What do you do when you have a virus?

[oreosplz93]

I don't think he is talking about a computer virus. Are you? :o

[yousir]

I don't think he is talking about a computer virus. Are you? :o

Me.....well...yes. I tend not to get malware or trojans or spyware in my body.

[Lexington]

I used to use McAfee but I eventually caught something. It was probably via a porn site I probably shouldn't have been visiting. It was a strange virus - it would pick words out of websites, and turn them into advertising links. So I might go to GaySpeak and be reading a post, and it might say "So I took this guy out for coffee the other day....", and the word coffee would then be a link to some online coffee retailer. I thought at first these sites were messed up, but apparently, I was the only one seeing them.

I went online to some website - I have it linked at home, don't remember the name. It's a group of computer geeks who volunteer their time to fix viruses and other issues. One guy talked me through the fix. He said it wasn't a common virus, but it was a real bear to get rid of. There was a lot of running scans, and reading results, and careful editing of internal stuff. We finally finished up, and my computer got the all clear. He told me to stop going to sketchy porn sites (I have), and he suggested I switch to Avast. I have, and haven't had a problem since. I also donated some money to their web services.

Lex

[CellarDweller]

Kaspersky here

[meridannight]

What anti-shitware do you use?

it's called a Macintosh.
what's a virus?

[MikeW]

it's called Macintosh.
what's a virus?

Yeah, I'm sort of like that too.

However, some malware and trojans for the mac are becoming more prevalent. For example, about a month ago I had my Safari hijacked by some malware. It was really fucked up. I'd clicked on a link from an email I thought was trustworthy (obviously wrong about that). It took me to a site and I immediately got a (fake) warning that my firewall had been breached. The warning wanted me to call a 1-800 number. Well, I knew that was fishy. I tried EVERYTHING to get rid of this but it would NOT let me close the browser. I had to force quite Safari but as soon as I relaunched it, it was back. I thought, well, I'll just trash Safari and re-install it but come to find out that Safari is now part of the Mac OS -- which means you can't delete the program, even if it is infected. (!!!) So... after trying several fixes talked about in forums online (all of which failed to work for me), I was FORCED to reinstall Yosemite completely. What a royal pain in the ass!

Now I have both Sophos and AdwareMedic (both free).

[meridannight]

[MENTION=20947]MikeW[/MENTION], yeah. i have ClamXav (also free). never have had any malware for my nearly 10 years of Mac use. i just scan from time to time to be extra sure. the fact that we comprise the minority on the PC market (by numbers, not by revenue) still counts for something.

[TwisttheLeaf]

Avast, CCleaner

Plus other preventive measures.... AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, Better Privacy

For heavy duty issues... ESET online scan

And if all else fails.... take it down to the geekery down the street to see if one of them can take a peek at it and help me out.

[mrex]

What do you do when you have a virus?

Scream and run around?
Cry because you think you've lost everything?
Realise there is bigger sh*t in the world?

Or figure a way to fix it?

What anti-shitware do you use?

[shitware = virus, trojan, adware, spyware, malware etc].

I use:

Malwarebytes.
Microsoft Security Essentials.
CCleaner.
AdwCleaner.

using MSE is like fking without a condom.

Malwarebytes and avast, adblock plus, and opera (something else than IE). that's is my choice to keep my comp clean and fresh. from time to time i run online scanners just to be sure.

[yousir]

Opera here too.
People have said MSE has served them well.
But i guess people have something bad to say about everything.