What's the difference in "viruses" and "infections"? I use PC Tools Spyware Doctor which scans the computer daily. Everyday, there are (X) amount of infections on the computer, which I always clean up. So what's the difference? And how dangerous are these infections?

Infections is a term used to denote by your spyware program that you have a certain identified spyware, malware, virus, adware, etc. There are so many classifications of abnormal "infections" that some anti-virus or aware programs don't catch by themselves.

It's always best to use a couple of them. My favs are :

1. Ad-Aware
2. Sypbot

For really nasty critters, I use HiJackThis to take out the vermen. This supposes that you know exactly which services / exe's are really supposed to be loaded and run.

How dangerous are they? Some will be a nuisance and others will lock up your computer with background processes.

It's best to ensure that you have pop-up blockers turned on and if possible, run a firewall. A router will protect you somewhat, but never plug your wire into a modem (cable or DSL) directly from your computer. You are exposed this way.

HTH

AdAware FREE and Spybot S&D will eliminate adware and spyware... both are free programs. You also need an anti-viral program; I recommend the free program AVG Free Edition.

Be sure to run Windows Update regularly, and practice safe computing (careful with the email and with what you're downloading). Stop using Internet Explorer for everyday browsing and switch to Firefox and/or Opera. Both are free and are safer for everyday use than Internet Explorer (you absolutely need IE for is running Windows Update).

Do all these things and you'll be reasonably safe from infections.

Vasily

vingogly,
Actually I have 3 of the things you mentioned: Spybot, AVG, and I use Mozilla Firefox (I hate using IE, it so extremely S L O W)... my husband likes to download and play a lot of games on here... are they bad? Also, when I download something, the warning comes up stating that it's an "exe" file and those files can cause damage to your computer... how do I know which ones are safe? I'm currently in school and I have to download a lot of programs that are required for my classes and some of these programs are included in the "exe" files.

I do appreciate both of your responses... thanks for the information.. was very helpful!

I run a corporate edition of Norton AntiVirus. It's very good but I'm not sure about the others out there.

Firefox is certainly a better browser in terms of stopping unwanted adware, and will block redirected pages and downloads. Don't circumvent the popups as these are definitely an open door.

Games? Yes, it's hard to trust anything out there that is free or not reputable. "Exe" downloads could be dangerous but the "user" needs to be aware of what is being downloaded. ANY exe's that came down without you purposely downloading them should not be opened.

Scan your computer nightly and you should catch anything done during the day.

HTH

There are safe freeware games out there, but you need to make sure you're downloading from a reputable source. In general, the best policy when downloading or saving attachments is: save to your desktop or a scan folder, and run AVG to make sure the .exe is OK before you install and run. Here are some reputable sites for downloading games (and other kinds of software):

C|Net Download
Versiontracker
Tucows
Gametap (online games)
FreewareFiles

The best download sites verify submitted files and run antivirus software on them before posting. In addition, there are vendors of shareware/freeware that are reputable as well as open source free games - here are some free games and vendors that are OK:


Battle for Wesnoth
Spiderweb Software
Flightgear flight simulator
Frogames
Blast Miner
Nextuiz

Here's a source of many other open source Windows games. I'd still practice safe computing and scan installers before running them with any program from a source you're not 100% comfortable with.

This of course only scratches the surface. There are a lot of cheap and free games out there if you're careful. Note that nothing on this earth is 100% safe. There have even been instances in the past where major magazines and vendors have shipped infected CD-ROMs. But you can reduce the probability that you'll be infected to acceptable levels.

Vasily

Thanks to all of you for your responses! They have really been helpful to me! Merry Christmas everyone!