Avast! isn't scanning items properly... I think

Post » Sun May 13, 2012 11:19 am

My Avast anti-virus seems to not be finding infected files that are actually infected. I downloaded something a while back, and I scanned it with my Avast, but it showed up as safe. I then went on the VirusTotal website (pretty much all the anti-viruses will scan a file) and it showed on there that Avast detected it to be infected. Why is it that VirusTotal found something and my Avast didn't?

Anyone else having weird Avast scanning troubles? Avast is properly blocking malicious internet sites, by the way.

I'm also not sure if this still really occurs to me 100% of the time though. I got a new computer recently, and there was really only one or two infected files (not executables though) that the Avast on my computer didn't pick up on (VirusTotal's Avast did). My old computer, Avast never found anything when I scanned (except some non-scannable items).
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Steeeph
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 11:42 am

i don't know how legitimate virustotal is, but often many of the more desperate antivirus people will always say that you have infected files, or are at extreme risk just to get you to try their product.

also, do you have the free version of avast or the paid version?
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Julie Serebrekoff
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 1:43 am

i don't know how legitimate virustotal is, but often many of the more desperate antivirus people will always say that you have infected files, or are at extreme risk just to get you to try their product.

also, do you have the free version of avast or the paid version?
Free version. And I'm not talking about other of the less-known virus scanners on VirusTotal; I'm talking about the Avast one. VirusTotal looks pretty legit.

I'm questioning the integrity of my Avast anti-virus.
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Margarita Diaz
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 11:22 pm

Can you post the link to the VT scan result?
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Far'ed K.G.h.m
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 1:37 pm

I've never heard of website virus scanners to be legitimate/accurate. As far as I know, a virus-scanner needs to be an independent program to actually work well.
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Katie Louise Ingram
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 2:39 am

Can you post the link to the VT scan result?
The scans were a while ago, and I no longer have any of the files. I'll try to find it if I can.

I've never heard of website virus scanners to be legitimate/accurate. As far as I know, a virus-scanner needs to be an independent program to actually work well.
Me neither, but it's different with VirusTotal. And that's not really the point. Other stuff that were reported to be viruses (through comments and such) didn't appear with Avast either.
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NIloufar Emporio
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 12:39 am

Free version. And I'm not talking about other of the less-known virus scanners on VirusTotal; I'm talking about the Avast one. VirusTotal looks pretty legit.

I'm questioning the integrity of my Avast anti-virus.

its unlikely there is any thing wrong with avast, other than you may not be getting virus database updates as fast as they are available, which would be a client side issue. avast serves me well, free or paid. [malwarebytes is better for the actual removal if you do get infected but thats another subject]

and basicly what i was saying before was:

virus scaning software you already have will always be > a website free trial of one that you have yet to install

the reason being is that the website trial is pretty much always going to say you have an infection even if you do not, to convince you that you need to purchase their product. even the more trusted virus protection software trials will at least say that your system is at moderate to severe risk.

competition is fierce between these companies, and many will lie and every one else will stretch the truth as much as they can get away with.
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Javier Borjas
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 11:08 pm

VT is NOT like that, mir. It's an aggragator of over 40 legit AVs used around the world. You submit a file to VT, and it will scan the file with all of them, and report back what each AV detected, if any.
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Jessica Lloyd
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 9:44 am

its unlikely there is any thing wrong with avast, other than you may not be getting virus database updates as fast as they are available, which would be a client side issue. avast serves me well, free or paid. [malwarebytes is better for the actual removal if you do get infected but thats another subject]

and basicly what i was saying before was:

virus scaning software you already have will always be > a website free trial of one that you have yet to install

the reason being is that the website trial is pretty much always going to say you have an infection even if you do not, to convince you that you need to purchase their product. even the more trusted virus protection software trials will at least say that your system is at moderate to severe risk.

competition is fierce between these companies, and many will lie and every one else will stretch the truth as much as they can get away with. And I'm not sure about what you're saying with the "free trial" thing. VirusTotal isn't a trial.
VirusTotal isn't like that though. I don't find very many infected files on there. Some viruses often report false positives, but not very often (at least for me).


Tried downloading an infected file (that was harmless, I think) and Avast seemed to pick it up. Weird, since it didn't before when I downloaded it (like a month ago). Might have been just my old computer with Avast that didn't detect anything.


I think I'm good for now. I should have posted this thread when I encountered something. :facepalm:
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Mike Plumley
 
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Post » Sun May 13, 2012 3:36 am

I know this is off topic but, was I the only one that read the thread title like a pirate then sat there trying to figure out what you meant? I then had to open it and read it to understand. I'm glad you fixed your problem with it. :)
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Richard
 
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