A Squared causes slowdown

[djg05]

With all the fuss about BOC I thought I would try out A2 paid trial. The initial scan found nothing of importance but what I did notice was a slow down in Opera. I keep several tabs open and when swithing to another for the first time or loading a new page there is a delay of around 10 seconds before either the tab opens or the new page becomes live so that you can click on links.

This is my first experience with this program and wondered if this is normal behaviour?

[Kees1958]

DJG05,

I have no experience with A2 and Opera, have tried it with FF and IE7. I found A2 with IDS to be really fast. I have noticed one akward behavior with A2. When you ad your browser to the applications list (with the monitor option) I noticed a slight performance improvement. By default A2 monitors all programs, so in theory this should not impact performance. May be you could try this also.

Regards K

[djg05]

Thanks Kees

I have not done anything in A2 other than let it scan and run as out of the box. It sounds as though I had better look at it more thoroughly.

I noticed afterwards that it was simple to kill off which makes me question its value. Maybe this is appealing to my paranoia. BOClean never reported anything in the years I had it, so maybe a f/w and a goods HIPS will suffice unless you go to the dodgy side of the internet.

[Kees1958]

I agree.

A2 and CyberHawk Pro (ThreatFire) are our second line of defense after sandboxed (DefenseWall and geSWall). I tried different solutions on two PC's just to see which suited best.

Reg. K

[chrome_sturmen]

I use both asquared (full version) and opera 9.24 through proxomitron and sandboxie, and have experienced no slow downs or delays.

[Vettetech]

No need for real time spyware. Just scan once a week with a-squared and SAS. If you have a good firewall and anti virus you dont need a real time spyware program running.

[subset]

Hi,

Only a test: a-squared Anti-Malware paid vs. DFK Threat Simulator v2

Realtime protection and on demand scanner of A2 did not find the trojan in iPod-commercial.exe ???
KAV realtime protection found Trojan-Dropper.Win32.VB.sa
AVG Anti-Spyware free on demand scanner found Trojan.Small

I disabled KAVs realtime protection and started iPod-commercial.exe.
A2 was dead and gone, killed by an over one year old tool :ouch:
Threat Simulator ended A2 and infected files with trojans.
KAV found:
Trojan.Win32.VB.bgm in file C:\Programs\a-squared Anti-Malware\a2start.exe//PE_Patch//UPX
Trojan.Win32.VB.bgm in file C:\Programs\a-squared Anti-Malware\a2scan.exe//PE_Patch//UPX

KAV was not ended or infected by Threat Simulator :thumb:

So what do you think about a-squared Anti-Malware paid features? ::)
"Number of Malware signatures: Trojans 654987"
"Live detection of Trojan downloaders"
Process termination protection? On access and on demand detection?
Worth the money? :wacko:

Cheers

[LoneWolf]

-{ Quote: "
So what do you think about a-squared Anti-Malware paid features? ::)
" }-

Well I dont know what everyone else thinks of A-Squared but i'll give you my opinion of EMSI software.
:thumbd: :thumbd: :thumbd: :thumbd: :thumbd: :thumbd: :thumbd: :thumbd: Yep, no fan here, caused from experiances with their software.

[chrome_sturmen]

-{ Quote: "Hi,

Only a test: a-squared Anti-Malware paid vs. DFK Threat Simulator v2

Realtime protection and on demand scanner of A2 did not find the trojan in iPod-commercial.exe ???
KAV realtime protection found Trojan-Dropper.Win32.VB.sa
AVG Anti-Spyware free on demand scanner found Trojan.Small

I disabled KAVs realtime protection and started iPod-commercial.exe.
A2 was dead and gone, killed by an over one year old tool :ouch:
Threat Simulator ended A2 and infected files with trojans.
KAV found:
Trojan.Win32.VB.bgm in file C:\Programs\a-squared Anti-Malware\a2start.exe//PE_Patch//UPX
Trojan.Win32.VB.bgm in file C:\Programs\a-squared Anti-Malware\a2scan.exe//PE_Patch//UPX

KAV was not ended or infected by Threat Simulator :thumb:

So what do you think about a-squared Anti-Malware paid features? ::)
"Number of Malware signatures: Trojans 654987"
"Live detection of Trojan downloaders"
Process termination protection? On access and on demand detection?
Worth the money? :wacko:

Cheers" }-


I just tested this myself - avira caught it (threat simulator)
avg caught it

a2 didnt catch it
superantispyware didnt catch it

I wonder if this is anything to be concerned about

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "
I wonder if this is anything to be concerned about" }-
I consider this as normal. Scanners have all a different signature database, what one scanner doesn't detect, might be detected by another scanner. The more scanners you have, the better. That's why I stopped using them, I needed too many of them.

[subset]

-{ Quote: "I consider this as normal." }-
Good grief! This was not a current trojan they missed.
This was an one year old malware simulator. :ouch:
Every AV/anti-trojan/anti-malware/anti-spyware app should detect it.

Cheers

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "Good grief! This was not a current trojan they missed.
This was an one year old malware simulator. :ouch:
Every AV/anti-trojan/anti-malware/anti-spyware app should detect it.

Cheers" }-
Missing signatures due to human mistakes are always possible and that can happen in any scanner, even the best.

[chrome_sturmen]

I also (earlier this week)tested a virus that blew me out of the water some months back. A-squared caught it (as did avira) but eset security suite found nothing.

[chrome_sturmen]

good grief.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "I also (earlier this week)tested a virus that blew me out of the water some months back. A-squared caught it (as did avira) but eset security suite found nothing." }-
That's why I replaced all these scanners with my Anti-Change Scanner, which removes any malware.
Running all these scanners and still having the feeling that not everything is removed, is just not good enough for me.

[EASTER]

Thats exactly why i harp so much over layered approach with strong encouragement for users to also use a solid dependable HIPS program.

Why wait untill you get hit, let a HIPS program do the hunting for you first, then your scanner can weed out the results.

A2Squared was always one of my favorite scanners because they updated the definitions regularly like AV's but over time it seems it's become larger & larger each time.

I don't bother with but one scanner anymore, SUPERAntiSpyware!

And it's a lonely world for it thanks in part to HIPS!

[chrome_sturmen]

good grief.

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "
I don't bother with but one scanner anymore, SUPERAntiSpyware!" }-
I ran SAS too and it didn't detect anything, just like all the other scanners.
There is nothing to detect, because I removed it already during reboot, except false positives of course.
Only scanners remove false positives, when the average user doesn't see the difference and damages his own computer.
A security software that damages your system ? Is that security ? ;)

[EASTER]

-{ Quote: "I ran SAS too and it didn't detect anything, just like all the other scanners.
There is nothing to detect, because I removed it already during reboot, except false positives of course.
Only scanners remove false positives, when the average user doesn't see the difference. ;)" }-

With a highly comprised setup of just the right efficient provisions as in Virtuals, Sandboxes, and HIPS along with AE and some others if so inclined, users like us, ;D can for all practical purposes SAFELY escape the extra time demands/wasted efforts of scanners without a doubt, especially if you're equipped with FD-ISR ARCHIVES! and a reliable imaging app. LoL

[chrome_sturmen]

erik, seems youre using a frozen isr snapshot

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "With a highly comprised setup of just the right efficient provisions as in Virtuals, Sandboxes, and HIPS along with AE and some others if so inclined, users like us, ;D can for all practical purposes SAFELY escape the extra time demands/wasted efforts of scanners without a doubt, especially if you're equipped with FD-ISR ARCHIVES! and a reliable imaging app. LoL" }-
I recently ran AVG Anti-Malware, 26 minuts to scan my system partition !!! No threats found.
I do the same job in less than 2 minuts. Does my boot-to-restore save TIME ? I'm convinced it does, the numbers prove it and I have alot more examples than AVGAM, to prove it.

[EASTER]

-{ Quote: "I recently ran AVG Anti-Malware, 26 minuts to scan my system partition !!! No threats found.
I do the same job in less than 2 minuts. Does my boot-to-restore save TIME ? I'm convinced it does, the numbers prove it and I have alot more examples than AVGAM, to prove it." }-

I almost forgot, the FROZEN snapshot! A sure return to a clean slate on reboot.

I like your enthusiasm & admire the loyalty to FD-ISR but i like mine even better w/o freeze snapshot but instead Power Shadow or Returnil. I save even more time with PS.