Best anti-virus software?

[BurninMan921]

OK, I know there's not to many choices here (Norton Vs. McAfee), but am I forgetting a program or two? I'm looking to give NAV the boot...since a nice little virus slipped past it (and shut it down )...

[eliminator]

This time good news - the best (USA & Germany) av progs are FREE ! ... my favorites:

1) Trend Micro free online pc check & cleaning anytime !

2) AntiVir6 - free full version & uptades !


mcafee & norton just suck

[dodecahedron]

1) Trend Micro free online pc check & cleaning anytime !

2) AntiVir6 - free full version & uptades !

eliminator, have you used Trend Micro's PC-Cillin?
what's it like? is it any good?

AntiVir6 - what's this? what company? URL?

[eliminator]

1 - no, just the TM online free diagnostics/cleaning service...

2 - http://www.free-av.com/

[CDRecorder]

Why version of Norton do you have, and what virus got past it? No viruses have ever gotten past NAV 2002 and 2003 for me.

[aviationwiz]

All versions of NAV work fine for me. Were your definitions up to date via Intelligent Updater?

2004 is out now, check out thier website.

[BurninMan921]

I have Norton 2003, and it was up-to-date. The virus was BackDoor-ACH, and it shut norton down complely (and fried it, so it had to be reinstalled).

[dodecahedron]

The virus was BackDoor-ACH, and it shut norton down complely (and fried it, so it had to be reinstalled).

cool virus
(not so cool reprecussions though...but still! )

[BurninMan921]

Well, at least it was easy to get rid of (kill process, delete file)

I just installed McAfee for now, and I've downloaded the Free-Av program to try. Gotta see if it'll find this thing too.

[eliminator]

norton & mcafee both suck !

[istomtom]

AVG, free, good

http://www.grisoft.com

[pranav81]

Well,Norton is the best AV software because not one virus has gone past it on my computer.I check for NAV updates almost everyday.McAfee is bad,as when I installed it,virus completely broke down my network.So I rely only on NAV from then on.
See ya later,

::Pranav::

[BurninMan921]

Well, I sure don't trust Norton anymore! Not after that last virus that got by it (see above posts)...I'm currently testing the AVG program...

[dodecahedron]

well, i've just had the other day the weirdest experience with NAV.
the first virus ever detected on this machine, and it's had NAV2003 since day 1. this viruswasn't detected by the AutoProtect feature (NAV didn't catch it on its own) - it got through??? but was detected during a manual scan.

the NAV report was:

Source: movie0045.pif
Description: The compressed file movie0045.pif within Unknown00000000.data within D:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\CP2F45UJ\ShowLetter[4] is infected with the W32.Sobig.F@mm virus.
Click for more information about this virus : W32.Sobig.F@mm

now the strange thing is that i went (in Windows Explorer) to see that file/directory, it wasn't there!!!
the file itself had been of course removed by NAV, but the directory D:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files did not contain a subdirectory named Content.IE5 (it did not contain any subdirectory!)

strange, i don't know what to make of it.
and i don't know why/how it got past NAV (which has served me well till now).
i also don't understand this strange issue of the location of the infected file - within Temporary Internet Files - does this mean it was loaded "inside" some html page?

[BurninMan921]

That folder *should* be there. Turn on the option to see hidden AND system files. I'm still surprised by all the junk IE/Windows has scattered around the hard drive

One reason not to use IE, I guess (I like Opera, myself, but Mozilla's nice).

[pranav81]

Hi dode,
there sure is that directory.The virus you mentioned obvisiously came through internet,strange NAV 2003 did not detect it automatically.Have you set all the protection in the options to highest?Because believe me the same virus was detected by NAV 2002 on my machine 3-4 days before.
You can access the content.ie5 directory by clicking disk clean up and then by clicking view files.
see ya later,


::Pranav::

[pranav81]

The folder is there alright.It is a super hidden folder.
See ya guys later,


::Pranav::

[BurninMan921]

Interesting test:
http://www.hackfix.org/miscfix/icons-av-all.shtml

NAV detected 95%, AVG only 64%. Guess I'm not using AVG, and the AntiVir program from www.free-av.com got 97%. McAfee got 100%, but then, that program really kills system performance

Here's another AV test:
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/ ... .xml?table

[dodecahedron]

The folder is there alright.It is a super hidden folder.

can you please explain to me how to get to it?
"disk cleanup" doesn't work for me - seems to hang (or maybe it just takes forever to prepare and i'm not patient enough?

by the way i have in Folder Options -> View:
Display the contents of system folders
Show hidden files and folders
so i think i'm covered on that angle, no? or is there another similar setting of which i'm not aware?

[pranav81]

Dear Dode,
If you have NTFS file system then disk cleanup will take very long time depending upon the data and speed of the HDD.I recommend you start disk cleanup and have a small break and when you come back disk cleanup would have finished searching for the garbage files.The just select Temperory Internet Files and click Show Files button at the bottom.The content.ie5 folder will open up with it's contents.
Hope this works,
See ya soon,


::Pranav::

[dodecahedron]

is there no way to access that folder except for the disk cleanup? i can't believe that!

[MediumRare]

now the strange thing is that i went (in Windows Explorer) to see that file/directory, it wasn't there!!!
the file itself had been of course removed by NAV, but the directory D:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files did not contain a subdirectory named Content.IE5 (it did not contain any subdirectory!)

I just had a look at my system and it shows the same behaviour from the explorer- no subdirectory but a whole mess of files.

However: if you go there with a console window and enter "dir", you see exactly one directory, namely Content.IE5 and no further files. I'm not an expert on the innards of windows, but I suspect that this (and probably other folders) are treated specially by the explorer.

G

[dodecahedron]

yep, just like you said:
in Windows Explorer, D:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files is filled with a whole lot of mess! and no subfolders.

by "console" i take it you mean the Command Prompt?

very strange, going there and typing "dir" does show a subfolder, only one!
i have to type "dir /a" to see all of them, including the Content.IE5 one.

also strange, when i am in D:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings "dir" doesn't show Temporary Internet Files. and when i'm in D:\Documents and Settings\<username> "dir" doesn't show Local Settings. have to "dir /a".
my understanding is that these are "hidden" or "system" files/folders so i need the "/a". but i do see these in WinExplorer (the correct settings in Folder Options). so why don't i see the Content.IE5 in WinExplorer?

Windows (or maybe i should say Bill Gates) works in mysterious ways...

[cfitz]

I suspect that this (and probably other folders) are treated specially by the explorer.

Windows (or maybe i should say Bill Gates) works in mysterious ways...

Indeed. All in the name of "user friendliness"... I suppose these "features" may be useful from time to time, particularly for newbies, but I usually prefer the raw view. It is often frustrating when some Windows "magic" prevents me from doing what I want to do and know should be possible. I'll decide what and how I want to view and do, thank you very much!

Anyway, these particular folders are treated differently, presumably in order to give you a more Internet-centric view. Notice that the column headings are not just the usual Name-Size-Type, but also include http-specific data such as "Internet Address", "Expires" and "Last Checked". Explorer synthesizes these columns (taking some time to do it, if you notice on a slower machine) by reading through the actual file/folder structure.



You can still see the underlying real files and folders (at least on 2000) by enabling the "Folders" view as shown above, and drilling down into the folders using the left-hand pane. Various other ways to see the real files and folders (in rough order of increasing inconvenience) include typing "<your_path>\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5" directly into the address bar of Explorer (substituting your actual path for <your_path>), searching for * in the "Temporary Internet Files" folder and exploring the results, copying and pasting the "Temporary Internet Files" folder to another location and exploring the copied version, or sharing "Temporary Internet Files" then mapping a drive to the share and exploring the share.

One of these methods should let you see what you are looking for.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

thanks, cfitz.

Indeed. All in the name of "user friendliness"... I suppose these "features" may be useful from time to time, particularly for newbies, but I usually prefer the raw view. It is often frustrating when some Windows "magic" prevents me from doing what I want to do and know should be possible. I'll decide what and how I want to view and do, thank you very much!

as usual your eloquence saves the day. my sentiments exactly.

i hadn't thought of these solutions myself!

switching to the folder view - no avail. the Temporary Internet Foler did not show any subfolders in the tree structure on the left.

typing in manually ""<your_path>\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5" into the addressbar did the trick.
yeah, twice! now it showed in the tree structure 2 subfolders named Content.IE5

this "correct display" stayed untill i closed the Explorer window.
opening a new one and navigating there again - once again no subfolder!.

thanks Bill for a wonderful UI