Important Ad Redirects (Update!)

Avast s one of the highest for giving false positives. I few of the tools I use at work sometimes get hit when I'm working on a client's PC that has Avast. Not saying this is the case of course. And RAM is Random Access Memory; the reason I'm stating this is because it uses blocks randomly, and hence the name. It doesn't matter what you're doing, once you've randomly hit the bad block(s), stuff starts to fail. It's also possible it was a fluke. Stuff happens here and there for no reason at times.

 

@Mafiacow I notice that once in a while after waking my computer up from Hibernation, Windows 10 sometimes throws a netio.sys error on a sky-blue screen. Still haven't figured out what exactly causes the problem though, other than "it's Windows; it's to be expected." lol I guess the best way to find out, is check what file threw the exception and lookup the error later or on a different computer, if at all possible. You can probably find out a bit more of what's going on, at least as far as the error is concerned, and possibly if it could be connected to malicious software.

If you don't want to install a different virus scanning program, you can check out Trend Micro's House Call, which will scan your computer online, without the need for an install. Another one you can try is Comodo Cleaning Essentials, which you download the program (32-bit or 64-bit version; If you have a 64-bit, use the 64-bit. Using a 32-bit will give you an error on a 64-bit operating system) and you can immediately start it up. It's a good portable virus scanning tool that can run from a USB drive. These are all presuming you're using Windows. It will at least give you a second opinion and you don't have install and keep them when you're done.

 

Ah, right right right.
Which Antivirus would you recommend?

 

Honestly I use whatever Win8+ stock antivirus that comes with it (or you download it through updates I don't remember). What was it called? Windows Defender? Windows Essentials? I don't remember sorry.

I used to use both Avg then later Avast but the both of them spend more time trying to sell you something with their own ads then actually just shutting up and stay quiet in the background.

 

Windows Defender is the name of the stock antivirus on Windows 8 and 10 (I think Windows 7 even had the stock version, probably added through Service Pack 1, but I don't remember). Honestly, it's all I use right now for "real-time protection". I have Malware Bytes installed, but it's the free version so it's not an active antivirus and I rarely use it. I usually scan the downloads through an online file scanning site like VirusTotal or similar sites, and then again with Malware Bytes if I really feel compelled to check again after the download.

@Mafiacow and @Doomguy If Windows Defender isn't your thing though or doesn't do enough for you, Comodo Antivirus and Comodo Internet Security are also good alternatives, both have a free version available and last time I used them, they don't bombard you with ads trying to pressure you into buying their premium versions (which is usually nothing more than the latest version of their software as well as phone and/or remote support).

 

AdGuard goes on a "useful" basis (here) so it's not really a list of ideal ad services, but more of a guide of what they consider useful. I've never liked ads (mostly because in the past, they've always been in the way or just "in my face"), so I never sought any of those services out for my website because of my disdain for ads. So, I have no idea what ad services are out there that are decent. lol I know DoubleClick has a bad rap for privacy invasion and leaving spyware on your computer, but I don't know if they've cleaned up their act since 2006 or not. I know I still have them listed in my Windows "hosts" file with the loopback IP address though. Alexa was another bad one that I put on my hosts file with the loopback IP because of their history.

 

Adversal and Chitika seem to keep showing up in my searches.

 

Adversal requirements:

Chitika however does not have any stipulations that might become a problem for JDO. I've searched through the terms (here), but couldn't find anything of concern that could put JDO at risk of being blacklisted or flagged. Bots and spiders should be blocked from the ads if they start "crawling on the ads" (for a lack of better description), and if you're unable to get them to stop, notify Chitika that you were unable to stop them so they can block them from their end (and not object to it of course). So at least they sound like they're easy to work with.

Using Kiri's two mentions, Chitika seems to be a better option as far as I can tell. AdGuard doesn't seem to flag the site with their Web of Trust alert like some sites (like Sedo) did. Adversal didn't get flagged by AdGuard either, but that policy sounds like it could become a problem like Google AdSense did.