I snipped the link because we can't have links to questionable sites on sf, no matter the intention. Please do not post links, but feel free to discuss viruses in general. I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject.

Get a decent antivirus, a decent firewall, and you're fine.

And if you get one of those painfully obvious fake MSN links that have some blatantly pretyped message like 'caterpillar THIS PICTURE IS EMBARRASING!' don't click it.

What is that a link to?

never click a link ending in .cc or .lk most of these are on facebook spam

This thread is essentially trying to explain how to have common sense.

Good luck with that LOL.

yea it is, pretty much dont click links on pop ups, facebook or myspace

also isnt it just commen sense to have a virus program... although i dont xD

...... This is kinda funny.

The best tip is if you don't know what it is don't click!

and get an epic virus detector named NOD32 (it costs money)

yeah anyone know of any good free virus programs, and i mean completely free and not BS

does it expire after a certain amount of time?

Nod 32 is considered on of the best anti virus programs around. And it is most definitely not BS...... AVG it a good free anti virus for sure. Probably the best free one I've seen.

yay i hate when programs scam u by only giving u like a trial version and tell u its the free version

*sigh* Personally... if you don't have the common sense to know what not to click, you probably shouldn't be roaming the internet, not alone at least...

My computer is... pretty unprotected, just your basic Windows Defender, and I've only gotten one virus in the past... 4? 5 years? and that was a very poor excuse for a keylogger, it would only pick up on every fifth keystroke. Hell, the poor thing even showed up on my list of installed programs. xD I reformatted my computer just to be safe (I needed to get rid of all the junk I don't use anyways, so it was a good excuse)

While I'm ripping on the ignorance of some of the internet's browsers, I suppose I could shed some light...

Never open and mail in your spam folder of your email, unless you know where/who it's from.

Don't click on anything on a site that's written in **** english, you'll know it when you see it

"Adult Entertainment" Should be avoided at all costs (well... and it's illegal for you to be on their sites anyways)

Don't be a Zombie, grow a brain, while your at it, maybe a pair... if you have neither, steal a friend's isn't that what they are for?

Another good anti-virus and firewall is Avast Anti-Virus and COMODO firewall. Both are what I use. but another good thing to have is anti-spyware (not the same as anti-virus) Spy-ware (I think) can open you up to get viruses, I used to know how because i researched this for a while after my old computer crashed from having over 600 viruses and 250 spy-ware on it....yea...that wasn't fun.

Anyways, a tip for anyone that gets a trojan or a scam anti-virus since these are pretty common.
The easiest way to get rid of them is to delete them, not use an anti-virus, but find the root file and delete it. You can do that by right clicking the window or pop-up that comes up and clicking "properties". It should say the location, probably something like C:\programfiles\win32\drt56\ht3md.exe (win32 is a commonly infected folder)
this is the file you want, as it is the soruce of your problem, but its a good idea to delete the "drt56" file as well, or what ever it's name may be. Now, when you go to delete it, it will probably say "Error: This file is in use by another program and can not be deleted. Please close the program and try again. "Retry" "cancel". Click cancel. Now, look at the .exe file name and remember it. Do "ctrl"+"alt"+"delete" and bring up the task manager. Close all open programs and click on "Processes". Look for the .exe file name and end it. Now you can go back and delete the file. And it's recommended that you delete it from your trash/recycle bin too.
These steps are if your anti-virus can't get rid of it, and so far only works for trojans...it MIGHT work for other viruses as long as it causes some kind of popup or window or clickable thing to appear.

Personally, I wouldn't trust a system that's been infected. I've never had a virus or had my computer hacked or compromised in any way, but if I did, I'd back up some stuff and reformat. Better safe than sorry. In regards to what you said, Rathon, that would really only deal with a Trojan written by someone who has no idea what they're doing lol.

Seriously, though, common sense, a bit of computer literacy and not being outright naive are the best security tools you can get. I went for about a year without even bothering to use an antivirus and I didn't get infected by anything.

I also leave my computer on constantly and regularly download things from torrent sites and Rapidshare/Mediafire/Megaupload Google searches, things that most people advising you about computer security will tell you not to do! As I said, it's just about having common sense.

Being overly cautious can be just as harmful as being underly cautious, don't assume that your computer is safe because you totally refuse to click any links you see and go insane as soon as you see something out of the ordinary.

I use avast, which is the highest rated free program (along with AVG).

Used to have (paid) McAfee for years, got fed up after the third time I had to use a different program to catch a virus.

I ran with nothing but firewalls for about 6 months and then got avast, no problems to report. As the others have said, a little common sense will go a long way. Don't click on porn, ignore messages from the Nigerian oil baron, stay away from dodgy sites.

I'd personally recommend Comodo Internet Security, it's an absolutely brilliant antivirus and firewall combo (or you can have one or the other seperate if you want) that allows you to have complete and total control over what enters and exits your computer and what programs do on your computer while being intelligent enough to learn how to make some decisions itself (if you want it to) and not compromise your security. The different levels of control that the user can assume make it well suited to everyone from total computer illiterates to experts.