6 Things I don't get....

[42_42_42]

AVG Free Edition works for me.

That's what I was gonna say.

[Andara Bledin]

I used to use Norton, and my company is completely Norton for our security. I know that a lot of people have problems with it, but aside from one installation issue I had due to my hard drive being slightly defective, I never did.

AVG, however, has caused both me personally, and my company many, many problems. Not the least of which was being completely useless against a virus some dipstick porn surfer picked up on a warehouse computer. Everybody had AVG, and some also had Norton. The Norton machines were fine, but every AVG-only machine had to be cleaned. I have never had a decent experience with AVG.

Also, in most of the AV showdowns I've looked up, AVG and Norton are usually neck and neck on stopping threats and removing them, but both are far below a number of other solutions such as Avast! and Kaspersky.

I currently run a free version of Kaspersky in an AOL label. It's the same version as the full paid version, for the most part. Except for random twitchiness on updates, it's worked great for me.

I think anyone who uses a computer without proper safeguards pretty much is asking for anythying that happens to them. I have no sympathy.

^-.-^

[lordlundar]

Frankly, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that the AV companies CREATE
half of the viruses out there. What better way to drum up business?

I've lost track of how many times this conspiracy theory has cropped up. This is honestly a case of "cite your source". In this case, consider this:

6.5 Billion people in the world.
roughly a fifth of that in a Tech 3 country (high tech)
for the sake of argument a fifth of that has a computer
of those, .1% are hackers capable and willing to create a virus that is problematic in some way.

That is 260 Thousand people there. And I'm pretty sure my numbers are flawed in several ways, most likely raising the number.

Do they really need the help?

[xaenon]

> 2. I don't get why people buy PCs that can barely run the OS that's installed on
> them, then bitch at me for saying that the PC only has enough memory to
> run the OS and if they want better performance they need to upgrade. Then
> they bitch at the manufacturer for making the PC underpowered and then bitch
> that the store sold them a piece of crap.

Most customers don't consider the technical aspects of a computer. They don't
get why some processors should be avoided (the original Intel Celerons, for
example, were castrated Pentium-IIs - fine for MS-Word, but very poor for games
and multimedia) or why you want to stuff the machine to the limits with RAM and
storage.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard "I don't need a powerful machine,
I just want to play games" - and how many times I've had to explain its the
GAMES that tend to push the limits of the hardware - particularly processor,
video, and memory. In their defense, though, most of my customers were
the relatively cash-strapped individuals from a tiny little Indiana town, and
buying a 'good' machine that's optioned with the newer heavy-hitter chips,
lotsa memory, and big-arse hard drives tends to cost considerably more than
that $399 minimal-configuration eMachine in the window.


If they're just buying a computer for email and internet browsing, the cheapie
usually does just fine - until they either find the porn sites and/or install some
file-sharing service like Limewire or (God help them) Kazaa.

> 4. I don't get why Norton and McAfee are still so popular, yet half the time they
> miss threats and get easily disabled by viruses. Also, they get pretty venomous
> when they expire (slowness, loss of access to secure sites, etc...).

You don't get this? It's called extortion. "You won't renew our product?! Well,
then, guess you don't really NEED the internet, do ya?..."

Frankly, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that the AV companies CREATE
half of the viruses out there. What better way to drum up business?

> 5. Speaking of security software, I don't get why ISP-provided security suites
> are so crappy.

Typically the companies that create this software erroneously assume the end
user will have some massive powerhouse rig, with lots of extra CPU cycles and
memory to spare. It's also the ISP's job to determine which suite will best suit
their customers - but it usually gets cut down to 'which one is the cheapest for
them to provide and make a profit on' - and this tends to be the the suite that
has the heaviest demand on the end user's rig.

> 6. I don't get why Lexmark printers are still popular, yet they are consistently
> low-rated in publications and suck ink like it's going out of style.

It's called Gillette Marketing, modeled after what the razor manufacturer did
decades ago. They sold the basic razor for very little (in fact, Gillette supplied
razors to the US Army during and for some time after the first world war), then
you get to sell supplies for it for quite some time afterward - at a premium, of
course. How much does ink cost for a Lexmark? About the same as it does for
an HP. Is the Lexmark ink better quality? Based on the quality of their printers,
I seriously doubt it. So, they sucker the customer in by advertising a low, low
Walmart price on a printer, but few customers consider the costs of the suppies
they'll use over the printer's lifetime. So, if a Lexmark printer survives long
enough for the customer to have to buy about five sets of ink cartridges (two
cartridges to a set, black and color), at roughly $25-35 per cartridge, it's easy
to see where Lexmark makes their money. It helps, too, that Lexmark usually
uses much more ink than other brands.

[sld72382]

Firefox + Adblock + NoScript = surfing goodness.

[powerboy]

I use FireFox with all the right plug ins. Plus I also use Avast.

[Jadedcarguy]

I use FireFox. Since I switched from IE, AdAware has become something of an afterthought.

[Geek King]

So that they can't be accused of hiring people who write viruses.

Right. Sorry. I got to thinking with common sense again. My mistake.

[edible_hat]

Why in the world not? Wouldn't you want someone on the staff who knew how these things worked? There's a good reason why companies are recruiting hackers who turn 'white hat.' Takes a thief to catch a thief, and all that.

I could understand severe screening of persons like that though. You want to make sure they're not going to take advantage of the system before you turn them loose.

So that they can't be accused of hiring people who write viruses.

[Geek King]

They won't even employ people who have written viruses in the past, even if those viruses were never released into the wild.

Why in the world not? Wouldn't you want someone on the staff who knew how these things worked? There's a good reason why companies are recruiting hackers who turn 'white hat.' Takes a thief to catch a thief, and all that.

I could understand severe screening of persons like that though. You want to make sure they're not going to take advantage of the system before you turn them loose.

[PepperElf]

lol. not to mention it was a die hard movie featuring the "Mac Guy" from the US commercials.
but yeah, hollywood always over-does things.

i'm just curious... how would those anti-virus companies find out that "person x made a virus" if it was never released?

[Broomjockey]

they think they can detonate gas pipelines from miles away and other things like that

To be fair, if the system was automated, it could be possible to ratched up the pressure to a point where the gas could blow out the pipes and ignite in the resulting blow-out, though any system worth using would have some mechanical failsafes put in that would vent with that kind of pressure buildup. You can make the logic work, but you have to work too hard to do it. It's a Bruce Willis action movie. Stop overthinking it!

[Cyphr]

if you suspect a hack attempt just ... disconnect the internet. not very hollywood-like but much more effective than trying to out-code them back

well then again watch live free of die hard see what hollywood thinks PC's can do they think they can detonate gas pipelines from miles away and other things like that

[lordlundar]

Though now I'm kinda wondering what exactly they were talking about that day...

Like I said before, it was probably the BIOS. Written carefully, they can be indistinguishable from a flash program, and about 50 times a lethal to a computer. Used to be a fun target for hackers to use against each other, but with the difficulty in writing, no ability to transfer once infected, and low application rate (how many people do you know flash the BIOS?), it's not a popular option.

[edible_hat]

On a slight variation of your #7, I got some people who actually think that it's the antivirus companies themselves that are creating the viruses so you can coaxed into buying the software.

I always have one response to that: "If that was the case, there would have been someone blowing the whistle by now."

They won't even employ people who have written viruses in the past, even if those viruses were never released into the wild.