Malware?

[LiamT]

Hi!

I have received two notifications from avast! to say there is possible Malware on my laptop. I have no idea how to check this, let alone prevent it. Help!!

My computer is a Dell Inspiron and I have Norton 360 (paid for) and avast! (free).

Is having two seperate antvirus devices bad?

Thanks in advance,

Liam

[Marcus]

Hi!...Is having two seperate antvirus devices bad?...

Liam

Welcome to MBAM's forums, Liam

You can have two (or as many as you like) antivirus programs installed at the same time without a problem.

The important thing is there should only ever be one running and scanning at any one time (the terms "Resident scanner" or "Realtime scanner" are often used to describe the bit of the program that does this).

If you try running more than one scan simultaneously from different AV programs it's a certainty that you'll encounter conflicts, false positive errors, system hangs and other glitches that is if one AV software will even tolerate the presence let alone the activity of another vendor's AV software.

Your protection will not be improved by doing this; in fact it'll likely be damaged to the point of having no protection at all.

In short there should be only one AV scanner scanning anything at any one time.

So it's not bad as such...so long as you bear the above in mind.

[LiamT]

Welcome to MBAM's forums, Liam

You can have two (or as many as you like) antivirus programs installed at the same time without a problem.

The important thing is there should only ever be one running and scanning at any one time (the terms "Resident scanner" or "Realtime scanner" are often used to describe the bit of the program that does this).

If you try running running more than one scan simultaneously from different AV programs it's a certainty that you'll encounter conflicts, false positive errors, system hangs that is if one AV software will even tolerate the presence let alone the activity of another vendor's AV software.

Your protection will not be improved by doing this; in fact it'll likely be damaged to the point of having no protection at all.

In short there should be only one AV scanner scanning anything at any one time.

So it's not bad as such...so long as you bear the above in mind.

Thanks Marcus!

So as long as I don't physically run both to Scan at the same time I'm OK?

I don't suppose you know how I can check whether there is this Malware stuff lurking within the walls in my computer do you?

Liam

[Marcus]

Liam,

A. Yes you should be.

Have you done a recent full system scan with either of your AVs fully updated? This should be your next step.

[LiamT]

Have you done a recent full system scan with either of your AVs fully updated? This should be your next step.

Will do this now and let you know the results!!

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Welcome to MBAM's forums, Liam

You can have two (or as many as you like) antivirus programs installed at the same time without a problem.

The important thing is there should only ever be one running and scanning at any one time (the terms "Resident scanner" or "Realtime scanner" are often used to describe the bit of the program that does this).

If you try running more than one scan simultaneously from different AV programs it's a certainty that you'll encounter conflicts, false positive errors, system hangs and other glitches that is if one AV software will even tolerate the presence let alone the activity of another vendor's AV software.

Your protection will not be improved by doing this; in fact it'll likely be damaged to the point of having no protection at all.

In short there should be only one AV scanner scanning anything at any one time.

So it's not bad as such...so long as you bear the above in mind.

In my experience you should never have more then one active or not. Usually they conflict and create problems. I had avira and mse at one time, but had to remove avira as they would not get along.

System was extremely slow and locked up many times. The only time you can is with Clamwin. Clamwin doesn't have realtime protection or the capabilities so it won't conflict. Now if it's like avira with real-time capabilities, but not active/installed they usually still conflict.

[YoKenny1]

Never have Norton or any other anti virus application on your system (especially Norton) as they load drivers at boot up that remain active even if they are disabled.

[LiamT]

Never have Norton or any other anti virus application on your system (especially Norton) as they load drivers at boot up that remain active even if they are disabled.

Would this cause the Malware issue?

I started to run an full scan with avast!, but left the computer as it was taking so long. Norton is now running a full scan as the computer went into sleep mode. Should I delete avast! all together then?

[Firefox]

Delete one or the other, only have one Anti-Virus software running at one time.

[LiamT]

Delete one or the other, only have one Anti-Virus software running at one time.

OK, I have deleted avast! as this was the free one.

The Norton scan is showing quite a few tracking cookies detected in the last month, but these allare listed as low severity. there have been 5 things listed as high severity since the start of the year:

Trojan Horse detected by Auto-Protect - 28/01/2010 18:52:02

" " - 28/01/2010 20:20:02

" " - 28/01/2010 20:30:29

" " - 02/02/2010 20:19:31

Auto-Protect has detected Backdoor. Tidserv!gen3 - 14/03/2010 11:18:11

Is that bad?

Thanks,

Liam

[Firefox]

remove any infections that the scan finds both with your Anti-virus and a full scan of MBAM.

[LiamT]

remove any infections that the scan finds both with your Anti-virus and a full scan of MBAM.

Thanks Firefox, but was is MBAM? I'm really not very technical!

[Firefox]

MBAM = Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

[LiamT]

MBAM = Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

I'm not sure I have any anti malware software. Would this be included with Norton?

[Firefox]

You can download and install Malwarebytes AntiMalware software form our main site LOCATED HERE

Depending on your version of Antivirus software, some of them have malware protection, but its best to have both your antivirus and Malwarebytes.

[LiamT]

You can download and install Malwarebytes AntiMalware software form our main site LOCATED HERE

Depending on your version of Antivirus software, some of them have malware protection, but its best to have both your antivirus and Malwarebytes.

Thanks Firefox, will download now and see if this helps!