All,

Have a look at this link for some information about the Conflicker Worm, and prevention against this malcious worm which promises to be quite the pain come April 1st

Beware Conficker worm come April 1 : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

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Many of you may have already heard of the Conficker virus that is slated to "explode" on the computer scene on April 1st. More information on Conficker can be found here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/15787...cker_worm.html and http://www.microsoft.com/protect/com...conficker.mspx

The steps to protect your home system are quick & simple - stay up to date with Microsoft Updates and run quality AntiVirus & AntiMalware products.

Remaining current with Microsoft is easy - in Control Panel, Automatic Updates - be sure this is set to ON and updating no less than once a week.

AntiVirus software - there are numerous freebies that do the job as well or better than the pay versions.

AVG version 8.x by Grisoft is highly recommended and free. The current version is 8.5, but version 8.0 is very acceptable. One advantage to this program that the others do not have is a realtime firewall. Download from here: http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Vir...html?tag=mncol

Only use 1 AV product as more than 1 can conflict and create a more susceptible PC

AntiMalware software - there are numerous free choices and more than one should be used as these all have different specialties....

Ad Aware by Lavasoft is a quality product that provides proactive scanning and automated updating Download from here: http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-Ann...html?tag=mncol

Windows Defender from Microsoft compliments Ad Adware quite nicely. Download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...en&mg_id=10134

Spybot S&D is another good choice for anti-malware Like AVG it has the added advantage of a realtime protection firewall. One disadvantage to this program is it takes up a lot of system resources and can slow your computer if the realtime firewall is enabled. You can easily fix this by disabling the Spybot realtime firewall. Download from here: http://www.download.com/Spybot-Searc...html?tag=mncol

I had a round with Conficker yesterday with a member on a Windows 2003 Server.

Here's a link to our thread

http://www.pchelpforum.com/windows-s...4605-help.html

So what is recommended? Should we get on the computer at all tomorrow? What is as of right now, the most effective way to prevent anything from happening to our computers?

As long as you are updated to the latest definitions files on everything and have a realtime protection software you should be fine

Ok thanks Crush, but is it recommended to stay off the computer tomorrow or...?

I for one will not be staying off the computer. I'm sure it's fine to go on the computer

It's 12:15 pm on April 1st here in Australia, and both of my computers are still humming along nicely.

There have been no panicky reports on the radio and television about this Conficker worm thingy...