AVG disguises fake traffic as IE6

The Register ^ | 6/26/08 | Cade Metz

[Rick.Donaldson]

I didn't say "linux". I've been using some version of linux since about 91. Before that I used... UNIX. Also, I used Apple systems, I've used MSDOS and I've use VMS. All at home.

Of those, I've never ONCE had a virus on a VMS machine or a unix/linux machine. I've written a few viruses for Apples and they worked. I've written a couple for MSDOS. I've never bothered to make one for Windows OSes. Not worth the time or effort and too easy.

Now, that's not a function of Linux at all. That's a function of good security practice.

No, kidding? LOL

Oh, and even if I could crack your boxen, I wouldn't, cause I have better things to do.

I know that, we all do, but I know people whose job it is to do just those very things :) haha so I don't need to ask for "help in breaking things", I can just point and say "go" to some folks and they will try, and get paid for it. Pretty cool stuff, and damn I sure learn a lot. :)

[MediaMole]

It’s too bad that link scanner is messing with net traffic and analysis.

It’s a nice tool. As I’ve searched, it has caught some otherwise legit sites that have been compromised with cross-site scripting attacks and other malicious things.

[ChildOfThe60s]

“I was a big AVG 7.5 fan but uninstalled their new 8.0 because it killed the performance of my machine. It’s giant bloatware now too.”

------

Did you buy ver 8? Because the free edition works wonderfully...I don’t even know it’s running.

Same thing happened to me. My machine morphed into slow motion when I upgraded to 8.0 (free). Even after uninstalling, reinstalling and changing settings, no improvement. Went to Avast! So far it seems OK.

I'm just sick of virus programs turning my PC into a brick.

[frogjerk]

SuperAntiSpywware is excellent!

[gilor]

Buy: Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10

Free: Avast

[Rick.Donaldson]

Yes we do agree :) I never said “impenetrable”... what I said was “one word, Linux”... and why? Because 85% (or so) of the people out there use their computer for two things. Reading email, and browsing the internet. Some others play music, others like me GAME a lot (I DO use windows machines, so don’t get me wrong and I use Windows rather than Linux-Wine because I would rather GAME and play, than to spend all my free time hacking various parts of a kernel and fixing things that break trying to run windows apps under linux).

If Linux were the dominate OS - which it might have been except for Bill Gates getting lucky with stealing the radio shack OS... oh I mean WRITING it, yeah, that’s it.... then linux/Unix might have been the dominate system - in which case definitely there’d be a lot of people attempting cracking, rootkitting, etc. There’s already MORE script kiddies out there than there are computers lol

So you and I are in the same boat. Linux is great, won’t easily run our games, and yet, we stick with XP. (No Vista for me). I run Windows XP Pro, make sure my updates are correct, I HIDE my ass behind more than one firewall and machines that are on my network (multiple and plenty) are checked daily. I’ve routinely set up cool little honeypots and made many “captures” for fun. It’s awesome to watch, and cooler to track, but I prefer doing other things these days now....

Now... I’ll say this. Again. “Linux” - and ANYONE who is doing the email/browsing exclusively, would do themselves a great favor by grabbing an OLD lap top and sticking, say a copy of Ubuntu on it, setting up their machines to pop their email and run firefox on the machine. Stick to it for a couple months, read up a bit on security, and put yourself behind even a very simple firewall (like say a linksys router and turn off your wireless etc for now) and you will find yourself 100% more protected than someone with a random windows machine.

(If you’re stuck with windows, then STILL go with a firewall, even two, hardware and software, and you’ll increase your changes drastically against getting messed up with crap)... and good God, stay off of PORN sites and crap :)

[UB355]

I turned off the link scanner feature in AVG 8

[UB355]

There is a free version of 8.0, you just have to look for it

[js1138]

Firewalls are your friends though....

Everyone who has a broadband connection is protected by NAT. Maybe in theory a dedicated firewall is better, but the primary purpose of a firewall is to allow specific ports to be addressed. NAT blocks everything by default.

An outgoing firewall should be useful, but in my personal experience, people just say OK to any permission popups. How's the average user supposed to know what a legitimate program is?

The same goes for the supposedly built-in safety of particular OSs. Viruses and malware on secure machines simply ask permission to be installed. Your experience of this site will be improved if you install this viewer. And they probably get permission. All the live viruses I've seen came from websites I wouldn't visit anyway.

[LibWhacker]

Okay, thanks to all of you again! I am now a proud user of AVG Free v8.0.

I disabled LinkScanner and the increase in speed was quite noticeable on this machine.

I’m pretty sure I’m running several other programs that also drag down performance, notably WindowWasher and an automatic clock synchronizer I downloaded a couple of years ago, to name just two, that are always reporting “home.” To report what, only God knows. I block them as best I can with ZoneAlarm. But that only blocks the report itself. It doesn’t prevent them from trying a million times per second to send it, and thus slowing down the machine even more! :-(

[Liberty Valance]

placemarker

[papasmurf]

In this AM’s update came a load new dlls from AVG. It took me two hours to research them and allow them through my firewalls and have my internet back. Three pages of logs on them.

I think, both, ZA and AVG have jumped the shark now.

I’m looking for new Firewall & A/V app.s now.

[papasmurf]

And, BTW, even if you turn it off, it still goes out and scans and connects to akamai.

[pctech]

I once used Zonealarm for it's firewall but I stopped using it because it didn't support XP 64-bit OS. I was using AVG with the built-in firewall before with my 32-bit OS and found out it also worked with 64-bit so I purchased it and haven't looked back since.

I'm now using the 8.0 version and it works great. I won't be using anything else for quite some time to come.

[cynwoody]

I’ve been on Mac OS now for the last half year or so (unwilling to upgrade to Vista). I don’t run any antivirus stuff. No need.

Back when I ran Windows, I didn’t use antivirus software either. No need. No problems. All you have to do is use a little common sense.

I have several machines sitting behind a D-Link firewall with WPA-encrypted WiFi. The D-Link’s logs show an average of about 15 hits an hour. The usual stuff: port 139, etc.

[Dumpster Baby]

One word, “Linux”

hehe

As a learning experience I installed 11 different Linux distros on my motley collection of older PCs. I use openSuse with a KDE front end most of the time.

No more malware hits on me.

[21stCenturion]

...

[swmobuffalo]

“was a big AVG 7.5 fan but uninstalled their new 8.0 because it killed the performance of my machine.”

Had the same problem. Got rid of it and installed Avast free version. Also had to get rid of Spybot, the “teatimer.exc” was killing my computer speed.

[longjack]

I’m looking for new Firewall & A/V app.s now

I'm putting avast free edition on machines that I used to put AVG on.

I've had problems on some machines with AVG 8.

[papasmurf]

I think I’m done with free Windows apps. I’ll prolly buy Kapersky for the Win machine I use, and the rest are Linux.

Try this test sometime. Get yourself a webhost that’ll let you use alias’, and use, for instance, avg@mydomain.com for your registration email add’y. Do that with everything free you download. Now, sit back and watch where the spam originates from.

I still get ebay@mydomain.com, and I closed my ebay acc’t several years ago. The list of those that really do let out your info is amazingly long.