My Norton Internet security expired while i was in hospital, I now think I may have a virus, key stroke monitor thingy.

Any advice on some good security to install, that's worth the outlay. I have put avast on temporarily while I decide.

Posting from my cell phone till I decide, which is not good, but better than having my keystrokes monitored.

Thanks in advance...

 

Sorry I'm on my cell phone, so intermittent at best, plus I only have email and not yahoo, but thanks for the offer of help anyway.

 

Major geeks is a good site for giving step by step deep cleaning of computers and virus removal

 

Thanks sweetheart, as soon as it's finished it's 163 bloody updates I'll have a peek

 

No worries hope you get it sorted out

 

Go install a free copy of
Microsoft Essentials....for free
...

*not_secure_link*windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

Run a full scan and see what it finds....

Then report back....

get rid of Norton if it will let you....

 

Norton was good when it first came out then it got crappy.

 

Eset.
Kind of spendy but hardly know its there until something tries something it shouldn't.

 

Most viruses are created by the companies that make the virus scan software. Ever notice how there is a big scare every few years, and just so happens they have a fix written ready to download within a day or two. When there are viruses written by a true outsider it usually takes them a month or more to make a fix. Case and point is they make the virus and the software and all competition is in on it too so any software should pretty much find the virus.

 

most viruses are written by coders not companies and they use alot of the same code strings to execute functions and that is why they can have a fix for them in hours
its just a matter of reverse engineering the code to find the fix
a virus works by finding a single weak point in a programs original software and exploits that weakness
to fix it the coders just need to purge the offending code and patch the holes

but for better security i use
windows essentials, avast antivirus suite, adaware plus, and 3 firewalls behind ubuntu and a VPN

 

Thanks for the advice, I'm trying AVG at the moment on the 30 day free trial to see how it goes. Not sure if I'm staying with it as I'm being hammered by pop ups and new tabs being opened every time I turn a page on here, despite the settings being on high.

I'm going to have a look at windows essentials now.

 

AVG gets better after you pay for it and go through it to set it up and then you still get pop ups because it does not offer a built in popup blocker
avast has a free version but you need to read the user reviews
try *not_secure_link*download.cnet.com/windows/
they test everything and allow users to try before buying or offer freeware

 

Microsoft releases a free virus scanner every month with all the latest virus definitions, called Microsoft Safety Scanner. That should handle most major viruses and spyware.

Also, I might have a coupon code for McAfee subscriptions because Vmware sends me promotions. I don't know if I'm allowed to share it.

 

The biggest problem so far has been a keystroke monitor which hopefully is now gone, and loss of both of my email accounts that I've had for 10 years.

I also just found a programme that had been hacked in by a company called "Desktop temperature Monitor" every move of the mouse generated a pop up and a click of the mouse opened a new tab all advertising various crap I have no interest in. So bad I couldn't use any site. I missed it due to the name and only noticed it when I checked the installation date 22/01/2015 all other installations where 2012.

I'm going to put the windows essentials on now

 

@AnX have you tried using Kaspersky. I also had a few viruses on my previous comp which were dealt with after installing Kaspersky

 

Not tried it yet, just letting windows essentials do a scan then see whats picked up

 

I'm not entirely sure, but I think Microsoft Essentials is the same as Microsoft Safety Scanner, but only essentials can update itself and scanner you have to download each month.

 

The scanners running now, about half way done, been at for 20 mins already

 

Scans produced nothing, two antivirus running and everything's Ok so far, just got to sort my emails now. Its got to be a computer thing as I can still access both off my phone

 

if it was only 30 minutes to scan be happy my system takes 4 hours for a deep scan and thats just the antivirus
without knowing what its doing it is hard to say what is wrong
good basic starting points are to run dick clean up, defrag, and delete cookies once a month or more