. why install junk in my computer or view stuff that are not relevant? 
4. in the case where i do need the attachment, i would look at the nature of the file. i don't like executables. if the attachment is a program, i would *really* check with the sender if the attachment is secure. if he is not, i would try to verify that it is from a secure source before opening it.
.. to make a summary.. "trust no one" - in this case, not even your mother 
this sounds horribly paranoid - but think.. in real life, would you accept a drink from a stranger in a pub if he just hands it to you, and you did not see where he took the drink from?
you might..
but say it was bubbling and throwing pungent fumes (with a skull! remember the old cartoons?) you would probably not drink it.
just apply the same caution to your computer.
Wake up!!!
by r_rayjr - 5/11/05 12:25 AM In reply to: Has your computer ever been infected by a virus? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes, most viruses are written for window's but there are some that are written for MAC's, and all of the other OS's out there. But even a MAC that is infected with a Windows Virus can mess things up. Maybe not as bad as a windows system or as noticible. But it can do anything from slowing down the system to causing crashes, and many other things. Every thing now a days can get a virus, PSA's, CellPhone's, just about anything with a CPU and/or memory or any circuit board electronics, that has a connection to the outside world, meaning something that can be programed, signals sent to, or a disk or something like that put into it. So as long as there are people out there that wants to see what they can do as far as making viruses, nothing is safe.
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