Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Please help with Vista utilities

Aug 14, 2008 6:19AM PDT

My friend has a Hewlett Packard a6228x; Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Athlon (tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ 2.6 GHz.

His Norton AntiVirus trial has expired; his malware is out of date and couldn't update. He has Windows Defender for spyware.

Following window popped up:

----------------------------------------
"Antispyware 2008 XP alert"
-Infiltration alert-computer attacked from internet (can be password stealing attack, trojan, and so on)
-attack from: 230.22.45.175;port 6100
-attacked port: 54533
-threat: zlob BF
-----------------------------------------

He also go the following but I thought it was strange that they asked for 2009 version.

-------------------------------------
"Antivirus 2009 will perform quick 100% and free scan. Do you want to install Antivirus 2009 to scan computer for malware now?"
---------------------------------------

"Do you want Antispyware 2008 XP to block atttack?" then it asks to purchase it. Think my friend would just want a free utility.

"Spyware alert - 25 serious threats found"

I'm not familiar with Vista at all. Which programs should he have removed and installed?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Do some research!!!
Aug 14, 2008 7:16AM PDT
- Collapse -
thanks, I never encountered this before
Aug 14, 2008 8:43AM PDT

I'm only familiar with AVG, Spybot, Spywareblaster and AdAware for Windows XP. So what utilities should he use for Vista?

- Collapse -
Tips
Aug 14, 2008 9:10AM PDT

Some tips, all of which are largely OS agnostic

TIPS FOR A SMOOTH RUNNING SYSTEM
================================

The more of these suggestions you follow, the fewer problems you should have. They won't solve any existing problems you have, but if you follow them all you should be able to avoid virtually all problems in the future.

Things you should NOT do
--------------------------------
1: Use Internet Explorer (1)
2: Use any browser based on Internet Explorer
3: Use Outlook or Outlook Express (2)
4: Open email attachments you haven't manually scanned with your virus scanner
5: Open email attachments you were not expecting, no matter who they appear to be from
6: Respond to spam messages, including using unsubscribe links
7: Visit questionable websites (e.g. porn, warez, hacking)
8: Poke unnecessary holes in your firewall by clicking "Allow" every time some program requests access to the Internet (3)
9: Click directly on links in email messages
10: Use file sharing or P2P programs
11: Use pirated programs

Things you SHOULD do
-----------------------------
1: Use a non-IE or IE based browser (4)
2: Always have an up to date virus scanner running (5)
3: Always have a firewall running (6)
4: Install all the latest security updates (7)(Cool(9)
5: Delete all unsolicited emails containing attachments without reading
6: Manually scan all email attachments with your virus scanner, regardless of whether it's supposed to be done automatically
7: Copy and paste URLs from email messages into your web browser
8: Inspect links copied and pasted into your web browser to ensure they don't seem to contain a second/different address

Notes
--------

(1) Sadly sometimes this is unavoidable, so only use IE when the site absolutely will not work with any other browser and you cannot get that information/service anywhere else, and only use IE for that one specific site.
(2) Outlook and Outlook Express are very insecure, and basically invite spam. Possible replacements include Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, The Bat, and dozens of others.
(3) When it doubt over whether or not to allow some program, use Google to find out what it is and whether or not it needs access to the Internet. Otherwise, denying access is the safest course of action, since you can always change the rule later.
(4) On Windows your options include: Mozilla Firefox, Seamonkey, Opera, Flock, and Safari. It doesn't matter which one you pick so much as that you pick one of them and use it over IE.
(5) AVG Free and Avast are available if you need a decent free virus scanner
(6) XP/Vista's firewall is probably good enough for 99% of all Windows users, but other options include ZoneAlarm, Outpost Firewall, and Comodo. If you have a router with a firewall built into it, there is no need for any of the aforementioned firewalls to be running.
(7) Microsoft's usual system is to release security updates every second Tuesday of the month.
(Cool Use of Windows Update on Windows operating systems prior to Windows Vista requires Internet Explorer, and is thus a valid exception to the No IE rule.
(9) Service packs should ALWAYS be installed. They frequently contain security updates that will ONLY be found in that service pack.

- Collapse -
All of these can be used with Vista...
Aug 14, 2008 10:12AM PDT

You can check all utilities not listed for their compatibility with Vista. Visit their website or check them on download.com with usually spells out their compatibility.

Glenn

- Collapse -
It's ROGUE...
Aug 14, 2008 8:34AM PDT

They spam heavily, create fake websites, and even install advertising plugins into Internet Explorer to display such advertisements in an attempt to lure you to their website. They then proceed to run a fake scan and return fictitious results claiming you're infected and vulnerable to further infections. If you choose to install their software, however, you will actually become infected...they infect your computer with malware so that you'll buy their software and have something to remove!

Solution: Ignore such advertisements and review out forum sticky, which includes a list of free security software that's Vista-compatible. Choose one from each category (antivirus, firewall, antispyware, etc), install, run, and remove whatever they find.

Hope this helps,
John