Expert: Lorry - 8/5/2009

Question
Hey Lorry, I have a question for you. So aparently, my sister calls me up from work saying that her new laptop thats connected to the cable internet via Wireless, got a trojan horse in it or so, and says that its from my computer, cause it already has one and it may have spread to hers. (Ive been meaning to format it but the CD Don't work anymore cause the motherboard was changed and gotta take it to some shop to have to formatted) Anyway; these are my questions:

-Is it possible for a virus to spread through internet, like she thinks thats going on?

-Would it help to buy an Antivirus program? If So what is the #1 brand you reccomend?

-If I were to get her a antivirus program, would it take it out and keep it out? or it'll take away most of it, but keep small traces of the virus?

Answer
Hi Tony,

Do you have an anti-virus program installed? If yes, I would suggest that you update and run a scan to verify that you didn't send the virus. Once you know for sure that you didn't, it sounds like someone spoofed hacked/used) your email address.

Any one who goes on-line should have an anti-virus program installed, keep it up to date and run a virus scan once a week.

Two good free ones are AVG and Avast. Check them out at:

http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html

http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Home-Edition/3000-2239_4-10019223.html

A good paid one is Norton AntiVirus, if you decide to get that, look for a sale price. After a year when you have to renew, look for a sale price with rebates for previous owners, by doing that you will get it for free or close to it.

http://shop.symantecstore.com/store/symnahho/en_US/ContentTheme/ThemeID.1795800/...

You and your sister could try NAV for 30 days by downloading it from:

https://shop.symantecstore.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Env=BASE&Locale=en_US&SiteID=symnahho&id=QCShoppingCartPage

Hope this helps!
Lorry