STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

Excuse me while I vent...

valenciana · Dooney & Bourke

Vent away! That definitely sucks! Plus, in college I got so used to being able to download updates to my virus software for free from school that it was really annoying to have to start actually paying for that stuff.

But didn't you only work for part of 2005? And so shouldn't you be getting a refund?

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

valenciana wrote:

But didn't you only work for part of 2005? And so shouldn't you be getting a refund?

I had a student job for 5 months and a real job for 4 months which may help. But... my school has it where you pay in december for the spring semester so I don't get to deduct that.

Elle · Hermes

Probably too late now unfortunately, but just wanted to let you know that Norton isn't the best way to go when it comes to virus software. Because it's so mainstream, there are lots of viruses out there made to target and disable Norton specifically.

I use AVG Free edition for virus software, Microsoft Beta and Spybot for Spyware, and Zone Alarm Free edition for a firewall. All free and downloadable, all update themselves except for the Spybot, and they're all extrememly effective. It's what my computer techy friend uses on his own computer, too.

I highly recommend all of this stuff. When I uninstalled Norton and put this stuff in and ran it all for the first time, I had something totally ridiculous like 62 viruses and 150 spyware things, all of it had gotten past Norton and wasn't recognized by Norton's scans .

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

Thank you for the tips Elle. I had always heard norton was good but it was mcafee that was bad. I think I'm going to call up norton tonight anyways and cancel it because it will not install on my computer for some reason. It keeps conflicting with the trial version I had of 2005 systemworks which will not uninstall.

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

Forgot to ask - Elle where do you get your computer programs? I have spybot and love it and would be interested in the others. Are they on Cnet?

Elle · Hermes

Zone Alarm (firewall) Just click on the Download Free Zonealarm link

AVG Free (virus software) The link for this one is at the bottom of the page

Microsoft Beta2 (antispyware)

All of these things run together along with the Spybot. Once you download the firewall, you'll get little popups in the lower right hand corner when programs try to access the internet so you can either allow them (if it's the virus software updating or you're specifically trying to download something) or deny them (if it's an unauthrized program). The tutorial the firewall has is pretty comprehensive. Once you get everything installed, I'd recommend running both the spyware programs and a full scan with the AVG - AVG scan takes a hour or so depending on how full your computer is.

HTH!

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

Thanks Elle. I just put in a request for a refund from norton and I feel somewhat better already haha.