Help! Best Online Diagnostic?

[Unperson 309]

My damned computer is acting up AGAIN!

While I've always sworn by Norton Antivirus, I have to say that IF I've picked up ANOTHER worm, it will be the THIRD time NAV has f*cking MISSED it!

I update the NAV *daily*, I scan, I check, I don't open files DAMMIT what am I doing wrong?!

Who can recommend a GOOD online diagnostic or virus-scan page to me?
And ANYTHING better than NORTON!

I'm getting kernel error messages, crashes when I use Eudora, the ScanDisk simply WON'T cycle through at all (it freezes at a point and will stay that way... for HOURS! I left it ALL DAY once and found it STILL at an early point in the scan, going no farther!), page faults, memory errors... Norton AV scans find NOTHING! Spybot keeps finding *two* files, and EVERY time I delete them, they show up AGAIN five minutes LATER (I did a scan IMMEDIATELY after removing rhe files and... THERE THEY WERE AGAIN!

HELP!!

309

[Onlooker]

1. A few suggestions

Have you downloaded free programs like Lavasoft Adaware and Spybot, programs? Also, you might download HijackThis if you're somewhat experienced. As far as scandisk not working, that's probably because you have some program running that's interfering. Check the manual and start up your program in the basic mode, then run scandisk.

Another thing, open the taskbar and look at the processes (not applications). Look up each one in Google, and see if anything funky is running. It takes a little work, but it's a good way to find if something nefarious is interfering with your computer. If there is something that clearly sounds like a problem, do a search for it, and consider deleting it.

These suggestions are for someone who has some experience. If you're too aggressive you could end up deleting an important file.

[LTR]

2. Try Ad-Aware

Go to www.lavasoftusa.com and download it.

You may have a browser hijack or script, and not necessarily a virus or worm. AV programs and some spyware detectors may not pick up on it.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

You may have to run Ad-Aware a few times to get rid of the crap, since many of these seem to run in the background, and you have to CTRL+ALT+DELETE to shut each of them down.

When all is said and done, install a HOSTS file, which should block many of the pesky programs and installer sites:

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/how_to_use_hosts.html

Also locate a good registry cleaning program, to get rid of remnants of the crapware.

And use a secure browser like Mozilla Firefox. But after installing the HOSTS file, even an IE equivalent browser such as Avant Browser should work well (I'd recommend Avant over IE, since it does have some ad blocking).

Good luck! It's a pain in the ass, but it can be done.

[Book Lover]

3. trendmicro.com

has a free scanner service. I recommend it.

[LibertyorDeath]

4. Here you go

Trend Micro online Virus scan
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

TrojanScan
http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/

Pest patrol online scan
http://www.pestscan.com/home.asp

also try AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/


For testing your machines performance try http://www.pcpitstop.com/

Good Luck