So I think my cheapo laptop has picked up a virus. When I use my aol account to try and send an e-mail, I get a message that says Error, click the URL below and solve the puzzle and then resend (or some such thing). So if I buy some anti virus software and load it now will it be able to dig out the virus, or am I screwed?

 

www.grisoft.com

Very respectable free antivirus


If it is a virus, it depends what it is and what it has done.

 

Are you using aol through the web or through AOL software? This could also be adware. I also suggest http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/...e_personal.php

A good (and free) spyware program

 

I'm pretty sure the software will identify and quarantine the virus, but don't know that 100%. But, I can highly recommend the AVG FREE anti-virus program, which you can get online at www.free.grisoft.com. I use it on both my laptop and my office desktop system and have never, ever had a virus problem (and I use AOL for email). It automatically updates every day, and has a full system scan that even I figured out how to set up.

Good luck!

 

download and run regularly. My Favorites:

1) Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

2) Cleanup - http://www.stevengould.org/software/.../download.html

maybe another called adware

 

AVG is the best out there

 

 

Yea....I'd start with an adware scanner too. Ad-Aware as Shug suggested cleared up a similar adware problem like you are describing.

 

Well, I started with AVG and it promptly locked up my computer and failed to load properly. I just deleted it. I'll try again because I'm a masochist and I love to suffer. Later I'll come back to tell you all that computer suck and so forth. In the meantime, I use aol through the internet. I am not a subscriber. Of the three of six recomendations above, can anyone tell me if these things work together?

Thanks for bearing with me. I hate computers. They don't do shit and they don't go very fast unless I throw them.