Anyone heard of mks_vir 2004?

Hmmm ... like I said, send it in to them. They fixed my FP fast.

 

Typically online scanners do a straight scan on the surface.

 

- what does that mean?

Blackcat's response to ? about online vs resident scanner: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=232798#post232798

the one file in question that seem to contain many viruses (according to mks - not KAV) is this (posted at a tech board)

 

How were you able to run that test? MKS would not let me download it.

Later, I remembered I already had it on my hard drive from when I tested NOD32 about a month or more ago so I tried to run a full scan with mks to see how it would fare. Ha! my finger got so tired of deleting viruses that after about 50, I had to close mks. I then set the sensitivity to archives depth to 1 level and restarted the scan. Same thing. There appears to be no way to scan without taking action when a virus is found. Am I missing a setting?

I even tried excluding the folder but mks won't let me exclude it. MKS is way too sensitive. Plus, it scans my email even though I have it set not to do that. And then hangs on umpteen zillion emails that have some innoucous "virus" that is corrupted, or is eicar, etc.

I've decided I don't like it. I still can't get it to update. Stormbyte has been VERY helpful even on the weekend.. but not mks support. But after many emails and many posts, this problem is still there. It could probably have been solved in less than 5 minutes if there was free phone support. I do not want to repeat my experience with NOD32 where the support is so bad most of the time and is non-existent on the weekends and for two weeks at Christmas. I want an av that has free 24 hour phone support 365 days a year.

 

There's a setting under the archive setting about downloading archives in the monitor ... If you uncheck that it will d/l the file. Unfortunately I've been trying this at work so I can't give you a screenshot.

Once you get it d/led run a scan on the file and there's a checkbox that says "apply to all" or something like that (once again, it's at work!) so that when you click continue it keeps scanning until done.

As far as support goes, my wife is from Warsaw and that's the way it is in Poland. No overtime work!

 

Mele20,

For a complete scan, set up a profile (Scan>New Scan Profile) and for Action select Do Nothing. This will generate a report with the potential infections listed and nothing else, no user intervention involved. You could also select one of the active operations (rename/delete/quarantine), again without user intervention if you feel comfortable going that route.

For a single file/folder right click scan, you can accomplish the same end result by checking the box labelled "Repeat selected action" before selecting continue on the pop-up box requesting user action (which is equivalent to Do nothing except log to a report for the demand scanner).

As far as support goes, if you want 24/7 telephone support, your options appear limited. A quick check of some of the major vendor websites reveals the following:

Avast -- e-mail/web-support forum
AVG -- 24/7 e-mail support for commercial version only, web-support
BitDefender -- web-support/e-mail
Command -- e-mail support for home users, 24/7 telephone support for enterprise users only
Dr.Web -- e-mail/web-support; telephone support 8:00AM-9:30 PM Moscow time.
F-Prot -- e-mail support

F_Secure -- telephone support F-Secure estore customers only 8:00AM-6:00 PM CET, local partner/reseller telephone support, e-mail support; 24/7 telephone via Premium (paid) support only

Kaspersky -- telephone 24/7, reseller based web-support forum
McAfee -- e-mail support, telephone support paid per minute/incident 5:00 AM-11:00 PM (or 6:00AM-10:00PM)
mks_vir -- e-mail support, telephone support number provided, hours not listed
NOD32 -- e-mail/www support forum
Panda -- web-support
Symantec -- www Knowledge base, web-support, telephone support 6:00AM-5:00PM; M-F per incident charge
Trend Micro -- web-support

This is clearly not an inclusive list of all AV options, and I didn't look at all sites in detail, but clearly, if free 24/7 live telephone support is a must-have criteria for you to purchase an AV, the options are limited - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that if that is where your personalized "must-have" decision tree lead you.

Blue

 

If you go to the mks_vir site (not Stormbyte) it says 8-5 M-F

http://english.mks.com.pl/support.html

Matches up w/ my Polish wife's information on Poland!

 

msanto,

Thanks for the added information. This translates into 8:00 PM-5:00 AM for Mele20 in her local time.

Blue

 

Mahalo Blue. I don't know how I managed to miss the drop down choices which include "do nothing" for the on demand mks scanner. I just a ran a full scan using that choice. It found 998 viruses. Of course, almost all of those were from that test which is in the recycle bin and then found them again in System Restore.

mks has more false positives that does NOD32 or KAV. It is saying that my Ping Plotter version 2 is infected. It also claims that Ping Plotter Pro and Ping Plotter Pro Alpha are infected. The first one is the current release version which has been out for months. Of the latter two, the first is a fantastic version that is being tested and the author Pete Ness gave me and the last one is a version that Pete whipped up just for me when I was having problems. None of these have any viruses.

Further it is NOT true that the trial version is now the same as the real version. I just tried to send these from the log and got a popup telling me that I have to buy mks to get the ability to do this. I thought mks might like to know about these false positives but there is no way to send them. I can't even see how to copy this part of the report log. I can print it. That isn't much help.

I think mks has lots of promise ( and the 2005 version will probably be great) but it is too rough around the edges to use presently unless used as backup to a regular av.

Thank you for the list about the various av's and their support. I would add that Trend Micro has excellent toll free (for USA customers) phone support 8AM-5PM Pacific time M-F. I had PC-Cillian 2003 for 6 months and the phone support was great.

 

Send the files to mks support in the same manner as nearly every other AV app... via email. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

As for FPs, I'd rather have an AV that errs on the side of caution than one that doesn't. Apply common sense to potentially infected files and just skip them.

 

mks_vir seems to have a very good heuristics engine. I'd expect that with the much wider exposure that this AV is now getting, there will be a flurry of new false positives initially which should settle down as the program is tuned to the much wider range of applications it now experiences.

I also believe this AV shows lots of promise. I first installed mks_vir in mid-July. They've made great strides over the past month and a half and seem to have a solid tech support group.

It was my pleasure to pull that short list together. I knew KL offered extensive phone coverage, but I wasn't aware of the competition, so, my interest piqued, I decided to take a look. As expected, support strategies run the gamut of options. The one thing I have missed in that list is localized support provided by regional resellers and distributors. This is one type of product in which a local reseller can provide a definite value add. I'm sure that there are a number of instances where a local/regional reseller provides first class support which augments the main support.

Blue

 

OK - we'll put it on a things-to-be-concidered list for mks_vir 2005. Thanks for this suggestion.

 

Well, the weekend has come and gone and it is almost Tuesday here and nary a word from mks or Stormbyte regarding my inability to update mks. Stormbyte erases all messages at its board and will show only the last 24 hours of messages. So, my posts there are gone.

I have two days left for the trial so since no one seems to have any idea what is the problem I guess I might as well uninstall it. At least Stormbyte tried to help me. I can't say the same for mks support. After support asked for my logs last Thursday, I have never heard another word.

Support is very important to me. So, at this point mks is not for me.

 

Anyone here using Opera 7.5X with mks_vir? I notice alot of CPU spikes with the AV monitor on, while browsing with Opera.

 

That is simply not true. We do not erase any messages on our forum.

Mariusz

 

Mele20,

This is just the default view - alternate views readily available are 4, 8, 48 hours and one week. Older posts are readily located with a search. It's not the most easily navigated forum, but I can confirm that everything is there from looking in from time to time.

Blue

 

We asked you to switch off your local proxy server and test if this is what blocks your updates. You refused to do that.

We had to recreate such a configuration with Proximitron server in our testing environment. No problems occured with Proximitron in it's default configuration.

So we asked you for detailed configuration info and are waiting for your reply.

 

Well, I couldn't see any way to get anything other than 4 hours or 24 hours. Very weird forum software if you ask me. I have never seen anything like it before. I tried to do a search but couldn't. Maybe it is because I use Firefox and Mozilla and not IE. I don't know, but I do know I seem to have penchant for getting into strange setups and things when it comes to avs.

 

I don't understand. Stormbyte asked for the Proxo config files I use and I sent that information last Friday. I see an email that just arrived in the last 5 minutes from you. I'm not sure what more I can send about Proxomitron than I have already sent to Stormbyte.

I have loaded the default config for Proxo that you have in your test lab. So, we'll see if that makes a difference. I doubt seriously that it will but I could be wrong.

I am beginning to suspect the possibility that the problem has to do with the current install of the trial having perhaps installed onto a not completely uninstalled earlier trial that did not allow updating. I know that at least the settings were kept from the first trial that did not have updating available. Maybe I am grasping at straws here though

I don't believe this has anything to do with Proxomitron. Proxo has never caused any problems with any av I have used or trialed. What I don't understand is why mks keeps trying every hour to update automatically. It should not be doing that. I removed the task yet it still tries every hour to update automatically. I see a huge number of instances of Service Control Manager in Event Viewer/system showing that mks was sent a start control, started, then was sent a stop control. Now why is this happening when there is no task set for mks to auto update?

I just tried to manually update using the default Proxo config that you have. mks still cannot connect to the server. I really have the feeling this problem has something to do with the first trial version not uninstalling fully or something else entirely.

 

Just click on the "Forum" link above.

Mariusz

 

When I used you config files I had no problem when connecting to the update server.
Then i've notice that you have "proxy" enabled in mks_update config. So I enabled it and of course I had problems connecting to the update server. However you replied that with our without - you still can't update mks_vir.
Now I'm convinced that this may have something to do with you installing two different trial versions. Only problem is that trial version is to try the software and then either remove it or buy it, not install it all over again.

Mariusz
www.stormbyte.com

 

What you see is mks_vir 2004 checking for an "emergency" update.
Just in case there is some kind of "virus outbreak" it will get the newest virus definitions

Mariusz

 

I just tried to manually update using the default Proxo config that you have. mks still cannot connect to the server. I really have the feeling this problem has something to do with the first trial version not uninstalling fully or something else entirely.

I had a problem installing my liscenced version after uninstalling the demo. It kept showing up as the demo version, I finally had to do a system restore to a point prior to installing the demo and it loaded fine.
I have read in this forum and the stormbyte forum of your problems and I agree that the root problem is the result of that first demo uninstall or lack thereof.
I never figured out what the cause was but after the rollback all has been well.

 

I even dreamed about this last night!!

I wondered all along if the problem had something to do with the original trial version that I had for three days and then the trial version you could update was put up and so I uninstalled the first trial and got the one I could update. When I read in this forum that the trial does not uninstall properly, I thought "oh, no" but I didn't say anything. Now though, I am convinced that is the problem.

I guess I will have difficulty removing this trial version also. Ugh. I have no intention of reformatting. I really think mks should provide a trial that uninstalls properly and leaves NOTHING behind!! I guess I am going to have remnants of mks on this box and I have no idea if that will affect any other av I put on here. At least Symantec, which is notorious for leaving their stuff strewn all over your box after an uninstall, provides a tool to remove all the stuff left behind. If mks cannot make a product that totally removes itself during uninstall then at the very least they should provide a tool to do this. Otherwise, I don't think too many people will even try mks once word gets around that the uninstall is not complete. Since I read here that the uninstall is not clean, I know I am not the only one with this sort of problem.

 

Why don't you try to go back to a restore point prior to installing the first demo, you do not have to reformat.
It can't hurt to try and it is what I had to do. Hopefully they will/have fixed this issue.
If you get MKS to work I think you will see it is a very good AV, granted, still a little rough around the edges but with a lot of potential.
My experience with tech support has been stellar, fast and thorough. You want to know what lousy tech support is try to get support from extendia avk which I use on my main box. A great AV and I have not had a single problem with it, but it takes days sometimes to get a reply to a simple question. I will say that it seems to be improving of late. But if MKS continues to improve I will stay with it on both my comps.