Is my anti-virus in working order?

[Ted2]

Browsing the new's page and:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/02/microsoft_antispyware_deleting.html
I Downloaded MS anti-spyware and I think I may have deleted that file they talk about "PWS.Bancos.A"
But I've read most of the comment's on that page, and browsed computerhope but can't find what i am surposed to do next?
editing registry key's is beyond me and sound's too risky. So I guess Norton is now doomed? :-?
Which is my seccond question, Is Norton even working? I have had this computer for around two years and i have not once found a virus. Is this normal? I use and download on this computer all the time :-/

[Flame]

Please don't double post. This will help us answer your question more completely if you post once.

Flame

[soybean]

"Is Norton even working?"  Well, why don't you try it and see?  Wouldn't that be the obvious thing to do?  See if you can open Norton and start a full scan.   Can you?  

I get the impression you don't know much about the Norton Anti-Virus software installed on your system.  You've had the computer about two and have not found a virus.  You say you download all the time.  Download what?  Do you mean email or other stuff?  Email is the main source of viruses.  But, many ISP's now seem to be capturing virus-infected messages before they are retrieved by their accountholders and the ISP stops any such messages from being downloaded to the user's computer.  So, that fact that you haven't seen any virus for about two years does not necessarily mean your anti-virus software is not doing it's job.

By the way, have you renewed your subsrciption to virus definition updates from Symantec?  If not, your anti-virus protection is not up-to-date.  

[Ted2]

No, you have missunderstood, i'm not a complete newbie, I run full scans all the time. The question was i have never found a virus when I scan. Does this meen the anti-virus is just not finding them, or am i being paranoid about getting virus's - how common is it that you find a virus?
And by downloading alot, I meen alot of games and large patch's that sometimes are infected etc..

Sorry for the double post.
I realised I posted in wrong area of the forum so I copied to here insted.
edit:
Also do anti-virus's interfer with each other the same way firewall's do?
was thinking of getting AVG(free) insted, since most here seem to say AVG rules and norton is useless, so i'll use that for now while i wait to buy something better...(any recomendations?)
...Sorry for the number of questions all in one post

[Fed]

Try and download, unzip & run the eicar virus, see how far you get, there is no danger.
http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
There is a site where you can email eicar as a test too in a multitude of different ways, I will look for it for you.
You can also email it to your friends for a bit of fun.
http://www.aleph-tec.com/eicar/index.php
AVG has a list somewhere on it's website of all the antivirus programs it will co-exist happily with.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

[dl65]

Ted2 ......

Is Norton even working? I have had this computer for around two years and i have not once found a virus.

Let start by saying .......That Norton does a good job of protecting the user against the threats it is designed for....... provided , you have it properly configured , it's subscription is current and it has all the latest updates......
So lets find out .......
First open Norton , by clicking on the Norton icon in the lower tray .........
When it opens ..... Look at the window and it will tell you what version you have ..... IE Norton 2005 or whatever ......
Then in the same window you should see something similar to .........
System Status ....... it should say OK ( or something similar)
Auto Protect ........... ON
Email scanning ....... ON
Script blocking ....... ON
Full system scan ..... Should be a date ......... ( what is it )
Virus Definitions ......Should be a date ........  02/15/2006
Renewal Date  .........Should be a date .......  ( what is it )
Auto updates ...........ON

Also do anti-virus's interfer with each other the same way firewall's do?

  Absolutely ...... Only use one ..........

AVG rules and norton is useless

I use both Norton and AVG ....... on differant machines ......... They both work just fine ...... Despite the fact that Norton is a bit of a resource hog , it does an excellant job.

Please explain why you find it necessary to edit your registry ?

Get back to us with the anwsers asked above and we can futrther advise you .

dl65  

[GX1_Man]

One antivirus is all you need and more than one can cause problems. I use AVG on Windows boxes because it's free and works, but any is better than none.

[Fed]

UPDATE: I tried to email the eicar virus to myself with every format shown in the link above.
My ISP blocked every single one. :-?
I hate it when they take control... If I want a virus I should be allowed to download one.

[Ted2]

Thanks all,  i'm going to give the virus test a miss though Fed, just becuase of the big bold writing at the bottom of that page... One thing I have learnt from this is trust no one!
MSanti-spyware claimed it would delete spyware file's for me, and insted it deleted some Norton file's (well aleast i think that's what happend acording to that new's page i posted).
dl65 i'm using Norton 2005 and all is updated and working fine, the renewal date is almost up. At the end of the day I guess i'm just going to have to spend money, insted of using all these Beta and free version's.  
I was looking at some of the more fancy AV's like Panda, $80?? is that not a little too pricey?
Still i want one, the free scan on the site that someone posted earlyer (http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm)  I it and ran found 162spyware and 1 hack/unwanted tool , i ran spybot straight arfter and it only found 7 of them
But the main reason i'd want this software is probaly just because it's not sold in PC World and sound's cooler  8-)

[GX1_Man]

I use AVG, AdAware and Spybot on my WIndows laptop, which gets a good amount if Internet action. I just used the Panda online scanner and it found....absolutely nothing. I see no reason to pay when the free solutions do such a good job.

[Fed]

It's OK Ted, eicar is only a pretend virus for you to test your antivirus software.
Before you spend money at least try AVG & Spybot, I'm sure you will stick to them.

[soybean]

No, you have missunderstood, i'm not a complete newbie, I run full scans all the time. The question was i have never found a virus when I scan. Does this meen the anti-virus is just not finding them, or am i being paranoid about getting virus's - how common is it that you find a virus?
And by downloading alot, I meen alot of games and large patch's that sometimes are infected etc..

Sorry for the double post.
I realised I posted in wrong area of the forum so I copied to here insted.
edit:
Also do anti-virus's interfer with each other the same way firewall's do?
was thinking of getting AVG(free) insted, since most here seem to say AVG rules and norton is useless, so i'll use that for now while i wait to buy something better...(any recomendations?)
...Sorry for the number of questions all in one post

As I said in my previous post, your ISP (i(Internet Service Provide) may be catching any viruses before they get to you.  My ISP is Earthlink.  I user Norton Anti-Virus (NAV).  I never receive virus-infected messages from Earthlink.  I do occasionally get an email notice from Earthlink informing me they intercepted a message and did not forward it to me because it contained a virus.  So, clearly, if Earthlink, or whatever ISP you use, is scanning all email and intercepting any messages with viruses before they get to you, then your anti-virus software is not going to have any virus-infected messages to detect.  If you're keeping your NAV up to date, you have nothing to worry about.  

I believe many ISP's now scan email for viruses before it reaches the client.  My mother uses a local ISP whose geographical area overlaps about 8 counties in Ohio.  That ISP also scans email for viruses.

I see potential downside to this scanning for viruses by ISP's.  It may cause us email users to become complacent in our anti-virus vigilance.  

In contrast to my experience with Earthlink, I also maintain a website that I launched about 4 years ago.  It had an email address on it, using my web hosting service's email account rather than my Earthlink account.  This means any email sent to that address did not flow through Earthlink; it flowed through my web hosting service's email server.  They were not pre-scanning email for virues and I received many messages containing viruses, all of which were stopped by NAV.

Regarding the expiration of your NAV 2005, I would just pay the fee to renew your annual subscription to virus definition updates; I would not buy a newer version of NAV.  I'm still using NAV 2002, by now having renewed multiple times.