virus protection subscription??

[comish]

What do people do about this? Do you pay the $29 bones Symantec want for the updated virus protection? I had the subscription that came with the computer, but it has long since expired and I haven't updated since.

There is something fucked about my computer as I constantly get weird popups when I don't even have a window/site open that has pop ups. Then randomly some porn pop up will fuck with me and do the ever so fun, no, you can't close me game.

Any suggestions on getting rid of that crap?

[Telepath]

Hmm, it's pretty easy to get around paying if you are ok with the ethical side of that; just by getting yourself a serial number to fool the program into thinking you've bought the license. You could also just pony up the 29usd and do it the legal way and maybe sleep better at night. I'm not running anything on this compooper currently; my isp/mail host does a frikkin good job of cleaning my mail and it seems most weirdo worms nowadays are so cutting-edge they don't even affect old MS crap like W98.

For pop-ups I'm just running the free version of Pop-Up Stopper by www.panicware.com, works wonders and switches on/off easily when you need pop-ups to come through.

[fez]

for popup stoppers two things pretty much cant be beat:
mozilla firefox browser or if you must use ie, the google toolbar.

Most likely your problem is spyware. Antivirus likely wont do a damn thing about that. get adaware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ and run it.

I think there may be a free antivirus, like zonealarm, but i dont know what it is offhand

[Lostinthetrees]

Running WinXP or 2000?
at a mimimum you should:
- get the latest patch(es) from Microsoft for WinXP or 2000 and install them.

- at a minimun, use the limited firewall protection offered with Windows. Go to Control Panel, Network connections, right click on each connection to drop a list down. Open Properties, see Advanced tab. and check box for firewall. For me that stopped all the unwanted "snoopers" trying to hack my comports and deliver pop-ups. Worked on both my phone/modem and ADSL cable connections.

- virus is a different story. And yes, get on a weekly update service from a vendor. 29 or 49 bucks is nothing compared to having to fix a virus problem and recover files.

[Art Vandelay]

www.avast.com

Free updates. Less bloated than mcafee and symantec. Can't go wrong.

Sounds like you have spyware though. As stated adaware will help that.

[splat]

Hit cnet.com for downloads of spyware and adware removers, free antivirus like avast, etc.