The Vent and Rant Thread

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

They were just warming up the ole Spend-O-Meter (TM).

pffft

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Neko-chan, it is both the login prompts and the passwords.

It seems that it is something that Symantec have issued as part of the auto-updates to their security programs, following the Firefox3 release.

It doesn't only affect me....
It does also affect IE 7....

Luckily for me, and despite a Symantec advisor's warning not to, I was able to remedy by restore from my most recent login/password backup.

problem solved, for me anyway, and until the next time ....

<sigh>

You are discussing the reasons I don't use Norton Internet Security. Too many problems.

For A/V, I use Symantec Corporate, which has never caused a problem. For firewall, I have layered defenses. There's a hardware firewall in my Linksys router, the old freeware Sygate Personal Firewall on desktop and laptop, and Windows Firewall was left enabled because it doesn't conflict with anything.

I don't use "active" anti-spyware defenses. I have Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy, run them occasionally, and never find more than tracking cookies.

My biggest security measures are three things:

1) I keep Windows fully patched, with auto updates on. (And I just got the first critical security patch for IE 8 beta 1...)

2) I don't use Internet Explorer for regular browsing. Half of the spyware/malware/etc. out there targets IE. Don't run IE, and it bounces off.
(I have IE around for occasional testing, with carefully selected destinations.)

3) My primary email account it GMail. The other half of the nasty stuff tends to arrive as disguised attachments to email messages. GMail is wen based, and while I could have it downloaded through POP, I prefer the web interface. Attachments stay on Google's servers, and don't reach my machine unless I specifically choose to download them. I know who they are from and what they are before I do.

I've never had a problem with adware/spyware/malware, and the only stuff Symantec ever finds tends to come from newsgroups which I harvest with an automated process. (Binary newsgroups are problematic because of that.)
______
Dennis

[Patricia]

I would like to vent and rant about AVG 8 antivirus.
I used AVG 7 and 7.5 (free editions) with no problems. I used to call down blessings on the nice Czechs who gave us free antivirus and anti-spyware which worked and caused no trouble.
Then they flashed up messages saying that AVG would no longer support 7.5 after May. Later they extended the deadline till late June. So I downloaded AVG 8, which contained both antivirus and anti-spyware. Oh dear. What a mistake. It took up a great deal of space. It fought with Spybot Search and Destroy. It really didn’t play well with others. My Comodo firewall didn’t like it either. Then it slowed down my internet connection to a crawl (thanks to its linkscanner, which I promptly disabled). And it stopped updating automatically; instead telling me that the internet connection had failed. So my first job on going online was to run a manual update. I consoled myself with the belief that an important update was on its way. I might have managed to live with all this. But then the SP1 appeared a couple of days ago. The result was all the previous problems still occurred, plus a demand for continuous rebooting so that updates could take effect. (They didn’t.)
So I did a Google search for AVG 8 problems and discovered that lots of other people had identical issues. I also discovered that AVG 7.5 will be tacitly supported till the end of 2008. So I searched for AVG 7.5 (and found it on filehippo), reinstalled it, and everything is lovely again. I found the anti-spyware at the same site.
I might try AVG 8 again at Christmas, just to see whether they have ironed out the problems. If not, then I'm off to either Avira or Avast.
Why is it that when people have a perfectly nice program they go on to spoil it, and make something that is really stupid?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Why is it that when people have a perfectly nice program they go on to spoil it, and make something that is really stupid?

ooh, i would like an answer to that same question. please let me know if you find one.

in case it's any help, i use avast and i've had no trouble with it so far.

[DMcCunney]

As mentioned earlier in the thread. I use Symantec Corporate A/V. It has worked flawlessly for years. Updates are handled automatically, downloaded once a week from Symantec's site.

I don't use "active" spyware/malware software. Such things almost always get into the PC via security holes in Windows and IE. I keep Windows fully patched via Automatic Updates, and I don't use IE for normal browsing. I vastly prefer Firefox, not only for security, but because it's a far more powerful and extensible browser.

I have Ad Aware and Spybot S&D, and run them occasionally. All they ever find are "tracking" cookies, which are a nuisance, not a threat.

In the grim humor department, I downloaded and installed beta 1 of IE 8, which is supposed to be Microsoft's big "web standards support" update, the way IE 7 was supposed to plug the security holes. Two days later, I got my first Critical Update patching a security flaw in IE 8...

Installing IE 8 also breaks visiting Windows Update. You must check the box in IE 8 that specifies "Emulate IE 7", then restart the browser to successfully use IE 8 on Windows Update. I was truly bemused by that.

I could almost get away with not running A/V software at all. The majority of the stuff A/V solutions protect against are delivered in email as attachments. I use GMail as my primary account, and don't use the POP delivery option: I prefer the web interface. The mail gets delivered to GMail, and attachments all stay on Google's servers unless I choose to download them. I know who they are from and what they are before I do.

I keep Symantec A/V around for the occasional piece of garbage that tends to show up in binary newsgroups, and for the occasional infected website that tries to inject something, even in Firefox. (I'm not sure how, since I run the NoScript extension that turns off scripting unless the site is on a whitelist, but since Symantec catches it, I haven't been motivated to investigate.)
______
Dennis

[RWood]

There is also a speed and timing issue with AVG Free 8. In 7.5 I could set the start time and everything ran fine. Sometime in the dead of the night worked great for me. Now 8 has this feather up its unchangeable whatever that the system A/V scan has to start at 3:00 pm local time. If I don't like 3 then I have to pay. Well, maybe I could live with it. After all 7.5 finished in about 45 minutes and it was benign in the background, how much worse could 8 be than that? The new version that kicks off at 3 spins the hard drives enough to give me a headache (and that's a hard thing to do.) Plus the 45 minutes now extends to four and one-half hours. At that speed I expect every file to either gold plated or hand dipped in chocolate.

After the virus that rolled in here behind the wheel of a Mac truck through the Norton A/V shield, I can't bring myself to trust them again even though I still have the rights to the corporate license agreement for a few more years. (Long story about a client's requirements to work with them, they only lost about a third of their computers to the same Mac truck driving virus. I had current backups.)

Thanks for the tip on FileHippo, Patricia. I'll grab it befre this thing scans again.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RWood

After the virus that rolled in here behind the wheel of a Mac truck through the Norton A/V shield, I can't bring myself to trust them again even though I still have the rights to the corporate license agreement for a few more years. (Long story about a client's requirements to work with them, they only lost about a third of their computers to the same Mac truck driving virus. I had current backups.)

It's the fundamental problem with A/V: it can only catch what it has an electronic signature for. We got nailed at a former employer by as new one that wasn't in Symantec's A/V database yet.

We also got nailed by one that exploited a Windows vulnerability, and would not have bit if all systems had been fully patched. After that, management bit the bullet and turned on auto-update, but updates were served from our own WSUS server, so we could minimize the network bandwidth required, and block things like IE7 till there was a chance to determine if it was compatible with "mission critical" applications like our electronic timesheet system.
______
Dennis

[zelda_pinwheel]

YEEEAAAAARRRCHHH !!!!


MOSQUITOES !!!!!!


AAAAARRRRGGH !!!!!

[Patricia]

Yes, aren't they annoying?
At least we're not in Scotland. The midges there are appalling at this time of year.

[zelda_pinwheel]

well yes, thank heaven for that, then.


...what are midges, exactly ? do they bite ??

i just got bit by the mosquito directly from HELL at least 3 times on my right foot and at least 2 times on my left foot, apparently in the space of about 30 seconds, and now i want to cut my feet off at the ankles to stop the itching. i put a cream on but it doesn't seem to be helping much.

arg ! usually i like living near the canal but sweet baby jesus on a cracker somebody get me some napalm for the mosquitoes !!! or a flamethrower, at least !!!! CRIMINY !!!!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Yes, aren't they annoying?
At least we're not in Scotland. The midges there are appalling at this time of year.

"What do they live on when they can't get Hobbit?"
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

...what are midges, exactly ? do they bite ??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge_(insect)


______
Dennis

[Patricia]

Midges are a small mosquito-like insect. They live in swarms in Scotland and the North of England, emerge in warm weather and sting people.

Have you tried ice on your bites? (as well as ointment).

[DixieGal]

Holy Sheet on a Stick!

[Patricia]

Don't panic, DixieGal. That's not life-sized.
But I'm glad we moved away from Scotland.