As to whether these mails were really infected, read on.
As I said earlier, I sent these infected mails to Kevin Johnson and Al
Thompson, who both wanted to test their systems.
Kevin, you obviously got yours ok. But Al didn't. The reason? His ISP
intercepted the mails, and refused to forward them to Al, because of their
virus content. Then they told me what they'd done.
I also got a blast from Xtra (which is an ISP you'll be familiar with,
Kevin) about disseminating viruses.
So there's no doubt that they were infected.
Therefore I have to say that, while AVG might be a very good AV prog, it
won't necessarily alert you to the presence of a bug in an email, even when
you manipulate the infected files to some extent.
And to what extent you can safely manipulate infected files, or harbor them,
but still maintain a clean system, is somewhat of an unknown quantity.
So, annoying as the damn thing is, I think I'll have to stick with Norton
for the time being.
And that really bugs me.
Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Johnson" Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] XP and AVG - W98SE and Norton
2002
> Please disregard my previous post. I was interrupted and inadvertently
> sent it before I realized that I hadn't finished the story. Read on...
>
> I have AVG Antivirus Free version on my computer, set to scan all emails
> and every type of file. The virus database is dated June 13, 2002.
> I am using Netscape messenger 4.77 for email and my OS is Win98SE.
>
> Ian sent me three emails with infected attachments. They arrived in my
> mailbox without triggering any alerts. Furthermore, AVG did not detect
> anything when it scanned the mail folder on my hard drive. Hmm...Should
> I be worried? Maybe.
>
> I was able to Shift-Click on two of the attachments and save them in a
> folder without a response from AVG. However, when I tried to access the
> folder in Explorer, AVG DID detect the Klez virus in these two files.
> AVG also detected the Klez virus in the other attachments when I clicked
> on them or when I shift-clicked on them.
>
> So...although the viruses arrived undetected in my inbox, AVG prevented
> any access to the infected files without a clear warning. That would
> make me safe, wouldn't it? I don't think "the horse has bolted," as Ian
> suggests.
> However, I wonder about viruses that arrive via email but don't require
> the recipient to open any attachments. I have heard that such viruses
> exist. Do they?
>
> There is always the possibility that these files may not actually be
> infected. They may just contain something that looks like Klez to AVG. I
> have no way of really knowing unless I open them and watch to see if
> anything happens to my computer that I know is caused by Klez. I'll give
> that a miss--don't want the hassle.
>
> Personally, I still feel safe with AVG. I have found it easy to use,
> configure and update. It is also unobtrusive and seems not to affect
> performance and to work on all versions of Windows. Not so with McAfee
> and Norton. AVG being free as well, clinches it for me. It has not let
> me down yet, so I'll keep on using it. ;>)
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