Here’s a youtube video from Sophos that shows how you can get infected from a Google Ad advertising Norton.  Note how on the fake Norton website the colors are yellow like Norton Antivirus or Symantec, but there’s no real name, only the word “Anti-virus,” a clue you’re not getting the real deal, but a rogue antivirus. Be aware when going to unfamiliar sites. In the meantime, I’ll try to let Google know this is a fraudulent website. We call that a phish website. Try not to go phishing, the phish ARE biting, but are biting right in the ol kazoo, meaning where it hurts most: your wallet and computer.

If you did buy the fake Norton from the phish website, it wouldn’t work, and would infect your computer with more viruses and spyware.

In December, Apple announced that Mac users should install anti-virus protection, but since then, they’ve withdrawn the story. However, it makes sense, as more people buy Macs, the more virus creators will create malware for Apples. So if you own an Apple computer, a little precaution is advised. Here is a link to avast! for Macs. No harm in installing it. Just to be safer.

Click here.

Find us at Calgary Computer Repair.

Computer Virus Removal

I’m often asked what free anti-virus I recommend.

Unfortunately no one anti-virus can remove all viruses. In our Calgary computer repair shop we use many different ones and each finds different infections. Some that we use are AVG, Avira, Avast, Kaspersky, Dr. Web Cure-it, E-set online and off, among others. If we relied on only one, we wouldn’t be able to do an adequate job of fixing computers. So it rankles when an anti-virus company wants to be the only one used by people. It’s not realistic and would mean that a lot more computers would have to be reformatted to get cleaned.

If you’re asking which one I think you should keep resident on your computer, I like both Avira and AVG best. Both are really good at catching viruses. Google (search on Google for) either one and find the result that includes “download.cnet.com” in its address. I recommend both Avira and AVG. Of course, I don’t mean both at once. I mean choose one of the two.

I used to prefer AVG over Avira until AVG stopped working with Combofix of Bleeping Computers. I loved AVG and put it on every computer in close proximity. I liked AVG better because of its easier user interface. Being “easier” meant more effective, because people were able to use it more effectively. Now I prefer Avira since you don’t have to uninstall it to run Combofix, which is, unfortunately, the only solution sometimes to an infected computer.

By the way, whoever the creator of Combofix is, whoever sUBS is, he ought to receive knighthood or hero-hood for the amount of computers he saves on a daily or even an hourly basis, and for which he does not even receive payment. He really makes a huge difference in people’s lives without much recognition or money. I respect him enormously and hope he lives a long time because we will be all be sunk without him.

Only people who are experienced techs should use Combofix, however. Very, very occasionally it will cause a computer to stop booting and if this happens and you don’t know how to undo the changes it makes, you may have to reinstall Windows.

Both AVG and Avira ought to take note, their new default of having scheduled scans disabled upon install is dangerous. Many people think they are protected when they are not. If you have Avira or AVG make sure they’re scanning on a daily basis.

If you have a virus and live in Calgary, come to our Virus Removal Lab and will be able to help you out without losing your data or programs or even changing your computer except to speed it up. We would love to see you.

PS. We enjoy all kinds of people and computers and viruses…and aren’t judgmental.

The last upgrade of AVG from 8.5 to 9 has many great changes while the best features remain unchanged. The newest AVG scans much faster and uses less resources, while the residential shield (which catches malware before it has a chance to infest your computer) still works well or even better than before. And the reliability and scheduling of the scans and updates makes it my first choice in a free anti-virus for my clients. However many clients get stuck when trying to update from free AVG 8.5 to 9.0.

This is what to do: Go to Start>Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs or on Vista or Windows 7 just “Programs”. Wait for Windows to form a list of installed programs. Find AVG in the list and uninstall it. Then reboot the computer. Now that 8.5 is removed, download and install version 9.0.

Problem solved.

I like AVG…no bones about it. And I recommend it to my clients because it’s easy to use and it’s reliable and now with version 9.0 it’s also faster again. On the comparative tests at Virus.gr, AVG Free removed 97% of the viruses. I have clients–with teenage sons— who used to hire me every six months to clean their computers of malware, I convinced them to try AVG and voila, two years later, and they still haven’t needed me to clean viruses again. I know, amazing!! And so much easier on the budget than computer repair bills.

If a client calls and asks me how to get AVG for their computer, I tell them to search for AVG on Google, but this week a client named Anna accidentally downloaded a virus from Google instead. Among all the legitimate links for AVG in her Google search results, she managed to click on a link that lead to Antivirus 2010, a rogue anti-virus which I remove several times a week from other clients’ computers.

Here’s where she clicked:

Don't download this one!

All the rest of the links are good. Look for http://avg.com or http://free.avg.com. Or you can use the one I use from CNET’s download.com: http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html Since it’s Cnet, you know it’s safe. Just scroll down further in the Google search results for AVG.

Be careful out there, it’s a wild web!!