So much for virus protection

[Rajah]

Even *with* Norton on my system, even *with* the latest Norton updates, I *still* got *3* (yes, THREE!!!!) variations of SoBig virus/worm on my machine. It's a good thing my DH knows how to clean that.

Bye bye, Norton. Hello McCafee. *grr*

 

[Dan Murphy]

My Norton has just been picking them off, one by one, for several days now, Tammi.

Give www.pandasoftware.com a look too.

 

[Rajah]

Well, I never had this problem when I was on McAfee. I only started getting virus files making it through when we switched my machine to Norton. Norton *used* to be the better program. Not anymore, at least not if you're using Eudora.

 

[Nutsy]

I'm using McAfee & have been very fortunate to not get any of these horrid worms.

Previously I used Norton, as it has the BIG NAME & big advertising, but I just could not afford to buy Norton then all the upgrades every year, so decided to give McAfee a try & so far so good. Sure hope it stays that way too

 

[BarryHom]

The best way to avoid this virus is not to open any attachments, especially from people you don't know!

 

[Silky]

Call me paranoid, but I don't open attachments from people whom I DO know unless I've spoken to the sender. Many of these worms are propagated via e-mail address books.

 

[DonnaS]

I'm a Norton fan. It has always protected us, although we do use caution with attachments. Our yahoo e-mail accounts also scan for viruses in attachments and I generally save the attachment to my desktop just to be safe (so the Norton can get it easier).

 

[Rajah]

That's just it, Barry. I *didn't* open any attachments. Shoot, I didn't even open the mail messages that *showed* attachments. I know better than that. Unfortunately, the day and age of "the only way to get a virus is to run an attachment" are over. DH says this one can be *launched* on your machine by visiting certain infected websites. As long as it's there -- which an unopened attachment is if the virus protection doesn't delete it -- it'll run and can infect your machine. That's where Norton failed. It caught 2 of the 88-95 instances of SoBig. The rest got through. And apparently in browsing *somewhere*, probably when I was trying to find kittens, I hit a page that was infected and it launched the program. Oh -- and don't trust delete. I deleted the messages... I just failed to clean out the trash and recycle bin.

I'm just lucky that I have a DH who knows how to clean the machine of this virus *without* losing either machine or any data on it (other than, of course, the infected files.)

 

[Dan Murphy]

I have been under the impression that SoBig is email generated virus, Blaster, site generated.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I have clients using almost all of the big name virus programs, McAfee, Norton, F-Prot (if you want something really cheap look at this one www.f-prot.com) Panda etc etc.
What I have seen is they all work pretty much the same. One of them will pick up on a virus first one time and another the next. I mean you KNOW they all have people looking at each others virus definitions as soon as they are released so how much faster can one be than the other?
The only thing about McAffee is that for some reason it seems to put more of a load on the machine then the others..they seem slower.

 

[Rajah]

I don't know, Dan. I know it's sent out via email, but DH says that if it's on your machine (through email), it can be *run* from an external page.

All I *know* is that I did *not* run any of the 90-some-odd attachments I've gotten in the last 2 days, and I still got the virus. 3 variations (D, E, and F) on my machine. (I also know DH didn't run them, and neither did Skye or Sienna. )

All I *know* is I had Norton on my machine, running, updating, scanning email, and *still* had 88 instances of SoBig get through its protection.

All I *know* is now that DH has cleaned the machine and replaced Norton with McAfee, the 3 *more* messages I just got with yet *more* copies of SoBig on them were all caught and removed *before* getting somewhere that I *could* run them.

Alex -- it may be slower, but of the 2 versions readily available to us (McAffee and Norton Corporate, both through work, one through my work one through DH's), McAffee has done one heckuva better job keeping my system clean than Norton. DH says it's because the *version* of Norton I have apparently doesn't interface well with Eudora, the mail program I use primarily. I'd rather have a slower virus program that actually *catches* the virus rather than a faster one that lets 88 instances through.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I have no clue how well Norton works with Eudora, I have all corporate customers so I never see anything but Outlook.
It's certainly possible McAffee has a better interface with Eudora.

 

[Lanshark]

We use McAfee and were not infected. We have been using it over a year with no problems. I had several e-mails yesterday that had the virus but a scan last night showed nothing stuck.

 

[LarryE]

Norton works great with my eudora, I've never liked mcafee, I've always had problems with it not doing it's job right.

are you positive that you have auto protection enabled, so that it will automatically download the up to date virus definitions

 

[lynxstch]

and Norton has caught the more than 20 infected emails received during the last couple of days..all came from people we didn't know, all had attachments, and Norton simply deleted them and notified me that they had been caught!

 

[Lanshark]

Call me paranoid, but I don't open attachments from people whom I DO know unless I've spoken to the sender. Many of these worms are propagated via e-mail address books.

Silky, I believe this is only the second time I totally agree with what you've said.

I open nothing unless I know the sender. I open no attachments unless I am expecting something from someone. There are times that these things are propagated from others address books so the address looks correct but when you open it the message is strange and there is always an attachment. I also do not use an address book and ask friend to remove me from theirs. I reply to previously sent e-mails. Am I paranoid? Yes. I've been a computer consultant for 20 years. Have I ever been infected? Once about a year ago when my 16 year old opened a bunch of e-mail. McAfee has been very reliable.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

BTW if you do need to open an attachment there is a somewhat safer way to do it. Right click on it and "save" it to a location. Before opening or running it use your virus software to specifically scan the attachment.

 

[dianeschlicht]

WE have both Mcafee and Norton. Haven't gotten any of the viruses that I know of, but Norton picked up on a couple emails that came in with them. I run windows ME, so it might not effect it as much because of that.

 

[MosMom]

I use AVG Anti-Virus. It is free and I've never had a virus yet, I even use Outlook.