I need a free online virus scanner

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Melita, Dec 23, 2020.

  1. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    But the worst case scenario is most likely never going to happen to the average user. It's clear that you are more than a little paranoid. That's fine, but it would help if you educated yourself more about security before giving ridiculous advice such as the following.
    My many years of experience tells me that the internet is not nearly a scary a place as you think it is. I know that in my case, "worst case scenarios" are most likely never going to happen.
     
  2. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    @roger_m
    the more I educate myself the more paranoid I become, just read some of the cybersecurity articles, and you will start to question any files on your host.

    I wish I've never read any of that. It is when you are ignorant that you don't fear stuff you don't see

    I think in your job you can't allow yourself to be paranoid, otherwise how you would clean 100+ computers a year.
    that's reassuring thank you,

    anyway "throw your stuff if you see malware" was a quote from this Youtuber,

    exact quote here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYDbmHdfW_g

    he also is an IT guy like you with experience, who should I listen to and why? shoudl I listen to roger_m or elithecomputerguy (lol)

    all the best
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2021
  3. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    the only difference between my quote and eithecomputer guy's quote was that I add routers to the untrusted hardware list, since the attack on routers is trending, and I've seen malware like that, will hard reset of an infected router suffice? I don't know, it could be re-programmed so on factory reset it comes back to maliciously modified version?
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2021
  4. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    @roger_m

    what do you think of what elithecomputerguy said about throwing away equipment, what a person like me can know who is right?
     
  5. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I've read many cybersecurity articles, and I'm not even the slightest bit paranoid when it comes to security and never have been. I spent many hours a day, 7 days a week browsing the internet, including regularly visiting unknown websites, and I've been doing that for years without getting infected. While I did recently get infected - for the first time in many years, as I've already stated, it was because I manually opened an infected file. The infection didn't just happen by itself.

    To put it simply, my many years of experience tells me that I don't need to be paranoid, because if you take just a little care, it is extremely hard to get infected. If that wasn't true I would most likely get infected regularly. But I don't, except for the case I've already mentioned.
    I never said that I clean 100+ computers a year. I've done many clean installs of Windows in the last year as I regularly buy and sell computers, as well as doing clean installs on some of my own computers. One of my computers is running 40 Windows 10 installs. When I clean an infected computer it is rare for me to do a clean install. I prefer to do a clean the computer instead. That way nothing needs to be reinstalled. I've never encountered an infection that I could not fully clean. But there are a handful of cases where malware damaged Windows to the extent, that doing a clean install, sadly was the only viable option.
    I have seen a few of his videos and have never liked his content much. Bear in mind that he is not an expert in computer security. Neither am I, but my opinion is based on my experience over thousands of hours of computer usage. Now, I'm saying you have to take note of what I say. But, if I'm spending countless hours online without getting infected or my antivirus even encountering malware, then clearly the same can be the case for just about anyone else if they take a bit of care.

    Anyway, if you want to watch some YouTube videos about computer security, password managers, backups and many other topics, I highly recommend watching Leo Noteboom's videos on his channel Ask Leo!
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIcDD_2ewPpM6dk9rZlHEBA
    His videos are concise, informative, and he really knows his stuff. What he says, makes a lot of sense. While I typically learn little from his videos, as I am often well versed about what he is discussing, I agree with what he says.
     
  6. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    ? ;)
     
  7. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I think she should from her own opinions, but when she posts ridiculous information such as throwing away infected devices, I think it's worth pointing out that it's bad advice.
     
  8. jmonge

    jmonge Registered Member

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    Roger what scaner did clean your pc when you got infected?
     
  9. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    Kaspersky Removal Tool
    AdwCleaner
    HitmanPro

    I sometimes also use Malwarebytes and some other tools too
     
  10. jmonge

    jmonge Registered Member

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    That's super cool my friend
     
  11. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    define "infection" as kind of malware - and you have all options about cleaning ;)
     
  12. Melita

    Melita Registered Member

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    Not really. I have been following this with great interest :)
     
  13. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    the problem is that bleeping computers advice is a clean install with recognized malware infection 1) malware can infect usb 2) if you have more than 1 disk, malware can jump back and forth between drives 3) network infections 4) you can never know for sure what happened in the post exploitation process

    it is safer to clean instal from CD = bought from an official store, or at run the clean install from different OS, like ubuntu/whatever
    you assume malware and its writers are not aiming at persistence, which might be the case, but as said I assume the worst case scenario, and certainly would not advise banking on infected pc, even after cleaning. Host not to be trustworthy so to speak so you have three options: throw away/destroy 2) sell 3) use for other things but NOT banking. If you clean PC as a professional you certainly would never advise to throw away the client's stuff, that makes sense with what you do. But if you can rebuy anew why risking: that is because some malware integrates perfectly with host and does not cause any slowdowns crashes or other signs of infection (again worst case scenario), call me or ridiculous or whatever but I do follow some logic reinforced by external advice, the Op as well as me can form their own opinion based on what he found and experienced: bleeping computer always advices a clean install, they try to clean with toolbars, adware etc, but once they find a trojan, its immediately a clean install advice (or wiping, wiping is safer, backed by saving data to external disks), I never said always throw away, you decide, I just said it is the safest option which clearly is, I also advised to wipe from external device and flash router
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2021
  14. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    Once again you are talking about absolute worst case scenarios, which realistically are exceptionally unlikely to happen and a lot of what you said it just simply bad advice. Firstly, you never need to replace devices after they are infected. Most infections can be cleaned without even having to reinstall Windows. But if you have a recent backup, for many people restoring from a clean backup, makes more sense than spending time cleaning an infection. Making regular backups is one of the best protections against malware. If your system gets infected, or if you lost data from malware, you can just restore from the backup and get your data back. If there's no backup of a system that gets infected, you can do a clean install from a flash drive. You can create a bootable Windows installation flash drive on a clean system. There's no need to use a DVD.

    It is also very rare for routers to get infected, particularly if you change the default password. So it's not something you need to worry about.

    To sum it up. Backup your system regularly and if you get infected, restore your system from a clean backup. That's all you need to do and there's no need to be paranoid. Although you insist that you're not, your posts indicate that you are extremely paranoid, otherwise you wouldn't be worrying about worst case scenarios that you, me and other users on here, will most likely never encounter. If you take some basic steps, such as keeping your system and vulnerable software updated and being careful about what files you open, then quite possibly you'll never get infected.
     
  15. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    so what you are using for protection, would you recommend network oriented tools such as black fog privacy?

    also you said there are no free scanners, which is not true
     
  16. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I use both 360 Total Security Premium and WiseVector StopX. 360 TS offers reasonable protection, whereas WiseVector is excellent. It's important to note two that it's generally a very bad idea to run two antiviruses together. However, 360 has a compatibility mode which allows it to run alongside another antivirus, and as a result I'd had no issues running both.

    For my usage, I don't feel the need to have the absolute best protection, as I can go for years without encountering any malware. If I was concerned about having the absolute protection, I would use something better than 360, and it would be my only antivirus. So don't take my usage of it as a recommendation.

    I personally don't feel the need to use something like BlackFog, although from what I've read about it in its thread here, it seems to be very good. The only other forms of protection I use are my browser's (Slimjet) built in ad blocker and the Netcraft Extension. I also use a VPN. But doing so provides no protection against malware. Bear in mind that,

    Every few months I run scans with one or more of the following. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, Emsisoft Emergency Kit and HitmanPro. The first two are free, and I never said there are no free scanners. The free version of HitmanPro scans for malware, but the first time you use it to remove malware, it starts a 30-day trial of its removal features. After the 30 days, you can still use it to scan for, but not remove malware.
     
  17. Floyd 57

    Floyd 57 Registered Member

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    Well you can delete the files manually so no big deal
     
  18. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    Ok - maybe I missed something
    you seam to become attached to this word "paranoia", which I can accept , since you make me feel safe:) this is exactly what I need

    the problem with blackfog is there are no tests showing its efficacy

    I hope you are using some firewall along AV, anyway we derailed this thread and I am sorry for that. My opinion on second opinion scanners is that they are useless (once you are infected you should back up your data and wipe instead, you can try to scan to see what happened but disconnect from the Internet if you know you are infected, anyway this is no dissimilar to bleeping computers recommendation), I still use second opinion scanner though from time to time to see what is happening
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2021
  19. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I'm just using 360's firewall, which is using Windows Firewall. 360 adds very little, it just warns about some suspicious connections without blocking them until you chose to allow or deny them. A firewall which actually blocks suspicious outgoing connections, until they are manually allowed, is worth using.

    It's best to be connected to the internet when using second opinion scanners, since so many detections are cloud based these days. Without an internet connection, the detection rate will drop a lot. There are some exception though, such as Dr.Web CureIt! which does not need an internet connection. Second opinion scanners are very useful for finding infections that your real-time protection misses. If your antivirus blocks an infection, then usually there's nothing to worry about as the infection was blocked. If however, your system actually get infected, then it is a good idea to restore from a clean backup. In my case, I usually will just try and clean the infection. The exception would be if I couldn't remove the infection for some reason. But for the average user, it's generally best to restore from a backup.
     
  20. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    @roger_m viruses like andromeda will early launch and detect process explorer and similar so you will never find it with detection tools, I am sure these mechanisms are implemented in new malware and that you can get it if you're unlucky , quite alot of ppl got this infection https://blog.avast.com/andromeda-under-the-microscope
     
  21. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I never use Process Explorer or anything like that. In any case, I'm not concerned because I know how hard it is to get infected. If you aren't careful, it is easy to get infected and this is why so many people get infected. But with just a little care, it is usually very hard.

    I've got much better things to do with my life than worry about the tiny chance of getting infected.
     
  22. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    @Melita maybe I already said that but NVT malware scanner is not bad, it updates its definitions and finds stuff that other AV would never do (type in no virus thanks malware scanner), maybe you want to give a try and remove at least some junk, this thing always find some unnecessary junk for me
     
  23. Floyd 57

    Floyd 57 Registered Member

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    upload_2021-5-13_14-13-21.png

    You mean this, that was last updated in 2011, 10 years ago? I think it's better u not use it :p
     
  24. lucd

    lucd Registered Member

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    the software yes, but did you try to download definitions, avz is also antique but you can still get recent database updates. It did not break my system yet, but cleans some stuff that I never need. It doesn't hurt but removes some junk which is ok, that's why I recommended
    I don't recommned nvt rootkit scanner as it is broken I emailed Andrea about this
     
  25. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    Its last signature update was in early 2012. I just tried it, as I'd never heard of it before. I ran a Flash Scan, as it seemed a Quick Scan would take a while, and it detected 19 threats. Every threat detected was a false positive. Although the lack of updates is reason enough to not use it.
     
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