"Oh dear" what does this mean??

[hepburn]

Badgirl,
            thanks for that info, Norton is still running, but I will have a look at AVG antivirus.

[downside]

Hi oonagh

You'll need to update Norton's antivirus definition list before it expires.  You should have it switched on to download automatic updates.

Unfortunately Ad-Aware gives you only limited coverage and if you have the freeware version then it is not going to be as good as the professional version.
Ad-Aware is only supposed to be an anti-spyware program, so it does not deal with:

Spam
Phising
Viruses
Trojans
Firewall
Blended threats ( a mixture of above).

If you have Windows Defender installed, it is supposed to offer you anti-spyware protection.  If you have Internet Explorer 7 installed it is supposed to offer you an anti-phising capability.  MS also offer a free Firewall that does not have rave reviews.  

downside

[hepburn]

Hi, Downside,
                 Firewall on, I don't have windows defender though,and I don't know which explorer I have,in fact I don't know much at all.

[hepburn]

Well ,Norton hasn't found anything wrong.

[downside]

Hi oonagh

The most important thing is that you have an antivirus program installed and that it loads at startup time and resides in-memory to protect you at all times.  Ad-Aware is only run when you want to run it.  It offers you no real-time protection at all.  In that sense it it only offers you retrospective protection.

It you have Norton loaded it should place a little icon of a yellow monitor and a red + in your system tray located on the bottom right hand corner of the Taskbar.

If you get a Trojan then it will alert immediately, not a week later.

downside

[hepburn]

Downside,
               yes I have the little icon in the corner,I was running ADG a minute a go,it seems to have dissapeared!!
Anyway Norton didn't find anything. Shall I ditch the Ad Aware??

[downside]

Hi oonagh

No don't ditch Ad-Aware entirely.  Bear in mind that it is a program run on an ad hoc basis that deals with spyware.  Norton antivirus does not specifically deal with adware/spyware so the two compliment each other.

The important thing is to have an antivurus program running all of the time, which in theory should detect severe threats immediately.

downside

[hepburn]

Downside,
               I have downloaded AVG antivirus,let it run,and this is what it came up with.      isinit trojan horse istbar LR
                                                   nsv1A "        "       istbar JT
        does this make any sense???

[downside]

Hi oonagh

Are you or were getting adverts popping-up across your screen?

As far as I can work out this isinit thing redirects or tries to redirect you to certain dodgey sites.  I've just read that they recommend that you get AVG to try and fix it or quarantine it.

If you have a file called crack.exe on your system then it might be responsible for causing problems.

Go to Start->Search->For files and Folders and type in crack.exe as the search criteria.

downside