Since I was finally able to clear the apparent Worm-Netsky virus from my
recycle bin a few months back I've had no problems. I still don't
understand how I could have a folder with a virus in it that is in my
recycle bin but only AVG could see it. Windows Explorer couldn't see it
although no files are hidden. And I emptied the recycle bin repeatedly;
still AVG found it. Since I got rid of that everything is always clean.

My AVG quarantine file shows a few dozen cookies; and I just deleted the
one old Trojan that was there. It came from a suspect site to start
with. The daily AVG scans are no doubt a waste of time as it seldom
finds anything, and I've never actually been infected with a virus to my
knowledge [that is, had actual damage from one or had my pc hijacked].
I just changed AVG to scan at a typically lower usage time of day and if
I still notice slow downs I'll either shut off full scan or maybe change
it to once per week or month.

As I mentioned elsewhere, Spam isn't really a problem for me; I guess I
just let the few social networking items that manage to get through bug
me. It's far easier to just delete them than to try to prevent them.
If I were receiving the the quantity of spam my wife was I would be
installing Mailwasher.

My protection is pretty simple [and easy]. I run AVG free, Zone Alarm
free and Windows Defender [I think]. Neither are the latest or
greatest; just something I've used for a long time and have become
comfortable with. I'm behind a router so probably don't even need a
firewall. I have Vista which prevents a lot of crap from installing
unless you give it permission. I don't open attachments unless I feel
VERY confident that the source is not spoofed. If I'm at a strange or
suspect site I will either leave or be EXTREMELY careful about links. I
use Adblock Plus because it gets rid of a lot of crap and I love being
able to permanently zap a banner or ad that does manage to get through.
I think I have a couple of spyware or malware programs running too, but
right now I don't remember what they are. So far I've been pretty lucky
I guess.

Regards,
James
.
.


> Posted by: "parisiengarcon" garconparisien@...
>
<mailto:garconparisien@...?Subject=%20Re%3A%20Invitation%20from%20Multiply>
> parisiengarcon <http://profiles.yahoo.com/parisiengarcon>
>
>
> Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:18 am (PDT)
>
>
>
> James
>
> Most antivirus applications use lots of resources when scanning and
> generally slow down the running of other applications. It is not a
> good thing to run lots of applications, if any, while scanning your
> computer as this makes it more difficult for your antivirus to locate
> malware, and also provides those nasty little critters lots of place
> to hide. A few years ago when I knew even less than I do now about
> computers, I used to spend a disproportionate amount of time, scanning
> for infections using all the old favourites, Spybot S+D, Adaware,
> SpywareDoctor, SuperAntiSpyware etc, and anything that respected
> people in computer groups suggested as useful. Then just to be sure I
> would run a free online scan.
>
> Then I rationalised my behaviour, by simply asking, does all this
> scanning find much of merit. Oh well Spybot and Adaware seem to find
> some stuff every time, but is it anything that would damage my
> computer? I looked at it and decided that if I let the little Cookie
> Monster eat those cookies, cleared temporary files ran Ccleaner, and
> occasionally ran the then Advanced Windows Care. I would achieve in
> minutes, what I was otherwise spending hours doing. Instead I would
> substantially rely on the real time protection afforded by Avast,
> Avira or whatever program I have installed on a particular machine.
>
> [...]
> <http://www.spammotel.com/>
>
> HTH
>
> Paris
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/a_ztechnicalcomputersupportforall/
> <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/a_ztechnicalcomputersupportforall/>
>
> ---------Reply separator-----------
>
> --- In a_ztechnicalcomputersupportforall@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:a_ztechnicalcomputersupportforall%40yahoogroups.com>, James
> <res075oh@...> wrote:
> >
> > I notice that my pc slows up in a lot of apps while AVG is running the
> > full scan, which it does every day. The quad 4 processor doesn't seem
> > to help at all in such cases.
> >
> > Invites from social networking sites are a royal PITA. About the only
> > spam I get directly seems to come mostly from something called
> > BRAINBEEZ.COM or something like that.
> >
> > Regards,
> > James