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Davedog 23 March 2004

Kurts internet device took a dump on him a few weeks ago. Its fixed now so he'll be back.

Comments

anonymous Tue, 03/23/2004 - 18:00

Spybot, my friend. Spybot. It's freeware of the highest caliber, and I've already donated to the author, so down load a copy for yourself.

Then disable all the "Install X on Demand" check boxes in your Internet Explorer.

McAfee catches more than Norton, as of this writing.

He's busy with a new band and hasn't had much time for the internet.

Darn. So much for my theory of bassists and handcuffs...

:D

anonymous Wed, 03/24/2004 - 08:19

There are other staples that I routinely carry to client sites.

BHO Demon
Cool Web Shredder
Hijack This
StartupList

Like all tools of this sort, you can shoot off your foot. Thinking is required. The way to win, is to not play. Don't say YES to any control that wants to install on your machine when you visit a web site. Exclusio is the Microsoft Windows Update control, as it is required to do updates on your machine.

Microsoft opened the window to the Vampire and invited him in, by leaving the "Install on Demand" boxes checked. This is a carte-blanche "yes" to any piece of mal-ware that wants to install on your machine.

The BHO (browser helper object) interface is the one provided by MS so AOL, SBC Global, et al, can commandeer your browser. It is also used by mal-ware for the same purpose.

My last client yesterday, had 15,000 files infected with the MyDoom virus. A record for the most I've ever seen.

I use Norton Systemworks 2003 also, but not the virus scanner portion. McAfee works better. The bulk of NSW is eye candy, and tends to be problematic, so I don't install it. I install only the DiskDoctor, WinDoctor, SpeedDisk, and Shell Extensions. You do this using the COMPLETE installation option, and disabling what you don't want installed.

Anyway, my apologies if this thread was hijacked, please resume Hunting for Kurt.

anonymous Fri, 03/26/2004 - 07:59

I used to feel the same way, but in the last two months I've had four machines on the bench for catastrophic recovery and rebuild, as a consequence of Norton 2003 NAV failure.

As of this writing, NAV 2003 consistently cannot detect a few damaging viruses that McAfee instantly picks off. I'm sure things will change again, but for now all my clients get Norton removed, and McAfee installed.

Many of these virus have to be removed by running in Safe Mode, as they are so entrenched in the operating system they are not removeable in Normal mode.

anonymous Fri, 03/26/2004 - 10:47

Kurt, I don't have it due to a massive HD's Falure and non use of printing hard copies (live in learn eh?)

Have you ever heard of bearing failure in an HD? Looks like I wore all 3 of the suckers out at about the same time. (Folks, use the power options> turn of hard disks after 2 hours/funtion :) )

PM it to me if you will.

falkon2 Sat, 03/27/2004 - 07:04

Norton failed me twice since the beginning of 2001 (Well, that, and the fact that I shared my desktop with three siblings who KNEW EVERYTHHING ABOUT TEH INTARNET!!!!!!!!1!). The second time, I did a virus scan with McAfee and nailed a couple of viruses that NAV missed. 'Twas too late for the system at that time, though.

Right now I'm using a passworded laptop that absolutely no one else has access to, and haven't had any problems in almost a year. Ironically enough, I has Norton installed, but only because I get a year's free subscription with the laptop. Once that's up, I'm bailing ship.

Tommy P. Sun, 03/28/2004 - 11:29

Kurt and Treena, sorry to hear about the comp problems. If I can help with anything, let me know.

Here's the top of my list for net safety. Been keeping my machines (and many friends machines) well oiled and running with these. As more and more of us depend on doing biz on the net with our comps, it can be a major disaster when a comp goes down...

Forget about Norton or McAfee, how about one of the best free virus protection proggies on the net? AVG anti virus. This is a well known and trusted program by most compgeek standards.
Get it here: http://www.grisoft.com

Disable windows media player scripting ( when you play certain malicious media files, hidden scripts can be run from windows media player) with WMP scripting fix here: http://www.wilderssecurity.net/wmpscriptingfix.html

Of course, Spybot Search and Destroy here: Session 7 - The Mixes - Part 2

Best firewall protection is also free. ZoneAlarm here: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

Here is a good resource: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/
This and other links are listed in the Spybot links page here:
Session 7 - The Mixes - Part 2

Get a spare hard drive for the operating system, and store everything else on the other drive.

There was some serious e-mail viruses going around many weeks ago. Its good practice to update virus definitions weekly or even more frequently.

Good luck and happy surfing to all. :!:

Tommy P.

anonymous Sun, 03/28/2004 - 15:17

The AVG is a real money maker for me. I've had two client machines that were entirely obliterated by viruses that AVG did not detect. I had to GHOST the hard disk images to my server to save their data, reinstall each machine fresh, then restore their data files. Two day's very profitable work.

YMMV.

Tommy P. Sun, 03/28/2004 - 16:50

Have you personally used AVG ?

You never know, what may have been at fault in a client situation, bgav.
Unless its our own personal machines, I don't think for absolute sure that we can really tell what the circumstances are on somebody elses machine.

For instance, settings for file types to be scanned, detecting macros, heuristics analysis ect, realtime e-mail scan, are user selectable. Of course this is because of CPU usage concerns, fast machines can leave the highest settings turned on all the time, but, by default setup they are off.

And lastly and most importantly, that would be to perform regular updates, followed by a scan. Its the only way a virus program can be "educated" to the latest viruses, no matter who's program is used.

I won't trash Norton publicly here, but we've certainly seen a concensus. MaCafee isn't free and isn't perfect either. None can be including AVG.

But gav, I'd be interested in a survey or discussion of users from any respected geek community that doesn't recommend AVG. I have been out of the loop for a while. If there's something better, I want it.
Thanks.

8)

anonymous Mon, 03/29/2004 - 07:46

I've been in the loop these last 31 years. All my clients are long-term relationships, so I've installed much client-owned software on their machines, including Norton AV 2003. I know how they are configured. The wild cards occur when a client removes the AV and replaces it with something else.

I find McAfee more configurable, and that is what I run own my own systems. All options enabled except for Scan on Shutdown, and no heuristics.

All I know about AVG is it appears to be free-ware, and it has provided me with several hundred dollars in revenue from rebuilding infected client machines. My workstations are far too valuable to trust their AV protection to an altruistic solution.

anonymous Fri, 04/09/2004 - 12:08

I prefer the McAfee/NAI products as far as PC's go. I do all the network admin stuff where I work, and it's saved my butt many times. You have to keep up w/ it though.

Register your email w/ one of the AV companies so you get a notice as soon as one is found, they will usually have a quick fix/patch/update for the AV. I deal w/ it on a server/network level, and have to watch the entire network for this stuff daily.

Although, the AV is great, I would also highly recommend using a firewall. Hardware preferred, but for the average home or small office, studio, etc, a software version works just as well.

anonymous Sat, 04/10/2004 - 04:13

Regarding AntiVirus:

I have to say I've had the opposite experience w/McAfee.

I administer both individual and networked computers. W/McAfee, (and I'm taling 2004 versions of these 2 programs) Every computer I installed them (McAfee) on slowed dramatically. These are of various makes, motherboards, chipsets, etc. So it was a good cross section of components. The Boot times tripled in many cases, and there were incompatibilities with many older programs to the point, some simply locked up.

I was also disappointed by the advertizing that McAfee seems to write into their programs. It seemed to confuse most of the users that had to deal with the programs update tasks. In the end people begged me to take it back off.

I don't think there was any difference between the 2 programs abilities to detect viruses. But then again, lots of people using 2003 versions don't pay the subscription updates to get the latest means of detection and removal. I'm not sympathetic to those peoples problems or blame the programs when its not been updated.

I think they both do their job, so I wouldn't just slam NAV against a 2003 itteration, when its now, 2004. For me, NAV does work more eliquently in a Networked environment and I also have a fairly high praise for thier Internet Security Suite of applications.

Unfortunatley, they ALL slow performance. But I do think it important that at least something be used if you are on the Internet. Los of people still don't.

anonymous Sat, 04/10/2004 - 18:53

bgavin wrote: The AVG is a real money maker for me. I've had two client machines that were entirely obliterated by viruses that AVG did not detect. I had to GHOST the hard disk images to my server to save their data, reinstall each machine fresh, then restore their data files. Two day's very profitable work.

YMMV.

that's interesting. I've had that experience with McAfee. go figure. Not saying the others are better at all. Quite a few people have asked me about free anti virus, the only one I actually know of is AVG, anybody know other ones?

anyone try this one?

http://www.free-av.com/

anonymous Mon, 04/12/2004 - 07:20

I'm not slamming NAV at all. It just didn't seem to work as well for our application. We have the entire suite for NAI. I use the ePo manager to manage all the workstations and their updates, etc. This way the end user doesn't have to do anything about updates. I also use the groupshield on our Exchange server which for the time being, works great. Haven't had any outbreaks in a couple years. (then again, the employee that brought in 90% of the viri, doesn't work here anymore either.)

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