Having an anti virus application in todays technical world is a must, but there are lots of different companys and different versions of anti virus software out there. Nortons the company has been one of the best antivirus suppliers to date, although there are other antivirus companys like Mcafee who also supply a excellent product. As your machine is fairly new, I am assuming you have Nortons Antivirus 2004, this is a very good product, but as with any peice of protection software, it is only as good as the latest updates that you have from the companys site. Old updates won't detect the latest viruses!

With regarding renewing your licence, that is down to personal preference, you must take into concideration things like:
do i find it easy to use?
am i happy with the cost of the product?
do i know what to do with this product if a virus is detected?
and similar questions.
if the answers to these are all positive, then it is worth it!

Just to let you know tho Amy, there are some free antivirus software packages that you can download onto your pc, without having to pay for registration etc, newbie have information regarding these packages on the link on the left of this site under the link ANTI-VIRUS

So just to clarify,

1.Yes Nortons Antivirus is a very good product, but it is really down to personal preference if you like it.. use it!

2.If you don't go for Nortons, please please please get yourself another anti virus application - either a free one that is recomended by Newbie.org (for gods sake stay away from Stop-Sign!!), or we will be hearing from you in again in a few days or so :-)
3.you may also while looking at the antivirus software, take alook at anti-spyware software at the same time, if you don't know what it is, check out the link on the left under the antivirus link for more info.

Hope all this helps. and good luck

I'm sure we'll get other opinions here, as people love to talk about their antivirus preferences !! Ask some friends, research a bit on the net, you'll find LOTS of comparisons and stuff to help you decide.

Can't believe I didn't mention the "Stop-Sign" crap in my post... I for one should know what that sad excuse for software does to newbies...

Just for your reference, I tested the AVG auto enable feature on grisofts free product, by installing it on a "test" machine (win98 AVG only p3 800hmz, 256mg, 30gig drive), then just after it was just installed.. i then dilibiratly ran "stop sign" to see if AVG spotted it! and Yep, detected the virus as it was installing stop sign.. nice!! then it stopped the app from installing, and after i quit the instal, ran another scan with avg and panda - just to confirm, and no virus!

Luv it!

you pose a interesting senario, maybe I might take a look at that, I wonder how long before spyware kicks in.. or even a virus (non email of course)! maybe an embeded HTML script on a URL redirect??
As I have cd instal disc's for 95,98,98se,2000pro ME and XP pro (no XP Home yet)- maybe I will instal each OS with a standard windows instal and then add IE6 with default settings, and see what smokes?!

Not really had much dealings with hijackthis although have seen the logs posted here before, might add spybot on test machine and see after each click if anything pops up, i might also track transparent activeX instals as well. Maybe I will post back here with my results!

Also Mark, have you seen this site before:
http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Upcoming/
It is actually identifying microsoft vunribilitys BEFORE microsoft have patched them!! - M.S know of the security hole, but havn't got round to patching it yet - some of the patches are over 180days old!!!
I know madness!! long live firefox!

Regards

About the XXX sites ; apparently they're not the worst threat anymore... but riding a few with Active-X and scripting and especially Java enabled would get your box compromised in no time... Hack and crack sites are probably the worst right now. Another dangerous practice is downloading .exes from P2P sites (also pics and movies with hidden extensions...). Pick your poison !!! I forgot : lock up the pets as well and send the wife/girlfriend to the mall before attempting this stunt...

http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/HotBar.html

Basically Should be removable from 'Add/Remove Programs' on the Control Panel, under the name 'HotBar' or 'Web Tools by Hotbar'.

Now if you are looking for anti spyware tools the link to the left will show adaware, or spybot S&D.
They are both free and work well.
You are able to back up or quarrantine spyware with both.
If you have problems you can restore from backup or quarrantine.
The loss of internet connection may occur with newdot, shop at home a few others.
Restoring will restore the internet connection.

Those programs should be unistalled from add/remove programs.
In general that should be your first step anyways. Then use the antispyware.

A good pay application is spysweeper from webroot. They have a free trial:

http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php

You can use their online scan to detect, but not clean spyware, if you're curious:

http://www.webroot.com/services/spyaudit_03.htm

When the result comes back click on the grey squares in the left panel to expand and identify what is found,
Don't worry about the cookies. Remember its aggressive and they are trying to sell you their product.

From pacs portal about Holiday Lights:

Holiday Lights N Holiday Lights.exe
Holiday Lights from Tiger Technologies. Festive desktop enhancement that adds lights. Available via Start -> Programs

"Stop-Sign" is supposed to be an antivirus program. And an anti-spyware program. And an anti-popup program. And an anti-trojan program as well. Have I missed one or two ? Never mind...

Well Susan, "Stop-Sign" is just horrible at doing any of the tasks it claims it can do. Don't believe me ? Do a "Google" search for top rated antivirus programs (from trusted websites, of course), and you will not find one single mention of this crap anywhere. Nothing. These "eAnthology" people are fakes of the worst kind ; they lure you in with a free scan (usually), and then when you do the "scan", they grab the oppurtunity to install a trojan on your computer (this is called a "drive-by download", which you don't even see !!), then that trojan installs itself, then virtually hijacks your computer. You get nice popups from Stop-Sign saying it has found viruses, and that they were magically cleaned up, am I right ? No viruses Susan, just a hoax to keep you hooked, just hooked enough to purchase their package. I could go on and on about the horrible deception these people use to hook victims, but my blood gets hot just thinking about these rats... Bottom line Susan : we get victims here that show up with viruses and spyware while under the "bullet proof" protection of "Stop-Sign". They also complain of a slow internet connection ; well yeah... eAnthology uses your internet connection to send private information from your computer to their servers !! Fun, isn't it...

Also, uninstall isnt a magical trick. WHen I first had their popups and trial scan (before I looked somethings up about them. I havent had the trouble most mention) I tried CALLING them... Funny, they helped me stop it. What are the odds, when you ask, you recieve...hmmm... But really, I want to hear what the troubles are so I can look it up for myself. Let me know

If you like stop sign.. good for you. enjoy it, many.. many others won't be - but dont worry about them.

The fact that the stop sign company is sitting on a law suit because of their package is screwing with 1000's of pc's out there and we recently had 1 helper get a refund because of that package is not really your concern, this is a helper forum, it does't sound like you need help, and asking for helpers 'blood to boil' is not very productive, we have enough problems here without having a big discussion about THAT package - enough time and effort has been wasted on that issue..

All of the regular techie's here at newbie have had their fair share of that rubbish on users machines that we have had to clean, if you spend a little time here at newbie and actually 'look' at the problems we have had rather than asking us to tell you the full history on that fake anti-virus package, then you can make your own mind up!

Just skimmed a long thread concerning Stop-Sign and those television commercials. ( over 200 posts!) called:
"veloz scumware seen on comercial just now"

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10623341~mode=flat

Not very flattering to Stop-Sign. Kinda funny though.

"To call them ( the ads) misleading would be akin to calling the Atlantic Ocean slightly damp..."

People including their antiviruses detecting it as a threat. lol! Wren.b trojan I think .

__They've just had an an employee jump in on page 11 of the thread.

_____
"Now that I have uninstalled stop sign, will my viruses be gone or did I ever really have them???"

Good question.

If you haven't already download ad-aware free:

http://www.lavasoft.de/ms/index.htm

Update it and scan your computer for spyware.
( Nod can be a little weak there)
Have ad-aware clean everything.

You could for a second opinion run an online scan at Panda :

http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

___

Spyware is a big problem nowadays.
It's malware pure and simple.
If you have problems with your computer running sluggish, create a new thread and post a hjt log for us to look at.