I am extremely new to the entire computer/internet community. I had avast home edition put on my pc when I had it built in November of '07. Avast is easy to use and so far, I’ve had no problems. Whenever I see the blue avast update box, I simply click on it and let it go. On the first of every month, I run a thorough scan of every file possible. When that’s finished, I start the VRDB and let it run. Even a year and a half into my computer experience, I don’t know what most abreviations stand for or what spyware and adware are. I recently recieved an email from a trustworthy friend that provided links to websites for free antivirus software. At the bottom of the email, it explained that most antivirus software doesn’t look for malware, spyware, and adware. It then included three more links to those types of software. I have spent several hours reading the forum here and the user guide and can’t seem to find out if I’m protected from the spyware and adware. As I said, it’s probably a waste of your time, and I’m sorry for that. Should I download more security software? If so, what is compatible with avast? I have Vista but couldn’t possibly tell you what kind. LOL
I have skipped the preamble to get to the real issue.
First you don’t know who it came from, the from address is easy to and commonly faked to slip by your defences as it appears to have done in this case. Don’t take anything on face value.
This appears to be scam/scare-ware and what it is saying is rubbish in the hope to put the frighteners on you. If you click on any of the links it is highly likely you could get infected or ripped off. They are likely to have you do a scan, that surprise, surprise will declare you are infected and no doubt suggest buying their wonderful product.
Not only would be likely to be buying junk, but you make also be subject to fraudulent transactions on the payment details you give.
Legitimate AVs don’t use this method to get new business and any that do certainly wouldn’t get my business.
avast has protection from adware and spyware but there are also free anti-spyware options that compliment avast, like those in my signature.
If you haven’t already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it 
them periodically.
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- MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, On-Demand only in free version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later. - 2. SUPERantispyware On-Demand only in free version.
Don’t worry about reported tracking cookies they are a minor issue and not one of security, allow SAS to deal with them though. - See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie.
Thank you very much DavidR. I’m a firm believer in “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and haven’t done anything except try to find out if I’m protected from spyware and adware. As you said, I am. Therefore, I’m not going to fix what isn’t broken to begin with. Again, thank you for your time and helpful information.
No problem, glad I could help.
Welcome to the forums.
Though as I said the other tools compliment avast when used as on-demand scans.
Welcome dvet91
I agree with DavidR and this is called Layered Defence where one application backs up another.
I like and use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) Quick scan after an update of its definitions at least daily.
I also like WinPatrol as a Security Monitor that shows when system changes are happening behind you back:
http://www.winpatrol.com
CCleaner is good for cleaning out the files that Windows creates but leaves on the hard drive just taking up space:
http://www.ccleaner.com
Thank you both for the links and info. I downloaded all of the above and ran scans immediately. The MBAM found several problems and quarantined/removed them. The SAS also found one problem and did the same. I run the CCleaner several times a day and “Scotty is currently on patrol.” LOL
As I said in the op, I love Avast and won’t be changing antivirus software, but I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t catch the problems the others found. Am I doing it wrong? LOL
I didn’t want to post this here, but I couldn’t find a way to send either of you personal messages. I don’t want to discourage anyone (who might read this) from using Avast. Please remember, I’m such a newbie to this environment that I’m probably not using Avast to it’s full potential.
If you believe in “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” then you should believe in “Fix it before it breaks!”
Look up Reactive then look up Proactive
re·ac·tive (r-ktv)
adj.
- Tending to be responsive or to react to a stimulus.
- Characterized by reaction.
- Chemistry & Physics Tending to participate readily in reactions.
pro·ac·tive or pro-ac·tive (pr-ktv)
adj.
Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory: proactive steps to prevent terrorism.
I would rather be Proactive than Reactive as Reactive takes a lot of work and sometimes results in looking for all my CDs and backups and figuring out what is the easiest way to get back to my working enviroment.
To me “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is just plain lazy.
Yo, YoKenny, did you read the last post? I DID download ALL OF THE ABOVE. I DID run scans and the scans found 49 “problems” and quarantined them all. There are 40 Adware, 8 Rogue, and 1 TROJAN currently in quarantine. My question is,…“Am I not using Avast correctly because Avast didn’t find them?” Constructive criticism is fine, but plain smart-*ss comments are a waste of time.
CCleaner really doesn’t do much it isn’t to be classed as a security application so running it multiple times a day is I feel wasted effort, I run it once as part of my regular weekly system maintenance.
Well since you didn’t post any information (you can post, attach the logs), we can comment on what was found and why avast might have missed it. Now you understand why we look to a multi-application approach to protection as no single application will provide 100% protection.
The standard default settings are fine and provide a compromise between protection and performance. Other than the standard default settings I have the Web Shield and Internet Mail set to High sensitivity, the others are Normal (the default).
Thank you, again, DavidR. I don’t know how to post the “problems” here. I’ll have my pc looked at by the company that built it for me and look into taking computer classes in the future. LOL I appreciate your taking the time to help a newbie. Cheers!
You’re welcome.
If you open MBAM there is a tab ‘Logs’ and guess what is in there, a list of previous scan log files. You can copy and paste the contents into a post.
For SAS it is in the Control Center (Preferences and Options) there is a tab ‘Statistics/Logs’ the same can be done for them. These logs are much bigger than the MBAM ones and you would have to split the copy and paste into two or more posts. So it is much easier to attach the actual log file.