Virus scans?

How often do you schedule a virus scan

 

Twice a year?

 

Isn't that a bit much?
I guess to help Wings out, could it be once a week? Once a day? Looks like Wings is having a boring day.

 

As for myself I do it weekly,i dont really know how often a person should, but i figure once a week is probaly safe (at least i'm hoping)
rita

 

Thank you Rita. That's what I'm doing. Just wondering if there's any reason to do it more frequently.

 

Every other day for me, but i'm paranoid so.....

As Rita said, once a week should suffice.



snowbound

 

i do it every week with Trend Micro Internet Security 2005

 

The reason I asked is that I had 2 trojans infecting my computer that my AV caught in the weekly scan. I was wondering if I should set up more frequent scans or get an AT. I'd prefer to do the former and I was trying to see if anybody was doing more frequent scans.

 

You should set up more scans and get an AT. I normally scan with my AV everyday, never finds nowt but hey thats paranoia for ya

Ive had an AT for a while and once you have one its hard to surf without it, cant be to careful these days, you could always trial some before you buy to.

 

Jon
i believe an AT would be a good thing to have-they detect things an av doesnt if i understand right
rita

 

My AV did find the Trojans and I did an online Trojan Scan and I was clean. Do you use an AT Rita? I guess an AT would be a more effective protection.

 

Honestly? Never. Usually only to get that green checkmark in antiviruses (everything enabled/checked) I'm always sure that my system is clean.
The only thing that i always have is an installed AV before i connect to internet.

 

yes i am using tds now--the trial version--very good prog
rita

 

RejZor are you running an AT? What do you use to secure your computer?

 

I do a nightly scan - I'm sleeping, why not? I figured that I might as well use the CPU cycles, I don't see a downside here. I generally setup all my scans during off hours (overnight or while I'm away at work) with report only or ask user type settings. That way, I get a flag if something's found and can manually check it out.

Blue

 

Only avast!. I think its powerful enough in all areas. Trojans are also covered pretty good through generic trojan detection.
Other thing is common sense You get used to it when you're so much into security stuff Maybe Ad-aware and Spybot (and Spython in System Mechanic 5) from time to time, but thats pretty much all.

 

I usually scan once a day, like alot of others here i also use an anti-trojan, the big three in this category is BOClean, TDS-3 and Trojan Hunter.

 

I only do a full scan if I have symptoms of an infection. I have only had one infection ever and that was because I didn't know I needed to scan a new blank, store bought, plastic wrapped floppy for viruses before using. For me, any regular scans would be overkill. The AV I am currently trialling suggests to not do regular scans. In fact, every AV (with one exception) I have used suggests to not do regular scans. Only do them if you have signs of an infection.

 

You can't be serious!!!

If you only do scans when you have signs of an infection and you have only been infected once - that means you've only done one scan in your life, right!

My AVs have always had a weekly scan scheduled by default. In between times I sometimes do scans with alternatives like Adaware, an AT etc. So I guess I'm scanning maybe every three days or so.

 

I look at it from this, my own personal point of view, way.

Generally about every 4-6 weeks I will do one FULL system scan with AV and AT.

If RTM is on in my AT/AV and also running AdWatch PRO/SG with SpywareBlasters killbits set, then doing very regular scans [for me] is redundant.

I also have things set up totally manual, I need to watch my scans, as with KAV 4.5 PRO w/- Super Xtended Databases, I have it set to report only and have a few test trojans to alert to, which I have to OK, so like to watch it.
Only takes 35 mins with around 152,000 files, 2883 folders, 2243 archived folders, and 921 packed files.

Cheers, TAS

 

i guess... do it every week if u can? i used to do it less frequently. but sometimes you may jus be so unlucky....

 

I check the disk only after i install AV. After that i leave the protection to On-Access (Real-Time) module. Thats why its there.

 

I guess the other reason to perform somewhat more regular scans is the variable time delay between a potential infection and when a new signature or adaptation of heuristic analyses are released. The need for this will depend on the relative settings employed for the realtime monitor vs. the on-demand scanner.

Blue

 

Yeah i know that, but if you're at least a bit careful than there is a very very small chance of infection.

 

You mean 'cos your RTM is keeping it out, there is no point in scanning?

But I don't have a resident guard for my AS or AT so I think maybe they'll pick something up scanning that my AV guard could have missed.

Perhaps I'm overscanning 'cos I admit I never find anything, so it's just for reassurance really.

Are there any hardware implications from over-zealous scanning, like shortenning the life of your drive etc?