Randem Systems Support Board

    Well, lets get this out there... we consider Norton and McAfee anti-virus programs scareware. They do exactly the same thing that the other scareware programs do, they attempt to harass you into purchasing their product and you can't uninstall them from your system without a special cleaner tool. If your trial happens to expire these programs have been known to slow your computer down and hijack your internet connect intermittently not allowing you access to the internet hoping that you think that if you renew your subscription the problem will be corrected.

    This is true to a point because it is those programs that are causing the problems in the first place. The only way around these programs is to uninstall them (for a novice, good luck!!!) or purchase the product (NOT RECOMMENDED!!!). There is no simple way to disable them. AOL software is as much of a culprit as Symantec and McAfee; being that they also hijack your system causing other programs to malfunction. These programs always seem to get in the way, they don't seem to understand that it is your computer not theirs! Hmmm, isn't this what those fake programs do (scareware)? The first thing that I do when cleaning a system is to remove these products. I use the Norton Removal Tool and the McAfee Removal Tool to get rid of these infestations. I just uninstall AOL completely; especially in a networked environment.

    Your first line of defense in making sure that the virus/trojan/worm does not make a return appearance is to delete all restore points and suspicious Scheduled Task entries. The first mistake you can make when removing a virus is to use the System Restore to get the computer back to an earlier point in time, however just restoring a restore point is by no means a way to clean the virus/worm/malware. Your system may be back to a good point in time but the files of the infection are still on your system just waiting to attack.  You actually have to remove the files not just the registry entries. Some of the nasty viruses/worms/trojans will install themselves then create a System Restore Point so that after you remove it, a timer that has been set on the system will run the restore point and bingo your virus/worm/trojan is back just when you thought it was gone forever. I have seen this timer set to minutes, hours or days. The most common scheduler that is manipulated for viruses is the TCPIP packet scheduler. This is the method in which the OS checks to see if there is an internet connection. The virus will not rear it's ugly head until a network connection is active. To defend this type of return sneak attack you should delete the network connection then let Windows automatically re-install them to totally clean out your network connection and also delete all restore points on the system then check in the Task Scheduler for suspicious tasks before attempting to clean the system. You can just turn off System Restore or use a Bart PE CD to boot the system then delete everything in the \System Information Volume\ folder on the system boot drive. This is a hidden system folder also with hidden files where the restore points are stored. Also go to Control Panel then to Scheduled Tasks to delete any scheduled task you don't recognize (You can also disable them also). This will prevent a reappearance of the enemy!


   All the ads that you see on TV for computer protection, infection removal and computer speed-up; ARE ALL SCAMS!!!


   Every one of those TV ads are fake and a scam! They prey on the lack of knowledge and unsuspecting computer users who think that there is one program that can cure all their computer problems. What they hope to do is to get you to pay for a product that basically does nothing (well not totally nothing, it may break a few things) and they will charge you yearly for it and they will also try to get a minimum of about $250.00 out of you by claiming that they need to connect to your computer to fix problems; Doesn't their program supposed to do that automatically??? So why do you need them to connect to your computer to fix anything? Ahhhh, You are starting to see the light now, eh? There is no magic bullet and NO one program can protect you from everything or fix all your problems.

   Ok, so let's say you fell for this "Magic Bullet"; When you attempt to get your money back or even to cancel; you will not be able to. They will give you the run-around and tell you that you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to cancel. Wasn't as easy as signing up now was it?

   Most of these products from those TV ads are from the same company and all they do is to change the user interface and product name and make you think it is a new product for sale. The change the product name when lots of customer complaints and issues start to catch up with them.


Before using any new program that has outrageous claims; do a simple Goggle search on the product. This should give you a clue to exactly what you will be dealing with.



   Mozilla's Firefox browser is so much more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer one would be foolish to keep using IE in an attempt to keep your computers secure. I say this because so many infection attacks stem from security holes in IE which makes it the highest risk for infections in the first place. To keep our computers better secured we use a combination of add-ins within Firefox to basically lock it down from internet born infections. We use the following Firefox add-ins to help keep us protected:

Mozilla's Firefox browser is so much more secure that Microsoft's Internet Explorer one would be foolish to keep using IE if you want to keep your computers secure. I say this because so many infection attacks stem from security holes in IE which makes it the highest risk for infections in the first place. To keep my computer better secured I use a combination of add-ons within Firefox to basically lock it down from internet born infections. I use the following Firefox add-ons to help keep me protected:


Adblock Plus will block all ads that are supposed to show on a web page. If you want to see them all you need to do is to click on play arrow in the ad holding area, otherwise that will be all that you will see.

NoScript will not allow scripts from websites to be run without my permission, so none of those websites that will automatically install or attempt to trick you into installing something will show properly. You would have to purposely tell NoScript that it is OK to run the scripts from the websites that the webpage is attempting to run. You can download these add-ins from within Firefox.