For those using AVG, please read.

[cdn_bc_ca]

Fellow CC Citizens,

I just read an article at Ars comparing the effectiveness of various AV packages at detecting various forms of new malware and viruses. There results are not in favor of AVG... in fact, it came last in the list with only 8 percent detection rate and alot of false positives. What's surprising is that AVG didn't detect any of the new viruses.

The link to the Ars article is here:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...outdo-those-of-symantec-mcafee-microsoft.html

The original article is located at this site (I'm not allowed to link directly to it):
http://www.av-comparatives.org
(Click on the comparatives link and choose the latest article).

 

[DurkaDurka]

While disturbing that AVG misses that many viri, I'm not too concerned. I can re-image my machine pretty damn quick.

 

[cdn_bc_ca]

that's because you got a fast computer... ;-)

 

[DurkaDurka]

It has been years though, since I have had a virus infect any pc of mine. Common sense in what you open/downoload usually prevents most infections from ocurring. A harware based firewall helps too.

 

[shadowshiv]

I have Norton AV 2007, and I have no problems with it. In fact, I have only had one virus in all my years of owning a PC(and that was many years ago).

 

[#juan]

I'm not going to panic right away. As I've said earlier, I've used AVG for about ten years and it seems to have caught every virus that came near my computer, while other people I know, using Norton, etc, have had virus and worm infestations. I get free automatic updates from AVG at least once a day and, knock wood, I haven't had a virus problem. For now, I'll stick with AVG.

 

[DaSleeper]

It has been years though, since I have had a virus infect any pc of mine. Common sense in what you open/downoload usually prevents most infections from ocurring. A harware based firewall helps too.

I agree with your statement that your Internet habits go a long way towards determining if you will get infected. Also one can't say that because his antivirus software hasn't spotted anything that he is virus free. Only a secondary scan once in a while by an on line scanner will provide a bit more assurance, without slowing down your PC. There are several free ones, I just prefer Trend Micro because it was recommended to me by a technician that I trust.

 

[ChilliCheeseDog]

Fellow CC Citizens,

I just read an article at Ars comparing the effectiveness of various AV packages at detecting various forms of new malware and viruses. There results are not in favor of AVG... in fact, it came last in the list with only 8 percent detection rate and alot of false positives. What's surprising is that AVG didn't detect any of the new viruses.

The link to the Ars article is here:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...outdo-those-of-symantec-mcafee-microsoft.html

The original article is located at this site (I'm not allowed to link directly to it):
http://www.av-comparatives.org
(Click on the comparatives link and choose the latest article).

What I see is Chicken Little running around shouting
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling."

Even though most people believe that the internet is regulated like most of the things in their daily life, it isn't.

The internet is LAWLESS, WITHOUT RULES, like the wild west.

Did you know that every time you surf the net, every site you visits there's a thing call a cookies and it track your movements, those cookies are downloaded to your computer w/o your consent.

Those cookies could be modify in to a virus or a trojan worm easily.

So the best way to be virus-free is not to surf the internet and pull the computer power cord from the wall socket.

 

[triedit]

So the best way to be virus-free is not to surf the internet and pull the computer power cord from the wall socket.

Half the world would curl up and die. We're so addicted!

 

[ChilliCheeseDog]

Half the world would curl up and die. We're so addicted!

no kidding.

People who surf the internet should just accept the fact that they're gonna get infected sooner or later.

There's no way way to avoid it, you can just minimize it.

A lot of people don't realize that **** like this Warning is contributing problems to the issue of viruses and worms.

Some idiots see this article so they freak out and MASS EMAILED the article to everybody in their Address Book, not realizing that they spreading the virus, they just created the first step of a Trojan worm, somewhere down the line a virus/trojan writer will modify that email then resend it and ......

Ta-da , a new virus is born !

 

[snfu73]

What are thoughts on McAfee? We just got a new laptop with it installed and it just seems to slow things down SO much, especially on start up.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Did you know that every time you surf the net, every site you visits there's a thing call a cookies and it track your movements, those cookies are downloaded to your computer w/o your consent.

Those cookies could be modify in to a virus or a trojan worm easily.

Cookies cannot "modify" into viri or trojans. A cookie is a text file, a text file is not executable on it's own, in order for contents of a text file to execute, it would need to have a file extension ending in .bat , .exe , .js etc.

 

[shadowshiv]

What are thoughts on McAfee? We just got a new laptop with it installed and it just seems to slow things down SO much, especially on start up.

My dad had McAfee on his computer, but was having problems getting the program to work. After a few hours, he just decided to uninstall it and get Norton instead. I have had both programs(McAfee and Norton) installed on various computers and the only problem I have ever had with either one of them occurred when I tried to install the version of Zonealarm that had the firewall with it. It fubared my Windows by creating an error whenever I tried to boot up my computer. Windows would start to load and then it would freeze as soon as McAfee attempted to load up.

That is on my old computer, so I decided not to bother trying to get it fixed. Since then, I have gone back to Norton and have no plans on going back to McAfee.

In answer to your question, I found that McAfee did load up slower. My dad's computer took a looong time to load up.

 

[eh1eh]

The last virus I had was the Nasser Worm and that was when I was running Norton. But like Durka I can reload my machine any time and not loose much due to the fact I have a second hard drive. All my docs, pics etc. get stowed there and are safe and sound after a reload. I find McAfee a little slow but it seems to catch things and I don't have the problems I had with Norton, errors galore with that.:smile:

I want to go the image route. Is Alcohol 120 suitable for that or can someone recomend a better app.?

Hey there's my sig. Hi Mr. Sig long time no see. LOL

 

[ChilliCheeseDog]

Cookies cannot "modify" into viri or trojans. A cookie is a text file, a text file is not executable on it's own, in order for contents of a text file to execute, it would need to have a file extension ending in .bat , .exe , .js etc.

oh please, how easy is it to slip in a javascript virus along with a cookies ?

 

[#juan]

Here is a link to a comparison chart that is fairly easy to read.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,124475-page,1/article.html

 

[DurkaDurka]

oh please, how easy is it to slip in a javascript virus along with a cookies ?

Do you even know what a cookie looks like? Also, I will say it again, cookies are not executable, they are text files.

Here is an example of what a cookie looks like:

EAGamesForum_data
a%3A0%3A%7B%7D
forum.eagames.co.uk/
1536
1461876480
29931870
1614487984
29858446
*

 

[ChilliCheeseDog]

Do you even know what a cookie looks like? Also, I will say it again, cookies are not executable, they are text files.

Here is an example of what a cookie looks like:

EAGamesForum_data
a%3A0%3A%7B%7D
forum.eagames.co.uk/
1536
1461876480
29931870
1614487984
29858446
*

OK . Whatever.
Yes, I know that cookies are text files.
what do you think writers use when they write a virus ?

hippa-jippa binaries ?

Inside a text file you can hide/add a .js virus that can be activated with the most common use program like WinAmp.exe which a lot of people have

There are thousands of virus-writing programs out there for any one who want to do damage, you just have to look for it.

The point of my original post is "Warning Thread" like this does no good except cause panics to people who don't know any better.

If people are going to surf the internet then they should expect to be "infected"

 

[DurkaDurka]

OK . Whatever.
Yes, I know that cookies are text files.
what do you think writers use when they write a virus ?

hippa-jippa binaries ?

Inside a text file you can hide/add a .js virus that can be activated with the most common use program like WinAmp.exe which a lot of people have

There are thousands of virus-writing programs out there for any one who want to do damage, you just have to look for it.

The point of my original post is "Warning Thread" like this does no good except cause panics to people who don't know any better.

If people are going to surf the internet then they should expect to be "infected"

Even if there was a .js script embeded in a cookie, how is it going to run? Unless the end user modifies the extension to .js and executes it.

Mind expanding on how winamp is going to exploit cookies on a system to run code?

 

[ChilliCheeseDog]

Even if there was a .js script embeded in a cookie, how is it going to run? Unless the end user modifies the extension to .js and executes it.

Mind expanding on how winamp is going to exploit cookies on a system to run code?

I got nothing more to say. :smile: other than to suggest that you read up on the latest virus writings and discover how far and advance viruses have come since the days of the Rotartsinimda virus.

Catch 22: To defeat a virus, you have to become a virus writer.