thanx Pro :D

Couple of questions

After removing AVG ,i searched the registry for grisoft and there are still a lot of entires should i remove everything to do with grisoft,after backingup the regisstry first of course

When you right click on a program and scan avast pops up and seems to scan it but i get no conformation,is this normal.
The reason i ask is i have really only ever used avg and it says no virus found

sorry for the dumb questions but you guys know me by now :D

That is the normal way.

Note: what is dumb is not your question but this option in the context menu. I never used it (except right now, to answer you) and it is useless. If a file is corrupted, then the programm will stop it when your system will try to acess it.I don't find usefull to pre-scan it manually first.

Thanx Phil

i didn't know that ,thats the way i always did it :oops:

i learn new things everyday :D

Just an update after both scans

Avast found nothing
Bitdefender found Win32.Bagle.BQ

Here's a site where you can check if your antivirus software is running ok.
Eicar is a simple text string inside a file that all antivirus software recognize as a virus but that in fact is not a virus.
It was made just to test the antivirus software.
My copy of AVG free didn't stop the downloading of such file.
Avast does stop it :)
How come avast doesn't catch Bagle and BitDefender does? :roll:
Cheers

This test is near 15 years old and in fact I'm surprised that some anti-virii continue to implement it. It's not important if AVG don't.

What is more concerning is that there are old virii from that time that have been dropped from the signature databases, the same way that in real life no city is abble to struggle against variola. The day this virus will return, we will have a big problem.

Edit: avast does not scan virii throught https. I didn't know that. Thanks for the link Rui :)
[/b]

You're welcome :)

@anyone,

I believe BD has reported a false trojan to delete. I use 1STPage as a
webpage developer and BD doesn't like the setup program:


Has anyone else found BD to report false trojans.

-BP

See my first post on the thread. It's near impossible to find so much things with BD that no other prog can see.

I know in this thread you are not supossed to run 2 anti-virus programs at the same time so i installed bit defender without real time protection but when i look in Windows Task Manager i see bdss.exe

is this OK and if not

what do i do :D

thanx

I guess so because I did not installed real time either and at each reboot I had a dll from bitdefender that crashed. I removed it but I guess there is still something in memory even with no real-time protection (autoupdate may be ?)

Thanx Phil,i guess i can leave it then

My Icons are disappearing???
 

I just done a clean XP Pro install on my Laptop and I installed Avast.

I am very impressed with it but for some reason every time I install the Google toolbar in IE it disappears again and I have to keep re-installing it.

I have looked at the View menu under toolbars and Google is not there.

Also another strange thing. My kerio 4x firewall Icon has disappeared also.

So to fix this I right clicked on the Icon Taskbar, selected Customize Notifications, then set Kerio Personal Firewall to Always Show.

The thing that puzzles me though is on the Laptop Kerio is showing on the Past Items whereas on my Desktop PC it is in the Current Items.

I know that Kerio is working on the Laptop as I can see it in the Task Manager.

Can any1 please explain what is going on and has this anything to do with Avast? (Although I doubt it has)

Thanks in advance. :)

I did a system restore to the point just after I installed Kerio but to no avail. So I un-installed and re-installed it and now the icon comes up in the taskbar & 'touch wood' the Google bar has remained in the toolbar.

EDIT: I forgot to say what a cool AV AVast is im quite impressed with it, some nice features.

Hi all,
I've followed this thread with interest, since I'm quite concerned about my PC security.
Now that my Panda Antivirus license is about to finish, I'm considering if I am to renew it, or better try what you suggested: Avast free as permanent scanner, and BitDefender free as deep scanner.
My doubt, I'm afraid difficult to answer: will this combo be as safe as my previous antivirus Panda?. With it I have just had once a trouble with a trojan, but anything else, and I'm connected to the web very often.
I'm decided to try Avast-Bitdefender combo, but I wouldn't like to lose security.
BTW, both free antivirus, do update virus signatures themselves?.
Thanx in advance

Panda is surely nicer than avast. The only advantage of avast in this competition is its price.

Yes, it will be. But if you have a new virus that threaten your PC, you can receive support from Panda and hope a quick scanner/remover. With avast you will be all alone... That's the main diff between a regulary paid software and a free one.

Yes they are.

Hi Phil,

I need some advice here please, I upgraded to Avast Free as per you suggestion and I love it, I think it is a really well put together Anti-Virii protection tool with some nice features.

I was thinking of upgrading to the paid version, would I be afforded the same support from Avast support team as digitall.doc would receive from Panda?

Thanx Phil for your considerations.
I see your point.
Does it mean that free versions doesn't benefit from virus updates made in paid versions, or they update paid versions later?.
Several antivirus web pages have a link to free scanners, would this solve this issue?.
Those pages link to tools that can be downloaded to remove recent virii. All this together, could substitute the support of a paid version?.

To me it's difficult to make a decission. Till know I just forgot about viruses, don't know if keep the same way, or if the free way is about the same...

I really can't tell. I didn't know there was a paid version :)

@Digitall
No. You have the update but if you have a new virus, you can just wait for avast to deliver the update and hope that you are not the only one that have this virus. Generally an update comes quicly, but who know...
Online scanner is the same : if noone had the problem before you, the scanner is not abble to handle your new virus.

An other point about online scanners : very often they just scan (panda for instance) and at the end they tell you : yeah, you have a virus, don't hesitate to buy our tool to fix that ! :(

Last word : if you forgot about virii then the free option will do the same. It's only when you are very often in trouble with virus that you should consider to have a good supported paying one.

Cristal clear, now I see your point.

Well, this clarifies the question a lot.
As I'm to renew now, I can try the free option, and if I'm in trouble I'll have to buy Panda (or whatever solution) anyway (the renewal is not that cheaper compared to buying the antivirus).

The 2 or 3 times I caught a virus in maybe 10 years, it was my culp (once of them I don't give credit to my av as I didnt download nothing).
Once blaster (MS issue).
Now with this combo, I think I better protected than before.

@Dialhot

Phil thank you very much for the info.

There is a Professional Edition and it does have some added features that the Free version doesn't, I may update to it.

The link to some info to the Pro version is >here<

I do like Avast especially with the autoupdate, my main gripe with AntiVir is that imho the updater sucked and the manual process of having to hit the start button then it asks if you want to receive the updated files.

I mean update it already don't ask me what to do evey step of the way.

Update:

I just checked out the price for the Pro Edition of Avast and I think it is quite reasonable.

For a single license for a year it is £24, for 2 years £35.90 & for 3 years it is £45.76

In Euros that is: for a year it is € 30.95, for 2 years € 44.74 & for 3 years it is € 57.15

Check out the prices >here<

...and back again to the topic, a year later.
Everything worked nice all this time, all antivirus working 'together'.
The reason to post?, well, BitDefender license expired :oops: . I tried to look in BitDefender webpage, but the free version is still v8, and I don't think that reinstalling it I will get another year of free updates.
Well, I followed the advice in this webpage, and installed Avira Antivir, not installing the Guard (permanent scanner) module. But when I restarted my computer, Avast (great!) detected Antivir, and itself throws a warning alerting that another antivirus is installed, and itself deactivates its permanent scanner...
I would rather keep Avast as permanent scanner, and just use Antivir as an on-demand scanner (as I did with BitDefender), but I don't know how.
Any sugestion?, what antivirus combo, or whatever free solution, are you using now?.

If Avast detects somethign then Antivir is not as de-activated as you think it is. Look better into the option or into the programms that are run at windows start.

:idea: ClamWin
http://www.clamwin.com/

-kwag

Well, I'm sure Antivir is not de-activated at all :) .

What Avast says is that it detects Antivir installed, and on-access modules of Antivir and Avast would enter in conflict, so Avast decides to de-activate its on-access module :( . That's a pity. Antivir can deactivate on-access scanner, and I did deactivate it. But Avast decides that once Antivir is installed, they can enter in conflict, and deactivates itself, without noticing if Antivir on-access scanner is on or not. There's no way to activate Avast modules, as far as I know.

I'm sure that this security measure of Avast is a really good one to avoid system conflicts, but I would prefer to keep Avast running, and just use other antivirus for an on-demand scanning. I have the feeling that with Antivir scanner on it slows down my system a little more than Avast did.

@Kwag,
thanx for your suggestion. Yes, I knew ClamAV, and it can just perform on-demand scannings, without being permanently activated. But I don't think it can substitute BitDefender (even Antivir) as an alternative on-demand scanner.

What solutions are you using on your systems?. Antivir doesn't 'look' bad. On a hole-system scan it detected some virus in quarentine that BitDefender had detected also, and some that even BitDefender didn't detect. But I think it's a little heavier for my system as an on-access scanner than Avast was. Do you know how can I reactivate Avast modules, once I deactivate on-access scanner in Antivir?

That's weird that it complains only because the programm is installed (on the disk) and not active (in memory). I do not have this with avast (active) + avg free (installed) nor with Nod32 (active) + avast (installed).

May be you have still an antivir process in memory ? It can by the automatic update scheduler 8O

I'm using Antivir, and for deep scans, I use ClamWin about once a week :)

-kwag

Yes, but I think this is the behaviour of the program.
I searched in Avast forums to see if I could find help, and found this post, so it seems that Avast stops its standard shield if it detects another antivirus program. I guess it depends on the other antivirus, as it happens with Antivir and Kaspersky, and doesn't happen with NOD32 and AVG.

I'm thinking seriously in installing AVG free as weekly in-depth scanner, and keep Avast as resident scanner, as I see that you use this combo with success.
I have right now Antivir as resident scanner, and Avast for web and mail protection, but this means two antivirus active at once, and system slower.

Thanx Karl.
I just saw your post now. It's a good solution, just having one antivirus active. I guess it's just marketing, but Antivir claims to detect over 500000 threatens (I guess not just virus) and ClamWin above 150000, so I thought it wasn't superior to Antivir.

Silly question from a not too experienced user, how do you protect your system when browsing the Web, or your email?. I see in Antivir configuration an Email setting, but just for one Email server, and I don't see the possibility to configure Web protection...

I'm a little confused, but I thank you both you offered some options to choose.

Sorry me for keep posting and posting in this topic, but I found some info that helped me and may help others.

In Avast forum I found this topic, that really came to my needs: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20884.0. I got some answers, but not the solution.

And a post in that topic guided me to this web:
http://www.security-ops.eu.tt/, that I also found useful.

@anyone,

Tried Clamwin Portable installed on my 1GB flash drive and it works :mrgreen:
http://portableapps.com/support/clam...ble#installing
I used the default settings and it's very slow because it scanned every
file type on my "C" drive. Is there a way to have ClamWin scan only
files likely to be infected (i.e. exe, com, dll, cab, etc) Clamwin checked
jpg, bmp, wav, mp3, txt, and so on ...... :roll:

-BP

Antivirus software
 

Hello:

It has been almost a year since the last post........Are there any changes to be reported? Meaning: Are you guys still using the same software as reported last year?

I am still using Avast and Bitdefender, but some of you have changed to Antivir, Is there a reason for the change?

Thanks and regards

Otto

Currently I am running on AOL's free McAfee VirusScan Plus - Special Edition.
Get it here http://safety.aol.com/isc/BasicSecurity/.
It's not bad at all.
Scan on demand, on access scanner,Local Network/Internet Network protection, Email protection, Firewall, Syware protection, etc.
Before that I was running on AOL's ActiveVirusShield, a cut-down OEM version of Kasperski 6.0.
"That" was great, maybe the best free AV product that I have ever used, very effective and many damn-small updates per day.
Unfortunately they have discontinued AVS and now they only have MVP.
I would give it a try if I were you guys.
Oh, just one small remark: you'll have to have a US phone number otherwise you can't register.
Workaround:
- get a free FreeWorldDialup VoIP account.
- get a free IPKall free inbound US phone number.
- register the IPKall phone number to the FWD VoIP account.
- Now you have a US number and you can register to AOL's MVP.
One day I'll buy me a Kasperski license or I will permanently move on to PC-BSD or DesktopBSD.
Cheers