My virus situation

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2003-10-26 03:59am

I have avg antivirus 6.0, the free version and Macafee anti virus. When I scan with avg, it detects a few virus's, that at the end my computer freezes. When I scan with Macafee it detects nothing.

I scanned with Macafee before and removed a few virus's, if these were the ones that AVG tells me I have then why does only avg detect them, could they be gone and avg just thinks they are there for some reason?

Is an online scanner possibly better or at least safer because it's not on your system, so you don't run the risk of your virus scanner getting infected with a virus, Only problem I have with macafee is I think it's pure heuristic and doesn't have hard virus definitions. I prefer avg if I can fix it.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-26 07:16pm

All virus scanners primarily used definitions to root out viruses. Some use heuristical detection, but that doesn't work very well.

It's possible that VirusScan only quarantined the viruses rather than deleting them. It's also possible that AVG is picking up stuff that VirusScan is not.

Gerard_Paloma · Post by **Gerard_Paloma** » 2003-10-26 10:57pm

Don't know if you've tried it already or not, but you might want to check out Housecall. It's online, and it seems to have always worked for me. They've also got a downloadable version if the online one doesn't get the job done (if the virus has infected your browser, for example).

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2003-11-02 01:39am

Gerard_Paloma wrote:Don't know if you've tried it already or not, but you might want to check out Housecall. It's online, and it seems to have always worked for me. They've also got a downloadable version if the online one doesn't get the job done (if the virus has infected your browser, for example).

Ok, installed and scanned with that still picks up nothing. My best bet are these virus's are probably an illusion, a shadow, they have been deleted but avg just thinks they are there for some reason. One of the one's avg keeps telling me I have is the hantanner virus but neither one of the other two detect it. Also, could it be that the reason something is freezing my computer when avg has finished scanning be the residue of a virus, the virus has been eliminated, but whatever it did stands, like shooting a person after they grow a grenade after you, the granade will still hit you.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-11-02 05:44am

Cut and paste this text to a empty text file:

Code: Select all

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

Then rename the textfile to eicartest.com

If your scanners works propely they will detect this as the Eicar test virus.

The eicar is harmless and used to test if the anti virus programs are up and working.

Linky to Eicar Online.

Gerard_Paloma · Post by **Gerard_Paloma** » 2003-11-02 05:00pm

Shrykull wrote:
Gerard_Paloma wrote:Don't know if you've tried it already or not, but you might want to check out Housecall. It's online, and it seems to have always worked for me. They've also got a downloadable version if the online one doesn't get the job done (if the virus has infected your browser, for example).
Ok, installed and scanned with that still picks up nothing. My best bet are these virus's are probably an illusion, a shadow, they have been deleted but avg just thinks they are there for some reason. One of the one's avg keeps telling me I have is the hantanner virus but neither one of the other two detect it. Also, could it be that the reason something is freezing my computer when avg has finished scanning be the residue of a virus, the virus has been eliminated, but whatever it did stands, like shooting a person after they grow a grenade after you, the granade will still hit you.

If AVG is telling you the name of the virus(es) it thinks you have, check McAfee's Virus Database or Symantec's Security Response Center. They should have the virus(es) listed, hopefully, and steps on how to get rid of it/them.