Some Quick Setup Questions About Providers

[cegriffin66]

I just installed avast! and so far I love it, I just have a few quick questions. I do not have or use any P2P programs, so I did not install P2P provider. I also do not use any IM programs, so I did not install the IM provider.  I do not use any Outlook/Exchange programs, so again, did not install provider. My main question is that I only use browser based webmail and no clients at all, do I still need the Internet Mail provider, or is that covered by the Web Shield?

Thanks for any help!
Chris.

[Lisandro]

It's good to keep Internet Mail for the only reason that IF any program (except MS Outlook) is trying to send emails without your authorization (like a virus), you will probably be warned (with the default Internet Mail settings or checking for having an icon on system tray if email is scanned).
And no, it's not covered by WebShield. Maybe, in some case, by Standard Mail provider.
WebShield will scan the http traffic (including the webmail).

Welcome

[cegriffin66]

Okay, great. Thanks for the info.

[Lisandro]

Okay, great. Thanks for the info.

You're welcome. Feel free to come back any time you need help you just to change experiences

[ght1]

I also have some questions about the providers. All providers are set to "normal level". Should i set the standard-shield (its the on-access-scanner?) to "high level"? What's the difference between this levels? 

[Lisandro]

I also have some questions about the providers. All providers are set to "normal level". Should i set the standard-shield (its the on-access-scanner?) to "high level"? What's the difference between this levels? 

On help files are described the level differences. Normal is the best balance between protection and computer performance. You can increase performance customizing (reducing protection) or you can increase protection at High level. You can test and feel

[ght1]

Sorry, i have one more question:

WebShield adds an extra (no-nonsense) layer of protection. And yes, it can be much more effective in some cases than the regular Standard Shield.

The thing is, a HUGE number of today's malware takes advantage of various exploits in web browsers (most notably, IE). The same applies to nuisance like dialers, spyware etc.

In such a case, howevers, scanning of network streams (http streams in case of Web Scanners - i.e. avast's WebShield) is the only way to prevent the infection. The filesystem based scanner will simply act too late (when the payload is written to disk - but after the host process has been compromised)...


Hope this helps,
Vlk

So webshield may be important, but why other AV don't have a webshield? 

[Lisandro]

So webshield may be important, but why other AV don't have a webshield? 

Here I can say it's a problem of quality.
NOD32 has something similar. avast is ahead of others (AVG, Avira, etc.) as far I know, i.e., it's simple better.

[ght1]

I read that Avira has a WebGuard only with Premium Security Suite. So avast seems to be the only free AV with webshield 

[essexboy]

AVG have just installed it in their paid for AVG 8

[roundtrip]

AVG bought Exploit Labs to get their Link Scanner Pro technology. As someone has just pointed out, it is in their new Security Suite 8 product range. This is a killer application ... very good at what it does. I use the old standalong version, which is still available from Exploit Labs, along with Avast and some antispyware apps and Link Scanner found threats that Avast wouldn't have a chance of seeing!

[Lisandro]

Link Scanner found threats that Avast wouldn't have a chance of seeing!

Hmmm... are you sure avast doesn't have a chance? Are you really sure, technically?
Seems only FUD...

[ght1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD0wdzQb8XY 

[Lisandro]

Continue thinking that http scanning of WebShield could stop the infection...

[roundtrip]

I recently found out how good Link Scanner Pro is at detecting threats:
http://www.roundtripsolutions.com/blog/2008/02/06/317/forth-road-bridge-website-hacked/

Avast found nothing wrong with this website!

Yes, Avast Web Shield will stop a load of threats, but alas it is taking Alwil too long to add new threat and virus detection to the product at the moment.

For example, I submitted a new threat XPAntiVirus to Alwil around about mid February. I've missed checking VirusTotal for a few days so Avast may have been able to detect this nasty for a few days, but it took almost a month for the obvious Smitfraud type nasty to be added. I presented all kinds of additional information that showed this clearly was something Avast should be detecting. Additionally, I flagged the fact that I was using this particular nasty as a case study to see how long it took for security products to detect the new threat.

Perhaps Alwil need to look at having a two track submission process... one for regular users and one for trusted submitters. People who have shown that they are submitting high quality information and samples should get put into a different analysis queue IMHO. This will speed up things enormously, especially in light of the increasing new nasties out there on the web.

Let me say I'm both an AVG and Avast reseller so have no axe to grind. In fact, it is more lucrative for me to have customers purchasing a mix and match of products. The new AVG Security Suite is certainly a worthy contender to replace the separate components! Alwil need to get their new security products onto the market ASAP!!! We've been hearing it is coming for too long now.....