Resources for learning?

[chisao101]

I am an entry level PC technician. I'm A+ and NET+ certified, but lacking in 'hands on' time professionally. I am eager to learn all I can, since this is how I plan to make money for the rest of my life.

I'm pretty new here and I was just looking at this thread:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic145823.html

I have been removing viruses from the machines of friends and family for about 10 years (only because I was willing to sit down and research for long enough to figure it out), and only a couple of times have I run into one that puts me through a scenario like that one. Each time though, I had to get the help from a forum, or something like that. I know the basics of how to use HJT, but where do you go to learn which keys belong in Windows and which ones to delete? Is it just a matter of researching each key until you find the culprit keys, or is there a list somewhere, or a reference for comparison? Are there any good resources out there for people that want to learn to remove viruses at an expert level? Or is it basically just being in it for years teaches you?

Also, I wanted to ask someone who may know better than me about this sort of thing...
Malwarebytes Free, along with Avast Home (for it's boot time scan), or Microsoft Security Essentials (for those who know that their Windows has passed Genuine Advantage) are what I recommend to our customers that don't want to pay for the ESET that we sell at our shop. For simple malware removal, are there better programs I should be using?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys might have for me. And I'm pretty sure you can expect to see a lot more of me on this forum, since I am researching computer problems almost every day lately.

 

[Bobbye]

I for one greatly appreciate your taking time to ask how we go about cleaning and what it takes to do it!

Are there any good resources out there for people that want to learn to remove viruses at an expert level? Or is it basically just being in it for years teaches you?

The answers are Yes and Yes-but. Having basic knowledge of how malware works is a must. But you must also realize that it's a never-ending story! What the big malware infection today is might take second place tomorrow to something else. So keeping up with it is very time consuming. You need the time to be able to spend getting someone's system clean.

What it takes to get here? A lot of reading! This include what the problem is, what the helper does, what's in the logs, what those entries mean and what to do about them! Much of the malware that is coming out now is really tough to off the system. Threads are getting longer and longer as we use different programs to find and remove entries.

Cleaning on an internet forum is very different from what happens in the shop. And it's not the same as what an IT does in the field. Our free forums, like others, don't use remote access so we have to rely solely on what the person is telling us and sometimes we're 6 posts down the road before we get much to work with. Reading between the lines is a skill you have to develop because there are some who think it's okay to pirate software, including the operating system. And they don't for a minute stop to think that the problem they're having could be related to that!

If you really want to learn and eventually help out- and goodness knows help is needed- start out by doing what I said above- read, check entries, see what helpers do......then consider one of the online schools to help you learn he 'formalities' of cleaning: some online teaching:
http://www.malwareremoval.com/tutorials/artofmwr.php
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Would-you-like-to-learn-to-fight-malware-t4817.html
Bleepingcomputer has one.

Each forum has their own set of preliminary programs. This is necessary because people tend to recommend their 'favorites' or 'what worked for them.' This would mean that no organized steps were followed and eventually ends up with the member carrying a lot of programs that didn't work or were inappropriate for the problem and frequently results in a system that work work at all.

I hope others will make suggestions for you also. It is a rare and precious thing when someone asks 'how do I learn?'. When you do, you will be greatly appreciated.

 

[chisao101]

Thanks Bobbye!

I've been doing it anyway for years, like I said, but I always have just used whatever software solutions I could find. But now that I'm getting paid to do these things, I want to know as much as I can about the process.

I appreciate your suggestions, and I will certainly get in there and do some reading. I realize this isn't something that I will be able to stop, once I get started, but I kinda like that. Always suspenseful, lol. I know that even if I beat the virus out there now, there will be a bigger, better one tomorrow that is harder to beat.
I'm cool with that

Thanks again!

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Know how to write at least pseudo code and logics is pretty useful for understanding how programs operate imo.

 

[chisao101]

Know how to write at least pseudo code and logics is pretty useful for understanding how programs operate imo.

I can write some HTML and CSS, but somehow I don't think that's what you mean. lol