A few words on two antivirus programs...

[HJ0]

I installed norton a few years back, thing worked great until for some reason it started to play silly. After 3 hours on the phone with symantec tech, we managed to remove most of norton lol.

Then came the serious part... for some unknown reason norton does not like getting reinstalled on the same pc twice(well my pc anyway). So over several weeks norton advised me to return it for a full refund(only took 12 weeks)

Now the av programs i run are mostly free and simple , some even talk back lol. but i find running in anonymous mode has removed the need for most of them. Not to mention the time it saves scanning.

HJ0

[Master Splinter]

Nortons. Can't stand it. Resource hog, and it seems to think that it knows better than me...and worse than that, it costs money.

Its fine in a corporate situation where you have IT savvy people looking after it, but on a home PC its a pain.

I've been using avast!. It's free for home use, it updates daily, and the updates take around 30 seconds on dial up.

I visit a reasonable selection of warez sites and it hasn't let anything slip through. Or if something has slipped through, its hiding lower than a Sony Rootkit and even Process Explorer can't ferret it out.

[jow104]

Where did you go knowing you would find some viruses?

Microsoft download web page?

[ubeaut]

After about 8 years with out it I have just gone back to full Norton Security system on all 3 of my computers. I had used a variety different virus programs on 4 computers with seemingly no problems.

Installed Norton on one computer and picked up 14 viruses of varying degrees of risk along with 2 on a cd which I had been using for over 4 years and hadn't been detected by any of the others.

Have since paid for and installed Norton on two other machines and in both instances picked up a number of viruses that were missed by other programs.

The one with the least problems was using Quick Heal for almost 7 years but changed last year to Mcafee and AGV to try them out both of which picked up or appeared to pick up nothing.

Also worth noting the cost of purchasing Norton for 2 years with full support and extended download directly from Norton is almost half the price in US$ than it is for a 1 year download on the Aussie $ site even after conversion of currency.

Cheers - Neil

PS other programs I have used Quick Heal, pc-cillin, Mcafee, Vet, AVG.

Paid for 2 years worth of Norton for each computer so will see when the time is up if I will stay with Norton for the long haul or not. At the moment I reckon I am way in front in the protection stakes. However as has already been mentioned in earlier posts, I wouldn't want to be running it on anything but late mode machines with lots of memory and at least ADSL or cable internet.

[kiwigeo]

Where did you go knowing you would find some viruses?

Microsoft download web page?

Windows.........the worlds biggest virus.

[Eddie Jones]

Both missed, what I think is a new variant, on an old Trojan (drwatson).

Err, no. Dr Watson is not a Trojan or a virus. It is in fact part of the standard error-reporting system built into Windows.

[DavidG]

Something to remember.
When a virus checker says it has found a virus all it has found is a set of binary numbers that the manufacturer has defined as being the signature of a particular virus but it may not actually be the virus file.

Some virus checkers signatures are a little too sensitive (read as - Not well defined) and are triggered by other benign files.

Do not believe that just because the virus checker says that it found a virus that there actually is one. (Could be)

Used to have a txt file that showed up as a virus.:eek:

edit:
Found it. eicar test file. See eicar.com
Save the following as a .com file and you virus checker should go ape.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Both missed, what I think is a new variant, on an old Trojan (drwatson).

Err, no. Dr Watson is not a Trojan or a virus. It is in fact part of the standard error-reporting system built into Windows.

Errmm... actually there is a virus called DrWatson, which infects DOS .COM files. (ref: here for more info)

'Tis a rare, very low-threat virus and easily removed. But I sincerely doubt that what Eddie is finding is this virus... I'd say his VC's heuristic settings are too high and, as I think you're saying, it's picking up the Win Debugger.

[Toolin Around]

Both missed, what I think is a new variant, on an old Trojan (drwatson).

Err, no. Dr Watson is not a Trojan or a virus. It is in fact part of the standard error-reporting system built into Windows.

Err, no. Believe what ever you like - I don't care. But I've done my research.

[Toolin Around]

Errmm... actually there is a virus called DrWatson, which infects DOS .COM files. (ref: here for more info)

'Tis a rare, very low-threat virus and easily removed. But I sincerely doubt that what Eddie is finding is this virus... I'd say his VC's heuristic settings are too high and, as I think you're saying, it's picking up the Win Debugger.

There's a variation that overwrites and or creats a drwatson.exe file not the drwatson.com file

[Eddie Jones]

Err, no. Believe what ever you like - I don't care. But I've done my research.

Well I strongly suggest that you do a little more research. Note that this site is Microsoft. They probably have some knowledge of their own OS's.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;308538

[ozwinner]

You are both right.
http://securityresponse.symantec.com.../drwatson.html

So tomorrow at dawn, its mouses at 10 paces.

Al

[jow104]

3 weeks ago I put some cash into a new bank account (building society) and on the application form they requested my email address. They replied to me with a welcome to my email address, and ever since I have had an unknown correspondent appearing everyday on my mails. I have deleted the correspondent without opening this mail.
I closed down the account the day after the welcome from the bank because I think there is still a risk on any online type of banking.

My server will not stop these mails coming in or discuss what the content is on these mails.

WHAT CAN I DO PLEASE?

[ozwinner]

Do you have internet security in place?
Blockers, deleters?

Al

[jow104]

Do you have internet security in place?
Blockers, deleters?

Al

I have got the Norton internet security 2006. Thats is why I hijacked this thread!
But it is not stopping this mail.

Incidentally yesterday the Shell garages in the UK had to stop using chip and pin cards at their outlets, Customers credit card accounts are being raided by some fraud. (millions of pounds invovled) So much for chip and pin benefitting the customer.