The Joys of Internet Security & Why I Hate F-Secure

It's a lot easier removing a virus than removing some antivirus programs.

That's my observation after having removed two of each in my lifetime. Both removals required me to inspect and delete some registry keys, among other things. The windows registry scares the crud out of me because I don't understand how it works, and all I know is that even one small error in messing with the registry can kill the machine.

I took a little time to set out the steps toward building a home wireless network. The first task was to get the portoputer set up with the antivirus software from our ISP (McAfee). Per usual, the worst part was clearing out the existing antivirus, and you can't install the new program if the installation program finds the old program.

The portoputer had F-Secure security software provided by Charter.net. Let all users of this program beware - this is unusually difficult when you need to uninstall. DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!!! That's a problem since you'll need to do this whenever you switch ISPs. A new antivirus usually won't download until the old program is fully uninstalled.

The whole process took me about 4 hours, starting with the easy way, Windows uninstall (after uninstalling, the program didn't appear in the programs list, but it was still automatically running with each reboot), then erasing files (still didn't work). Ultimately, I had to use google to search through "hacker" forums. I'll give two links for your information.

This forum describes the problem, as well the registry changes that might be needed to remove this virtual tumor from your computer: http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php?showtopic=95014. This was the only forum I found where the poster was calm enough to be rational. Most of the other posters were fuming and raving about conspiracies on F Secure's part.

F-Secure's websight has the uninstall tool available for download. However, if you search the sight, you won't find this: http://support.f-secure.com/enu/corporate/downloads/removeav.shtml. I needed to search hacker forums to find this. I think I know what the F in F-Secure stands for!

Hopefully, if you live in Charter's service area, you'll be able to find someone to show you all the steps, possibly allowing you to beat my time by a couple of hours. Taking advice from forums is always a little scary.

Interesting that I used the very approach outlined in yesterday's cartoon posting.

Next step is to buy and set up the wireless router. I am hoping that will be a piece of cake compared to this.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.