Can I trust Norton AV?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Colin Bearfield
  • Start date Start date
C

Colin Bearfield

I installed Norton AV 4 days ago. The scan found my computer to be
clean, which is what I expected.

2 days ago it found 1 infected file and dealt with it. Just in time I
thought.

The weekly scan happened tonight and it found 181. 181 in 2 days. 2
of them were on jpgs that I had just unloaded from my camera to an
empty folder "RecentPics".

2 of them couldn't be deleted or quarantined:

DX3DRndr.exe W32.Gibe@mm this one occurred many times and
had been deleted.

libupdate32.exe backdoor.Bionet again it had been deleted many
times.

Is Norton AV just telling fairy stories to worry me?

Colin
 
Is Norton AV just telling fairy stories to worry me?
Click to expand...


Norton, although it is boatware has a decent detection rate for ITW
viruses. But virus prevention doesn't stop there. You have to practice
"safe hex" as with any other AV product.

Gibe is typically spread via email and is pretty common. However,
being as jpg files do not contain any executable code and thus don't
pose a virus threat, it makes me wonder if what Norton is hitting on
is not a jpg file as you thought but a file with a double extention.

But to answer your question, yes in most cases it can be trusted,
although many of us wouldn't use it for a number of reasons.
 
Norton, although it is boatware has a decent detection rate for ITW
viruses. But virus prevention doesn't stop there. You have to practice
"safe hex" as with any other AV product.

Gibe is typically spread via email and is pretty common. However,
being as jpg files do not contain any executable code and thus don't
pose a virus threat, it makes me wonder if what Norton is hitting on
is not a jpg file as you thought but a file with a double extention.

But to answer your question, yes in most cases it can be trusted,
although many of us wouldn't use it for a number of reasons.
Click to expand...

Many thanks.

What is safe hex?

Can I delete the two remaining infected files?

Why did it delete 60 or 70 other versions of the same file but not
this one?

How can my digital camera produce a jpg, load it into an empty folder
and then the file is recognised as infected. The only contents were
simple jpg files.

I have had no symptoms of infection and for the last year my home
network has been protected by the firewall in my Linksys router.

Why were the viruses not detected on the first and second scans?
Surely all 181 didn't arrive yesterday.

Again, thanks.

Colin
 
1. stop using your real email address on newsgroups! The Swen's should start
arriving just about now!
2. download the latest virus defs if your AV software hasn't automatically
done for you.
(It may be that when you loaded it, the defs were old, and an auto update is
why you then found the 180 more infections.)
3. Your camera is not the culprit, its your infected computer.
Take note what Norton tells you about the viruses it finds and get the
removal tools if necessary from Norton's website.
 
1. stop using your real email address on newsgroups! The Swen's should start
arriving just about now!
2. download the latest virus defs if your AV software hasn't automatically
done for you.
(It may be that when you loaded it, the defs were old, and an auto update is
why you then found the 180 more infections.)
Click to expand...

Good thinking. It did update automatically in between.

O have checked for libupdate32.exe and it can't be found.
DX3DRndr.exe is found but it can't be deleted and it isn't read only.

I have seen in other recent threads good advice on downloading clean
up stuff.

Colin
 
Hi,

[snip]Is Norton AV just telling fairy stories to worry me?[snip]
Click to expand...

[snip]But to answer your question, yes in most cases it can be trusted,
although many of us wouldn't use it for a number of reasons.[snip]
Click to expand...

As my NAV and Personal Firewall is about to expire I was considering
alternatives - I have had no complaints over the last couple of years (no
infections). However, I have found that M$ Windoze Updates occasionally
corrupt Nortons files.

What are the reasons you are alluding to above? Could you please suggest a
better product(s), beasring in mind that next year I am planning to set up
my XP machine to dual boot in Linux.

TIA,

Regards,

Mick
 
What are the reasons you are alluding to above? Could you please suggest a
better product(s), beasring in mind that next year I am planning to set up
my XP machine to dual boot in Linux.
Click to expand...


I'm considering doing the same thing with Linux. In any case, I don't
use NAV because of:

1. Uselesss bloat

2. Resource hog

2. Poor tech support


What I use is Nod32 and am quite satisfied with it's performace as
well as tech support.. Consistantly high detection rate, low on
resources, it's stable and reasonably priced.
 
"MickKi" > Hi,
As my NAV and Personal Firewall is about to expire I was considering
alternatives - I have had no complaints over the last couple of years (no
infections). However, I have found that M$ Windoze Updates occasionally
corrupt Nortons files.
Click to expand...

Just curious if you usually close all your Norton Programs before installing
Windows Updates?
Did it corrupt the Personal Firewall, the AntiVirus, or both.
BTW, I have heard that you should NEVER leave your anti-virus program
running while installing Windows Ctitical Updates, for what it's worth.
 
"Buffalo" <eric(nospam) said:
BTW, I have heard that you should NEVER leave your anti-virus program
running while installing Windows Ctitical Updates, for what it's worth.
Click to expand...

I've never even thought of turning off NOD32 whilst doing that, and it's
never caused me any problems. On the other hand, I don't think I'd like
to try the same with Norton, but then I'd never use it anyway.

Cheers,

Roy
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the advice.

Just curious if you usually close all your Norton Programs before
installing
Windows Updates?
Did it corrupt the Personal Firewall, the AntiVirus, or both.
BTW, I have heard that you should NEVER leave your anti-virus program
running while installing Windows Ctitical Updates, for what it's worth.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I do close them both . . . when I remember to do it! ;o) I've had
both NAV & NPF corrupted on different occassions. A reinstall and
multiple updates to bring them up to current versions of engines and defs
works OK.

However, I can no longer do a Start/Windows Update with NPF enabled. IE
launches and the M$ website returns the message:
____________
Thank you for your interest in Windows Update
Windows Update is the online extension of Windows that helps you get the
most out of your computer.
You must be running a Microsoft Windows operating system in order to use
Windows Update.
------------

Which, of course I am. Norton knowledgebase says that its a bug and they
will some day fix it. Right! The funny thing is that I have no problem
with windoze updates executed through the little popup from the tool
tray. When I click OK on the Update popup, off it goes and downloads the
update without any problems. Don't know why. Is it using a different
server/port?

Does anyone else have this problem?

Regards,

Mick
 
I've never even thought of turning off NOD32 whilst doing that, and it's
never caused me any problems. On the other hand, I don't think I'd like
to try the same with Norton, but then I'd never use it anyway.
Click to expand...



Ditto
 
I'll 2nd that!
I've had Nod32 since XP was in beta (was using AVG, which didn't have
an XP version during the beta stage). Nod has NEVER crashed, heck,
unless someone tries to send you something with a virus, you don't
even know it's there.
It's what I like about Nod32, it gets out of your way, put simply,
IT JUST WORKS.
 
I've never turned NOD32 off either, when installing any updates from
windowsXP, and I've NEVER had a problem since XP was released.
 
Since I started using Nod32 my hair has grown back, my woman returned, I got
a big raise at my job and I get free money everyday mailed to my home
address!! Nod 32 has never crashed and it has actually sped up my 386 / 16
mhz Dell desktop to faster then a 3.2Ghz Pentium 4!!!!

I am giving Nod32 to all my friends for Christmas too!!

Damn..Nod 32 this is better than knowing Jesus!!!!
 
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