Norton or other AntiVirus

[Broomiebar]

And I've just installed a new update for my Norton Antivirus, but what I wanted to do is scan my computer for viruses applying only the new updated component. I couldn't do that ...

Does anyone know of any other reliable AntiVirus that lets you do this ?

[TheNovice]

Hi BroomieBar, I am not an expert but could not you get in trouble if for example you had contracted a virus since your last scan that is 6 months old and is obviously not included in the last database of viruses in your AV apps?
JC

[Broomiebar]

Hi Novice,


I struggled a bit to get your point but I get what you're saying now...

But hang on shouldn't Norton or another AV, pick up viruses Automatically, that's the only way I've ever picked up viruses.
infact I have never ever picked up a virus during a scan before.

[nihil]

Hi Broomiebar

Please be patient, and I will attempt to explain. TheNovice is quite correct here

If you update your AV on the 20th of the month and scan it, and find nothing. Then you update on the 27th of the month, and the AV will discover another 100 viruses?.........................if you only scan for those extra 100 viruses on the 27th, any virus you contracted between your scan on the 20th and the 27th, that are already in the 100,000 it detects, will not be found

This is what TheNovice was telling you.

Now, I imagine that you are really asking "how can I get this to run faster, and more efficiently?".............well, you are not far off, in a way

There are AV products that will scan a file, and analyse it............number of bytes, date last altered, start and end strings and so on. Then they add a little code to the file.....................this tells the scanner that it has been checked. Without getting too technical, this is known as "checksumming"

Next time you scan, it just looks at the key information to see if the file has been scanned before, and if it has changed.....................if the answer is "yes" it scans it again....................if "no", it skips it and moves on to the next file.

If you want things to go faster, here are a couple of tips:

1. Update your AV...........re-boot into
safe mode then DEFRAGMENT your hard drive.

2. Always run your scans in SAFE MODE ..............there is not much to compete for resource then, and "nasties" don't get started, so they can be detected and cleaned.

I hope that helps

[Broomiebar]

Dear Nihil,

Thank you for explaining the Novice point of view.
I understood what he was telling me and yes he is right to a certain extent.

Now let's suppose as you're saying that I do get a Virus between the 20th and the 27th and I scanned it only with the 27th update, ofcourse it woun't find it that way,
and my answer to that is, my AV here is always running, therefore that virus should automatically, or immediately be detected as soon as it's downloaded as in an Alert or a warning type, and without initiating a full system scan, I know it works that way because I've seen it happen.

Now, I imagine that you are really asking "how can I get this to run faster, and more efficiently?".............well, you are not far off, in a way

You've hit it right on the nail there
and this Checksumming idea sounds great, I'll google it to find some examples on what products it comes with.

Your tip is definitely helpful too, many Thanks.

Cheers,

[TheNovice]

Sorry Broomiebar if I did not make myself clear. English is not my first language. Thanks Nihil for the assistance.
JC

[nihil]

Two further bits of advice:

1. Think of "malware" rather than just viruses
2. Don't rely on interactive virus scans

Just to demonstrate:

http://www.ewido.net/en/
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

Download them, update them and run them in safe mode

[Broomiebar]

Humm... Now you got me thinking where do you draw the line,

I mean where does it end? there's

Antivirus , Antimalware, Antispam, Antispyware, Antithis and that...
Firewall(s), Intrusion detection, Ad blocking

and I'm sure the list goes on....

[ZomBieMann77]

Originally posted here by Broomiebar
Humm... Now you got me thinking where do you draw the line,

I mean where does it end? there's

Antivirus , Antimalware, Antispam, Antispyware, Antithis and that...
Firewall(s), Intrusion detection, Ad blocking

and I'm sure the list goes on....

Welcome to the internet my friend. This is of course due in no small part to the fact that the world is full of *******s. For any computer connected to the internet I recomend 1 antivirus program at least 2 antispyware programs and a good firewall. I dont use antispam crap. I have an easier way to prevent spam. I have 2 email adresses. 1 i only give to friends and family and 1 i use for things like site registrations and such that might generate spam. For the "spam" acount I use a free online email service. So at that point the spam never reaches my computer. As for ad blocking I just use firefox. It has enough built in ad blocking capabilities for me.