AVG free version question

[jerichoholic]

This morning AVG anti-virus program alerted me that I had a virus...some sort of Trojan although I don't remember the name (unfortunately). It asked if I wanted to delete the file and I did so. Now, however, when I go to the virus vault to try to ascertain the name of the virus, the vault is empty and the results of the virus scan from this morning show no viruses. Did I have a virus or what? Why isn't there a record in the AVG program of having deleted the virus? Is it possible that AVG did not delete the virus and that my computer is still infected? Thanks in advance for your time.

[DjM]

I never used AVG so this is only a guess but is deleting the infected file different that quarantining the infected file. If you delete it, it's gone (Poof), if you quarantine it, it's moved to the vault.

Just a thought.

[jerichoholic]

I would agree with that observation except for the fact that when I go back and get the itemized details of the virus scan it says that the virus scan was successful at the scheduled time, and that no viruses were detected. Makes no sense.

[nihil]

Are you looking at "display list of detections and messages"?

Was it killed by a full scan, or the interactive one?...............I don't think the interactive scan produces a log?

[warriorfan808]

You're right, it should be listed in the log. I don't have the free version, but I do have the paid version and that's how it works for mine. I'm not on my computer to actually look into it, at school, but I will when I get in. If we can't figure anything out, I'll contact AVG and get some assistance.

BTW, I had the free Version a while back and both are pretty much identical.

warriorfan808

[Egaladeist]

hi jerichoholic,

Just update your AVG and then run a full scan and see if it shows up.

Eg

[jerichoholic]

Hi Egaladeist, I've run the program again several times both in normal mode and in "safe" mode. Nothing. Guess what I'm trying to figure out is what the virus could have done and the sort of exposure I had while the virus was on the machine. I know that the previous day I had logged into a website that requires me to use my SSN as a log-in (I know, stupid, but that's the Govt for you.) So if this thing was a keystroke logger or something like that, could it have transmitted that info? Would the anti-virus program have allowed the virus to remain on the machine for any extended period of time?

On a related note, I have the sygate firewall and it never alerted me to some .exe program that I didn't recognize trying to send out info....not sure if it would if a virus was trying to send out info or not.

[nihil]

Well, to answer part of your question, my experience of AVG free is that if it cannot delete or quarantine a nasty it will tell you, and it will certainly detect it a second time round if it is still there. Now, I am not saying that it made a perfect job, but it must have killed enough of the "active ingredients" to make your machine safe.

I am not sure but I think that mine only shows stuff it couldn't do anything about? but I always set mine to "heal" then "quarantine" if that doesn't work.

I would suggest that you might try an online scanner like Trend Micro's "Housecall" as a second opinion and change your AV settings to "quarantine".

As you don't know what the virus was you cannot realistically assess your "exposure". Like you may have had it for five days, but what was it doing?

I will try to look on a labrat machine tomorrow and figure out what it does with stuff it thinks that it has fixed.

[jerichoholic]

Thank you, nihil. Appreciate the time you've taken.

[warriorfan808]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you jerichoholic. AVG does keep a list of all viruses found in it's test log. We have a computer on our network that had a few virus that were found and were either healed; quarantined or deleted; all still listed in Test Results.

If you want more information about your Test Results, go to the Test Results page; highlight the day you're wondering about and then click the small button on the bottom left of your screen that says, "Details".

This option will give you details on the following:
Start Time
End Time
Launch Method
Scanning Result
Report Status
Scanned
Infected
Cleaned
Moved to Vault
Deleted
Errors

I don't have the free version, but I use to have it and it seems exactly the same. I'm pretty sure you'll still have this option. Hope this helps you.

warriorfan808