VirusHelp - merry christmas from upsidedown smiley

joking1970 · Dec 25, 2008

New computer purchased for Christmas. Installed "AVG" freeware. When surfing, screen locked up and message flashed "merry christmas from upsidedown smiley" and then would not allow me to close web page (was on "comcast.net"). I did a scan with AVG and no [virus] results returned. I did a reboot and system appears fine but 1) wanted to ensure my system is "safe" and 2) are you better off buying a package like McCaffee and/or Norton?

Senlis · Dec 25, 2008

1) I would go to eset.com and/or bitdefender.com and run their online scanners. If they don't find anything, you are probably safe from viruses. You may also want to run super antispyware or spybot search & destroy to check for spyware and adware. What you described would have been a case of adware. You may want to switch to firefox to prevent things like that from happening again.

2) Yes, you are better off buying a virus protection suite than going free. The reason is that the paid antiviruses are usually written better, find more viruses, and are more stable. I would, however, not recommend Norton or Mcaffe. They use way too many system resources and only have moderate detection success. You are better going with free anti-virus than Mcaffe and Norton.

The top paid antiviruses are Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Webroot Anti-virus, and NOD32. I prefer NOD32 for it's ease of use. The best free antiviruses, I believe, are Avast and Antivir. You should also have something like super antivirus or spybot search and destroy to compliment your antivirus since they focus on the spyware, adware and greyware.

If you do find malware (malicious software) on you computer. You should re-post in the malware thread.

DavidGP · Dec 26, 2008

2) are you better off buying a package like McCaffee and/or Norton?
Click to expand...

not necassarily as they can detect no worse or better than many of the free antivirus applications, but having a good AV is only half the protection, you need other steps also, here is good guide on protection How to Protect yourself from malware!

but as your likely infected I would run this guide then post a new thread in malware and attach logs as not all antivirus applications find the sneeky malware.

If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going.

Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not.

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

Notes:

If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode. You can running steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:

Starting your computer in Safe mode

If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools on another PC and burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.

plus a guide on how to attach the logs HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post

Once finished please start a new thread in the Malware Forum plus a guide on how to attach the logs HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post

After these are attached our malware experts will review these to see if your OK, if not they will issue you some further removal instructions.

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VirusHelp - merry christmas from upsidedown smiley

joking1970 Private E-2

Senlis Staff Sergeant

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

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VirusHelp - merry christmas from upsidedown smiley

joking1970 Private E-2

Senlis Staff Sergeant

DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

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