PC Problems? - links to free online virus scanners

JDPower

Toxteth_OGrady wrote:

Not sure what the previous six posts have got to do with a sticky thread about online virus scanners! :rolleyes:

No but good advice is good advice, or should people not give advice just because its off topic. Besides I don't think theres much more to say on the subject of online scanners anyway.

Ok heres an ON topic comment - avoid Trend Micros online scanner, it has a tendency to give false positives. At least it did on my system, constantly flagging something as a virus which clearly wasn't (causing constant reinstalls of the program it was supposedly finding the virus in till I realised). I didn't realise for a couple of months as the scanner doesn't give a proper name to what it finds so its hard to check up on what it finds.

Toxteth_OGrady

JDPower wrote:

......or should people not give advice just because its off topic.

Correct. From the Forum Rules here:

KEEPING THREADS ON-TOPIC

Please try not to take threads off-topic. This can be confusing for new users and makes it especially difficult for people coming through from the email to find the information they want. Where requests from Board Guides for threads to be brought back on track have not been followed off-topic posts may be removed. We encourage community, but not thread derailment.

If you take a look through the posts in this thread you'll see there is already a degree of confusion between the role of online scanners and installed AV products. I'm not disputing the fact it's good advice but e1london's off-topic post "4 simple steps to a healthy machine" and the follow-up posts will potentially add to the confusion. It's also a subject that has been extremely well aired in the other sticky, What security do you use?

:cool:

TOG

Quincy_3

JDPower wrote:

No but good advice is good advice, or should people not give advice just because its off topic. Besides I don't think theres much more to say on the subject of online scanners anyway.

Ok heres an ON topic comment - avoid Trend Micros online scanner, it has a tendency to give false positives. At least it did on my system, constantly flagging something as a virus which clearly wasn't (causing constant reinstalls of the program it was supposedly finding the virus in till I realised). I didn't realise for a couple of months as the scanner doesn't give a proper name to what it finds so its hard to check up on what it finds.

Trend Micro is absolute tosh, either the Browser or Java scanner fails to load or loads then hangs or just pretends to scan, stay well away from that joke.

Kapersky is really goos tho

alikat_3

A year ago I had a big trojan problem which ate up all my resources, slowed my machine down no end & also stopped the AVG free anti virus from working. It took me a week of performing online virus scans to sort it out. What I did find was not one of them cleaned it up completely while several different ones including Housecall, Kaspersky, (which is also an excellent virus scanner along with Nod32) & others all removed remnants it was still there. I tried reinstalling AVG but the trojan was still disabling it, so took up a free trial of McAfee (although I know their are better) which sorted it out. These online scanners can without doubt be very useful, when you have a problem that your anti virus is unable to sort out.

JDPower

meher wrote:

All anti-virus' are virus' themselves. I've paid only for Norton virus once and in few days realized they slowed down logging and so binned the software - waste of about $60 I think. The free ones are equally worse - worst of all virus being AVG and trend house call with the best virus prize going to Trend pclillin :rolleyes: My experience ofcourse.

If it's ok to ask - are there any threads or links explaining or distinguishing the wares/firewall or use/need of/for them and such several technical jargons slavishly used?

Sorry but you're half right, half wrong. Ask anyone with any sense and they'll tell you Norton is absolutely terrible. Plus I agree Trend Micro's AV scanner is rubbish. You are bang out of order criticising ALL free AV software, especially AVG which is one of the best around. You asked for threads or links explaining the differences between them, please refer to the CCleaner forum I recommended previously. Maybe then you can speak with some authority.

Lexis200

tali wrote:

"Note 2: These are not free trials of shareware that detect viruses and then NOT remove them, in an attempt to entice you to buy the program. The scanners below will all remove the viruses they detect." - am i missing something here??? tried kaspersky -it just scanned it didn't clear .Only panda i can recall use to previously scan and clear
So which ones scan and clear?
i use avast because it s the best........until later i find its crap.....and so goes the AV merry go round....

Trend's Housecall is online, and scans and clean for free http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/. I use it as a second opinion only though, I have CA antivirus installed but you can use any of the online scanners as well and not mess up your system.

HTH

JDPower

Lexis200 wrote:

Trend's Housecall is online, and scans and clean for free http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/.

I wouldn't recommend Housecall, it has a tendency to find false positives all the time, it has twice caused problems on my system removing something that wasn't malware. Plus it names everything it finds using its own naming system so you can't even Google what it finds.
BitDefender is currently the best of the online scanners and will remove anything it finds:

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

(PS Apologies for the Kaspersky recommendation, never realised it didn't remove what it finds as I've never been infected with anything for it to find)

Lexis200

I hadn't noticed that trend brings up false positives, but then I only use it as a backup to my AV on the PC so it never finds anything except tracking cookies anyway.

I didn't know about the bitdefender one, but I'm trying it now to see how it works... I don't like how it HAS to use IE though (which has an appalling security record )... at least Trend gives you the option to use a Java kernel so you can run it through Firefox

tali

JDPower wrote:

I wouldn't recommend Housecall, it has a tendency to find false positives all the time, it has twice caused problems on my system removing something that wasn't malware. Plus it names everything it finds using its own naming system so you can't even Google what it finds.
BitDefender is currently the best of the online scanners and will remove anything it finds:

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

(PS Apologies for the Kaspersky recommendation, never realised it didn't remove what it finds as I've never been infected with anything for it to find)

housecall is absolutely rubbish - over 10 attempts over 2 days , i -wont do a scan at all sweet fa - no error messages - just keeps loading and loading and loading.....:mad: :mad: ..
as for bitdefender - well this is by win antitispyware ? - who have plagued and persistently attacked me with dodgy looking "your pc is at risk" pop ups -surely not to be trusted?

JDPower

tali wrote:

as for bitdefender - well this is by win antitispyware ? - who have plagued and persistently attacked me with dodgy looking "your pc is at risk" pop ups -surely not to be trusted?

Dunno where you get that from :think: