email virus advice needed

So one of my comps got a pretty nasty virus, and I've performed complete scans with the following: Malwarebytes, Windows Defender, Avast, McAfee, AdAware, Superantivirus (something like that). Some of them have found some things, but haven't stopped the problem. It appears that it opens up dummy browser tabs that generally lead to prompting me to enter personal info (buying fake antivirus products, dating sites, etc). It also seems to have totally hijacked MS Outlook, to where the toolbar link won't find it.

My email addy connected to Outlook is over 10 years old, and I get TONS of spam, 95% of which is filtered out. I get some now and then that have file attachments, or web links, and obviously I don't follow those. I've heard some viruses can be installed simply by having the email appear in the preview screen, and I believe this is the most likely scenario.

At this point I'm not interested in continuing to figure out how to remove this virus, as I have 2 other comps, and the one infected is my oldest and is probably due for a reformat and clean install of everything (I've installed and deleted lots of programs, replaced some hardware -- lots of remnants and artifacts that seem only to be deletable with a reformat).

My question is this: to prevent this from happening again, or on my other comps, I need a way to check email that is safe. So, are web-based email systems any safer than Outlook, which downloads all mails onto my HD? What's the safest way to receive emails, such that the most insidious emails can't infect? I'd prefer a way that doesn't rely on emails being scanned in the background by whatever AV's I might use, rather a way that keeps this stuff away before I even open the program or load the page.

TIA

First, McAfee is a terrible AV... NOD32 is so much better.

If you have NOD32 installed, when you open Outlook, you have a NOD32 button. It scans all your email before opening them. This is very useful for me.

I use Malware Bytes and NOD32 and never got infected in 3+ years.

You might find this thread interesting:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/g...tml?t=10422838

Personally, I'd also suggest avoiding use of Outlook and Internet Explorer. I'm not thrilled by the way some companies tend to treat security as a PR problem. This recent news story may also be of interest:

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/01...-Stop-Using-IE

Braxton: I listed 5 different AV's that I used, not just McAfee. I only used that one because it's required when your ISP is SBC global (hey I used to be in your guild, also).

Cognophile: thanks for the info, I'll read up. I was thinking that Outlook was a bad idea, now I need an alternative. I use Firefox with -noscript for my browser.

this is a common virus thats been spreading the past 2 months

its been around a long time but has been on full scale outbreak recently

best way to get rid of it is the run your computer in safe mode and then re-install whatever OS you have

How do you know what virus it is, just by reading his post? >_>

This doesn't help me one bit -- I need to know the safest way to receive emails, so I don't run into this again. Please re-read OP. I'm going one (or one hundred) better than reinstalling the OS: I'll be reformatting. That's not the issue.

Gmail?

>_>

I'm probably missing something here, and Gmail is not going to be even an answer, and you mean like other programs like Outlook or whatever, but Gmail works pretty well I've found, I barely ever get spam with it.

please allow me to put it this way:

Here's the scenario. I receive a super nasty email.

Case 1: using Outlook, the email downloads onto my HD, spam filter doesn't catch it, goes right to preview pane, bam I have the virus without even clicking on Outlook, much less the email.

Case 2: using Gmail, or Yahoo internet email, or a similar web-based email provider, the spam filter doesn't catch it either, but the email isn't downloaded to my hard drive.

What is the outcome in Case 2?

Dump Outlook/Internet Explorer, replace with Thunderbird/Firefox.

And yes get a decent anti-vir prog, NOD32 is excellent.

I've used IE and Outlook since the launch of both, and the closest I've had to a virus was my home page got hijacked back in the days of IE3.

I think I understand your question - I use earthlink for my email provider. I can download/open/read the emails on my system with Outlook, or I can go to the earthlink home page and use the online mailreader provided by them. My understanding is the online reader is safer, but I won't swear to it, and I don't think it's foolproof. I use the online reader to delete email that I know is spam/junk without reading it or ever letting it reach my system.

Pick up my Anti-Malware Toolkit and get the package that matches your OS, then post your HijackThis log.

I appreciate the help, but again......I already use Firefox, and I'm going to wipe the HD as soon as I move all the files I want to keep over (which I'm in the process of doing). I'm done scanning, searching for problems, etc.

So it just comes down to my previous post, regarding web-based email vs. Outlook

In all scenario's

Outlook == fail

Get a decent, local client. Webbased has as disadvantage that the https makes some browsers assume anything on that site is ok, which makes it vital that your webmail provider uses good antivirus scanning.

On all (local) clients, disable previews and disable loading of remotely stored content.

Mozilla Thunderbird is all you need. Outlook sucks big time ;d

Also, NOD32, like people above me said, auto-checks your messages and leaves a note at the bottom about the results.