Virus

[dusty]

What is being discussed here is very valuable and greatly appreciated information BUT

I am not certain that my "Server not Found" issue is the same thing. This has been an on and off problem for me for a couple weeks now. The most recent occurrence began yesterday at about 5:30PM. I had been online all day long with no problem then - all of a sudden - "server not found.

Same situation when I first logged on this morning. I finally shut everything down including my modem. Shutting down my modem forces and IP change if I leave it off for more than about 5 minutes.

Don't know that this actually had any effect but ... I am up and everything looks normal.

I guess this is a good thing. It keeps me busy and I am not doing anything that the doctor told me not to do.

[heathicus]

You're right, Dusty. The "Server not found" problem is something else entirely. That's a problem with the Shopsmith web site (either their server, or a problem in the DNS resolution) and does not indicate a problem with your computer or your ISP.

The only time the "Server not found" message being limited to only specific web sites would cause me concern would be if that web site is for an anti-virus company. Otherwise, if you can access other web sites, then the problem is most likely not you. If you can't get to ANY web sites, the problem is either you or the ISP.

[JPG]

What is being discussed here is very valuable and greatly appreciated information BUT

I am not certain that my "Server not Found" issue is the same thing. This has been an on and off problem for me for a couple weeks now. The most recent occurrence began yesterday at about 5:30PM. I had been online all day long with no problem then - all of a sudden - "server not found.

Same situation when I first logged on this morning. I finally shut everything down including my modem. Shutting down my modem forces and IP change if I leave it off for more than about 5 minutes.

Don't know that this actually had any effect but ... I am up and everything looks normal.

I guess this is a good thing. It keeps me busy and I am not doing anything that the doctor told me not to do.

I occasionally get the server not found response. My setup includes a modem, a router, and a wireless/router to serve more than one computer at widely separated locations in the house, and is set up as a local network.

Usually to correct the condition, I must power down all three and restart them. I do not know if someone/thing is causing the condition from the information highway by hacking attempts or not.

Since the telco has described this procedure on tv often, I assume my experience is typical.

It does force a new IP address. Since at least one of my computers is on 24/7, a hacker has much time to 'explore'. That computer has nothing of importance to me on it!

P.S. As heath just mentioned, my 'problem' affects attempts to access all web sites.

[kameljoe21]

i del the link and posted the youtube link
the web page had no problem with me

[Ed in Tampa]

I have found on the web, like in life free things, aren't.

I never go to one of those your friend sent you a greeting card, or wants you to see _______.

I rarely link to sites I don't know before hand. (you can read the link address of the link by placing your cursor over the link and reading the site address at the bottom of your screen). I violated that rule with the snowmoble link and got bit I think by it or else something here on the forum. In any case my virus program caught it before it could install itself. It did require a reboot to totally clear the system.

I'm convinced the big name virus programs have made themselves targets. The hackers believe if the bust Norton of McAfee they are the best. I also believe Norton and McAfee are such resource hogs that to use them creates bigger problems.

The best spam blockers are from free sites like Yahoo mail or Gmail.
Internet Explorer takes a lot of heat but again it is the biggest target. However I believe Microsoft does a reasonable job in preventing your system from being trashed as long as you don't go looking for trouble.

I really believe youth find the most viruses because they still believe in "free" stuff or seeing things they shouldn't be seeing to begin with.

I have friend that has absolutely no virus protection on his system. He never goes to anything other than known websites, never opens unknown links, has a mail server that has an excellent spam blocker and he uses his computer online at least 8 hours a day 6 and sometimes 7 days a week. He has striped never every piece of junk code from his system and it flies even though it is older pentium.

[JPG]

I have found on the web, like in life free things, aren't.

I never go to one of those your friend sent you a greeting card, or wants you to see _______.

I rarely link to sites I don't know before hand. (you can read the link address of the link by placing your cursor over the link and reading the site address at the bottom of your screen). I violated that rule with the snowmoble link and got bit I think by it or else something here on the forum. In any case my virus program caught it before it could install itself. It did require a reboot to totally clear the system.

I'm convinced the big name virus programs have made themselves targets. The hackers believe if the bust Norton of McAfee they are the best. I also believe Norton and McAfee are such resource hogs that to use them creates bigger problems.

The best spam blockers are from free sites like Yahoo mail or Gmail.
Internet Explorer takes a lot of heat but again it is the biggest target. However I believe Microsoft does a reasonable job in preventing your system from being trashed as long as you don't go looking for trouble.

I really believe youth find the most viruses because they still believe in "free" stuff or seeing things they shouldn't be seeing to begin with.

I have friend that has absolutely no virus protection on his system. He never goes to anything other than known websites, never opens unknown links, has a mail server that has an excellent spam blocker and he uses his computer online at least 8 hours a day 6 and sometimes 7 days a week. He has striped never every piece of junk code from his system and it flies even though it is older pentium.

I am satisfied with AVG. It is 'freeware', but has an inexpensive sibling. Updates occur automatically, and scans can be controlled to run at wee+
hours and stopped if necessary. I use firefox almost exclusively.
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

[heathicus]

I use Avast! just from personal preference. But AVG is just as good. I would recommend the free version of either one of those above Norton or McAfee.

[a1gutterman]

i del the link and posted the youtube link
the web page had no problem with me

Thanks for that, Joe!

[wannabewoodworker]

This is great to see discussed. I am a Senior IT Support Engineer by day and this has been a thorn in my side for going on 2 years now. I am constantly having to clean and or reload completely many of my clients machines. The landscape and threat vectors have changed drastically over the past several years and this has been motivated by the almighty DOLLAR! Organized crime is involved as well as eastern european hackers who are being employed to attack US computers in an attempt to mine information mostly. This information is then sold to the highest bidder or in other cases these hackers will be enlisted to create targeted virii to target only a specific portion of the public. They can even target one person via different methods.

What Heath advised is right ON target. I wish I could teach my clients users this stuff but I am usually wasting my breath telling them how to deal with this stuff because they will soon forget what I said and will CLICK on the warning and BAM they are infected. Most of the viruses these days are coming from the web and many are directly from using Internet Exploder. Firefox is not much better anymore. Google Chrome and Safari seem to be somewhat immune but don't get too comfy with them either. There was a Critical Out of Band Security Release several weeks ago from Microsoft that really needed to be done by everyone for IE. This security update addressed a critical flaw in IE and you can get it here if you don't have your machine updating automatically http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/results.aspx?freetext=ms10-002&displaylang=en&stype=s_basic

Just download the version for your IE version. I advise if you have not already to download and install IE8 immediately and then download the IE8 version of the update or better yet use Windows Update and patch your machine completely.

Of the antivirus vendors none are really any good anymore as these viruses are morphing and changng sometimes on a daily if not hourly basis so they just can't keep up. We are currently trialing Sunbelt Softwares Viper Antivirus Enterprise. This has gotten rave reviews and is very inexpensive, I think it is like $30.00 for the year and contains a full suite of security protection tools that are very light on your system resources. This software was built from the ground up and is really making waves in the security scene. If you are not happy with your current antivirus solution i would highly recommend trying the Viper AV product. I have been using it at my sisters workplace for over a year and have not had a single complaint or infection since implementing it.

[iclark]

lots of good advice above. the important thing that I would add is to make backups.

making backups to a removable hard drive or other portable media is important to protect against both malware and drive failures. it is also important to occasionally test those backups. the MACs at work actually went for over a year with write-only backups before someone found out that all of their data was lost in a drive failure.

if the data is truly important to you, use more than one back-up device and keep one of those (you can rotate them) at a relative's or friend's house or at your office. then you are also protected against fires and most floods.

Ivan