Anti Virus

[Stephan Rose]

Question,

does any anti virus software still exists these days that does nothing
else but scan for virii?

And by that I mean the following...

When I start the app...I can do a scan..
When I hit the big red friggin x button, IT GOES AWAY!

I don't need some stupid real-time, always in the background running,
"protection system" or whatever the heck it's all called these days,
crap like Norton that does nothing but unecessarily bog my machine
down.

I also don't need real-time e-mail scanning or any of that crap...

All I am looking for is a simple app to just do NOTHING but a virus
scan and ONLY when *I* actually run it and want it to do so...

Anything like that still exist?

Thanks in advance!

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Stephan Rose" <[email protected]>

| Question,
|
| does any anti virus software still exists these days that does nothing
| else but scan for virii?
|
| And by that I mean the following...
|
| When I start the app...I can do a scan..
| When I hit the big red friggin x button, IT GOES AWAY!
|
| I don't need some stupid real-time, always in the background running,
| "protection system" or whatever the heck it's all called these days,
| crap like Norton that does nothing but unecessarily bog my machine
| down.
|
| I also don't need real-time e-mail scanning or any of that crap...
|
| All I am looking for is a simple app to just do NOTHING but a virus
| scan and ONLY when *I* actually run it and want it to do so...
|
| Anything like that still exist?
|
| Thanks in advance!
|

There are anti virus News Groups specifically for this type of discussion.

microsoft.public.security.virus
alt.comp.virus
alt.comp.anti-virus


Actually there are NO anti virus application that will find 'virii' or 'viri' becuase there
is no such terminology. Anti virus application do find and remove "viruses" which is the
plural of virus.
http://spl.haxial.net/viruses.html
http://homepages.tesco.net/~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/plural-of-virus.html
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/plural-of-virus.html

You attitude befuddles me. It looks like you WANT to be infected and then deal with the
aftereffects and have to eal with its removal.

Anti virus applications have two major functions...
"On Access" scanning - Scanning all files or a selected list of file type as the files are
written and ead from any medium.

"On Demand" scanning - telling the application to go out and scan either all disks, a
selected number of disks or a specified area.

It is "On Access" scanning that is the component that will help protect one form being
infected.

What you are asking about is a "On Demand" only anti virus scanner and yes, they exist.

The GUI based version I suggest is the free BitDefender 8
http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html

I have also written a tool called the Multi AV Scanning Tool. This CareWare utility
provides gthe "On Demand" command line scanners for; Trend Micro, McAfee, Sophos and
Kasperski all in one simple front-ended utility.


Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's web site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file. http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm

Additional Instructions:
http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm


* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Setphan,

You sound like a Norton Customer. <g>

The best way to avoid virus infection is to catch them before they
infect the machine. The best way to do this is have the antivirus
software that updates itself daily and have it set to scan real-time and
check email. The are several good antivirus application out there that
will do just that and not cause performance problems as Norton and
McAfee do. You should not even know it's running. I personally use
eTrust antivirus and do not even know it's there in less a virus is
detected. I am sure others will add there suggestions.

 

[Tom Willett]

All av software have the options you are talking about. Learn how to use
the software.

 

[peter]

Try AVG anti virus...........try the free version and if you like
it...........
google will find it
peter

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

Question,

does any anti virus software still exists these days that does nothing
else but scan for virii?

And by that I mean the following...

When I start the app...I can do a scan..
When I hit the big red friggin x button, IT GOES AWAY!

I don't need some stupid real-time, always in the background running,
"protection system" or whatever the heck it's all called these days,
crap like Norton that does nothing but unecessarily bog my machine
down.

I also don't need real-time e-mail scanning or any of that crap...

All I am looking for is a simple app to just do NOTHING but a virus
scan and ONLY when *I* actually run it and want it to do so...

Anything like that still exist?

Thanks in advance!

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

Since you cannot bother yourself with a "stupid real-time, always in the
background running, "protection system" or whatever the heck it's all called
these days", you should know that you do not deserve to own and use a
computer.

Do the rest of us a favor (since your lack of security practices is a threat
to everyone else); find the boxes your computer came in. Box it up. Give
it to someone that will have the integrity and responsibility to protect
themselves online.

Bobby

 

[John]

I agree Bobby. How could some one be so irresponsible. That's horrible, I
hope he takes your advice.

 

[AZGLI]

To be completely fair, I can see the use for an on-demand AV scanner.
If I have a computer that doesn't use an internet connection and I only
need to scan media from the drives, I don't need on access scanning.

When developing software on a system, an A/V program may cause
problems. When doing any kind of development work, it would be nice to
be able to make everything else go away.

While I agree that no online computer should be unprotected, I think
that to assume that the computer in question is connected and therefore
at risk is unfair. To issue abuse based on that assumption is just
unreasonable.

 

[Stephan Rose]

There are anti virus News Groups specifically for this type of discussion.

microsoft.public.security.virus
alt.comp.virus
alt.comp.anti-virus

Wasn't aware of those groups, thanks.

Actually there are NO anti virus application that will find 'virii' or 'viri' becuase there
is no such terminology. Anti virus application do find and remove "viruses" which is the
plural of virus.
http://spl.haxial.net/viruses.html
http://homepages.tesco.net/~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/plural-of-virus.html
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/plural-of-virus.html

Well for one, english is not my native language.
Secondly, I am not an English professor.

You attitude befuddles me. It looks like you WANT to be infected and then deal with the
aftereffects and have to eal with its removal.

Considering that I have a very short list of websites I visit that
don't put me at risk of virus infected popups...

Considering that I have a very short list of development applications
I run that are not going to be infected with a virus...

Considering that my e-mail server already scans any incoming and
outgoing e-mail for viruses (happy?) I have no need to scan them again
on my computer...

Considering that my firewall is set to block ANYTHING other than what
explicitly allow...

I am not too worried...

Anti virus applications have two major functions...
"On Access" scanning - Scanning all files or a selected list of file type as the files are
written and ead from any medium.

"On Demand" scanning - telling the application to go out and scan either all disks, a
selected number of disks or a specified area.

It is "On Access" scanning that is the component that will help protect one form being
infected.

And on a development machine where I need every bit of resources
available I have absolutely no need for any On Access scanning.

* * * Please report back your results * * *

That Bit Defender 8 looks pretty reasonable, going to give that a try.
I'll let you know. =)

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

 

[Stephan Rose]

Hi Setphan,

You sound like a Norton Customer. <g>

Ya got that right, I despise norton...

The best way to avoid virus infection is to catch them before they
infect the machine. The best way to do this is have the antivirus
software that updates itself daily and have it set to scan real-time and
check email. The are several good antivirus application out there that
will do just that and not cause performance problems as Norton and
McAfee do. You should not even know it's running. I personally use
eTrust antivirus and do not even know it's there in less a virus is
detected. I am sure others will add there suggestions.

My e-mail server already scans any incoming / outgoing e-mail so there
is no need for me to do so.

I also extremely rarely download any executables unless from trusted
reputable sources...again, unlikely to be infected.

Bottom line...I just need something to check in the rare event that
something may slip past...

That said, BitDefender just finished scanning just my windows folder
and found NOTHING....considering that this is one of the folders to be
most likely infected, I think it's looking good?

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

 

[Stephan Rose]

Try AVG anti virus...........try the free version and if you like
it...........
google will find it
peter

I did see that but dismissed it the second i read "real-time"...

Norton has given me a bad enough taste of real-time...

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

 

[Bert Kinney]

Most antivirus application allow real-time and email scanning to be
disabled.

 

[Stephan Rose]

* * * Please report back your results * * *

Well I am terribly sorry to tell you that in over 1,200,000 files it
didn't find a single virus....

I apologize for any inconvenience and dissapointments that this may
have caused. =)

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Stephan Rose" <[email protected]>

||
| Well I am terribly sorry to tell you that in over 1,200,000 files it
| didn't find a single virus....
|
| I apologize for any inconvenience and dissapointments that this may
| have caused. =)
|

Disappointment ? No. That actually makes me happy.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Stephan Rose" <[email protected]>

|
| I did see that but dismissed it the second i read "real-time"...
|
| Norton has given me a bad enough taste of real-time...
|

AVG isn't as good as BitDefender anyway.

 

[Stephan Rose]

From: "Stephan Rose" <[email protected]>

|
|
| Well I am terribly sorry to tell you that in over 1,200,000 files it
| didn't find a single virus....
|
| I apologize for any inconvenience and dissapointments that this may
| have caused. =)
|

Disappointment ? No. That actually makes me happy.

Hehe well thank you!! =)

Ya know, I can see the merit for all the "on access" scanners and such
for the average home user that barely has a clue how to operate their
power button.

Someone like that is gonna need every protection they can get, and
isn't going to notice any performance loss.

Though the trouble tech support has with that stuff is unimaginable
when it comes to install issues and such.

Heck, I even had a case where McAfee was causing random text labels to
not display in my appliation. I stared at the screen when tech support
bugged me about it in total confusion. The customer actually sent his
laptop in...and I saw it with my own eyes.

Once we removed McAfee and everything worked correctly. Only ever
happened on that computer though...but still...that was one of many
issues I have seen with Today's anti virus solutions, my own
experiences on my own systems excluded.

But I still believe that a secure e-mail server, properly setup
firewall, and some good judgement and common sense can be just as
effective than any on access scanner. Especially in my case when I am
compiling a project with several hundred source files a dozen times a
day. If I got an on access scanner checking every file each time, I
could go get a cup of coffee, take a girl out to dinner, and come back
next day to see if it finished.

Thanks again for that tip on Bit Defender, maybe I will have it do
another scan a year from now

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

kimi no koto omoidasu hi nante nai no wa
kimi no koto wasureta toki ga nai kara

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Stephan Rose" <[email protected]>

< snip >

|
| Thanks again for that tip on Bit Defender, maybe I will have it do
| another scan a year from now
|

maybe you should give my Multi AV Scanner a try. McAfee alone is at ~208,000 signatures
which is MORE than BitDefender. You may even find it handy to help friends and family who
do NOT practice Safe Hex.

 

[peter]

Maybe its just me but............
I use BitDefender on one machine and AVG on another
Neither machine has ever caught a Virus...........knock on wood!!
Both programs seem very capable.
peter

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "peter" <[email protected]>

| Maybe its just me but............
| I use BitDefender on one machine and AVG on another
| Neither machine has ever caught a Virus...........knock on wood!!
| Both programs seem very capable.
| peter
|

W/o testing it, how can you compare ?
I do test various AV software and I can come to soem conclusions.
BitDefender hedges AVG.