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 virus scanner set off by installer
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corcorda
New Member

2 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  10:42:52 AM  Show Profile
The installer for visual assist (all version) puts a file called "ginstall.dll" into your temporary directory. This file is reported by f-prot antivirus as a "security risk or backdoor program".

I've upgraded f-prot to the latest version of it's virus database and have tried installing all version of visual assist. All produce the same result.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is the file actually infected or is f-prot wrong? It's not possible to continue the installation without disabling f-prot which I don't want to do until I'm sure it's not a virus.

LarryLeonard
Tomato Guru

USA
1041 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  11:42:17 AM  Show Profile
Norton AV has never complained...

Actually, maybe you can answer a question that has bugged me ever since some yo-yo complained that 'Panda AV' was saying my program was a virus. Why do people use AV programs like 'f-prot'?

I'm not saying anything bad about 'f-prot' (mostly because I've never heard of it before). It's just that when someone says "Anti-Virus", I automatically think "Norton". Everything I've ever read tells me it's the best, or at least second best. They've been around forever; they're the industry leader.

(Yes, yes, I'm guilty of group-think, but you know what? Sometimes the industry leader makes the best product. Go figure.)

So why do people use other products? Why did you choose 'f-prot'? Just curious...

Edited by - LarryLeonard on Jun 28 2004 11:50:13 AM
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Chris Nahr
Ketchup Master

92 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  12:33:00 PM  Show Profile
The Norton name has been around forever but the current products of that name have nothing to do with Peter Norton, the man who wrote the first "Norton Utilities" some, er, 15 years ago or so. I've stopped using "Norton" stuff soon after the label was sold to Symantec who seemed to do nothing but add bloat and bugs. They came out with ridiculous stuff like "CrashGuard" that promised to protect you from crashes but would actually CAUSE crashes!

So while their AV program might be quite good, the Norton name is definitely tarnished in my opinion. Some AV programs also have the powerful advantage that they offer free (restricted/unsupported) licenses. Besides, I'm pretty sure I've read about false alarms with NAV... there's always a possibility for such things. Just add a notice to your website about the false alarm so that people know what's going on.

(By the way... no offense, but is "your program" a commercial product? If so, are you sure you want to publicly advice people to only use software from big corporations? Sounds a little self-defeating...)
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corcorda
New Member

2 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  12:37:40 PM  Show Profile
We used to use McAffee and Norton in the office but we had too many people with crashes and lockups and various other problems so we searched for a nice solution that everyone could use (on all platforms) and found f-prot to be perfect.

It's only ever given me 2 false positives (and I don't think it's missed any viruses). Both false positives (this one inclusive) have been for visual assist... which is weird.

It's a fantastic virus scanner that I would recommend to anyone.

Also, if everyone used the industry leading OS with the industry leading firewall and industry leading virus scanner wouldn't it be funny if someone wrote a virus that exploited a weakness in Norton firewall to attack a weakness in Windows and sits a custom written trojan that isn't picked up by Norton antivirus on the system. I think diversity in security software is a good thing otherwise a bug in the software can really cause havoc.

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LarryLeonard
Tomato Guru

USA
1041 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  1:01:08 PM  Show Profile
quote:
Originally posted by Chris Nahr

The Norton name has been around forever but the current products of that name have nothing to do with Peter Norton, the man who wrote the first "Norton Utilities" some, er, 15 years ago or so. I've stopped using "Norton" stuff soon after the label was sold to Symantec who seemed to do nothing but add bloat and bugs. They came out with ridiculous stuff like "CrashGuard" that promised to protect you from crashes but would actually CAUSE crashes!

So while their AV program might be quite good, the Norton name is definitely tarnished in my opinion. Some AV programs also have the powerful advantage that they offer free (restricted/unsupported) licenses. Besides, I'm pretty sure I've read about false alarms with NAV... there's always a possibility for such things. Just add a notice to your website about the false alarm so that people know what's going on.
Thanks for the input; very interesting...

quote:
Originally posted by Chris Nahr(By the way... no offense, but is "your program" a commercial product? If so, are you sure you want to publicly advice people to only use software from big corporations? Sounds a little self-defeating...)
Nah, I'm not advicing anyone to do anything; I'm just saying when you say "soup", I think "Campbell's", and am curious what makes other people think, "Ann Page brand".
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LarryLeonard
Tomato Guru

USA
1041 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  1:03:53 PM  Show Profile
quote:
Originally posted by corcorda

We used to use McAffee and Norton in the office but we had too many people with crashes and lockups and various other problems so we searched for a nice solution that everyone could use (on all platforms) and found f-prot to be perfect.
Interesting... thanks!

quote:
Originally posted by corcorda
Also, if everyone used the industry leading OS with the industry leading firewall and industry leading virus scanner wouldn't it be funny if someone wrote a virus that exploited a weakness in Norton firewall to attack a weakness in Windows and sits a custom written trojan that isn't picked up by Norton antivirus on the system. I think diversity in security software is a good thing otherwise a bug in the software can really cause havoc.
Good point; so in a way, the more other people buy non-Norton AV products, the safer I am!
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Uniwares
Tomato Guru

Portugal
2321 Posts

Posted - Jun 28 2004 :  1:38:41 PM  Show Profile
Just look at the virus (forgot the name, black-something) which specifically targeted IIS's firewall product and destroyed the host. This is a good sample of a product specific attack. Pretty impressive. And there are already many virii which disable existing defenses (firewall, AV, etc) if they "somehow" pass through.
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edlogic
New Member

2 Posts

Posted - Apr 12 2005 :  4:32:22 PM  Show Profile
I used to use Norton from way back before Windows !
I was stuck on Norton Ghost for a long while but I found Image for Windows ! Now I am proud to say that I am Norton Free !!!!!! YeHaw !

Norton is good for some things just as long as you don't install it that is ...
I think that if I picked the singular most pointed to product concerning computer operating system problems - it would have to be something with Norton in the works ...

I now use Panda AntiVirus and it is saying that there is a trojan virus in the VA downloads for the current version and the previous version .

VA_X_Setup1298.exe
and
VA_X_Setup1301.exe

Panda says there is the Trj/Small.JW trojan in there .

Also from their info page :
Other interesting characteristics of Small.JW are:
* The file that carries out the infection is 587857 bytes.



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support
Whole Tomato Software

5566 Posts

Posted - Apr 12 2005 :  8:29:26 PM  Show Profile
We suspect strongly the error is due to a slight rev change in the product we use to protect against cracking.

Make sure your virus signatures are up-to-date.
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edlogic
New Member

2 Posts

Posted - Apr 12 2005 :  10:04:12 PM  Show Profile
Thanks for the fast reply .

I am using the Panda Platinum 7.x
Fresh install so it updated itself several times and I was pretty sure it was at the latest level .

I will double check tomorrow and post again when I find something .

Previously I had the Panda ClientSheild service but changed because of a different software issue ...

Thanks again .

Your fast reply makes me feel even better about recommending VA to my employer - several years ago .

I will do it again !
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