AVG is disappointing me.

  • Thread starter Thread starter E-Star
  • Start date Start date
E

E-Star

Lately, both my laptop and desktop have got virus' while using AVG's
free anti-virus software.

In most cases, AVG detects them, however it does not stop/heal them.
Instead I am finding myself spending lots of time cleaning them out.

Anyone finding this? Am I missing something? Is there something else
I should be doing to protect myself?

Thanks.
 
E-Star said:
Lately, both my laptop and desktop have got virus' while using AVG's
free anti-virus software.

In most cases, AVG detects them, however it does not stop/heal them.
Instead I am finding myself spending lots of time cleaning them out.

Anyone finding this? Am I missing something? Is there something else
I should be doing to protect myself?
Click to expand...

Is it stopping them from getting on your system? It is finding them, right?
And it is putting them in the AVG Virus Vault, right? It is neutralizing
them, then putting them in the vault for you to review before deleting. That
way you know what they were, possibly who from, it case it might be someone
you know and would like to inform that their system is infected, to help
stop them from further infecting you and others. Or, perhaps it has pegged
it as a virus by mistake (which can happen with any AV), thus it gives you a
choice to delete it or restore it. As long as they are in the vault, having
been neutralized, they are harmless there until you delete them. If you want
a program that will just delete everything it *thinks* is a virus outright,
then maybe tells you about it after the fact, then you indeed have the wrong
program. :-)

Jan :)



..
 
E-Star said:
Lately, both my laptop and desktop have got virus' while using AVG's
free anti-virus software.

In most cases, AVG detects them, however it does not stop/heal them.
Instead I am finding myself spending lots of time cleaning them out.

Anyone finding this? Am I missing something? Is there something else
I should be doing to protect myself?
Click to expand...

Not much info there to go on. The specific virus names and how they
got into your computer would help. Were they viral or were they worms?
Etc.

My first question would be, "Do you have a software firewall
installed?" After that, how is the computer used and by whom? Does
anyone else have access to it? What are the update settings? If you do
have a firewall, does AVG have permission to pass through? I don't
really need those answers personally, but it points to how complicated
such problems can be. The mere installation of some anti-virus apps in
some situations can render a computer useless!

I had AVG catch two suspected viruses that McAfee Pro did not see or
recognize as such.

The individual infections and attacks can be difficult to deal with as
well. Beyond that, it is possible for a computer to show all the
symptoms of the Sasser worm and yet not be actually infected. A recent
customer had the LSASS.EXE fault and rebooting, classic signs of
Sasser, but all my searches in teh registry and on the hard drive and
my use of removal tools showed nothing was there. I installed
ZoneAlarm and all the problems stopped. The numerous Sasser attempts
to access her computer were causing the problem even though Norton was
stopping the actual infection of her computer. Drove me nuts till I
figured that out.




Randy "" G.
http://www.quiknet.com/~frcn/Coffee/Coffee.html
 
Lately, both my laptop and desktop have got virus' while using AVG's
free anti-virus software.

In most cases, AVG detects them, however it does not stop/heal them.
Instead I am finding myself spending lots of time cleaning them out.

Anyone finding this? Am I missing something? Is there something else
I should be doing to protect myself?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
**************** REPLY SEPARATER ******************
I think I know what you are talking about. I loaded free AVG on a customer's
machine recently because the McAffee AV that was loaded on it stopped working
with some kind of DLL error. I ran AVG and it found 784 virus's (mostly
backdoor BOTs) that it said would be quarantined. I had already disabled the
backdoor with HiJackThis, but I had to manually delete them, which it should
not allow it they were properly quarantined.

J.A. Coutts
 
E-Star said:
Nope
Click to expand...

AV's can not always stop viruses from attacking your system.
After the fact.
Click to expand...

That is what they do. That is why there are the detection files.
Wrong
Click to expand...

Some viruses can not be cleaned within Windows. Have you tried cleaning it
from safe mode? Do you have a backup DOS based on demand AV such as F-Prot?

Perhaps it is something you are not setting up right in AVG. Did you try a
Trend Micro Housecall scan? Have you run Adaware - SpyBot - Stinger, or
anything else? ;-)

A bit more specific info on your part might help a great deal.

Jan :)
 
Not much info there to go on. The specific virus names and how they
got into your computer would help. Were they viral or were they worms?
Etc.

My first question would be, "Do you have a software firewall
installed?" After that, how is the computer used and by whom? Does
anyone else have access to it? What are the update settings? If you do
have a firewall, does AVG have permission to pass through? I don't
really need those answers personally, but it points to how complicated
such problems can be. The mere installation of some anti-virus apps in
some situations can render a computer useless!

I had AVG catch two suspected viruses that McAfee Pro did not see or
recognize as such.

The individual infections and attacks can be difficult to deal with as
well. Beyond that, it is possible for a computer to show all the
symptoms of the Sasser worm and yet not be actually infected. A recent
customer had the LSASS.EXE fault and rebooting, classic signs of
Sasser, but all my searches in teh registry and on the hard drive and
my use of removal tools showed nothing was there. I installed
ZoneAlarm and all the problems stopped. The numerous Sasser attempts
to access her computer were causing the problem even though Norton was
stopping the actual infection of her computer. Drove me nuts till I
figured that out.
Click to expand...

I do have Ad-aware which I run periodically. As for AVG, it is set to
update daily. BTW, both computers are running XP, which I keep updated
with the latest critical patches.

The computers are just used for home use, typical stuff. I don't have
the firewalls turned on because I use Samba which can not get through
by default. However, my router has open only those ports which are
needed.

I'm going to start copying down the names of virus'. They are usually
called
Download.XXXXXX
For example, the latest one was Download.Istbar (This is from memory so
it might not be correct.)
 
In
E-Star said:
Lately, both my laptop and desktop have got virus' while using AVG's
free anti-virus software.

In most cases, AVG detects them, however it does not stop/heal them.
Instead I am finding myself spending lots of time cleaning them out.

Anyone finding this? Am I missing something? Is there something else
I should be doing to protect myself?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Try avast.It's e-mail scanner is better but bootup scan is for NTx only.I
use both (no problems yet) and also keep f-prot for dos updated on floppy
too."a threefold cord is hard to break"
You should install the new spybot 1.3 and spyware blaster,spyware guard,and
a good firewall
-max
 
[ snipedy do-dah ]

The computers are just used for home use, typical stuff. I don't have
the firewalls turned on because I use Samba which can not get through
by default. [ chomp ]
Click to expand...

The icf allows you to tell it what services to allow to go through it.
Go into the screen where you enable the icf and click on the
"advanced" button.
 
Jason said:
The computers are just used for home use, typical stuff. I don't have
the firewalls turned on because I use Samba which can not get through
by default. [ chomp ]
Click to expand...

The icf allows you to tell it what services to allow to go through it.
Go into the screen where you enable the icf and click on the
"advanced" button.
Click to expand...

Thats what I originally wanted to do but it doesn't have a pre-select
for Samba...or am I missing something?

I could make my own but I don't know the exact range of ports Samba
uses. It's my understanding that there are a wide range of UDP ports
that it can be between.

If you have more information, please post it.
 
Lately, both my laptop and desktop have got virus' while using AVG's
free anti-virus software.

In most cases, AVG detects them, however it does not stop/heal them.
Instead I am finding myself spending lots of time cleaning them out.

Anyone finding this? Am I missing something? Is there something else
I should be doing to protect myself?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you are expecting too much from AVG (Free?). I use AVG
7 and it does exactly what I want, detect a virus, try and repair the
file if it can and if not it will block access. Perfect IMO
 
I believe the op is correct. I only have AVG on my win98se partition and a
test xp partition and rarely use these to connect ot the internet. However,
when AVG did detect a downloaded virus, it made me scan the whole system
before I could take action. NAV on my main xp partition seems to work
painlessly. If I were to replace it with a freebie, I would install Avast.
Dave Cohen
 
McAfee 2004 v.8 pro would find all viruses in incoming E-Mail. It
would delete the offender and then ask if I wanted to scan my hard
drive.. EVERY TIME! I would say no, and then SpamKiller (now a McAfee
app) would stop downloading the E-Mail. What a joke.

I am now using (and testing for review) AVG 7.0. It has only been a
couple of days, but I can say that the level of user control in AVG
alone is a good reason to switch. If you give AVG permission to open
an internet connection to check for downloads it will hang up if it
dialed. If it didn't dial, it leave the connection intact. FAR
superior to McAfee.


Dave Cohen said:
I believe the op is correct. I only have AVG on my win98se partition and a
test xp partition and rarely use these to connect ot the internet. However,
when AVG did detect a downloaded virus, it made me scan the whole system
before I could take action. NAV on my main xp partition seems to work
painlessly. If I were to replace it with a freebie, I would install Avast.
Dave Cohen
Morgan R. Pugh said:
It sounds like you are expecting too much from AVG (Free?). I use AVG
7 and it does exactly what I want, detect a virus, try and repair the
file if it can and if not it will block access. Perfect IMO
Click to expand...


Randy "" G.
http://www.quiknet.com/~frcn/Coffee/Coffee.html
Click to expand...
 
Dave Cohen said:
I believe the op is correct. I only have AVG on my win98se partition and a
test xp partition and rarely use these to connect ot the internet. However,
when AVG did detect a downloaded virus, it made me scan the whole system
before I could take action. NAV on my main xp partition seems to work
painlessly. If I were to replace it with a freebie, I would install Avast.
Dave Cohen
Click to expand...

I had both Norton and McAfee. I did not like the fact that they were just
deleting stuff, which often included legitimate messages simply because they
'thought' they were viruses. *I* want to decided what is and isn't to be
deleted. If AVG6 Free decides it is a virus, it neutralizes it if it can
(but, no guarantees any AV can kill/clean everything), then moves it to the
AVG Virus Vault until *I* decide if it goes or not. If I don't want it, it
goes. Simple. I've not had a virus on my system since I've had it, compared
to several I had with both Norton and McAfee, but, I have seen how it works
on a few of my friends PC's, that is why I got it. I like having that
control. That is only one of the features I like about AVG. I have an AV
to do a job, so I don't pitch a hissy fit when it does the job. And if I got
a lot of viruses or worms, etc, then I'd certainly think about what *I'm*
doing wrong.

Avast nor any other AV will do you any good if you don't let it do it's job,
and you do yours. It is a matter of team work. All too often the user is the
cause of their own misery.

Jan :)
 
I had both Norton and McAfee. I did not like the fact that they
were just deleting stuff, which often included legitimate messages
simply because they 'thought' they were viruses. *I* want to
decided what is and isn't to be deleted.
Click to expand...

I have not used either one in a couple of years. They both used to
have options to turn off automagic cleaning or deleting -- have they
really removed those options?
 
»Q« said:
I have not used either one in a couple of years. They both used to
have options to turn off automagic cleaning or deleting -- have they
really removed those options?
Click to expand...

As I have mentioned, I had been using Mc Pro V.8 2004, and previously
to that, two other versions for about 4 or 5 years or so. The latest
version, inaccuratley labeled "Pro" was the worst. It had the fewest
user-options of any previous version I had used. The only way to keep
it from dialing my connection would have been to turn off auto update.
When it updated it would not disconnect the connection so the computer
remained online. The lack of any removal tools to get to off the
system was the final straw for me. They could easily have included a
removal utility on the disk that was keyed to the serial number and/or
password (to avoid having a worm remove or disable it). Just becasue
an application comes from a company with a big name does not mean the
program is any good.

From Randy....  AKA "-ED" at the....
Feather River Canyon News
http://www.quiknet.com/~frcn
 
I think you missed my point Jan. My complaint was when AVG detected a virus
it didn't do anything or let me do anything at that point, but made be scan
the whole system then gave me the option of how to take care of the
situation. Now like I said, I've only used it for evaluation and it's quite
possible I missed something along the way, but that's the way it appeared to
work Apart from that it seems like good product.
Dave Cohen
 
Dave Cohen said:
I think you missed my point Jan. My complaint was when AVG detected a virus
it didn't do anything or let me do anything at that point, but made be scan
the whole system then gave me the option of how to take care of the
situation. Now like I said, I've only used it for evaluation and it's quite
possible I missed something along the way, but that's the way it appeared to
work Apart from that it seems like good product.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it may happen as you say, but, in the 2 years that I have used it, I
have never experienced such a problem of that kind. I have never had a virus
on my machine since I've had AVG6 Free. But, whenever it detected a virus on
my friends machine that I have seen, it just placed it in the Virus Vault
automatically, and informed them that it had been detected, what it was,
where it had been found, and that it had been neutralized and placed in the
Virus Vault. But I have F-Prot installed, although I have never had to use
it to remove a virus either. I run both it and the AVG6 Free after every
update just to be sure.

Jan :)
 
»Q« said:
I have not used either one in a couple of years. They both used to
have options to turn off automagic cleaning or deleting -- have they
really removed those options?
Click to expand...

I don't know on that one, I have not used it in over 2 years.

Jan :)
 
Thanks, that sounds good. I'll probably give it another try when my NAV
subscription runs out, but that won't be for a while.
Dave Cohen
 
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