QOTD: Has a Virus Ever Infected Your PC?

[Glorian]

Yup got one on my first pc in college, p4 2ghz 256 rambus memory gforce mx440 graphics, think was smoking, till it got infected, thats when i learned how to do my first fresh install of windows, and was became the local computer guy from that day on. Now that i am a computer teacher i feel like all i get asked is "can you help me with my computer?" only to find out the thing is infested with crap.

 

[rigaudio]

I got one years ago when I didn't know what a .bat file was. Since then, I've been squeaky clean.

 

[ph3412b07]

Please don't tell me that picture came from a poor computer repairman having to unplug a cable from a condom....just saying you can never underestimate what people do to tech.

I've only acquired a virus while using Norton Antivirus and browsing questionable sites about hacking (i know, pretty stupid)...Used "Stinger" to remove the virus. Been using free programs like AVG, and not had any problems for years.

You gotta know what to look for. Don't needlessly swap USB flash drives, don't browse the web in unprotected browsers.

 

[gm0n3y]

I think the best protection is to just not be a dumbass about what you view and how you view it. I haven't had any sort of anti-virus or spyware protection on my machine for the last 6 years and I haven't had a single problem. I don't understand how people get viruses. Just don't open email attachments unless you know exactly what they are, don't download from untrusted sources, don't use IE, don't use crappy P2P programs (i.e. Kazaa or whatever the kids use these days) and don't search for 'free' anything on the internet. I download torrents every day and have never had a single issue with them (and you can get anything you need via torrents).

 

[Guest]

Back in the day I got Stoned. What ever happened to the good ol days when a virus didn't destroy your life, just your ability to see the screen through the pretty colors for awhile?

 

[IzzyCraft]

Nothing noticeable just use a hardwear firewall and little host blocking via
http://hostsfile.mine.nu

 

[mustwarnothers]

[citation][nom]robsgr8[/nom]I dont remember how I got it but all it did was put an annoying logo on the screen that said DO YOU EAT POOP.[/citation]

What was your answer?

 

[AdamB5000]

I have a good tip. While at your work computer, don't do a google image search for "poop" and randomly click pictures.

The result was bad.

 

[falchard]

I had the PornTube virus. T-T, I didn't even get to watch the porn.

 

[SAL-e]

There are 2 types of people. The first have got the virus and learn and the other never knew that they had one and they keep going around claiming that that they never had one. Any antivirus program is very easy to bypass by using code obfuscation methods.

 

[venomireland]

Symantec always catches and deletes viruses whenever i try to format my flash drive (I format a lot because it always ends up getting removed while transfering or rendered corrupt otherwise).

 

[kittle]

Ive been online since 1993 and to date Ive only gotten nailed by 3 viruses that I know about.
1st was the old "monkey.B" floppy disk virus -- I mistakenly thought "thats not possible". I learned

The other 2 times was me being stupid, clicking on something I should not have.

The only AV software I run is my brain + task manager.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]SAL-e[/nom]There are 2 types of people. The first have got the virus and learn and the other never knew that they had one and they keep going around claiming that that they never had one. Any antivirus program is very easy to bypass by using code obfuscation methods.[/citation]
QFT, I already said this. But the fact is a virus it's going to announce itself.

 

[usasma]

The last active infection I had was the Joshi virus in 1990/91 while in Saudi Arabia.

Other pests have snuck onto my system (3 that I know of since Joshi), but none have been launched/activated. All were removed easily with my onboard protection.

I visit lot's of questionable websites while helping others - so I guess part of it is my good web surfing habits, and the other part is luck!

 

[JaredAudiophileGamer]

hmmm little cousin on my computer a few months back , 15 minutes supposedly playing counter strike and i have virtumonde -__- first virus ever on any pc iv'e owned

 

[cruiseoveride]

Virus is just a myth. A conspiracy by people like Norton.

I've never had a virus.

 

[igot1forya]

Good old Junky Virus back in the days of DOS, infects .com files above 64KB and modifies the FAT table and boot sector... once it's on your system the floppy reads once an hour to infect other disks. Remove the virus with out doing the right steps and BAM your partition is gone!

 

[jsloan]

sadly yes!

 

[jjchmiel78]

Oh yes! I am not a genius, but I am not a novice either. Somehow a trojan got through an open service port on our hard firewall and infected my work tower while I had Yahoo home page open and the computer was sitting idol while I was on the phone. I got several messages and pop ups advertising no name protectection. It completely disabled my windows security center, tuned off my NOD32 and would not let me exit out of firefox. Once I got the computer acting normal, so I thought, I would still get random pop ups. I ended up wiping clean and re-installing. The only true protection you have is not to put any disc into your computer or have it connected to the internet.

 

[resonance451]

Haven't had a virus infect a computer that only I use, and I haven't had any of my computers infected for about a decade.

 

[xyzionz]

I don't use any forms of anti virus or security system since i was 10, at least i can tell what's danger and what's not.
It's true that everybody will at least got virus once and that including me, i got this sassers when i was readying my hundred and eight pc for my cyber cafe opening using windows xp home, that time sp2 wasn't available yet and guess what, i spent 3 days without sleep to finish setup the whole server and client pc, and one xxxxing mistake i made that i accidentally click on a stupid pop ups (i can't even remember my name that time, due to not sleeping for days), and it screws my days of hard work with a message says your pc will shut down in 60 secs, that's one of the worst day in my life i bet..
and another time that's funny is like recently in 2008. I'm using this Motorola V3xx and i don't use to go internet with my phone, that day i went internet with my phone and do nothing,(just to see what my phone can do), and my phone actually caught with virus and i don't know, then when i double click the memory card after i plug my phone in to transfer some files, my pc freeze for like 1~2seconds (usually it won't), and i say to myself, i'm screwed(i'm not using any antivirus and security thingy, it slows my pc a lot which i hate), and i'm forced to reformat my HDD lol and took me 6 hours just to reinstall and make it just like how it was before i got that virus...lol

Yea over the 12 years of my life with computer I do get virus from time to time, yet i don't use any sort of security software, I do believe that if somebody want to crack ur pc open, they can and they will and they do it and they succeed anyhow anyway

 

[Shadow703793]

No. Because....

1. If I must download Torrent I use Linux along with a virus scanner that scans for Windows viruses (Panda,Clam Vexirae,tc).

2. I'm not stupid and don't download a file named: xxx for free.html.exe.

(Also +1 for using the host files!)

 

[killmenow]

Tekkamanraiden, If you pull the hard disk, back it up to another system or drive, save all their data, burn it to DVD's, then reformat, reinstall, reload their data back, like a new system, and they will have a full backup of all their data.

I haven't been hit for awhile, I just use basic free AV, will not use any Internet Secuity AV.

 

[Guest]

Only when I've let my girlfriends use them unsupervised. Other than that, no, never.

Women + Computers = Bad

 

[tommysch]

My main system was never infected. But it did infect many virtual machines, and repaired others mess at the job or personally. If you ever get a virus on your comp, never try to claim that you are a real poweruser.