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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | The problem with most A/V's is that they only "go off" when they hit a virus they recognize. Otherwise everything appears fine.
Only a handful are capable of recognizing a new virus they have no definition for and dealing with it in some way, even if it's only to warn you. |
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Joined:
November 2010
Posts: 125
Location: Derry NH | remember when talk about a virus was cause ya still kissed Emily Van Deven even though she had a snot nose? and safe sex meant her parents weren't home? :eek: |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 379
Location: Alagoas, Brazil | Originally posted by stephent28:
Miguel, you are one of the lucky ones using Norton. Yeah, I think I had a special star shining the day I was born. I've also got a Taurus pistol that never ever failed on me AND a Fender Stratocaster that doesn't hum.
Go figure! |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 3619
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | I have used them all also, and now have Avast AND Malwarebytes for the malware. No problems after two years and my computer isn't bogged down as when using Norton. I was using AVG, but it began to intrude on other computer functions, so I dumped it. |
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May 2009
Posts: 364
Location: Bellevue, Washington | Originally posted by Waskel:
Vipre was good... until GFI bought Sunbelt. Trust me, it doesn't 'catch 'everything'. We haven't really noticed too many issues with the product since GFI took over, although tech support has really gone downhill... |
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Joined:
February 2008
Posts: 747
| Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
...The Microsoft Essentials is good as a SECONDARY tool if you manage to get infected, but I would not trust it as the primary tool. Again, it's a target. Can Microsoft Essentials and AVG co-exist together on the same machine w/out clashing and causing issues for each other such as slowing down the system due to having two virus programs running in the background instead of just one.
I've used CCleaner, Malwarebytes and Spybot along side either AVG or Essentials alone but never with both AVG and Essentials together on the same machine.
AFAIK, the malware programs only run on demand so they are less likely to interfere with a virus program which runs all the time.
So, can AVG and MSE be active on one machine w/out causing problems for each other or would you have to (if possible) disable one of them and only engage it as a secondary when needed. |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | The problem with running two (or more) active protection apps is that they are both monitoring for programs making changes to the system state and for programs trying to communicate outside. These are both things that active A/Vs do on a regular basis.
The issues arise when one of them catches the other one doing it. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by Waskel:
The problem with running two (or more) active protection apps is that they are both monitoring for programs making changes to the system state and for programs trying to communicate outside. These are both things that active A/Vs do on a regular basis.
The issues arise when one of them catches the other one doing it. Yep... what he said.
Find a good one (as I have said, I ONLY endorse AVG, F-Prot, or F-Secure products) and use it as directed. Also, follow safe computing practices and should be all set.
A few thought to ponder...
- A Virus or any Malware DOES NOT infect your computer on its own. YOU have to DOWNLOAD them. YOU have to RUN them. It's not like a virus from a human where you can just walk by someone who sneezed and catch what they got.
- Anti Malware software is the LAST line of defense NOT the first. Much like a car alarm. If someone wants the contents of your car, they will get it. But you don't leave your wallet lying out on the seat so they steal your identity too, you try not to park in bad neighborhoods, and you lock the doors when it's unattended. Failing all that, an Alarm "might" deter someone from completing the act. Don't go to questionable websites, open unknown attachments, store confidential info in the open and chances are you'll never need to worry about malware, but on the offchance you make a mistake, a good product will catch it or at least deter it.
and it's worth mentioning twice..
- A Virus or any Malware DOES NOT infect your computer on its own. YOU have to DOWNLOAD them. YOU have to RUN them. It's not like a virus from a human where you can just walk by someone who sneezed and catch what they got. |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
and it's worth mentioning twice..
- A Virus or any Malware DOES NOT infect your computer on its own. YOU have to DOWNLOAD them. YOU have to RUN them. It's not like a virus from a human where you can just walk by someone who sneezed and catch what they got. Well... not exactly .
If you don't want to read the article, or have never heard of "drive-by malware", here's the gist of it - bad guys take advantage of software with security holes. Perennial favorites have been Adobe products (Reader and Flash) that are now ubiquitous on the web and have always had security issues. When this content is opened in a browser like FF or IE, they can be used to exploit security holes to download malicious content to your computer without you ever knowing how it got there. It may show up immediately, it may show up in 6 months, you may notice your computer is running slower than it used to, or there are a lot of 'svchost.exe" services running.
This is why you need a strong, active, up-to-date anti-virus/anti-malware program. If you are admin on your PC, most free or budget A/Vs will assume (because it's happening through a browser) that you approve of this behavior and will do nothing until the infection is already in place. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by Waskel:
Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
and it's worth mentioning twice..
- A Virus or any Malware DOES NOT infect your computer on its own. YOU have to DOWNLOAD them. YOU have to RUN them. It's not like a virus from a human where you can just walk by someone who sneezed and catch what they got. Well... not exactly .
If you don't want to read the article, or have never heard of "drive-by malware", here's the gist of it - bad guys take advantage of software with security holes. Perennial favorites have been Adobe products (Reader and Flash) that are now ubiquitous on the web and have always had security issues. When this content is opened in a browser like FF or IE, they can be used to exploit security holes to download malicious content to your computer without you ever knowing how it got there. It may show up immediately, it may show up in 6 months, you may notice your computer is running slower than it used to, or there are a lot of 'svchost.exe" services running.
This is why you need a strong, active, up-to-date anti-virus/anti-malware program. If you are admin on your PC, most free or budget A/Vs will assume (because it's happening through a browser) that you approve of this behavior and will do nothing until the infection is already in place.
This is tough to avoid when researching via lets say google, but even there, you are making a choice to click on the link, and the link is right there to read. If it doesn't look like it's from a legit host related to what you are looking for, don't click.
So bottom line, I stand by my statement that virus protection is the last line of defense. A paid product like I recommended will likely catch anything that gets through safe computing habits.
Inversely, UNsafe computing habits will eventually defeat almost any malware protection.
It's in the article... the two major ways to get malware... "hackers use social engineering to entice trusting users to perform some action" or "automatically deliver the payload when the user lands on a compromised Web page."
It's a good article, but I still think it perpetuates the "mask the symptom" instead of "cure the problem" mentality. |
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November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | It's Soooo cute when geeks argue about things like 'who was the best Starfleet Commander...!'
:-) |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by fillhixx:
It's Soooo cute when geeks argue about things like 'who was the best Starfleet Commander...!'
:-) That's simple.. NOT JANEWAY !!!! LOL...
I think Waskel and I are on the same page actually.
I give lectures on Computer Security and I am constantly amazed. The recent popular thing is people thinking that if they click the "remove me from this email list" link they are actually getting their email removed from a list rather than added. The look on their face when I tell them that they just confirmed their email address to get more spam is almost heartbreaking. |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
Originally posted by fillhixx:
It's Soooo cute when geeks argue about things like 'who was the best Starfleet Commander...!'
:-) That's simple.. NOT JANEWAY !!!! LOL...
I think Waskel and I are on the same page actually. |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
The recent popular thing is people thinking that if they click the "remove me from this email list" link they are actually getting their email removed from a list rather than added. The look on their face when I tell them that they just confirmed their email address to get more spam is almost heartbreaking. Oops....DAMN!!! |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
- A Virus or any Malware DOES NOT infect your computer on its own. YOU have to DOWNLOAD them. YOU have to RUN them. It's not like a virus from a human where you can just walk by someone who sneezed and catch what they got. For now, sort of ... but now there's Stuxnet and Duqu. They were able to infect the Iranian nuclear facilities which had no connections to the outside world without anyone with admin or other privileges running them. AT least that's what the boys with the super propellers are telling me. |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Somebody got a flash drive or SD card in there...
Good for them. |
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virus control
