Author Topic: Questions about p2p protection...  (Read 3621 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Suicyco247

  • Guest
Questions about p2p protection...
« on: September 11, 2003, 04:41:18 PM »
First off, I did have a few hangups after updating this morning, first it didn't remember my registration key(luckily I had it handy) then after the first system re-boot, Avast didn't start. I tried starting manually and starting resident protection, but it just hung and really didn't do anything. Luckily before I panicked I tried re-booting again and everything seems to be humming along now just fine. ;D

I was wondering about the new p2p support though. Could you explain a little more about how it works. Will it scan an incomplete download before completely downloaded(as in real time scanning) or does it just scan after it's finished?
 Also, on win9x systems I noticed there is no support for gnutella clients(Bearshare,Shareaza) or Bit Torrent, will this stay the same or will this be addressed in a future update?

I apologize for the noob questions but the faq doesn't really seem to address the new version yet. That's also a reason I love Avast, it's very friendly to those without alot of tech savvy, and one of the best a/v programs I've tried regardless of cost. You guys also do a great job here at these forums, better tech support than many of the commercial programs I've tried. Thanx for your time, I'm sure it's been hectic there.

« Last Edit: September 11, 2003, 04:51:06 PM by Leslie M. Smith II »

Offline igor

  • Avast team
  • Serious Graphoman
  • *
  • Posts: 11849
    • AVAST Software
Re:Questions about p2p protection...
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2003, 05:24:54 PM »
What operating systems do you use?

As for the P2P Shield - it scans all the files downloaded by given programs. I think it scans them after they have been downloaded, not during the download (which would be rather hard... how to do such thing? Scan the whole file after each byte is downloaded? That would be terribly slow, besides, it probably wouldn't be technically possible. Btw, what do you mean by "as in real time scanning"?).
So, immediatelly after the file has been downloaded, the scan is performed; if a virus is found, you get the warning that you have downloaded an infected file (and you'll be given the usual options - delete the file, move to chest, ...) You don't have to worry about it - the scan is performed immediatelly after download, so you won't get infected in between. And even if you managed somehow to start the downloaded file before the scan (you'd have to type at the speed of light, but maybe you can  ;)), the Standard Shield wouldn't allow the virus to be started.

I'm not sure about the support for gnutella etc. in Win9x - they are supported in Windows NT simply because the NT drivers have superiour possibilities, making it possible to achieve such a thing... maybe Vlk would have some more info.

Suicyco247

  • Guest
Re:Questions about p2p protection...
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2003, 05:43:05 PM »
Still using Win98 :-[

Quote
Btw, what do you mean by "as in real time scanning"?).
Thats probably not the best term to use, but I've heard others talk about a/v programs warning of a contaminated file before completely downloaded(especially helpful for large files on dial-up). I'm sure the byte by byte scanning would be impractical but possibly scanning the .dat file at one or ten meg intervals while downloading, again not really sure if this would be possible/practical.
Thanks for the help.