My Norton Antivirus has detected not one but FOUR copies of a virus (identified as "backdoor autoupdater"IIRC) on my beloved home computer. When Norton attempts to repair, delete or quarrantine the files I get an error message. I’m getting three or four copies of the Klez virus a day, but Norton heads them off at the Inbox pass pretty effectively.
Why can’t Norton seem to handle these viruses? WTF do I do now? On a scale of 1 to 10, how screwed am I?
Thank you in advance for your support.
What does the error message say?
Have you tried McAfee?
The virus is probably running on your computer; it can’t be removed then.
Go to http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.removal.tool.html and download the removal tool.
Run it, restart your computer, and run it again. That should do it.
Well, it helps to look at the Symantec WebsiteI am guessing that what you’ve picked up is the “backdoor.easyserv” Trojan horse. It’s present as a file, in infected files and in the registry keys; Norton can’t repair all of this on its own.
Try SwatIt.
It’s better at detecting and removing trojans than the traditional virus suites.
Symantec has removal tools for a whole bunch of viruses. Will Norton detect these even though it can’t remove them? Or do I have to do something special to see if they’re there?
Most AV suites try to protect against most (if not all) of the virus definitions that they also have removal tools for. The removal tools are your next layer of AV protection. Many viruses come programmed with code to try and derail or bypass AV software. This can cause, as was mentioned already, active infections complicating the detection and removal process.
It’s the ol’ *“an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” *philosophy.
If you are using Windows ME or WIndows XP, you have to turn off System Restore before scanning, because anti-virus programs cannot clean or delete files in the Restore folder.
Cool, thanks.
My main worry is that there is a list of myriad viruses with all these removal tools. If I knew about one, then killing it is easy enough with the tools, help from Dopers, etc. So if I can count on Norton to detect them, even if it can’t get rid of them, then I figure I’ve got two ounces of prevention—the Norton email proxy server & my computer scans.
What has been nagging at me is the thought that one could be lurking on the machine without Norton picking it up. It appears that concern is unfounded, and that I can stop ruminating on that.
Thanks!
If you want to really put your mind at ease, there are several free online virus scanners that you can use to double-check the effectiveness of your Norton program. Try these:
Note that these scanners use ActiveX, so it must be enable in your browser security settings. Housecall and Panda will fix any viruses they find; Mcafee will not.