I've weighed up the odds, nick, and I think I'm going to stick with Avast for now, but only because I'm sort of broke right now. When I have a free thirty quid that isnt going to be spent on more RAM or more monitors for my system, I'll look into Nod32 again.

Hopefully Avast will keep me upright for a few months.

And I understand about my school's network being bugged over; I get the feeling I've managed to land a few of them accidentally by giving my classmates the power of getting around filters... oops  

NEVER EVER USE SYSTEM RESTORE TO RECOVER FROM A VIRUS. YOU JUST INFECTED YOURSELF AGAIN AND ALSO INFECTED ALL THE BACKUPS>

ALL SYSTEM RESTORE POINTS MUST BE DELETED

Wiping out and starting over was probably a smart move if you do not know how to clean a system manually. During the wipe it is critical you run a ZERO write to the hard drive. FORMATTING does not delete the data on the drive, it is still there.








I can fix for you so you can go to alll the porn sites you want and never be hacked or bugged again...    


www.eset.com

NOD32

Buy IT... the best protection money can buy,. hands down and never kills resources

Install it on its default settings and if you want to know if a web site is trying to nail you, tell it to inform you of HTTP attempts during the install routine. Otherwise set it for silent operation

reboot and make sure to run the UPDATER once finished, reboot and run a full system scan, let it kill anything it finds.


Then

http://www.safer-networking.org/

Spybots Search and Destroy

or you can get it here:


http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/Spybot_Search_and_Destroy/1043809773/1  click download now

When you install the program, set it to work with Internet Explorer (which it checked by default) but do not enable the Tea Timer It will also ask if you wish to download all updates during the install, select that. Once it is installed it will run a Wizard, do not back up the registry but do have it download and install all updates again. Once the wizard is finished, close the program and reopen it.  

Have it search for updates again. If it finds any, select them all and download/install them

it sometimes takes 2 times to get them all the first time you run the program

Also, if updating hangs, change the server in the server selection drop down at the top in the update window.

Once it is updated, select Immunize and then click the green PLUS sign +   That will install the browser script with the updated scanner files.

Once it is immunized, run a full scan (search and destroy button, then check for problems) and when its finished it will display a list of items. Have it fix everything. If it finds a nasty critter or 2 it may ask for a reboot to finish the job, just follow the instructions.

Make sure to update Spybots MANUALLY once a month or so. It does NOT do it automatically. All it does is protect the browser and does not boot with Windows or use resources

Those 2 are ALL you need along with the Windows XP SP2 or VISTA firewall is enabeld AND there are no OPEN PORTS to programs that have no business to them. Check the EXCEPTIONS LIST.

NOTHING ELSE. Dont buy into zone alarm or any scanner that boots with Windows other than NOD32. They will do nothing but drag the system down, especially for flight sim.



You can now go hang out on the worse porn and hacker sites on the net now and never be bothered.

If you use anything else like Avast, AVG Norton McAfee, the odds are you may be bugged again eventually .

You get what you pay for with NOD32, like you get what you pay for with PC Power and Cooling Power Supplies. The AVs are not created equal. If you want the best protection, NOD32 is your winner