Virus Checkers

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I have been using Trend Micro PC-cillin 2000 for some time as I get registered use of it free. I appreciate its frequent & easy updates but after it has been on a computer for some time I get unexplained lockups that I am sure are caused by it. It has happened more than once on more than one of my computers all running 98SE.

I am willing to give something else a try even if it means paying for it!

Is Norton the best alternative? I will probably be running it with Zone Alarm and with Outlook 2000 on a dial up connection. PC-cillin and ZA seemed rather uneasy bedmates.

John B

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John,

AVG Antivirus has been noted recently as a stable, and reliable solution. Give it a look.

When Symantec moved to a subscription model to make me pay for what I consider a basic protective function, I decided to move away. If the my employer wants to pay for that on their workstations – fine. But at home, my wallet likes a lot better!

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The free version of AVG does not offer technical support.

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You do not NEED technical support for this AV program.

However, if you do send an e-mail to their technical support you will get an automated response stating you need to upgrade or purchase support, but if the concern is of a worthy nature, they will respond accordingly. I have copies of their personal responses to my queries of consequential issues.

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He’s baaaack! Well, after getting up my nerve and doing all this with AVG, I went ahead and installed it on my other two in-home machines. One of ’em has a problem I can’t find the solution to. I have a peer network running and one of the machines is running Win98SE. After installing AVG on it, the screen says that Email scanning is not functional. I can’t figure out what might be wrong. I went ahead and did the full scan on all drives thinking that might be the problem, but no dice. I went to the AVG web page and tried to send a message to them, but it won’t let me do even that. After entering my serial number, the page says it doesn’t recognize me.

Anyone got any ideas on why I would get this non-functional message. Netscape 4.7 is installed on the machine, but NOT Outlook. I DID notice that the AVG Help screens says that email scanning supports Outlook. Jeez, I hope that doesn’t mean that Netscape or Mozilla are NOT supported. If it does, I’ve just wasted a lot of time for nothing!

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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Well, I said a message but I WAS talking about the four big buttons on the left side of the GUI screen. The one for email has, in red letters, “Not Fully Functional!” When I press the button, there is a further selection to “Activate.” So I press that, the GUI goes back to the main screen, still saying Not Fully Functionall!

I double checked all the email settings and they’re all checked. Feeling a bit paranoid, I checked ’em both from the AVG GUI and from the Control Center out of the tray. Everything’s checked.

What’s weird about this is that my third machine is a dedicated backup machine with four big hard drives that I use to store Drive Image backups on. It doesn’t have either Netscape or Outlook on it – NO email client at all and that non-functional gizmo doesn’t show up on that machine, with all the SAME AVG settings. You don’t suppose that AVG maybe doesn’t like my “old” Netscape 4.7 do you? As a check, I think I’ll go uninstall Netscape and install Mozilla 1.0 sometime today and see if that makes the problem go away. Far fetched, but who knows…..

To be honest about it, I’m not really concerned (a lot) about that Win98 machine ’cause it’s hardly ever used any more. It’s a Celeron 400 and when I built THIS PIII 600 machine last year, the C-400 just sits there for emergency use.

Since THIS machine has Mozilla running, what did scare me was this clip from the AVG Help system:

“How to Determine if the AVG E-mail Scanner is Active and Functional

First, run the program, AVG for Windows. In the System Status panel on AVG’s main window , find the ‘AVG E-mail Scanner’ button. If this program is not active or is misconfigured, the button will read ‘Not Fully Functional!’.

In this case, press the button and see more detailed description of this problem. There is also a button called Activate. Press it to launch automatic actions which will repair this problem.

Note: If you use a different e-mail program other than Microsoft Outlook, the error message on the button will read ‘Non-Functional’, because you are using an e-mail client not currently supported by AVG. Support for additional e-mail programs are being added all the time, so be sure you have the latest AVG updates. ”

And finally, I did have it check for updates and it, like my other two machines, has the latest file on it. We shall see…..

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So, Da Plot Tickins! I removed Netscape from the Win98 machine using the Add/Remove applet, deleting the directories with Explorer and using Regedit to delete the Netscape keys that are ALWAYS left behind (stupid software uninstallers!)

Fired up the AVG GUI again and the “red” warning was still there, but when I pressed the button and selected Activate, this time the offending message went away and AVG “looks ” like it’s now configured OK. Go figure, ’cause now there’s NO email client on the machine.

Didn’t have time yet to install Mozilla, but I will…..

Is there an AVG user out there who can CONFIRM that AVG has caught a virus in Netscape email?

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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Lessee Bruce, what’s first. Well, first of all Grisoft says that Eudora and OL are covered. I don’t know about Juno. Next, I should clarify my use of the words Netscape or Mozilla. Both programs are multi-function as you know, so in this case when I mention Netscape or Mozilla, I’m talking about the email subset (client) of that software, NOT the browser. Must be millions of people using Netscape for their email service, the only question is, are any of THEM using AVG for virus protection. We really need to know the answer to the question and I’ve searched the hell out of the Grisoft web site looking for an answer. All they talk about is which OSs they support.

I’ve also spent a good deal of time this afternoon searching with Google for reviews of AVG and have yet to find ANY mention of Netscape email in anything I’ve found. My only fear is that one might be blissfully thinking that his email is being checked and it might not be.

I do think I’ll take your advice and send myself the EICAR file in an email and see what happens. I HAVE seen people writing that AVG passes the EICAR test, but I don’t know if it will catch it in an email. We’ll see.

When I was on Grisoft’s FAQ page, I WAS able to send them an email and ask about Netscape and Mozilla mail. What I’ve read on the web today sez it will probably take them several days to respond, if at all. I also hope that YOU and others don’t think I’m trying to be a trouble maker here. I just want to be SURE that my email is being checked. AND, I was saving for later the question of why the “Certification” statements aren’t working. Might that be one piece of evidence that they’re not really handling email the way WE think they are?

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“Houston, I think we have a big assed problem here!”

I went to the site mentioned at Grisoft for the EICAR test file. I sent the thing to myself, both as a file attachment to an email and by copying and pasting the actual characters in to a message. Neither the sending or receiving messages were flagged as virus infected by AVG! Sorta confirms that using Netscape/Mozilla as your email client and AVG sucks!

When I tried to save the “attachment” to a file, the AVG resident scanner immediately came up to advise me and recommend I put the file in the “vault.”

I’m gonna wait until I hear from Grisoft (if I do) but I think all of you who are using Netscape or Mozilla for mail and AVG for virus protection, better think twice! This sucks….. Well, I guess I’m back to McAfee, like it or not. I hope someone can tell me I’m wrong…..

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Al ~

I wouldn’t jump the gun. I don’t understand what the problem was. That is exactly what it should do. It will prevent you from accessing the file or saving it. As far as “pasting the actual characters in to a message” well, then it is no longer an executable file, right? So it wouldn’t be detected as it is characters, rather than a program that can be opened and run.

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Yeah Bruce, I’m not in panic mode. I’m just surprised that the subect of Netscape mail (or Mozilla) hasn’t been raised by someone, somewhere along the line. What I fear is that a lot of people, like me, who have installed AVG “think” it is checking their email and that ain’t so. Whatever the reason that my one machine popped up an error message, seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

If it turns out that Netscape mail (or Mozilla) are not scanned by AVG, I’ll be very disappointed in them for not making that clear on the web site.

Hypothetical question: Has anyone who uses AVG and Netscape mail, been warned at the receipt of a message, that the message contains a virus of some kind?

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I am curious to know if you are expecting the AVG to detect the virii when you download your e-mail.

It won’t detect it until you try to access it by attempting to open or save it, and it sounds like that is what was done. Neither NAV nor McAfee warned receipt of a virus until I attempted to access it. Are you seeking some other course of action or result, Al? Please advise.

Also, I hope someone who uses Netscape/Mozilla w/AVG provides some feedback. I have asked a few other folks about this on your behalf but as of yet have come up empty-handed.

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Oh yeah, I’m expecting it to detect a virus in an email as soon as that message hits my Inbox, under the right circumstances. So, right here I’m gonna have to say that I’m not techie enough to know how this virus programming crap works and I don’t want to know, but…..

I can tell you for sure that you’re wrong about McAfee – with my own one eye I’ve been sitting here and seen it happen! Just a few days ago, I clicked on the GET MSGS button while on the email screen. As expected with Mozilla mail, the word “Inbox” turns bold to show you that there’s unread mail there, with the number of messages in parenthesis (parentheses?). In this instance there were TWO messages that had just arrived. In an instant, up jumped the McAfee warning window telling me that evidently at least one of those two messages contained one of the Klez viruses (er, virii -sorry Bruce). Unfortunately one of the problems like this is that if McAfee can’t clean the problem, the only choice it offers you is to delete. And, what it deletes is the computer FILE called Inbox! So, in this case, if one of the two messages had been good, I’ll never know it. At that point you have to re-start the email client to let it re-create an empty (new) Inbox.

On the udder hand, if a message has an infected ATTACHMENT, rather than some kind of embedded sickness, McAfee will not pop up until you try to SAVE the attachment.

Like you said in your last line, all I want to know, one way or the other, is if AVG does or does not deal with any email clients besides Outlook and Eudora. Yesterday, I searched sites and newsgroups until I was too tired to continue. I was looking for some (any) statements or “reviews” of AVG that even mention which mail clients it handles and I found NOTHING. I hope there are some Loungers who can answer this question, ’cause I really don’t expect to hear from Grisoft. (I’m thinking of writing them again with a “bribe” that I want to pay the $40-bucks for Pro, if it …..)

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Dump Netscape!

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In the back of my mind I was thinking the same.
<—- (My nose is not like this…I'm trying to fix the gif conversion)

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I like your new Userpic.

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Thanx, but it had to go. For some reason my nose looks like it is deformed. Is that something to do with the upload? The original doesn’t look like this. Any ideas how I can fix this Eileen?

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The Userpic always displays at 65 x 75 so make sure the picture you upload is *exactly* that size. If neccessary, pad it with transparent white space.

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Hey, C’Mon Bruce. Fix up the pix and put it back. I think it’ll be great!

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At the risk of starting another thread, you two are not listening! I DID dump Netscape. Right now, I’m using what I consider to be an EXCELLENT program – it’s called MOZILLA (Gecko) 1.0 from Mozilla.Org. As you both know, Netscape 4 and 6 are contaminated (AOL) pieces of junk and have outlived their so-called usefullness. I’m positive that if AOL has their way, Netscape 7 (is) will be the same way!

Also, I know you know that Mozilla is a multi-function program containing a browser AND an email client, as well as other sub-programs that I don’t use. For what it’s worth, I’ve been using it for several months now and it HAS NOT CRASHED a single time, more than I could have ever said for Netwcape. The Open Source project (Mozilla.Org) is the best thing that ever happened to that software, IMHO.

Now, respecting and preserving YOUR right to prefer IE for browsing (I also use 6.0 too) and/or Outlook, Eudora, Juno or whatever for email, I submit that we all should be able to make choices and software publishers should make it clear which products they support…..

Grisoft goes to the trouble to list what OSs they support, why not list the email clients as well. (end of soapbox!)

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Back in the old days, I too used Netscape and Eudora because they were, at that time, the best. Times change. They are no longer the best. If a program doesn’t do what I want it to do, I dump it…

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Exactly why I dumped both Netscape AND Eudora, in favor of Mozilla, which DOES do what I want it to do. Ya ought to stray a little further away from Microsoft and test the water.

In your next post, I’m not sure which reply you’re talking about, Eileen, the one about InnoculateIt or the reply I got from Grisoft. In reference to the statement about InnoculateIt, I don’t plan to use TWO virus checkers. I am, however, gonna wait to see what Grisoft does next since I do like what I saw so far with AVG. It’s just that I can’t afford to leave myself open in the meantime. There’s just too many dirt bags out there hurryin’ to write virus code. I already own McAfee Pro, so I’m re-installing and going in a wait mode for AVG. Concerning that statement that Netscape (what about Mozilla?) not autoexecuting code, I don’t think he’s quite right about that, but…..

P.S. Ya told Bruce you liked his pix and looks like ya scared him away. He deleted not only his picture, but a whole bunch of his posts as well. He’s erasing the evidence that he talked to me (Heh, heh!)

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If you’d clicked the link you would have seen what I meant.

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Please don’t “lecture” me, Eileen. I think my reply makes it clear that I did check THE LINK. I just don’t believe it! I don’t know nuttin’ ’bout no Visual Basic, but I do know of viruses that have run on a Netscape mail user’s machine without clicking any attachment.

I’m sorry to get excited about this. The whole thing that BOTHERS me here is the absence of complete info from all the folks who are so willing to recommend a piece of software without knowing what the possible liabilities are.

So there. I’m outta here…..

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Hey Al,

You asked. It was I who originally suggested AVG. Somewhere in this outrageously long thread it must have been stated that those who recommend software are responsible for stating its liabilities also, as you have noted. I missed that, but I won’t be stating liabilities that are unknown to me any time soon. Nor will anyone else, I suspect. But the first few posts seem to indicate your amazement with the product, and over a few days it has become an albatross to you.

By choosing Mozilla, you have squarely set yourself in the minority of users on the net. Don’t expect support from most software developers for an underused mail client, regardless of how excellent it is – the same is true for Linux folks who want to play video games. The developers create software for them asses – excuse me, the masses, since that’s where the money that feeds them can be found. That usually means Microsoft, along with a few others. For a free product, that barrier is even higher.

I just hope that this thread hasn’t led to personal offense on your part. I’d suggest that if excitement infects your posts, you’d do better to shelve the reply for a day and see how you feel with a clear head. No one that I know of is trying to smite you, nor anyone else – this is all volunteer, all the time – and we all have our opinions.

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Oh heavens no, Mark! I’m not smitten, angry or anything of the kind. As I’ve stated elsewhere in the Lounge, this is the greatest place….. And I DO LIKE the Avg product, but was just surprised and somewhat disappointed that no one, anywhere, had ever mentioned which email clients it supports. I’m gonna hang in there and watch their site for several weeks and see what new support they come up with. The improvement to the overall performance of my “system” was amazing. It (Avg) isn’t or wasn’t an albatross. No way! It’s a great product that I hope to be able to go back to.

On the other hand, I hope that I can (or will) convince you and others that Mozilla (which is, in fact, the root of the Netscape product) is not some obscure product, used by a handful of people. According to the Mozilla.Org published data, there are (really!) hundreds of thousands of us who have switched to that product as an alternative to the very contaminated Netscape versions.

This thread, nor any other in the Lounge, has left me with anything negative in my head. Quite the contrary! I still do, and will applaud you and all the rest of the contributors, including Eileen (who I hope is still “speaking” to me), for your time, dedication and willingness to help ALL! Keep the Faith, Mark and don’t write me off, just yet. I love THE LOUNGE!

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>> including Eileen (who I hope is still “speaking” to me)

Seriously tho’, I’ll keep an eye out for updates and alert you when they add the promised support.

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“…but I do know of viruses that have run on a Netscape mail user’s machine without clicking any attachment. ”

Sorry, Al, but you don’t.

“For a virus to work you have to do something e.g. open an email attachment, run a program or use an infected floppy disc.”

You’re probably thinking of a worm – which exploits a security hole in your system. Once in, worms do not need any further action from you to activate them. They also do not need to be written in VBA.

If I may, I suggest a visit to my website, and a click on the Red button – Attack and Defence. OK, it’s a lecture, but a useful one.

Finally, Eileen has given the best advice available, and I reiterate : dump Netscape, which you did. Mozilla should go the same way. If you’re using a MS OS, why not also use (warts an’ all) the browser/e-mail client that goes with it? Doesn’t cost.

“If you swim against the stream, expect to end up down river”

Rgds

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Picky, picky! (Heh, heh) Like many non-experts in the field, I admit to having “lumped” together the terms virus, worm, trojan and any other dirt-bag initiated attempt to do my computer harm. In conversation or writing, it’s often too klutzy to use all those terms. So, yes, I suppose I am (was) talking about potential worms or trojans in my life examples. I don’t know how else to account for the fact that on previous occasions, McAfee would flash up a warning immediately upon receipt of mail in my inbox. Nevertheless, it did but it DOES certainly take a noticeable toll on my system performance.

So I did go to your site MerC, and read the suggested area (as well as a few more). I’m sure I’ve been there in the past. Let me understand this: you say on that page that one should get an email program, other than Outlook (Express)…..(and so on). If you use AVG, then I take it your email client must be Eudora. Is that correct?

If I may, would you mind giving me one or two specific examples about MOZILLA that make you suggest that one should not use the product, where IE surpasses?

MY reason for not following your advice to use the MS browser AND mail product is again a non-technical-professional’s formulation of opinion. Over the last few years, most of the security problems and virus/worm/trojan info that I’ve seen publicized have had something to do with IE and Outlook or Outlook Express. So I’ve stayed away from those products. Since my installation of XP Pro, I’ve stayed up to date with MS’s security related patches, but I’m not too sure they can be counted on to be up to snuff.

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Thought I’d jump in here with an observation concerning just how effective AVG might be.
According to ‘Virus Bulletin’ , touted on Grisoft’s website as having given AVG their approval, AVG FAILED 17 of 18 tests. The one it passed was in February 2000 on a DOS machine. It has failed ALL subsequent test on computers running Windows 98, ME, NT, XP.

Check it out at:
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?avg.xml%5B/url%5D

Have a Great day!!
KenK

PS: I wonder if anyone at Grisoft is following this discussion??

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I wouldn’t put all my stock in that barrel. I also checked McAfee and saw that they had an 8 pass, 16 fail rate. One needs to find out what criteria they use for their testing. It’s certainly worth noting. Given the situation with Grisoft, I’d guess they never heard of The Lounge.

P. S. Dave, don’t be a smart-ass!

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Al ~

I couldn’t agree with you more. I am not convinced by the results of the testing reported. And I certainly don’t believe that AVG failed 17 of 18 blah, blah, blah…

I read Norton AV 2002 was so “great”, the best of the bunch, so I ran out & bought it only to find it performed the worst considering the the virii and resource use. I don’t know how these folks come up with some of these tests and the criteria thereof, but I certainly am convinced that in at least one periodical ( I won’t say which PC Magazine to which I refer) relies heavily on advertising revenue. Having been a former partner in an advertising company, I cannot look you straight in the eye and tell you without laughing that these pecuniary receipts have no leverage on what information is presented in any of various forms.

Again, I believe your Mozilla is probably working fine w/ AVG. You said it detected the infected attachments in your own trials. Keep in mind: [indent]

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“For a virus to work you have to do something e.g. open an email attachment, run a program or use an infected floppy disc.”

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[/indent] I don’t know about McAfee flashing up a warning immediately upon receipt of mail in your inbox, but that extra ten seconds makes no difference and certainly not at the huge expense of perfomance you indicated.

I personally do not use OL/OE for the very same reasons you for which you choose. Developers of malicious code typically want to hit the biggest number of users and that explains the desire to exploit the weaknesses of OL/OE. I personally use a proprietary client that is so simple and has all the features I need. I don’t need anything married to office apps and hate the unnecessary spacewasting toolbars & panes. In my opinion only, I don’t think you will find IE surpasses Mozilla, but the issue is not what you should use, the issue was that you believed it was not working w/ AVG. By your own words you have demonstrated that it does, just not in the fashion McAfee did. But, finally, it will all boil down to a personal choice as to what works for you and what you will be comfortable with.

Ciao bella,

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Er, shouldn’t that be Ciao bello? Big Al looks decidedly male to me.

I’ve always found Norton too invasive. I like McAfee. I still have Innoculate-It but they kept warning that they might soon drop support so I moved to AVG. Every now and then I run HouseCall just to make sure…

What email client do you use?

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Yes, dear, you are technically correct. I didn’t know this as we rarely use Italian around the house, so I asked my mother (she is the author Vincenzina Paulina Krymow [nee LaFalce] who is from Malvagna, Sicily) about that and she stated that the feminine/masculine tense would be appropriate in formal settings, however, “ciao” is casual in the first place and the feminine tense denotes familiarity or endearment rather than gender.

I attempted to use a personal version of CA’s Innoculate-It, but they did stop supporting it. They have an EZ-Armor version, but, me no like! I run Housecall on occasion as well.

I use the Juno proprietary e-mail client. It is so clean and easy and simple it’s amazing (I consider it my little secret). I do not use their IP sevice. I have my domain e-mail forwarded to my Juno account to avoid having to dial into my server and retrieving two sets of mail. No complaints and no problems.

Ciao, pucci!

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Ah that explains the rather quaint style of your posts. Around here our style tends to be informal but respectful. We keep it simple but we avoid addressing people as ‘Sir’, ‘dear’, ‘beautiful’ or ‘sweetie’.

Relax and you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Doesn’t Juno cost $10 a month? Have you tried Eudora?

And NOW the big qustion – does the Sicilian connection mean I might waken up next to a horse’s head one morning if I rub you the wrong way?

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Now, Eileen, you as a “Hollywood Housewife” of all people should know better than to ask open ended questions like that

(And that exclamation smilie looks phallic.)

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Mono, though. It’s only got one period. To be phallic it would need to be .l.

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Poor thing.

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…priapic, even.

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By ‘quaint’, I am assuming you mean attractively odd moreso than old-fashioned, yes? I really like this forum and am just starting to get a grasp of the interpersonal dynamics of the regulars.

Juno is $10/month as an ISP, which, frankly sucks. But the e-mail software is free, a simple and no-invasive installation, and all of the other things I mentioned previously. The interface is so uncluttered and clean. I have swayed many an OE/OL user who did not require the client/office app marriage. It seems once too many folks use a nice program, ‘features’ are added to make the ground swell happy, and that just seems to gunk & clutter up an already good thing. Eudora, well, it’s okay, but not as easy to use. With Juno I don’t have to worry about requisite updates, upgrades, etc.. It does everything you need a client to do without all the hassles and complications.

Uh-oh! Now the big question – you would never wake up next to a horse’s head…..you just wouldn’t wake up! No, any relatives on that side of my family are several generations legitimate if they were involved in anything nefarious in the first place – stateside – now over there is another story as that whole island is operated la cosa nostra, but majority of family there is distant or lost. On trips to visit or going to weddings in Italy, I have seen some things in which one would wonder, but it is considered poor taste to discuss such, especially not being full-blooded. The old world ways died here in the new world with Paul Castellana.

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Behavior of certain regulars is not representative of expected behavior.

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>attractively odd moreso than old-fashioned

Absolutely! I see from this message that you can do informal just as well so, as it used to say at the top of the original Lounge, “Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes, grab a beverage of your choice and enjoy the company”.

Where can we download Juno’s free email client? It sounds perfect.

>The old world ways died here in the new world with Paul Castellana.

Er, isn’t that what they always say? I think I’d better tread carefully, just in case…

You can relex too much, you know. This is a ‘family’ forum so you’d better get rid of that humping smilie from your Sig before you corrupt the kiddies.

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I do remember the “Pull up a chair…” tagline when I first began lurking in here.

You may download the installation package from here after this reply is posted.

Once installed it has a walk-through configuration and will dial out to finish and confirm. Once installed, you may send & retrieve mail through your existing live connection, or, if not connected, it will dial up, send/retrieve, then disconnect all on its own. If you have broadband, I believe you configure throught Juno Express. Make sure you do not select Juno’s browser to open links in your e-mail under Options>Web Preferences. There are never any pop-up ads or anything of that sort, but there is an ad that opens only when you first open the program. It is not even annoying, but nonetheless is easily defeated. Ask me for details or screenshots later if interested.

Humping? You dirty bat! How do you get that? Are you still stuck on the priapean punctuation??

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I *do* have a dsl line so where do I get Juno Express?

So what *were* those little guys doing? Playing leap-frog?

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My fault. Nevermind the ‘Juno Express’. That is their DSL premium connection service. Once you download junoinst.zip, it should walk you through the the initial connection set-up. I know that for to set Juno to connect over a LAN, a cable modem connection, or DSL, click on the Connection menu and select ‘Connect to Juno’, then ‘Over a Network’.

It is so simple you will probably never need the ‘Help’, but there are rather comprehensive files in the program and a huge database at the http://www.juno.com site.

Hope that helps.

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Thanks, Bruce.
I’ll give it a go…

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Golly, gee whiz folks! This topic has gotten so convoluted, I’ve forgotten if it was in this thread or elsewhere. So, I’ll pick your post, Eileen, to ask this question. On the subject of virus checkers, which product goes to your ISP MAIL SERVER to check messages BEFORE anything is downloaded to your computer? Am I dreaming or …..

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Mailwasher.

Download here http://www.mailwasher.net/download/%5B/url%5D. And check your mail for an HTM FAQ.

Tchuss!

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Hey, thanks Bruce! I’ll give it a look. Maybe it was you who mentioned it somewhere here in the Lounge. Being an old guy, with CRS, I can never be sure.

(For the uninitiated, Can’t Remember Stuff)

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Actually it was MerC who mentioned it in post 156591:[indent]

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For the real paranoics, using an e-mail client like Popcorn or Mailwasher before OE gets its sticky lines of code on your mail, lets you read the headers on the mail server without downloading anything potentially dangerous on to your system. That way you can delete anything suspicious (and spam) before it gets to you. Kinda like searching the postman at the end of the avenue.

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[/indent]Mailwasher works with independant and thus w/ any client. It allows you to view in text format from server b-4 downloading and to actually bounce . Read over the thorough FAQ I sent you. It might well suit your needs. I personally think it is not worth the trouble, but then I like to pretend I am pretty careful (knock on wood)and don’t get much spam, either.

I have ‘Sometimers’ as opposed to CRS.

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Jeez, that was only a couple of days ago. My CRS is really getting bad!

Like the guy on Murphy Brown used to say: “All’s I know is….” I found another one of dem Klez thingies waitin’ for me in my Inbox when I got up this morning. FORTUNATELY, I had re-installed McAfee for the time being and this is what I saw. (This attachment is a 320×240 GIF of a screen capture – no danger folks. I’ve also rescanned for safety)

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Al ~

Really can’t see the window. Can you capture just the alert window and edit your post, please?

Also, Al, I certainly mean no disrespect, but are you stubborn or just worried about AVG? You haven’t addressed any of the posts that have mentioned repeatedly that you have nothing to worry about until you activate a file. Your remark about scanning a screen capture for viral load lends an air of misunderstanding regarding that.

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No offense back at ya, Bruce, but either my grammar is crappy or YOU aren’t understanding the TWO separate concerns. I thought I had made my UNDERSTANDING clear in previous posts. If I’m wrong about this someone should correct me. There are viruses (worms!) that DO NOT NEED YOU to do anything but receive the email. Those viruses that do come to you in the form of an attachment to the mail – you’re right, you can’t be harmed unless you open or execute the attachment. I still see this as two separate problem. If you don’t, or if I’m wrong in my understanding of scum bags, we might as well shelve it, ’cause we aren’t getting anywhere.

I’ll attach the smaller, McAfee window to this post for what little it’s worth.

Lighten up on me, Bruce. I was just trying to be funny in my remark about the screen capture!

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I get heaps of spam so Mailwasher is perfect for me.

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… like it says.

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Any questions at all, please let me know. Also, once you install it, I would like to explain the very simple process of defeating the program sign on ad.

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Thanks again. I’ll be back…

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, I just realised it’s standalone – not part of your Sig. So you can *easily* edit it out… pronto.

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[indent]

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but I certainly am convinced that in at least one periodical ( I won’t say which PC Magazine to which I refer) relies heavily on advertising revenue. Having been a former partner in an advertising company, I cannot look you straight in the eye and tell you without laughing that these pecuniary receipts have no leverage on what information is presented in any of various forms

---

[/indent]Has Consumer Reports done any reviews of AV software that anyone is aware of? They don’t accept ads just so they can give unbiased product reviews.

My personal : I’ve had no problems at all with AVG and loads of problems with Norton, despite what a certain magazine’s “Tenth Annual Utility Guide” two-dot vs five-dot evaluation would seem to indicate.

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David ~

Per my post 154779:[indent]

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The free version of AVG is not without anything you really need to justify purchasing the ‘professional’ version. I don’t care what the magazines say, I have tried them all and AVG works the best for my needs. I wish there existed a periodical for computing, etc. that is not compromised by advertising revenue, like Consumer Reports.

---

[/indent] Unfortunately, as of yet, there is no periodical to my knowledge that operates such as the glorious Consumer Reports. They could start a whole new division with IT as they have done with health products & services. I am still baffled by the ‘superior’ reviews of NAV despite the number of folks grumbling about its inability to live up to those claims.

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Deleted – somehow this post was duplicated – same as 156805 –

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Al ~

Here it is! I ran some trials and found that this antivirus passed 97 of 100 tests. I am not sure how often I need to ‘update’, though……

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I’ve gotta reply to this quickly, before Mum catches you…..

You leave me on the floor, in laughter, Brucie! Reminds me of something someone told me several years ago about “keeping your disks clean…”

See what the dirt-bags of the world have wrought!

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Two problems with McAfee : it screwed up some systems intruding into places it shouldn’t go and causing numerous conflicts.
its updates started off free, then after a time you had to pay

AVG has been running on my XPP system for months. In that time it has detected and isolated viruses in e-mail attachments. I may have been lucky, as it has not found suspicious code in any of the files I’ve downloaded from the net.
Viruses in attachments can only harm you if you open the attachment. Therefore NEVER open one : save it to disc, run your favorite VS over it, then open it if safe to do so. Even if it comes from someone you know and trust, it can carry an inadvertent infection.
If AVG has failed 17 out of 18 ‘tests’, then all I can say is they’re probably not testing what AVG was designed to do. Tests? Schmests!

The proof of the pudding, and all that…

Hiya Al
If you mix up your terms like that you get fuzzy thinking and start to wonder why applications do not appear to be doing their job. Having read and digested Attack and Defence, you now do not have that excuse….

For the real paranoics, using an e-mail client like Popcorn or Mailwasher before OE gets its sticky lines of code on your mail, lets you read the headers on the mail server without downloading anything potentially dangerous on to your system. That way you can delete anything suspicious (and spam) before it gets to you. Kinda like searching the postman at the end of the avenue.

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This thread almost motivated me to research which programs check e-mail body text (intelligently) and which ones don’t. Obviously, offering to delete a whole INBOX file is useless. However, I am leaving the keyboard in 45 seconds, so…

The only programs that scan e-mail body text intelligently, as far as I know, are the ones that change your mail settings so that they receive and check the mail before your mail program can retrieve it. There have been many posts here over the years about issues with the Norton way of doing this; I assume McAfee does it now; PC-Cillin 2002 definitely does it (not sure about earlier versions). Do any of the free products do it? That is for someone else to research and let us know.

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Who uses NetScape?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Hey I’m a web designer – I *have* to.

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I know, but I could NOT turn down the chance to pick on you one more time. You are doing a great job.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I’m still looking and I just found this for what it’s worth!

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Up On Soapbox! (One last time and then I’m gonna move on!)

Ya know, over the months I’ve seen AVG recommended in e-zines, newsletters, newsgroups and on-line magazines. Never once (do I remember) that any of those recommendations included any statements that AVG doesn’t do “live” scanning of email in either Netscape or Mozilla.. I’m sorry to say I think that’s a little one-sided of people to ignore the fact that hundreds of thousands of us use some email client other than Microsoft’s or Eudora. And 100s of K is probably a gross understatement!

I can’t take a chance that some live, embedded code in an email will be caught by AVG’s resident scanner. Sadly, I’m gonna go back to McAfee and wait a few weeks to see if the following message I just got from Grisoft happens:

“Dear Sir/Madam,

we support these clients in this time:
MS Exchange client
MS Outlook 97
MS Outlook 98
MS Outlook 2000
MS Outlook Express 5
Qualcomm Eudora (32bit)

We are working on new solution (independent on your e-mail client). It
should be available in a few weeks.
Independent e-mail scanner supports these protocols: POP3, SMTP,
IMAP, NNTP.

Regards,
Ales Nevesely
GRISOFT, s.r.o. Techsupport”

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Did you read the reply? It addresses your problem.

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Al ~

What it says in that link is exactly what I told you in a previous post:
[indent]

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As Netscape does not use Visual Basic, it will not execute (automatically) any imbedded script……as it doesn’t auto execute it, there is not quite the need.

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[/indent] And as you reported, it is working perfectly when you attempt access to an infected file w/ the option to vault it, thereby maintaining the integrity of your remaining messages.

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John ~

I was gonna say exactly what Mark said. I have had the experience of Norton AV 2002 consistently missing Klez.E’s, Klez.H’s and surprisingly the simple EICAR test file, not to mention the enormous resources it hogs. And, there exists malicious code that targets NAV files to render this AV useless.

I have tried the PC-cillin, Panda Titanium, McAfee, EZ Armor Suite & AVG Antivirus in addition to the Norton and I despite the fact I paid dearly for most of the aforementioned, AVG was free and has out-performed the others: it was the most hassle-free and sits back quietly without being a swine just doing its job.

I was very disturbed at the high ratings Norton seemed to consistently garner by PC Mag & the like, but nearly all I personally know that have used it are disgruntled. Hey, the Chevette was once the top selling compact vehicle, but that didn’t make it a great car!

The free version of AVG is not without anything you really need to justify purchasing the ‘professional’ version. I don’t care what the magazines say, I have tried them all and AVG works the best for my needs. I wish there existed a periodical for computing, etc. that is not compromised by advertising revenue like Consumer Reports.

PC-cillin has a great free online scanning service if you desire a ‘second opinion’ occasionally. I recommend using every now and then as it’s scan engines and virii database are always up-to-date. Go to Housecall and check that puppy out.

Download AVG now here

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I use AVG. We also have a link to the online Housecall here – at the top of evey board .

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Poop! Sorry, Eileen! I never bothered to wave my wand over the link image. Didn’t recognize the gif as anything known and wasn’t aware it was to Housecall.

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I’ll bring it up to date.

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After that show of unanimity ….. I am downloading AVG with FlashGet as I type.

Thanks very very much for your advice folks.

John

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I think I will also download that when I get my system finished. I can also say I have had major problems with norton. It causes my system to lag every now and then, and then sometimes it is just a pin to deal with.

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I’m gonna take the plunge too! I’ve listened to all who have raved about AVG so I think I’ll finally get off the McAfee bandwagon after all these years. Fact is, McAfee has saved my Kentucky butt MANY times, even within the past few days, but has turned into a real system hog!

Bruce, you said there isn’t any difference between the free and pro version, except it seems, tech support. Are you bothered with on-screen ads of any kind with the free version?

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,

There are, sir, absolutely NO ads whatsoever!

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Tank you veddy much, SIR! OK installer, let’s get it on!

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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[indent]

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this new “Percussion Maintenance” technique

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[/indent] Fraid you are mistaken there, Bruce, that is the oldest most tried and true maintenance technique there is. The next best method qets real high tech — get a hammer.

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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OK, you win!

Uncle!

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Hmm … think I’ll put all that in my Bio

… or at least the part about vomiting.

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OK, so I took the plunge and installed AVG last nite. By the way, I not only uninstalled McAfee but I manually blew away its entries in the registry and the residual directories on my hard drive. Dang, I don’t know why software uninstallers aren’t more thorough.

Lemme tell you a BRIEF story about why I finally have given up on McAfee. I’ve been grousing about how my computer does SOME things so slowly, so I recently bumped up my RAM from 128 to 640 – that’s megabytes, can you believe it?

Performance improved, obviously, but still there was a nagging feeling….. With McAfee out of the way, this puppy is ROARING like a lion and doing stuff instantly that used to take several seconds (or bunches of seconds).

Enuf ’bout that. I really wanted to ask y’all who’ve been using AVG for awhile two questions. Unlike McAfee, there isn’t much to do except sit back and hope like heck this thing is working – it was so simple. My questions are: do you ALLOW it to do that complete check of all drives once a day that’s built in to the defaults? Second, it says it will update your “data” files once a month, but I don’t see anywhere WHEN that will be. Do you stick with the once a month routine or do it more often?

So far, I appreciate the suggestion about this software.

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Hi BigAl
have you not got the Control Center enabled? It should appear as a square icon divided into 4 colours in your Systray. RClick it and choose Run and you can set the parameters you’re asking about.
Once you get it set up, you won’t want to use anything else. It’s absolutely amazing to me that this little thing is free.

Norton, schmorton

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Yeah, I’ve got the icon in the tray. I TURNED OFF the 2 AM daily entire hard drive(s) scan ’cause it looked to me like a waste of time to do that same scan of all files, every day. Opinions?

On the one for data file updates, I set it for “if the database is more than 7 days old,” and I was wondering what others of you do.

Like all of you, I was amazed at the simplicity of the whole thing and can’t believe it’s free!

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I have it check every 2 days. I’d *love* to be able to select which drives to scan.

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Eileen, I don’t know if this will “stick” on the regular checks or not, but I noticed that if you run the regular program window, click Service and then Complete Test Settings, it will let you select which drives are to be checked. I don’t know yet if that rolls-over to the Control Center, but it’s easy to find out.

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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Thanks guys! I’ve done that – now.

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Then you should try F-Prot (Command antivirus) instead.

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My tactic is a bit different than Eileen’s – I perform a manual scan on my own if I feel it’s a) overdue or the system is acting strange, and I didn’t change anything (rare). The real-time scanning does enough for most purposes.

As far as updates, I let the scheduler check every seven days, and if something happens in between those dates I force an update. I think I get away with that simply because I read WAY too many newsletters and one of them invariably knows about the new baddies!

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That’s the kind of info I was looking for, Mark. Thanks for the “advice!”

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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Thank you, Bruce! Among the bunch of you, you’ve given me the tips I was hoping for. AVG certainly seems like a great product, so far.

If there are more things you would like to suggest, I certainly don’t mind a private message from you with some additional info, or you can post it here in the board – up to you.. I welcome the wisdom of experience!

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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One last question, please Bruce? I’ve made the rescue diskette (actually, with XP Pro it took two diskettes). Now that those two diskettes are certified virus free, should I slide the write protect tab up? They didn’t say so when it was being made and I’ve checked the Help file and it doesn’t say either. I guess I could write protect it and do a trial run to see if SOS needs to write anything on either of the diskettes, huh? Wonder what happens if you do a trial run – will it go blindly ahead and restore system files and boot sector and stuff, or will it KNOW that nothing’s wrong?

AND, a Happy Independence Day back at ya!

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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That’s a viscious 4th graphic
Notice some of your Smilies are now in the Smilies Panel?

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Post deleted by brucekrymow

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Thanks, Bruce.
They’re fair game once you post them here.
I usually grab any I fancy.

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Talk about yer nostalgia! I set the write protect tabs on my two diskettes and went for it! It’s OK, Bruce, it ends up in a DOS-like menu that offers the options of checking your hard drives, restoring the Vault, restoring your system files, etc. It took the SOS program a long time to load from floppy, but it’s OK for (as you said) one hopes NEVER to have to use it.

As to the questions Booklady posed, I’m quite sure that anything it’s doing during boot is NOT checking hard drives. It goes too quickly for that. Since I’m new at Avg, I don’t know how long the update process takes or whether it will disconnect (I have DSL). Why don’t you leave the default time at some time during the hours when you can watch and see what it does and how long it takes. That’s what I’m gonna do for the first time or two.

One thing for sure, my PC is HUMMING since I dumped McAfee over the starboard bow!

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Al, I was just curious, did you have to go into BIOS to switch the option to boot from diskette or no?

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No, I always have my BIOS set for booting from floppy first, then CD, and thirdly hard drive.

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Is the test that AVG does during boot the complete test or do I need to run that seperately?

How long does it take to get the updates downloaded? Can I leave the computer running and have it do the update during the night? If so does it disconnect after it is finished?

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I have just made some recent changes to my system regarding what you are about to do. I decided to drop McAfee and bought Norton 2002 Av only to find that Norton’s readme file warns that it cannot be used with ZONE ALARM. Norton recommends uninstalling ZA before scanning and then re-installing afterward. That wasn’t for me! I am presently using the free version of AVG. I’d be interested in knowing why some scanning engines conflict with ZA and some don’t!

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I have been using Norton’s AV with ZA now for a couple of years. You can NOT use the Norton’s Firewall and ZA together.
As for klez files, Norton’s is finding them all the time, I have not used anything else since the early DOS days.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I have only used AV software for a bit over 4 years.
Only used NAV, so I have no comparison, but I have noticed that since some recent NAV update, there is an obvious slow down in loading/opening Word template files.

This is due to AutoProtect being enabled. The workaround is to disable AutoProtect when working on my own templates, or on those I am doing for Clients.
The danger is forgetting to enable AutoProtect when connecting to the Internet.

Wish list item for NAV: An option to warn me EVERY time I dial my modem, if AutoProtect is not enabled. And, an option to automatically enable AutoProtect when I dial.

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There is a $19.95 upgrade to the 2002 version. It contains an integrated firewall, but I don’t know if it has all the features of Zone Alarm.

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