Multiple antivirus programs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Steinfeld
  • Start date Start date
I never heard of "Norman" before. The web site looks interesting.
But I'm confused: is Norman's antivirus freeware? I didn't see anything
on the home page or download page to indicate that. Please explain, if
you'd be so kind.
Click to expand...

Download Page
<Quote>
This part of the web site is for downloading full program versions
(authentication keys required), evaluation copies, and to participate in
Norman's program for testing of beta versions of Norman's software.
</Quote>
 
Let me clarify.

Note: I'm using a Windows Me system right now.

I have already experienced two instances in which my inbox files were
trashed in two different programs (Outlook Express and Thunderbird). The
data files were damaged in exactly the same way. What was common to both
was that I was using AVG, and AVG is, indeed, involved with email scanning.
Click to expand...
So turn off the e-mail scanner. AVG interferes with Mailwasher which I
use to vet my mail before I download it. I turned AVG e-mail scanning
off and haven't been bothered since. Provided you don't open
attachments without saving them to disk first you don't lose any
functionality.
 
Are you trolling, or just misinformed? There are actually two commercial AV
products starting with "Nor". Check out http://www.norman.com/


Wrong again. The guys with the live animal catapult in the movie "Monty
Python and the Holy Grail" were french.

I, however, happen to be a descendant of the normans. Hope this cleared
things up :o)
Click to expand...
But ... the Normans came from France ... well Normandy. ;-)}}}
 
Chrissy said:
Found the same thing in the latest version, dumped it and it's a bitch to
get off your system.
Click to expand...

Chrissy,

Would you please give me some description of how you pulled AVG off your
system.

Also, see my response today to the person who suggested that I simply
shut down AVG's email scanner. I'm coordinating in my head major reasons
to dump this program -- it's way too invasive of the system.

It has been especially useful for me to have found corroboration about
the inbox trashing through this newsgroup.

Thanks.

Richard
 
David said:
So turn off the e-mail scanner. AVG interferes with Mailwasher which I
use to vet my mail before I download it. I turned AVG e-mail scanning
off and haven't been bothered since. Provided you don't open
attachments without saving them to disk first you don't lose any
functionality.
Click to expand...

David and everyone:

I turned off the AVG email scanner. The result was that my Internet
Explorer was intercepted after loading. I could not get onto the web,
and window close functions were blocked. I was required to do a cold
reboot. This happened two times out of two.

Turning on the AVG email scanner restored the functionality of IE. Now,
why should the email scanner crash the web browser?
I believe that the reason for this problem is that AVG is set up to scan
webmail posts in addition to the normal POP email method, since these
are accessed via one's web browser. So, it's glomming onto the browser,
too. This is too unwieldy.

I have decided, at least on my own particular Windows Me system, that
Grisoft AVG is too dangerous to use. Since I can find no way to safely
use it manually, I will uninstall it later today. There comes a point at
which the cure is worse than the disease, and I've crossed that line.

Please note these points:
- Three of us have experienced email inboxes trashed while using AVG.
- AVG appears to be installed rather deeply into my operating system. I
don't like software that's got tentacles that intertwined into the OS.
This is too much like Real Player and QuickTime.
- AppSwat reports three separate major AVG processes running on my
system. These are auto-loaded TSRs upon system bootup.
- FaberToys reports that these three processes are, in turn, running
_128 modules._ Granted that viruses are extremely sophisticated, but
Good god! This is over-the-top. This patient has too many tubes coming
out of him.

Your comments are welcome, of course. I want to especially thank those
of you who have helped me in this decision by sharing your experiences.
From the diversity of the feedback, it appears that this product will
work nicely on some OSs, and intolerably on others. So, a lesson I'm
walking away with is that when it comes to intricate software, programs
that intertwine with other running programs, it's especially important
to be very attentive to compatibility.

Richard
 
Richard said:
David and everyone:

I turned off the AVG email scanner. The result was that my Internet
Explorer was intercepted after loading. I could not get onto the web,
and window close functions were blocked. I was required to do a cold
reboot. This happened two times out of two.

Turning on the AVG email scanner restored the functionality of IE. Now,
why should the email scanner crash the web browser?
I believe that the reason for this problem is that AVG is set up to scan
webmail posts in addition to the normal POP email method, since these
are accessed via one's web browser. So, it's glomming onto the browser,
too. This is too unwieldy.

I have decided, at least on my own particular Windows Me system, that
Grisoft AVG is too dangerous to use. Since I can find no way to safely
use it manually, I will uninstall it later today. There comes a point at
which the cure is worse than the disease, and I've crossed that line.

Please note these points:
- Three of us have experienced email inboxes trashed while using AVG.
- AVG appears to be installed rather deeply into my operating system. I
don't like software that's got tentacles that intertwined into the OS.
This is too much like Real Player and QuickTime.
- AppSwat reports three separate major AVG processes running on my
system. These are auto-loaded TSRs upon system bootup.
- FaberToys reports that these three processes are, in turn, running
_128 modules._ Granted that viruses are extremely sophisticated, but
Good god! This is over-the-top. This patient has too many tubes coming
out of him.

Your comments are welcome, of course. I want to especially thank those
of you who have helped me in this decision by sharing your experiences.
From the diversity of the feedback, it appears that this product will
work nicely on some OSs, and intolerably on others. So, a lesson I'm
walking away with is that when it comes to intricate software, programs
that intertwine with other running programs, it's especially important
to be very attentive to compatibility.

Richard
Click to expand...

IIRC a few years ago one could choose to have the AVG icon in the OE
toolbar and
could click on it whenever he wanted to scan a file. I'm aware of two
versions
running, the general one and another one for e-mail. I noticed today
on my XP
system that there are four versions running! However, on this machine
I don't
see that. I've had no problems with it on either XP SP1 or 2000Pro. I
checked
just now and there are still options (configuration) to click or unclick
how it is
to work. And it states that it is active in the Windows Explorer
context menu.
It can be set to not be displayed, to not scan e-mail, etc. I am not
yet experiencing
any problems with it so will continue using it until or if something
negative as you
mentioned, occurs. I also have had no problems with the updates either.

Helen
 
Helen said:
toolbar and
could click on it whenever he wanted to scan a file. I'm aware of two
versions
running, the general one and another one for e-mail. I noticed today
on my XP
system that there are four versions running! However, on this machine
I don't
see that. I've had no problems with it on either XP SP1 or 2000Pro. I
checked
just now and there are still options (configuration) to click or unclick
how it is
to work. And it states that it is active in the Windows Explorer
context menu.
It can be set to not be displayed, to not scan e-mail, etc. I am not
yet experiencing
any problems with it so will continue using it until or if something
negative as you
mentioned, occurs. I also have had no problems with the updates either.

Helen
Click to expand...

I'll have another look.
However, I think that a major difference is the OSs that we're using. I
would not be surprised if it were working fine for you.

Richard
 
Richard said:
I'll have another look.
However, I think that a major difference is the OSs that we're using. I
would not be surprised if it were working fine for you.

Richard
Click to expand...

I have it on two different machines, two different OS (XP Home SP1)
and 2000Pro. I also have it on a 98 machine. Not 98SE but the original 98
and on that one, it boots in DOS...before Windows loads. I haven't updated
that one for some time, yet. But so far, no problems. I dont' use
webwasher
though on these machines, but I do use a firewall and no other AV program.
I hope you get it figured out.

Helen
 
Helen said:
I have it on two different machines, two different OS (XP Home SP1)
and 2000Pro. I also have it on a 98 machine. Not 98SE but the original 98
and on that one, it boots in DOS...before Windows loads. I haven't updated
that one for some time, yet. But so far, no problems. I dont' use
webwasher
though on these machines, but I do use a firewall and no other AV program.
I hope you get it figured out.

Helen
Click to expand...

BTW the XP machine uses OE and the 2000Pro uses Thunderbird as newsreader.
 
It has been especially useful for me to have found corroboration about
the inbox trashing through this newsgroup.

Thanks.

Richard
Click to expand...

WOW, 78 million downloads of AVG and 3 of ya have problems ?? Must be a bad
flaw.

FWIW, AVG works fine here on WIN ME, and I don't have the email scanner
enabled. Why bother scanning emails ....... if it IS malicious, then AVG
will nail it if you are dumb enough to open it.

And if you really want to shut AVG down so that you can do a scan with
another AV (I do occasionally with F-Prot), then close the hidden proccess
AVGAMSVR.EXE as well as the control centre AVGCC.EXE. Any good proccess
explorer will do this for you.
Hint: SysInternals Proccess Explorer.
 
Art wrote:
Click to expand...
Note: I'm using a Windows Me system right now.

I have already experienced two instances in which my inbox files were
trashed in two different programs (Outlook Express and Thunderbird). The
data files were damaged in exactly the same way. What was common to both
was that I was using AVG, and AVG is, indeed, involved with email
scanning.

Therefore, I suspect that what trashed my inbox files was the automatic
scanning done by AVG -- there's a long moment during which the AV
program intercepts the email download off the server. Note carefully the
procedure here in which the scanner grabs the normal down-feed of the
mail, processes it, and then passes it onward to the mail program. If
the file is open at the time, it's a moment during which mayhem may
happen -- not on purpose, of course. I believe that in both cases, the
email stream was particularly complex: attached illustrations were part
of the mix. So, I think that the systems became overwhelmed.
Click to expand...
Richard
Click to expand...

I've had AVG with automatic scanning (OS ME, OE, ZoneAlarm, Spamihilator)
running on a computer belonging to a relative for some years now.
No problem so far.
I let her keep the automatic scanner because of her incorrigible reckless
behaviour on the internet. :-)

I've also installed AVG on several other home computers with W98, 98SE, ME
and W2k; some with the scanner.
I have never experienced any problems that I could blame on AVG.
 
David and everyone:

I turned off the AVG email scanner. The result was that my Internet
Explorer was intercepted after loading. I could not get onto the web,
and window close functions were blocked. I was required to do a cold
reboot. This happened two times out of two.

Turning on the AVG email scanner restored the functionality of IE. Now,
why should the email scanner crash the web browser?
Click to expand...

That is a very good question which I would be posing to Grisoft. I do
not experience this problem since I do not use IE at all. IE has been
removed from my system (Win98SE) as much as possible.
I believe that the reason for this problem is that AVG is set up to scan
webmail posts in addition to the normal POP email method, since these
are accessed via one's web browser. So, it's glomming onto the browser,
too. This is too unwieldy.
Click to expand...
I would have to agree with you about this.
I have decided, at least on my own particular Windows Me system, that
Grisoft AVG is too dangerous to use. Since I can find no way to safely
use it manually, I will uninstall it later today. There comes a point at
which the cure is worse than the disease, and I've crossed that line.

Please note these points:
- Three of us have experienced email inboxes trashed while using AVG.
Click to expand...

A very small percentage of the installed user base. I have never
experienced any problems that have not been caused by my own
stupidity.
- AVG appears to be installed rather deeply into my operating system. I
don't like software that's got tentacles that intertwined into the OS.
This is too much like Real Player and QuickTime.
- AppSwat reports three separate major AVG processes running on my
system. These are auto-loaded TSRs upon system bootup.
- FaberToys reports that these three processes are, in turn, running
_128 modules._ Granted that viruses are extremely sophisticated, but
Good god! This is over-the-top. This patient has too many tubes coming
out of him.
Click to expand...
LOL. I hope your removal operation is successful. I believe I heard
that there is a description for complete removal on the Grisoft
website somewhere but it may only be a rumour.
Your comments are welcome, of course. I want to especially thank those
of you who have helped me in this decision by sharing your experiences.
From the diversity of the feedback, it appears that this product will
work nicely on some OSs, and intolerably on others. So, a lesson I'm
walking away with is that when it comes to intricate software, programs
that intertwine with other running programs, it's especially important
to be very attentive to compatibility.

Richard
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Of course you'll probably find that all AV programs
operate at that intensity level or pretty close to it.
 
Richard said:
David and everyone:

I turned off the AVG email scanner. The result was that my Internet
Explorer was intercepted after loading. I could not get onto the web,
and window close functions were blocked. I was required to do a cold
reboot. This happened two times out of two.
Click to expand...

Yikes! This is beginning to sound like a an echo!! This is exactly
what I've been experiencing since I removed the AVG control center from
the startup portion of my registry. (Athough to this point it seems
somewhat intermittant - but there's definitely some Explorer issues
happening that have not occurred before.) Note: some difference from
Richards situation -- I only disabled the control center, I didn't
totally disable AVG -- because I liked the idea that my emails were
being scanned (Norman doesn't seem to have that feature.).
Turning on the AVG email scanner restored the functionality of IE.
Click to expand...

I will try turning AVG back on to see if this resolves the issure.
Now, why should the email scanner crash the web browser?
Click to expand...

I'm interest to hear if others have an explanation... I haven't
checked for a AVG help site or forum to see if this issue has been
discussed... may be an option to look into it further ...

- Tim
 
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