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[UncleUB]

While I was installing Adobe Reader 8 my McAfee security centre popped up to say a file with a trojan in it was removed.I downloaded the update from Adobe.com,which according to McAfee site advisor is safe.Is a trojan something suspicious which hides in a file?What damage do they do to your computer.

[Pwiggler]

UB - a trojan is program which infects your machine and gives access to it to anyone using the client associated with the trojan.

they can 'control' your pc which may lead to all you personal files/photos and details being spread across the net.

as long as mcaffee has got rid of it (thats if it was a trojan at all) you should be ok but i'd do a rescan with mcaffee just to be sure.

i just upgraded my MCE and reinstalled XP and all the bits and bobs which i use daily.  then i started getting strange adverts  popping up all over so i downloaded norton and ran it and my newly installed machine had 26 pieces of malware on it !!!!!

after removing most of em there was one which i had to delete part of my registry to get rid of it .... needless to say the machine wouldnt then boot to windows, safe mode or LKGC !!!!

after prattling about in recovery console for a couple of hours its up a ruinning again.

good luck anyway.

[scottiesmum]

UncleUB   ... I don't know if this would interest you .....  as an alternative to Adobe ....

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

I've used it  for a long long time and it's very fast, much smaller than Adobe, it's free, and I've never had a problem with it.   

[UncleUB]

Thanks guys,did a full scan with McAfee,it removed 14 items which all were cookies.I do a full scan once a week.Is that ok or  should I scan everyday?I takes about an hour to do a full scan,thats why I only scan once a week.

Thanks for that link kate,like you say its a very small install,2.2mb,Adobe is 22mb!

[oldfogy]

Foxitreader is a nice little program, however there has been at least one occasion when trying to install a program it failed as Adobe Reader was not installed, which I then had to install before being allowed to install the other program!

How often to scan a PC.
Personally I would first consider the type of sites that are visited, should these be the type of site you would not want your children to access, then I would suggest "every day"

But, for most PC users once a week can be adequate.
But if you are constantly picking-up Trojan's or possible virus' then obvious scan more often.

Just to clarify a point, what is a Trojan or Virus?
Basically, they can "also" be bits of software that can alter the way a program works.
However, not all of them are actually bad and some of them are actually necessary, because the likes of Key-generators (KG), Cracks and Hacks are designed to alter the way a program is registered before you can use it for free. (obviously illegal but thats another story).

Mcaffee, AVG and Avast have all picked up on some key-generators and cracks in the past, whereas Norton AV did not.
One of the main problems here is if your anti-virus software removes a crack from the program it was installed in, then the program "MAY" stop working.
If a key-generator is removed then you will not be able to install and run the program.

I can't speak for Mcaffee, but Avast will not allow bits to be replaced from the quarantine bin, but AVG does.

Sorry if that's gone off track.

did a full scan with McAfee,it removed 14 items which all were cookies.

Baring in mind that most cookies are nothing more than saved passwords.
Hence the reason for having to re-log-into a site after a cleanup.

[UncleUB]

Thanks for that OF,I never visit 'dodgy' sites,I don't use any file sharing sites or do much downloading(only where essential)I have tried Adobe since the update and it seems fine.

[mr_chris]

To be honest, it's probably just McAfee having a hissy-fit and giving a false positive on a trojan alert.

I don't really care much for McAfee personally, I've seen it cause more problems than it's helped, that's for sure, although to be fair, I've seen people having problems with the Internet Security i.e. firewall part, the Antivirus usually behaves ok, although I still think it slows the PC down too much, compared to the likes of AVG, for example.

When your subscription runs out I'd consider looking at an alternative AV and firewall.

[guest]

We use NOD32 for AV. We don't use any software firewall as they are all more trouble than they're worth. Router firewall between your machine and decent AV is all that's necessary.

We used Kaspersky for AV before it turned into bloatware.

[UncleUB]

As regards to McAfee I got it free for 3 years when I bought my pc last April.Its the first security package I have ever had so I don't know anything about what else is on the market (apart from what I read)

[guest]

Virus Bulletin should be your first port of call when choosing AV.

You have to register now to see the archive results of the VB100* tests but its worth doing as they go all the way back to 1998.

Eset (NOD32) have failed the test 3 times : Feb 1998, November 2000 and April 2002.

McAfee have failed the test 19 times in the same period.

Grisoft (AVG) have failed 22 times.

Saying that you do need to look at recent performance and which products are actually being tested.

* The VB100 award was first introduced in 1998. In order to display the VB100 logo, an anti-virus product must have demonstrated in our tests that:

    * It detects all In the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning.
    * It generates no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.

The product must fulfil these critera in its default state.

[mr_chris]

To be honest, looking back at data beyond about a year or two back is pretty meaningless IMO.

OK, it may prove that your preferred choice of antivirus has consistently performed better than the rest of the pack, but how quickly can and does the IT industry change? It's best to look at the trends, i.e. WHEN these products have passed/failed the tests, to account for changes within the company and the resulting product changes, whether they be good or bad.

[guest]

Its also worth looking at how many times the product hasn't been entered for testing.

A few years ago one vendor used to proudly state "We're the only anti-virus company who have never failed the VB100 test". Indeed they hadn't for they only entered it when they were 110% sure of passing