Preserved Topic: your favorite virus checker (Page 1 of 1)

i am currently using InoculateIt PE because it is free and stops the 'virus' that keeps changing the icons on my desk top.

anyone have a favorite that is Free.

cb

Those are your icons? Sorry.

I use good old Norton.

i dont use an anti-virus scanner. its funny.. ive only been infected by virii while ive had the scanner installed...

i learned 2 things:
1. know what youre downloading off the net and only accept files from people you know
2. dont let your brother use your win9x boot disks on crappy computers that have virii on them

------
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Norton for me. I've only gotten viri from email attachments but norton stops them all. So far. What you get is worth what you pay for it. And yes, except for not using a scanner at all, la'dsasha is exceptionally wize.

~allewyn~

[This message has been edited by Allewyn (edited 02-27-2001).]

Norton...it's worth the $20 to buy it. You get free updated virus definitions. Trust me, it's worth not having to reformat.

i think anyone that would have a "favorite virus checker" needs to get into the 3d world a little more often.

McAfee. It uses half the processing power as Norton (Norton uses 9% of your total available "horsepower"). And Symantec (makers of Norton) are known in the industry for being the LAST to come out with def files for new threats. McAfee is always among the first to come out with new def files, and their stuff runs on all 400+ of our servers without problems.

Pat Richard
Web weenie
http://www.gurusnetwork.com
ICQ 23113317

i've discovered that if you don't download virii then you don't need a checker...

but hey, i'm weird like that.

cheers.mikey.milker

my virus scanner? not using outlook!

I prefer Norton to McAfee, Norton seems to detect a lot of stuff that McAfee just can't detect. For instance I have Bo2k installed on my system and Norton detected it whereas even McAfee couldnt.

I had Norton for about five years on three or four machines. I was using Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Utilities. I eventually removed it all because I found that Norton was creating as many (or more) problems as it was fixing. Norton seemed to create lost sectors and lost chains a lot. I had files that suddenly would go missing or turn up unreadable.

About a year ago I reformatted my my hard drive and reinstalled my system and, because I had talked with several people who had had similar experiences with Norton, I left Norton off the machine. I have had no problems with lost sectors or chains since then even though I run scan disk on a regular basis.

I currently use AVX as a virus checker and except for a minor incompatability between it and Netscape 4.7 have been very happy with it.

AVP/KAV RULES!!! -> http://www.kasperskylabs.com/ It's small, it's fast, very accurate, has a very large virus database, virus database updates are also small (compared to huge update downloads for NAV), etc...

IMHO Norton AntiVirus SUX, big time! It can report viruses in files that are not infected (I've experienced this myself, because that shitty AV program was reporting that my HTML editor was infected with virus, and that was only because the main executable file was compressed with exe compressor and NAV identified it as a virus - can you believe this?)

BTW, Hyperbole, I don't know if you know this: AVX is not AVP's succesor, the confusion was brought by company Central Command that was AVP's distributor in the States; recently they decided to stop selling it and started to sell Romanian AV product - AVX, but they are still using AVP.COM domain in order to get customers, because a lot of people don't know what has happened with AVP...



[This message has been edited by mr.maX (edited 02-28-2001).]

Mr.Max: No I wasn't aware that AVX is no longer associated with AVP. Thanks for telling me. I'll have to look at the link you gave.

Weelll... I can attest that Norton really works big time. Back about a year and a half ago, I was in college. 50/50 mac and windows computers. Well all of a sudden some the Macs started re-starting when a disk was inserted into them. The phenom became quite common fairly quickly. Computers would restart when disks were inserted, continual pauses in programs for a several second lock-up.. the whole deal. It was odd and no one knew what was wrong.
Then I came home one night to finish come class work, inserted my disk into my G3 Mac, Norton scanned it and lo and behold... The scanned disk is infected with the virus AutoStart D variant. The program then destroyed the virus. Then I notified the school computer tech about this... (He did not believe me until the next morning when he downloaded the free version of Norton and ran the scan. Boy was he in for a shock.) We had to disinfect every mac in our school, all student disks and all removeable media, being a total fickin mess. This was just before AutoStart hit the big time in news articles, and Norton caught the activity quickly. I have to give big kudos to Norton and Symantec.

I personally chose not to use a virus scanner because I never get any virii to find. They also stop my fun. McAfee won't let me use BO2K or Sub7. It also uses too much ram.

~Aaron

I use AVP. I have used a few but I really like and trust this one.

As mentioned earlier, prevention is the key. Take files from only those you know and trust and then scan them anyway, as they may not be aware of something sent them.

Yeah, I do it all, virus scan, disk defrag, scan disk and and and ................

Hyperbole, AVX has never been associated with AVP and it doesn't have anything to do with it. Central Command is just a shitty company that doesn't know how to get customers, except to use very low marketing tricks. Anyway, AVP will be renamed to KAV, so that there is no more confusiond that has been brought by CC...

Norton is the Best !! hehehe..
but some of my friends complaints that Norton is too sensitive sometimes.. norton detects cracked softwares as viruses too.. they said it.
but so far .. it's been about 4 years i've been using norton.. and saved my system from various viruses..
[edit] ohh .. norton is not free .. but they do have evaluation version i guess.. [/edit]

[This message has been edited by CLyNn (edited 03-01-2001).]

I use my own intelligence. Like la'dsasha said, "know what you are downloading"

I have never had a virus. I'm not stupid enough to try and find out what SnowWhite did with the 7 dwarves. I mean, I think you really have to be stupid to contract a virus. No offense to anyone that has


These eyes have walls.

Favorite virus checker?
favrite FTP?
favorite song?
favorite movie?

What's next?

Favorite position?
favorite sock?
favorite foot?
favorite bill to pay?

favorite position: top, please.
favorite sock: thorlo.
favorite foot: left...no right.
favorite bill to pay: server bill.

many thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my question and share their experiences with their own virus checker.

i have to buy something(after 15 years.)

the end result of all this is that no one virus checker stands out as the indisputable One. interesting.

was interesting hearing all the negative and positive re Norton.

i have gone ahead and bought the McAfee virus scanner. guess everyone loves the one they are with...

thanks.
cb

heh,
bought the MCAFEE "Office suite" a couple months ago.

There was nothing wrong with my sys. but I figured I'd do the "smart thing" and update.

It proceeded to crash my system completely. (A Dell PIII, no less)

Had to completely reformat.

No 800# for support.

$100.00 in phone calls later, they had the B**LS to ask me to take a survey.

The last question was something like:
"If you could say anything to our executives, what would it be?"

My answer:
"Uhh, Sir, we're being delisted from the Nasdaq, the IRS and SEC are here, and by the way, I'm Buttf**king your Wife."

I'd have a party if their corporate jet went down and left debris for miles and miles.

(Gee, I sound like Twitch^!)

[This message has been edited by heddaLettis (edited 03-01-2001).]

Countryboy, the icon problem you are experienceing, is probably not a virus at all. When your hard disc gets fragmented, windows sometimes gets confused, and looses icons, so instead of looking for them, your computer just replaces em with other ones. I've had this problem a few times (cos I'm a lazy bugger and cant be arsed to defrag), and what you need to do is restart your machine, and hold down F5, to go into safe mode. Then you need to look for something that says "rebuild icons". I'm afraid to say I forget where it is, but it'll fix your problem. There are several disc utilities that will do this for you, but I dont know what they are .

I feel really ashamed to know this, I'm only 15 as well. Looks like I'm destined to be a sad lonley technican for the rest of my days.

Pitty me.

Qlmpnr, actually that problem with icons doesn't have anything to do with disk fragmenatation. It happens when Windows doesn't have enough free resources (free memory) and then it will mix-up the icons. Anyway, there's an option in TweakUI (part of MS PowerToys) called "Rebuild Icons" which you can use to fix them (BTW There's no need to go to Safe Mode to do this).



[This message has been edited by mr.maX (edited 03-01-2001).]

thanks mr. max for an explanation of the icon problem....ugh.........i wish i had heard that 24 posts ago....you are probably 100% right, but i found the icon changing spreading from one session to another without that extensive use of my memory...i aint arguing...!...you know a lot more than i do about this stuff...also your graphics kick butt..

also since it has been pointed out that the mcafee crashed someone's entire system, it does cause me to wonder.....

folks for the record i really do depend on your advice, experience, knowedge etc. max and others a couple of months ago discussed for shizzzz the preferences in monitors. i read the posts, learned and bought what i could afford: a sony multiscanG400. have been very pleased ever since.

Item:
1-many people and places are able to use Mcafee successfully.

2-is there something i should do specifically when i go through the install process?

as always.

all help appreciated.


cb.

Pray.

Like I said, I did a simple, straightforward install on a + - 6 month old Dell Pentium III...lotsa space, too, 256K.

Tech support wasn't helpful at all, wanted to e-mail me the instructions on how to modify my system registry.

"Hey! My system is down, remember!!!!!!"

So they faxed me an 8 page rigomorall on how to do it. Do it EXACT, they said. Problem was, half of what they wanted me to do Wasn't There.

I called, waited on hold (from NY to California) for 2 hours, and some jackoff got on the phone and basically said "you're an idiot. those are only guidelines". (Guidelines? For messing with my registry????)

If he was in front of me, he'd have been looking for his freakin teeth!

I hate that company. I shorted their stock to hell.

edit)BTW I downloaded Computer Associate's Innoculate IT for free and it was sooooooooooo easy. AND F-R-E-E(/edit.

edit2)And the girl from Dell was truly spectacular. Helped me out to no end, even though I had upgraded to WIN ME--effectively ending Dell's responsibility. She even called me at home the nxt day to make sure everything was o.k.----Dell is forever and ever my system of choice.(/edit2

[This message has been edited by heddaLettis (edited 03-02-2001).]

so in summary to this whole thread:

1-do not get viruses
2-do not get virus scanners

in summary, do nothing.

ok folks, the mcafee is being shipped to me as we speak. will take 7 days.

i will install it and everyone can hear my results. of course if ya don't hear from me you will know my system has been wiped out..

cb

1. do not use outlook!
2. use the bat!
3. no viruses!

Hmm, use Outlook (Express) with all security fixes applied + AVP ScriptChecker + ZoneAlarm Pro's MailSafe = No viruses...

mr.maX

it sounds as if no one pgm does it all and that you have 2 addtl ones on top of your Outlook Express.

i am sure you are correct but i wonder how many others use the layered approach that you have..?

so far in this thread people have pointed out the worthlessness of norton and mcafee s/w....

i wonder how one can ascertain based on objective tests vs. anecdotal stories which is the best....???

i mean the pc magazines all sell their editorial space to the advtizers so their reviews are worthless.....is there anywhere one can go for objective benchmarks, etc. on this or is the only real alternative strategy as i suggested before...

one does nothing and hopes.

cb

****, just downloat CA's FREE innoculate IT and the also free Zone alarm and you're there.

Don't even open that McCrapee junk, save your dinero, and take that $$$ and go out to dinner.

heh, the first word of this post----"dude" is restricted????........W*O*W***!!!!***!!!!

d*e*w*d*

is restricted? There goes my new name!!! LOL


what's wrong with "d*e*w*d?


[This message has been edited by heddaLettis (edited 03-03-2001).]

[This message has been edited by heddaLettis (edited 03-03-2001).]

There's another free AV program and you can get it here: http://www.free-av.de/

Enjoy!

max,

thanks for the addt'l site for for free stuff, but could you tell me:

how do i(or anyone on the street) know if that s/w or the kaparsky stuff is any good?

we have your word on it and i Do value that; but all bench mark validation for this stuff seems to be anecdotal, at best...

so once again in summary, it seems that there is No answer to the question:

what is the best(or good) anti virul program.

based on everyone's opinion above it comes down to.(depending on your viewpoint)..a)all of the above b) none of the above
c) don't get a virus.

am i wrong on this?

Well, it's virtually impossible to find *independent* test of AV programs. So, you're left with your own decision...

Personally, I would recommend AVP (Kaspersky AntiVirus) to everyone. I've been using for a long time and I've had very good experiences with it. And the feature that I like best is that I can update it in just a few seconds! Also, it comes with AVP ScriptChecker which can detect all viruses that are spread by exploiting Windows Scripting Host (VBScript & JScript).

Anyway, my best suggestion is to think before you actually do anything that can infect your computer. Just a few suggestions: you shouldn't open e-mail attachments from unknown people, you should disable "Hide file extensions for know file types" option in Windows Explorer, so that you can see extensions of all files (most Worm viruses spread by files that have names like "kournikova.jpg.vbs" and if the just mentioned option is enabled you would only see "kournikova.jpg" and would probably think that it is image and not a VBScript file), you should scan all floppy disks before you access them (the same goes for home-made CDs that you got from friends), etc.

I just use Norton since it came on my computer. I haven't had it find anything before cause you can tell if you're downloading from a site that could have viruses. Just don't open email attachments if they are .vbs or any unsafe extension.

so i went to my internet explorer/tools/advanced but could not find what you referred to as:

"Hide file extensions for know file types"

am i looking in the right place?

I've said Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer! So, go to Windows Explorer (My Computer), then Tools / Folder Options / View (on older Windows versions Folder Options are located under View menu)...

mr.maX

i have a suggestion that you may or may not find of interest. it concerns the geographical origin of viruses.

since the end of the cold war ended many americans are under the impression that a very sizable number of viruses have come out of eastern europe.

would you care to open up a thread to discuss that? i would imagine many people could learn from it.

if you care to open up the thread, i would certainly follow with questions.

but the choice is yours.

enjoy

thanks.

i have checked as you said and found the settings to be as you directed.

thank you.