virus protection or time bomb?
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- cowsmanaut
- Moo Master
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virus protection or time bomb?
I picked up nortons anti virus only to discover there were a number of viruses just sitting in wait on my hard drive.
Gah, there's a back door .. gah, there's a worm..
So feeling proud of myself I continued on feeling virus free and happy.. when all of a sudden the computer freezes up.. after a while of thinking about what could be causing it I realised that nortons was scanning the entire folder each time I went into one... and so soon after I discover it starts indescriminantly deleting (it calls it cleaning) my files. Things like Kazaa lite. I use it regularly.. nothing it has installed has been a virus yet it says the install is one.. go figure.
Anyway, why is it this friggen program can't figure out virus from legitimate program? Or is it that Nortons is in bed with the music biz and afraid I may download mp3's.
Anyway, during it's free reign on my computer it also managed to knock me offline so I couldn't go anywhere to investigate the things it was suggesting were viruses. (sigh)
At this point I've had enough and disabled the little #$&*er and my computer is working again though who knows for how long.
So I'm just wondering, anyone else experience this?
Gah, there's a back door .. gah, there's a worm..
So feeling proud of myself I continued on feeling virus free and happy.. when all of a sudden the computer freezes up.. after a while of thinking about what could be causing it I realised that nortons was scanning the entire folder each time I went into one... and so soon after I discover it starts indescriminantly deleting (it calls it cleaning) my files. Things like Kazaa lite. I use it regularly.. nothing it has installed has been a virus yet it says the install is one.. go figure.
Anyway, why is it this friggen program can't figure out virus from legitimate program? Or is it that Nortons is in bed with the music biz and afraid I may download mp3's.
Anyway, during it's free reign on my computer it also managed to knock me offline so I couldn't go anywhere to investigate the things it was suggesting were viruses. (sigh)
At this point I've had enough and disabled the little #$&*er and my computer is working again though who knows for how long.
So I'm just wondering, anyone else experience this?
No, i have norton and haven't found anythign like that, it all seems fine - i'm using Norton IS 2003
The firewall/anti-virus at work sometimes blocks access, but that is because i played around with the settings and made them a bit heavy handed...
I have kazaa and so on and haven't found any problems with norton blocking me, etc and i've downloaded tons of things
If you meant you had alot of viruses on your HD first and then installed norton, i wouldn't trust that though, as i am sure norton is one of the big targets of alot of worms and so on...if it isn't on there first i think it can be disabled or corrupted
Might be worthwhile trying an external check through the symantec site to check your hard drive like that
The firewall/anti-virus at work sometimes blocks access, but that is because i played around with the settings and made them a bit heavy handed...
I have kazaa and so on and haven't found any problems with norton blocking me, etc and i've downloaded tons of things
If you meant you had alot of viruses on your HD first and then installed norton, i wouldn't trust that though, as i am sure norton is one of the big targets of alot of worms and so on...if it isn't on there first i think it can be disabled or corrupted
Might be worthwhile trying an external check through the symantec site to check your hard drive like that
- PicturesInTheDark
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- andyboy_uk
- On Master
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- Location: London, UK
Cows,
Head over to http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php and download their free anti-virus software AVG.
It is a very good Antivirus software that has free updates, is very easy to use and configure, offers all the standard features like email checking and file checking, and beats the crap out of enterprise wide AV solutions such as Sophos.
I havent used norton in ages so I cant compare to it, but this one is a little gem of a program.
You need to sign up for a key (free) to unlock the programs installer, but I havent recieved loads of SPAM as a result of doing so, (I get tons anyway so I probably didnt notice I may say).
Well worth the time and the download,
Hope that helps
Head over to http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php and download their free anti-virus software AVG.
It is a very good Antivirus software that has free updates, is very easy to use and configure, offers all the standard features like email checking and file checking, and beats the crap out of enterprise wide AV solutions such as Sophos.
I havent used norton in ages so I cant compare to it, but this one is a little gem of a program.
You need to sign up for a key (free) to unlock the programs installer, but I havent recieved loads of SPAM as a result of doing so, (I get tons anyway so I probably didnt notice I may say).
Well worth the time and the download,
Hope that helps
Regards,
Andy
Andy
- cowsmanaut
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- PicturesInTheDark
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- cowsmanaut
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- cowsmanaut
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- PicturesInTheDark
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- Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 4:47 pm
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I have actually experienced something very similar, cowsmanaut. Starting back in November, my laptop's install of Norton (sorry, I don't know which version, for reasons that will become obvious soon enough) started "quarantining" seemingly random files on the system. At first I took little notice, actually a little smug that the virus software was working.
But then different programs stopped running. It soon became obvious that Norton was methodically "quarantining" (isolating with a filename change, at a minimum) every executable file on my system. Yikes!!!
So I contacted the IT department at work, as this was a laptop I used for business and it is was my employer's licensed copy of NAV. I took the laptop off the network permanently, and turned off NAV's real-time protection before it started in on the OS executables themselves.
So, after a couple of months of investigation, the IT folks (ever overworked and understaffed) discovered that NAV had started identifying the files as being infected with the w95.spaces.1445 virus, which copies itself into .exe files and does nothing else until 1 June, at which point it activates and does something particularly dire. At the time (I have not checked since) there was no way of cleaning infected files. So the night of 31 May had me up late backing up my documents and other non-.exe files before manually reformatting the system. I don't know that the virus was present, but I know that NAV thought it was. I haven't taken the time to rebuild the system yet, though I plan to eventually. In the meantime I make do with another laptop and various network terminals.
I'm not saying that this is what happened with your system, but it may shed some light on NAV's behavior toward files it detects as infected.
Seeker19
But then different programs stopped running. It soon became obvious that Norton was methodically "quarantining" (isolating with a filename change, at a minimum) every executable file on my system. Yikes!!!
So I contacted the IT department at work, as this was a laptop I used for business and it is was my employer's licensed copy of NAV. I took the laptop off the network permanently, and turned off NAV's real-time protection before it started in on the OS executables themselves.
So, after a couple of months of investigation, the IT folks (ever overworked and understaffed) discovered that NAV had started identifying the files as being infected with the w95.spaces.1445 virus, which copies itself into .exe files and does nothing else until 1 June, at which point it activates and does something particularly dire. At the time (I have not checked since) there was no way of cleaning infected files. So the night of 31 May had me up late backing up my documents and other non-.exe files before manually reformatting the system. I don't know that the virus was present, but I know that NAV thought it was. I haven't taken the time to rebuild the system yet, though I plan to eventually. In the meantime I make do with another laptop and various network terminals.
I'm not saying that this is what happened with your system, but it may shed some light on NAV's behavior toward files it detects as infected.
Seeker19
- cowsmanaut
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- cowsmanaut
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- PicturesInTheDark
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A few days ago I read at the site of my provider that there is a version of kazaa around that is infected with a dialer! It's a nasty idea, because if your firewall/antivirus software asks, whether it should isolate kazaa you might answer "no".
Parting is all we know from Heaven, and all we need of hell.
Ditch kazaa its spyware go get http://www.shareaza.com it connects to more than just gnutellabeowuuf wrote:Back to kazaa - i think there is kazaa 2.2.0, but anything above 1.7.2 starts having spyware and so on contained in it, i thought?
Don't know if that has to do with anything though....
Don't be scene or herd!