A Panda Cloud Question

Does Panda only work when you are connected to the internet?
What happens if you are not connected?
For example:
you have a laptop computer with Panda installed, you take it with you on vacation and the place where you are has no wifi. A friend gives you a file that you put in via your USB.
Will Panda check it to see if it has a virus/trojan? even though it is not connected to the internet?

thanks
robin

 

Read this article, please: http://research.pandasecurity.com/arguments-against-cloud-based-antivirus/

 

i did thanks
one more question, in other avs it does definition updates and tells you, how do you know that this is going through the cloud and updating for defintions?
also when Panda comes out with a new version- does the program tell you? or i need to look in here when a new version comes out?
I looked around in their forum and did not see these answers btw

I put it on one of my test machines to see how it goes. If i like it I will add it to my collection of AV's to recommend to clients

thanks
robin

 

the only thing I do not like so far is its unability to do a scheduled scan. None of my clients are going to remember to do a scan, that would be a nice feature in the free and Pro versions. But i will give it a chance and see how it is doing, I installed the free version on Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 (32bit)

robin
robin

 

Everything about the AV is designed for the average user, truly a "set and forget" solution without too many bells & whistles. The local cache updates sometimes vary from 1-2 times a day and a day may be skipped (this activity can be seen in the event log, but otherwise is silent). The thing about Panda is that the definitions are in the cloud, so there is no check for updates or anything.

Panda automatically, and silently, upgrades you to the latest version in the background. For Starter/Home OS editions only, Panda Cloud notifies you with a popup and requests a restart. This is because of present limitations Microsoft placed for them and thus they cannot fix it.

Panda Cloud has a background scanning feature and this can be turned on in the settings. It is a "set and forget" scheduled scanning process, I suppose.

These questions are common and lie on the forum. Yeah, the search thingy is a bit tricky and.. stuff.

 

You don't need to, do a full scan when installed so PCAV can "map" your HD and then forget about it, everything is done with the non-tech user in mind.

You can see if it is connected to the cloud servers by starting a scan, if it is not connected it will say so in the small scan window.

 

They could have solved that with the icon in the taskbar changing color, instead of having to start a scan. I like to know if I am connected or not.

What do you guys think?

/E

 

They could easily do that and won't for quite obvious reasons: Imagine the floods on the in boxes at support or all robinb9's customers call her whenever those many who will get nervous at anything they do not understand (basically the intended users) a lot about pc's see the icon flash a different color: "Oh my god, oh my god, i'm not protected", not to mention the completely unnecessary (you're still protected if or when a bleep in your connection happens) stress these users will experience. For those who do understand and insist on checking there is that way to check like already described. So i cannot imagine this request will be granted since it is developed to provide max protection with the least amount of input from the user & least amount of worries.

Personally i certainly don't want a silly flashing icon for this option.

 

In addition the viewing the connection status when doing an on-demand scan, you can also see it in the configuration options under the proxy config.

 

ok on my test machine i did a full scan
it took 2 1/2 hours.
There is no more than 10gigs used on this machine and it has a 160gig hd
It is a core 2 due processor and prior to having Panda on it it had MSE which on a full scan took about an hour tops. I also noticed the cpu running when it did a scan at 100%.
After the scan just idling in the backround it was using 75% cpu, and I have basically nothing else on this machine other than superantispyware Pro running in the backround. MSE never made the machine run highter 4%
I uninstalled it and put Avast on it and did a full scan and it took about an hour also and after scan cpu is at 4%.

I wanted to use Panda Cloud for my beginner clients who have absolutely no idea what to do and would panic less but if this is proof, I cannot possibly use it now.

I have read in here and on your forum site that many have had high cpu issues with it running and when doing a full scan.

Why have the ability to do a scan in the program if you say there is no reason to do one? and i would recommend my clients to do one manually at least once a month.

Unless something changes when you come out with a newer version, I will retry it but now after this test I cannot. I will stick to MSE and or Avast for now.

robin

robin

 

I don't have your CPU issue, post scan ( but I also don't have SAS Pro running realtime) and you only need to do an Optimized scan anyway most of the time as it checks the most prevelent area where malware is found. Do a full scan only if you think something funny is going on or for your initial scan after installation as noted previously.

 

As others have said here now that Panda Cloud knows your system a full scan really won't be necessary. My experience is that after the initial full scan my subsequent scans have shortened by 20 to 30%. The optimized scan will be plenty good though...

 

As has been said above, Panda Cloud AV will do some fingerprinting and background scanning by itself without the need for you to run a full scan. It is designed with the basic basic basic user in mind so that required user-interaction is exactly zero after installation (except Home/Starter Editions of the OS who need to hit "Apply upgrade and reboot" button about two or three times a year for automatic upgrades).

 

The scan doesn't bother me, and if you said i could do a short scan if needed, what bothers me is the high cpu usage when it is just idling.

robin

 

That's probably just the background scan after installation. You should give it a day to adjust and get to know your system. The best strategy is to install, perform a quick/optimized scan to force it to fingerprint the important files and then just leave it alone. You will see the CPU use drop considerably.

If you are still seeing high CPU usage it might be due to a conflict with some other particular software. Then you'd have to take a look if there are other security software installed on the system (or software running in the background that's going through your data like indexing/search software) to see where the problem lies. But again if it is some type of software which reads or writes a bunch of files from your drive then PCAV will eventually fingerprint those as well and ease up on the CPU usage.

In summary, give it a day or two after install to do its thing before judging its resource consumption.

 

Panda Cloud Antivirus is the lightest antivirus I've used. Perfect for netbooks.

I do think Panda should make it more clear about the fingerprinting and for people to expect background activity initially.

I've seen Robin's experience repeated elsewhere, and so always try to warn people. When techie types try out Panda - without knowing about the fingerprinting - they end up removing it as it'll seem slower than they were expecting.

 

I doubt if it is conflicting with anything else, since Avast nor MSE conflicts with Superantispyware Pro- that is the only thing on this machine since I only use it as a test machine and I know what would or would not conflict it
What I will do is put it on another test machine I have with just about the same configurations like this one bit a bit slower.
I will take your advise and run only an optimized scan and let it be for a few days then see what happens.

I will report back in about a week to tell you how it did on this machine. If it survives this machine then I might re think it.
robin

 

IIRC there was a small conflict with Superantispyware. You might want to try it without SAS to see if your testing results are different.

 

what is the conflict? because almost all my client computers including mine run with superantispyware Pro
robin

 

I just installed it on my other test machine and did the optimized scan.
then i went to eicar.com and did a antiivirus test.
I waited for something to popup to tell me I was infected but nothing happend
I went into the program and saw it caught the test but my concern is that I was not notified that there was a virus.

that concerns me alot. How the heck are my clients going to know if they actually got something and Panda Caught it if Panda doesn't popup with a notice.
Every other antivirus program out there either sends out a scream or pops up in your face you got a virus. If a website is infected and panda grabs it how is anyone going to know not to go back to that website again if Panda doesn't Pop something up in your face
robin

 

also i just did another one and did it as per instructions at eicar.com. Last time I copied and pasted the script and saved it. Panda did not grab it.
I then right clicked and asked Panda to Scan it- then it got it

As per eicar.com it states as soon as you try to save it the antivirus program should grab it.

So i did another test and named it eicar.txt
again nothing happened until i asked Panda to scan it

So it looks like the only way Panda could catch it is by rightclicking the file
Again not a good thing

robin

 

ok this time i did a test using eicar.com and saved it as "all files"
this time it popped up and said there was a virus
why did it not work on the txt file?

Again I like the concept of this program because you can just set it and leave it and i do not have to give a client who is a beginner a manual and then sit there for 2 hours explaining it to them.
so i am really trying to test this so i can recommend it.
robin

 

.txt files can't be malicious since its just text so iirc thats the reason Panda Cloud does not detect it in .txt format.

 

also i installed the toolbar (which i uninstalled seperately afterwards)
Why is there a security toolbar if it has offers for apps and coupons? isn't that like spyware?
Do you need the toolbar for Panda to stop malicious web pages? or will it work without it also?
I did not uninstal the Panda URL filtering.

Also it was locking up ie9 on both computers- took it off and all was well.
Also I enabled backround scanning after cache syncronization, is that ok?
I read I think on panda's site to check it if I wanted more protection

robin

 

As per explanation On : -http://www.eicar.org/85-0-Download.html-