Spent the morning cleaning malware

Off my cousin's Windows XP Media Center machine.
I am just amazed how people put up with this, and how Microsoft does absolutely nothing about it. I can't reformat the machine because it is crunch weeks and the owner's kids have to use the machine for school - one is graduating and going to college next year.
I'm already telling him to get an iMac or at least a MB or MBP.
So basically I band-aided the system (thanks to remote login) using the hosts file to block further infections, and the system seems to be running well for now.
Ad Aware sucks.
VNC isn't much better but it seems to be free so what the heck. So that is my morning.
I'm inthe process of switching, but I can't quite dump my Windows machine due to budget; although that is my goal.
So yes, my plans in addition to this MB 13" is to get a Mac Pro with RAID - which is a pretty penny.
and get some sort of secure remote login going on there as well.

I can only hope that you are getting some kind of compensation for that. No one wants to spend their mornings doing that. >_>"

At least it shows you why you switched.

But if you cannot buy a Mac pro for now you could always kit out a PC tower with extra disks and install Ubuntu, which would make a perfectly respectable server for a lot less money, assuming its a file server you are after

HowTo: Make Ubuntu A Perfect Mac File Server And Time Machine Volume [Update6] › Blog › kremalicious.com » Matthias Kretschmann | Photography & Design

What you need is real time scanning software. Ad-aware will only work when you remember to run it. You need either Windows Defender, McAfee, AVG, Norton or McAfee's SiteAdvisor to prevent infections!

Malware increasing on the Mac as well (not as much as Windows), so protect your mac as well with regular software updates:
Mac malware tide on the rise • The Register

pjhutch said:

What you need is real time scanning software. Ad-aware will only work when you remember to run it. You need either Windows Defender, McAfee, AVG, Norton or McAfee's SiteAdvisor to prevent infections!

Malware increasing on the Mac as well (not as much as Windows), so protect your mac as well with regular software updates:
Mac malware tide on the rise • The Register

Click to expand...

On a Windows machine, Spybot's Teatimer works a treat for real time also and it's free.

Um, no, there really isn't any malware out for the Mac yet. A couple of Trojans that folks who download illegal software or go to certain pron sites and download a 'video codec' needed to watch their smut may run across. You still have to give either one of them your password. There is no drive by, alright I found another computer I can infect type of malware to worry about at this time.

edit: I like the way they use the word "tide" for the heading of their article. There's what 2 ... 3 trojans now?

louishen said:

At least it shows you why you switched.

But if you cannot buy a Mac pro for now you could always kit out a PC tower with extra disks and install Ubuntu, which would make a perfectly respectable server for a lot less money, assuming its a file server you are after

HowTo: Make Ubuntu A Perfect Mac File Server And Time Machine Volume [Update6] › Blog › kremalicious.com » Matthias Kretschmann | Photography & Design

Click to expand...

The switch isn't going to be instantaneous. I'mkeeping my Windows machine until its time to upgrade, then I'll get the Pro sell off all the PC peices and move on from there.
As for Ubuntu - I am familiar with it but I'm a bit pressed fortime these days.

The problem is these fake Ads that look like Windows error messages.