Expert: Keith Davis - 9/12/2008

Question
QUESTION: I am presently using Mcafee Virus Scan Plus. It has just recently expired, and I would like to know what antivirus you would recommend. Also,how do you uninstall Mcafee? I have a Dell computer and use Windows XP.

ANSWER: To uninstall McAfee go to Start>control panel>add/remove programs> find all the McAfee listings and click on "remove" to uninstall.

The following is what I do for computer security:

I use 3 different programs and have been virus, spyware, and hack-free for close to 6 years.
Believe it or not all of these programs are free and are rated higher than programs you pay for.

Anti-virus- AVG Free Edition www.grisoft.com

Firewall- ZoneAlarm www.filehippo.com/download_zonealarm_free/
Make sure you disable Windows Firewall (it is worthless anyway) because they don't work well together. Don't get aggravated with the program. At first it will really bug you because it will be popping up a lot. When it pops up read what is trying to access the internet. If it is a trusted program click the check box "remember this" and click allow. After a short while you will get it set where it only alerts you to things that should not be accessing the internet.

Anti-spyware- Spybot Search and Destroy- www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/
Download, install, update, then run a scan and remove all spyware that is found.
Setup the program like this: Go to "mode" (top left of page) and click "advanced". At the bottom left you will see "tools". Expand tools and click "hosts file", then click "add Spybot S and D hosts list"

A little more safe internet advice:
1. I don't use Internet Explorer. It is not as secure as other browsers. I use Mozilla Firefox. It is faster and very secure.
2. I don't use Outlook email. I use web based email like yahoo or hotmail. Outlook actually loads email on your PC. Web based email stays on a server and you just view it from you PC.
3. Only download free software from trusted sources. There are very few that I trust. Trusted: www.filehippo.com, www.majorgeeks.com, www.snapfiles.com

I hope this helps you out. Let me know if I can help you further.

Keith

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION:  I have so many questions I don't know where to begin. First of all,I already have spybot on my computer. However,when trying to update it,I had no idea what file to put this in. How do you know? This is so foreign to me. I have some more questions but one at the time will do. Thanks for information.

ANSWER: There is an update option inside Spybot S and D that should automatically connect and update.

Let me know how you do.

Keith

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: That is what I tried to do,but it asked me where to place the file so I just picked one. So what did I do wrong?

Answer
It should have automatically installed the update.
Is this the Spybot Search and Destroy you downloaded? http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/

If it is, you open Spybot, click update. It will give you a list of download sites. Pick the one closest to you. Click continue and make sure all of the updates listed are checked. Click download and they will install automatically. If there is a version update to the program and it is asking where you want to download it to, the default location is fine. When you get through. Go to Immunize, immunize the system, and then run the check for problems scan. Make sure all problems are checked and have Spybot remove them.

Keith