Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 2/14/2010

Question
QUESTION: AGAIN I had to rid myself of the F'N "AntiVirus LIVE" How do I keep the damn thing away??? It's bad enough that my modem is dying and I can't get more RAM and my computer is on its last leg, not even able to run the "search" function for my computer files, but THIS too???? Can someone help? PLEASE!

ANSWER: You have a really serious infection! "AntiVirus LIVE" even blocks access to many antivirus websites so as keep its victims from downloading help. All the symptoms you report are likely to have been caused by this one malware infection. So with any luck, just removing "AntiVirus LIVE" should solve your problem.

First of all, I'd like for you to see if you can download a free trial Internet Security Suite from one of these websites: Kapersky Internet Security, which offers a free 30 day trial at http://kapersky.com, or F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite, which offers a free thirty day trial: https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL

If you can get one or the other of these downloaded, then you should uninstall all of your current antivirus and antispyware programs and install one of these. You can only run one antivirus/Internet security suite at any one time or these programs may fight each other and not fight the malware infection.

If this doesn't work, please let me know.

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

QUESTION: can you tell me which are the best set of spy/mal/virus programs to have?

Answer
My personal favorite is Symantec Corporate Edition combined with Zone Alarm for a firewall and protection against adware and spyware. I use the Chrome browser for added safety. Check your place of work to see if they have a subscription to Symantec Corporate version that would also cover your home computer. F-Secure Complete Internet Security and Kapersky Internet Security are my next favorites.