avast virus scanner

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:35 pm

Is there anyway to stop the fucker from updating so frequently? It updates 3-4 times a day sometimes. Drives me nuts with the restart computer requests.

Joe in PB · Post by **Joe in PB** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:49 pm

I'm using Avast on my laptop and since it's not always connected to the internet the updates are only about once a day. I'm using XP SP2 although I believe Avast! never requests to restart the computer because it updates on boot up.

I think you can disable the auto updater, although I'm not on my laptop at this moment to check. But if you can, I'd make sure to get the latest update once a week at least.

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:56 pm

I couldn't find the update option. Seems like its either leave it on or turn it off.

DiT · Post by **DiT** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:17 am

tried Avast for about two days and absolutely hated it.

GreginPG · Post by **GreginPG** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:24 am

Mister Bushice wrote:I couldn't find the update option. Seems like its either leave it on or turn it off.

Hey Bushice, it's there.

I'm assuming you're using version 4.6 home version (at least that's what I've got.)

I've got XP so I click Start-->All Programs-->avast! Antivirus-->avast! Antivirus.

That should bring up the program and does the memory test. When the skin comes up, click on the Menu button in the top left-hand corner. (It looks like a little 'up' arrow.) Click on settings...go down to the 'Update (Basic)' option. You'll be able to change the update options on both Virus Database and the Program to manual if that is what you want to do.

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:00 pm

Hey thanks. Got it. It was actually under "settings" on that menu, but where I had gone wrong was to click on the taskbar icon, and not go into the program folder.

Yo DiT - what in heck are you using now? I stopped using norton, because of the register process they require.

Joe in PB · Post by **Joe in PB** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 7:45 pm

Mister Bushice wrote:Yo DiT - what in heck are you using now? I stopped using norton, because of the register process they require.

Exactly, Norton is a resource hog and Avast! found a couple of Trojan's Norton didn't. McAfee also scans like a molasses drip. From what I've read PC-cillin from Trend Micro is one of the best AV's. But the real answer is no one AV program is 100% effective. I use Trend Micro's free online scanner "House Call" to verify Avast! isn't missing something every now & then. Panda also has a free online scanner.

DiT · Post by **DiT** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:05 pm

Mister Bushice wrote:Hey thanks. Got it. It was actually under "settings" on that menu, but where I had gone wrong was to click on the taskbar icon, and not go into the program folder.

Yo DiT - what in heck are you using now? I stopped using norton, because of the register process they require.

right now believe it or not I'm not using one.
but I'll use AVG if I think I might have something.
Housecall from TrendMicro is something I've been messing with lately and it seems OK.
few weeks ago I knew I had something and could not ditch it so installed trusty ole Norton and it caught it right away.
I still swear Norton is the best regardless.

Joe in PB · Post by **Joe in PB** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:33 pm

There is a lot of information about AV effectiveness. But I tend to shy away from online magazines (like PC world) who sell advertisement space to AV companies. Here are a couple of independent sources, the 2nd of which on the home page shows a history of product performance since 2002.

http://www.suggestafix.com/index.php?ac ... 3b3cbb4b0b

http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/def ... =69&mnu=69

AVG is probably one of the worst alternatives based on detection rate. When I tried AVG I didn’t have a good feeling about the web scanner, which never gave an indication it was working. When I was using Norton it always indicated when it was scanning a file to be down loaded, and Avast! at least gives an indication in the tray its scanning. Avast! Home Edition’s main problem is no script detection (malevolent Visual Basic code), which may be reason enough to make a switch.

I guess the bottom line is to use whatever makes you feel good, since anything is better than nothing. But since I switched to the Firefox browser and Avast! I haven’t been infected with any Viruses, Trojans or Worms. That wasn’t the case when I was using IE and Norton.

ElTaco · Post by **ElTaco** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 3:52 pm

I use Norton because I have access to their Enterprise version for free and its always up to date. The thing is, if you are a good computer user you don't need antivirus programs. With that said, most of you, if not all of you should keep running it.

Problems that i see with virus checkers are:
- They can be useless against worms: Worms attack machines usually through security holes in a program/Operating system. The problem is that most of these Worms just disable the anti-virus program and infect your machine. To guard against these problems, you need to keep your machine up to date and patched. You should also keep MS Office and other programs you use regularly patched.

-They slow the machines down. Norton has always had issues with using up too much processing power. I don't know if this is due to bad programming or because they do the virus checking properly and it just takes power to do it, but its annoying when your computer is obviously running slower then it should due to Norton.

-The biggest threat is from new viruses. Sure old viruses still cause problems, especially with stupid people who continue to click on emails despite the fact that they obviously don't look like they are from an actual person. However, the majority of headlines are made each year by new viruses or variants of old viruses. A lot of times it takes a few days for a good virus definition to come out, making your virus checker somewhat useless.

Reasons for running virus protection:
Everyone slacks on their guard sometimes and virus writers and hackers are getting smarter and smarter about hiding viruses in emails. Just last week we had to contend with a email spam that seemed to be from Virginia Tech with a virus payload. Even some of the IT people almost clicked on it.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 8:19 pm

ElTaco wrote:-They slow the machines down. Norton has always had issues with using up too much processing power.

Read this a couple of times in here. Begs the question.....what the hell are you talking about?

In all the times I've opened the taskmanager, it's only when there's multiple downloads, or something of that nature, that has ever got the real-time scan even up to 1% of my P3 processor. What are you running, a 386? As far as doing a full scan -- psssst!.....processor utilization is adjustable in Norton....tell me you knew.