AVG vs Symantec

[GhettoFob]

Ok, here's the story. I work in an IT department and I was fixing up an old computer. I noticed a weird process called winclock.exe. I ran Ad-Aware and Symantec AV and they found nothing. I searched for the file on my computer and it had an mirc icon so I knew something was fishy. I downloaded AVG since it's free and I've heard good things about it. Well it detected 13 viruses (virii?)!! I decided to run scans with AVG in our public computer lab. 6 out of 10 computers had trojans/dialers/other viruses. My question is why doesn't Symantec AV detect any of these viruses? The first virus has to be at least 6 months old because no one has touched that computer in that time. I'm a little confused as to why we're paying for an antivirus when a free alternative works much better?

 

[NYCSTE2003]

i totally agree and wish symantec read these forums, is it possilbe to run avg without removing symantec?

 

[GhettoFob]

I installed both and they seemed to work happily with each other. I had to disable one of the realtime protections because our computers are kind of lacking in memory. My supervisor said to disable AVG because they paid for Symantec...

 

[Spacehead]

Out of curiosity, do you remember any of the virus names? Seems wierd that Norton would miss something 6 months old.
Do you have any exclusions set in Norton?
I suppose you double checked to see that no one fiddled with Norton's settings.

 

[alm4rr]

were the virii definistions ever updated?

 

[GhettoFob]

Yeah they connect to a central server to get updates daily. I can probably get the names of the viruses on Monday.

 

[crobusa]

I used AVG and it flaged some .bats as "hidden information" or some such error.

So I edited the batches in notepad.. they did nothing more then use more to paste parts together. As I mentioned in a post here I no longer trust AVG.

10 cents says that it's AVG's unknown virus detection scheme.
More to the point, a false alarm. What
(Bet limit to OP)

 

[gnumantsc]

AVG is crap and so is Snorton Norton, Norton is so passe its like the 80s.
McAfee 8 has a bunch of script blockers built in as well as bug stoppers to make sure that nothing malicious is being sent to you.

McAfee scans mail from any client (I use Moz Thunderbird) and it stops those iframe.vulnerability viruses where AVG would let them execute since there's nothing there. In MAV 8 there is also a dialer checker, and spyware remover included.

I think you should tell your boss to stop paying for the garbage and advise him on getting McAfee 8 2004 since it has better features built in.

 

[GhettoFob]

Originally posted by: crobusa
I used AVG and it flaged some .bats as "hidden information" or some such error.

So I edited the batches in notepad.. they did nothing more then use more to paste parts together. As I mentioned in a post here I no longer trust AVG.

10 cents says that it's AVG's unknown virus detection scheme.
More to the point, a false alarm. What
(Bet limit to OP)

Yeah, it did find some .bat files that it couldn't open (even some bats in the Symantec directory ), but the file that originally made me suspicious was a process called winclock.exe. Google pulls up this site and this site which say it's some sort of mirc trojan. I actually double clicked the file and I could see a small mirc window open up for a second or two and then minimize itself.

 

[bsobel]

What version of NAV (or was it corporate), what was the date of the last update (and was the program updated, or just the defs). Kinda hard to comment without knowing what you where running.
Bill

 

[MangoTBG]

Originally posted by: gnumantsc
AVG is crap and so is Snorton Norton, Norton is so passe its like the 80s.
McAfee 8 has a bunch of script blockers built in as well as bug stoppers to make sure that nothing malicious is being sent to you.

McAfee scans mail from any client (I use Moz Thunderbird) and it stops those iframe.vulnerability viruses where AVG would let them execute since there's nothing there. In MAV 8 there is also a dialer checker, and spyware remover included.

I think you should tell your boss to stop paying for the garbage and advise him on getting McAfee 8 2004 since it has better features built in.

Funny. You must actually be buying "Snorton Norton" and now "Norton SystemWorks" or the like. My systemworks 2003 and now 2004 takes care of everything you mentioned. It stops scripts from being run and checks any new files (i.e. if I download something OR move files from hdd to hdd which I like ) for virii. I'm sure Norton isn't the end-all AV program, but you make it sound like shit which it isn't.

 

[WayneTeK]

Originally posted by: MangoTBG

Originally posted by: gnumantsc
AVG is crap and so is Snorton Norton, Norton is so passe its like the 80s.
McAfee 8 has a bunch of script blockers built in as well as bug stoppers to make sure that nothing malicious is being sent to you.

McAfee scans mail from any client (I use Moz Thunderbird) and it stops those iframe.vulnerability viruses where AVG would let them execute since there's nothing there. In MAV 8 there is also a dialer checker, and spyware remover included.

I think you should tell your boss to stop paying for the garbage and advise him on getting McAfee 8 2004 since it has better features built in.

Funny. You must actually be buying "Snorton Norton" and now "Norton SystemWorks" or the like. My systemworks 2003 and now 2004 takes care of everything you mentioned. It stops scripts from being run and checks any new files (i.e. if I download something OR move files from hdd to hdd which I like ) for virii. I'm sure Norton isn't the end-all AV program, but you make it sound like shit which it isn't.

yeah, the problem is your system must be taking up a lot of resources as a result of all that Snorton stuff...

 

[WayneTeK]

Originally posted by: MangoTBG

Originally posted by: gnumantsc
AVG is crap and so is Snorton Norton, Norton is so passe its like the 80s.
McAfee 8 has a bunch of script blockers built in as well as bug stoppers to make sure that nothing malicious is being sent to you.

McAfee scans mail from any client (I use Moz Thunderbird) and it stops those iframe.vulnerability viruses where AVG would let them execute since there's nothing there. In MAV 8 there is also a dialer checker, and spyware remover included.

I think you should tell your boss to stop paying for the garbage and advise him on getting McAfee 8 2004 since it has better features built in.

Funny. You must actually be buying "Snorton Norton" and now "Norton SystemWorks" or the like. My systemworks 2003 and now 2004 takes care of everything you mentioned. It stops scripts from being run and checks any new files (i.e. if I download something OR move files from hdd to hdd which I like ) for virii. I'm sure Norton isn't the end-all AV program, but you make it sound like shit which it isn't.

yeah, the problem is your system must be taking up a lot of resources as a result of all that Snorton stuff...

 

[EarthwormJim]

I'm running Norton Anti Virus 2004 and it doesn't impact my performance in any notable way. Only when I benchmark, say with 3dmark03 does my score drop, and only by 100-200 marks. Better to have some resources take by Norton than all of them by some virus or trojan.