A brand-newbie

Found this site in the process of wandering away from Norton System Works, which seems not to get the job done for me in keeping out spyware, malware & trojans. I was advised to try either Avast or AVG, but am reluctant to switch to one or the other & drop the Norton because of its 7 month history on my Fujitsu laptop & the learning curve already established. I turn all the Norton off & run SpyBot in safe mode, but rarely catch anything more than a stray tracking cookie. It seems to me that my computer runs too slowly for its apparent speed & power. My Skype won't work because the microphone can't input–a Fujitsu tech advised that I may have a boogered input jack. I've tried 2 diffferent microphones. Neither will activate the Sound Recorder, but I can generate clicks & bumps by twisting the jack insert. It also seems to me that my Outlook Express runs by itself, which may indicate a working bot of some kind. I'm going to do all of the actions before running HJT & posting the log.

Hello 'whl'

We are glad you have found this forum and a very warm [external image: Posted Image]

Are you using the basic Nortons System Works which I see cost much money? If so how long is it before the contract with them runs out. This does not appear to have Antivirus protection.

So I assume you are using the Premier version to obtain Antivirus protection.

Turning off any Virus program to run Antispyware software is dangerous in itself. I would download and install AVG Antivirus from this link onto your desktop then go off line and uninstall Nortons and install the new AVG and update the definitions as soon as you reconnect to the internet.

Before running a HJT log, I suggest you run a PCPitstop test from the following so we can get a good overview of your machine and help you further.

kind regards,

________________________________________

http://www.pcpitstop.com
Register and create a password
Accept the ActiveX component to allow your machine to run the Full Tests
Registering and accepting the ActiveX are both SAFE and FREE.
Full Tests is the first item in the left hand column of that page.

The Full Tests take less than 5 minutes for most machines.
Once you have your Results, please post the TechExpress Link back here into this thread for review.
TechExpress is the last item on the list in the yellow box in upper right area of any Results page.
Post the entire URL link information back here into this Forum thread.

Caution: During the testing of Video Adapter, a variety of patterns, shapes, colors and text are "flashed" onto the users monitor screen. In the many thousands of daily uses of the PCPitstop Full Tests over several years, two individuals who suffer epilepsy experienced discomfort and temporary dizziness when viewing the flashing patterns.
If you know that you are susceptible to photo driven seizure, look away from your screen during the Video Adapter testing sequence.

Yeah, tallin Thanks for the quick acknowledgement. My Norton has 148 days to go & it has the anti-virus & spyware components within the package. I learned or discovered elsewhere that Norton reallllllllly slows down my system with its own mish-mash of startup carp** & registry keys & background functions. And I read in several places that I have to go off-line (just turn my DSL modem off) & shut the Norton down in order to use SpyBot & CCleaner & PageFile defrag & SmitFraud. All of them seem to do "stuff" even though I still have some sense that the Krap is in the system somewhere. The Fujitsu tech thinks my Windows OS may be corrupt because System Restore doesn't work, although Microsoft recognizes that it can go South for no reason at all. Tomorrow I'll work through your suggestions on AVG & PitStop. Your reply is appreciated. whl

Hello whl, You are so correct re Nortons slowing your system down. Good idea to work on the suggestions tomorrow. Post back if you need more guidance. king regards,

Thanks tallin. More later. whl

I think many people just either buy Norton products(especially the security ones) or get trial copies/have them preinstalled, etc. because they are a big name and one of the most heard of in the security industry, however people in general should try and research products before paying out money for them because as is the case with Norton and some other products being a big name can mean very little, some programs start out great but come 10 years down the line and they have fallen. Also I think when it comes to antivirus programs many free products are just as good as paid for ones. tallin, I think they were going into Safe Mode to run Spybot Search & Destroy so they wouldn't have Internet access anyway, even with Networking trying to get on the Internet usually doesn't work but they just need to boot into Safe Mode in general, not disable their AV first because it wont start up in Safe Mode, okay basically the latter is being said to whl. Just don't bother with any Norton antispyware product(if they even have one, I haven't been keeping up with that) because not only will it probably make your computer slow but it's detection will likely be rubbish.

Thanks enigma chick. You're right on all counts. Several years ago on an old 386 I hooked up with Norton & their "stuff" really worked–so did McAfee, at the time. Then I used a McLeod dial-up & the Norton anti-spam absolutely crushed the porn, viagra, casino & enlargement crapola. When I went to my 40 gig/960meg desktop, the Norton was slower but still got the job done. With my present laptop (which did have Norton pre-installed & paid for) & DSL, the Norton is a slow, klunky piece of junk with no anti-spam &, as you made so painfully clear, no capability at all of keeping up with wild viruses, trojans & dialers. The recent Skype + Norton fiasco actually made the decades of Microsoft security holes look comparitively successful–aaargh! Plus, the customer service is simple-minded idiots whose task is to "sell" me on paying Norton experts to review & repair the system for $99.95 & 2 Wheaties boxtops. Jackasses. I'm going to make the switch into Avast or AVG because their work on anti-virus stuff is quick & up-to-date. I'll have to accept that I wasted my $79.95 on Norton–kaput. Even so, the situation is bad enough that I can't tell if my system is compromised. I may have a bad/broken microphone connection, or Skype & Norton may have corrupted some part of my RealTec HD sound. I may have a bot sending e-mails while I sleep (although Windows Defender, SmitFraud, CCleaner & SpyBot haven't found anything), or Norton may have compromised Outlook Express–& yes, I'm tempted to switch for a more secure e-mail setup, grrrrrr. Anyway, I'm just about ready to uninstall the Norton & move along. I'll probably have to spend a few days at CNet trying to figure out the good stuff. I did run all the check-ups in Safe Mode. Even so, I still simply throw the switch on my modem before shutting down the security systems so that I'm offline & not at any risk. Time for PitStop, I think. Thanks. whl

Windows Defender is a poor antispyware product and SmitfraudFix shouldn't be ran in Option 2 unless you're instructed to because doing so on an non infected system can cause trouble. Spybot Search & Destroy is a decent program but as tallin said AVG Anti-Spyware is a good idea to install. Also don't rely on CNET for downloads, I once received malware off there from downloading a supposed antispyware product. Most of their downloads are clean but from my experience at least a small percentage aren't. The advice from user's here will greatly help with those type of decisions as we're generally up to date and have some experience with at least some of them.