At 09:20 PM 08/11/10, you wrote: >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Tim Sawyer" <tisaw...@gmail.com> >To: <Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com> >Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 10:29 PM >Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Sorry everyone > > > >Was your machine on while you were away? If so you may have gotten a virus > >or spyware. Sounds like your wife got it too. Spamers like to >infect > >machines just to get control of them for sending spam. The really bad news > >is that most free spyware removal software is spyware itself. A >really > >good PC guy might be able to remove it. Good luck man! > >-- > >Tim > >:wq > >Nonsense! Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and >SuperAntiSpyware are all EXCELLENT free anti-spyware programs. I routinely >use all 4 of them to clean up infections for people. No spyware in ANY of >them and, between the four programs, I have yet to run into something I >couldn't clean. > > >George, KA3HSW / WQGJ413
Add "Hijack This!" to your toolkit. Excellent for clearing crud out of hijacked browsers. I keep a copy in my virus removal toolkit - and the copy is named iexplore.exe so that the malware that does filename checks lets it run (like some blackmail-ware). Add Mike Lin's Startup Control (the single file exe version, not the installed version) as it helps resolve issues with programs that start when the system starts up. I have all my antivirus tools on a SD card that is in a USB flash drive reader. Why an SD card? Because the card has a write protect switch. Load the card, flip the switch, and it can't be written to like a regular flash drive can. Other than write protection I treat it just like any other flash drive. See <http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/SDR-1/SD-CARD-READER/WRITER-USB-2.0/1.html> The reader costs $4. A 4gb card is under $20. Naturally larger cards are more expensive. The SD card and matching reader is cheap protection for the antivirus / malware remover part your computer toolkit. The only complaint I have is that the All Electronics reader is a bit "fat" and blocks the adjacent USB jack on some systems. A 3 inch USB extension cord fixes that. Lastly - never use a flash drive / thumb drive / pen drive as your permanent storage - only as a secondary or transit storage device. I've seen too many die with no notice, and be irrecoverable. One client's daughter lost a three week vacation / honeymoon worth of photos. Another lost several hundred photos of a Grand Canyon raft trip. Both my 16bg regular toolkit and my 4gb antivirus toolkit have a backup copy as a folder on a raid-protected server and as a folder on my laptop. If the flash drive dies (and it has twice in three years) I just buy a new one, load it up and use it. Mike WA6ILQ
