ENT: Got a virus? Plenty of help online - column by Bob Vaillancourt

Arts/Life

Posted By BOB VAILLANCOURT

Updated 3 months ago

The other day, I was moving some files on my home PC, which runs the Windows XP operating system, when my antivirus program popped up with a message that said I had a trojan infection. However, when I told the program to remove the infection, it came back with an error message that it couldn't do that.

That's why it's always a good idea to have software on your machine to detect malicious software, like trojans, dialers, worms, backdoors, denial of service (DOS) tools, keyloggers, sniffers and the like.

Yup, you guessed it, I didn't. Although, like many people, I thought I had adequately protected myself with a firewall program.

That lead me to do a search for what is out there to help a user clean up a computer system. What I found was that there is help a plenty.

One of the best freeware programs for that sort of thing is called Superantispyware. There are two versions of this program. The free version will do a thorough search of your computer and come back with a report and a method for cleaning the computer out. I was surprised what this program turned up. It was effective for sure.

While the free version runs a scan and cleans out your system, the paid version, which sells for $29.95 U.S., provides ongoing, or what is called "real time" protection while your computer is running.

Microsoft has also provided a malicious software blocker, as well. The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software -- including Blaster, Sasser and Mydoom -- and helps remove any infection found.

Microsoft updates the tool on a regular basis each month and also when a particular threat is identified. It is available through Microsoft Update, Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center.

There is also free and paid versions of an anti-malware program at Malwarebytes.org,as well.

Like Superantispyware, the Malwarebytes product comes in two flavours, free and paid. And like Superantispyware, the free version does a one-time sweep of your system and then reports back its findings, before cleaning the system out. You can do the sweep as many times as you like with the free version. And just like it's competitors, the paid version provides ongoing or real time protection while the computer is on. The paid version sells for $24.95 U.S. Corporate and business users require annual licenses.

The folks at www.lavasoft.comalso have a free malware removal tool on their site. The company also produces a professional and plus versions of the software. The plus and pro versions, which sell for $26.95 and $39.95 respectively, include free anti-virus in the plus version and real time network protection in the pro version.

There is also free software at www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html,

the home of the Spybot program.

For free real time protection, i.e. the program runs in the background while you go about your computing chores, check out SpywareGuard from Javacool software. You can find it at www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

All of these products, of course, are for the Windows operating system.

Mac users have less to worry about, but it is still possible to receive malware on that platform, too.

If your operating system is Mac-based, there is a utility Mac users can use, Rootkit Hunter is a free program from sourceforg.net.It is available at www.christian-hornung.de.Of course, there are plenty of antivirus programs out there for both Windows and Mac operating systems, but to go deeper, a good malware program is also needed.

Bob Vaillancourt is our web guy. E-mail your questions to bvaillancourt@thesudburystar.com.

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