virus warning

[topaze]

Hello,

After have been one month without pc ,broken by bad uninstalling from new ewido, now restart these days with a new pc again.
This afternoon I have had a warning voice Avast in the syst.tray  telling me,that my pc may be infected by a virus.
So I tried a scan to archives and local disk and Avast didn't detect nothing.
So how can I know if my pc is infected or not ?
Thanks,
Topaze-

[DavidR]

Are you sure this was avast, I don't think so ?

I have had a warning voice Avast in the syst.tray  telling me,that my pc may be infected by a virus.

avast doesn't do a 'may be infected' it would either alert you to a virus or not alert. The fact that avast found nothing later seems to confirm this.

Check the avast Log Viewer, Warning section, if it were avast details of the detection should be in there.

If there is anything let us know the virus name, file name anf location of the infected file, e.g. (C:\windows\system32\infected-file-name.xxx) ?

[topaze]

Check the avast Log Viewer, Warning section, if it were avast details of the detection should be in there.

In the scan reports? Only telling folders infected =0,and how many are scaned.. ???Sorry I am not very expert with  computers!
Thank you DavidR to enlight me
Topaze.

[DavidR]

If it was avast that alerted you there should be an entry in the Warning section, that is why I don't believe it was avast that alerted you but possibly some rogue anti-spyware program/trojan trying to get you to download a program to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately you haven't given much information to get beyond suspicion.

The scan report is irrelevant as that only confirms that avast didn't find anything then, not what might have gone on before, for that you need to look in the log viewer and that revealed nothing.

Have you still got Ewido 4.0 installed ?
If as I believe you may have a trojan on your system then that is more likely to find it. I know you had a bad experience with the new avg-as but I think you should install it again and run it from safe mode. You can get old copies of programs at filehippo.com http://www.filehippo.com/download_ewido/?1208.

[topaze]

The little voice 'avast came from the same place where new avast's updates came ,just upon the the pc  clock. at the right ankle.It's why I thought it's came from avast.But nothing appears since I wrote you this afternoon.

I have only Avast and Ad aware as protecting pc coupling with  window firewall.Ewido 4.0?Non merci!I will not hear about it ,that had caused such crashes on my pc,and don't want to download it again.
If I had a trojan or a virus does my pc stay quite like that or having crash?
 

[DavidR]

The voice could have come from anywhere and can't be associated with anything unless there is some visual warning also.

If you are unwilling to try ewido again you could try a-Squared free, you could also use the ewido on-line scan no need to install, http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/.

These are some avast visual warning pop-ups, without any associated visual warning I don't know of a audio only warning in avast.

[topaze]

So I followed you advice and made a online scan with ewido and it found 22 infections folders mostly tracking cookies and adwares (?) all erased now.I did this after making a full scaning with avast that didn't  found nothing  at all.Are avast and ewido searching different things?

[DavidR]

There will be some overlap but essentially they are looking at/for different targets.

All I can suggest is that you monitor your system and should this crop up again make notes, make a screen shot if possible and we can hopefully be better informed and hopefully we can provide more detailed advice.

I don't know if you have a firewall but one with outbound protection is an essential defence against many trojan attacks and XP's firewall doesn't provide this.

Whilst the windows XP firewall is usually good at keeping your ports stealthed (hidden) it provides no outbound protection and you should consider a third party firewall.
Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.
Zone Alarm free http://www.zonelabs.com works fine with avast and has a reasonably friendly user interface. There are others, Comodo, Sunbelt Kerio, Jetico, etc.
See some firewall tests for comparison, some are freeware but many are paid for versions http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests.php. Also see http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml

[topaze]

Are you telling me that I must have two Firewall?I have the window 's set in  my pc and avast for anti virus.

Last time I set 2 firewalls,my pc was crashing badly..and everyone recommands only one .
Topaze-

[Lisandro]

Are you telling me that I must have two Firewall?

Topaze, most probably he's trying to say that Windows Firewall just protect inbound attacks and a third party firewall will do the complete job (both inbound and outbound).
When installing the full firewall, Windows' one will be disabled. So, no conflict.
You can test ZoneAlarm, Outpost, Kerio, Sygate, Comodo... all have free versions. I'm using Comodo 

[DavidR]

@ topaze
I'm not saying that, just that XP provides little protection as Tech mentiones and when you install another firewall XP's firewall should be disabled, some third party firewalls will disable XP's firewall when they are installed.

[topaze]

Concerning a new install of firewall:is it easy to do this and secure to  donwload it from internet ?
So if I understand you,when I switch to another firewall,I don't need to disable the precedent one,it will do itself automatically?
Topaze-

[DavidR]

A firewall is no different to many programs to install an no less secure to download.

It entirely depends on the firewall you install if it has a function to disable XPs, but it isn't a problem. Leave XP's firewall enabled, download  and save the new firewall to your HDD so you can fine it later. Disconnect from the internet, you could disable XP's firewall at this point before installing the replacement.

[topaze]

Thank you a lot for your quick answer !T.