If I use Mozilla Firefox will my computer still get viruses, and if so, how can I check my computer for viruses and malware?

Try some anti-virus software and scan your computer… AVG has a nice free anti-virus… I also recommend Norton… Just run the scan , and it will scan for anything that may be possible as a virus…

Download Malwarebytes. Install, run, remove anything you may have gotten. All better!

I use Microsoft Security Essentials (free). Any decent, up-to-date program should catch it, though. Using FF won’t keep you from getting a virus, so you really should install an anti-virus program. Good luck!

Don’t use AOL or even think about it, I’m lucky I’ve never touched it but it’s horrible

I second that… gmail does a much better job of catching the spam and sketchy emails.

@augustlan gmail is perfect.

One big thing that a lot of people seem to not do that really stops most virus’.... is just avoiding doing shit that spreads them. Don’t go to shady websites full of pop ups, a bunch of porn sites, illegal download sites, etc. That and not opening obviously fake e-mails are the biggest things you can do to avoid virus’.

On the advice of a friend, I installed Mallwarebytes and Windows Security Essentials (both free) and run both weekly (when I remember.)

No “browser” will keep you safe from viruses. That’s not something that they are designed to do or can do.

Your own practices will determine whether you pick up viruses more than anything else. For example, not automatically clicking links and attachments sent to you “by friends”, because as you have now seen firsthand, friends’ accounts can be compromised and send out infection on their own. If you innocently click on the link thinking, “Joe Blow is a friend of mine. He’d never send me a virus!” then you may find out the hard way that “Joe Blow” isn’t sending out his own emails.

If you want a good warning of when this might be happening to you, set up a “dummy contact” such as “AAA Spamcatcher” with YOUR email address in it. If your email account is ever hacked into (or just your address book, somehow), then “AAA Spamcatcher” will get the same email that everyone else in your address book gets, and you’ll know that you have some repair work to do.

Another thing that you can do to personally slow the spread of viruses is to send “mass” emails (when you send legitimate ones) to bcc: addresses, so that the receivers are invisible to each other, and no one can harvest your contacts that way.

In addition to that, if you ever forward jokes and links sent to you from others (especially when they aren’t so careful about leaving the list of contacts in the public cc: field), be sure to delete the sender’s name and all other names from the message before forwarding.

No browser is safe. It is just that Firefox is less unsafe than Internet Explorer

I recommend going to download.com (which is run by cnet) and first downloading Malwarebytes, which is a pretty comprehensive anti-malware program. After scanning your computer with that, go back and download AVG Anti-Virus to keep a real time anti virus program constantly scanning your computer for viruses. Both downloads are free (you can find them on a list at the right hand side of the site).

Also, if you have a big problem with pop-up ads like I did, you can download the NoScript add-on from the Mozilla website to completely end that problem.