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Author Topic: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update  (Read 21343 times)

silversurfer44

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2011, 08:07:19 AM »

Looking at your previous reply Chrissie it appears as though AVG has been cleared from your computer.
A couple of questions now
1.     Have you renewed your subscription with AVG?
        If the answer to this question is yes, then they must provide the support for you. You are paying for it. And if they have cleared the program then they must supply you with a clean paid up installation.

2.     Have you still got that pop-up box?

Depending on your answers I can try and advise as to maybe the best course of action. If you would like to tackle the problem yourself that is.
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tuftedduck

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2011, 08:45:21 AM »

Further to ss44's comment above, I agree with him that a little recap may be helpful

1) You have two odd files on your computer (a) AVGINSTALLEDAPPX.EXE  and (b) YSIGNU~1.EXE
You are not alone, there are several posts on different forums (Techsupport and bleepingcomputer as examples) with regard to these.....but as yet there is no clear answer as to what they do or if they are legit or nasty.
Other security progs such as malwarebytes/superantispyware are not picking these up as threats...nor are the main "on-line" scanners.
The consensus of opinion amongst the security specialists on these sites is that the files are probably legit and part of the new p2p scanner in the latest versions of AVG...but not even the well known and respected experts in the field can get a confirmation one way or the other from Grisoft/AVG.........so doubts that they may be bad still exist.

2) You are still getting the pop-up that freezes your PC ?
In this respect, the report you have to the effect "You don’t have AVG installed on this computer" is interesting........it may be, as suggested by ss44, that your AVG has expired ( but in that case I would expect a report to the effect that it has expired, not that it does not exist)...........but it may well be simply that your installation of AVG has been corrupted, either by a nasty or some other means.
If that is the case, an uninstall/reinstall of AVG may cure the problem.
How did you originally install AVG.........was it preinstalled when you bought the PC or did you install from a disc or did you install from a file downloaded from AVG. If the latter, do you still have that downloaded file stored on you computer ?

3) Let's not think or worry about re-installing Windows just yet........that is an extreme measure, and the final measure to take only when all else has failed.

4) I am with razpaq when he questions the need for a paid-for av prog. The free ones are every bit as good at detecting and eliminating nasties. The benefits to the domestic user of the paid versions are more frequent definitions updates ( in the case of my Avast, that is every hour rather than every two hours ) and technical help....and despite the fact that you have paid AVG for this help you are not getting very much.

Don't fret and worry, chrissie, between us all we will beat this thing... :)


edit to add..........one crumb of comfort, chrissie, the two odd files in question are to be seen only on PCs with AVG installed.........which does suggest that they are connected with AVG and are not general infections.
  
« Last Edit: June 22, 2011, 08:48:49 AM by tuftedduck »
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BritBrat

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #17 on: June 22, 2011, 09:13:13 AM »


3) Let's not think or worry about re-installing Windows just yet........that is an extreme measure, and the final measure to take only when all else has failed.


I agree, but all the time used to try and sort out some infection and then still not being 100% sure the system is OK it is better to just have a clean install and done with it, knowing 100% that the system is clean, well for a while.

What I would now like to ask, is it easy-ish to uninstall this completely without knowledge of how to do it (scaredy cat here) and then buy another AV to install?Hope someone can help and thanks in advance for doing so.

Chrissie     :)

Have you unistalled it ?

If you bank with Barclays you get a free Kapersky antivirus/firewall, worth opening an account even if you dont use it and just put £1 into it.

« Last Edit: June 22, 2011, 09:23:37 AM by BritBrat »
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BritBrat

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #18 on: June 22, 2011, 09:26:10 AM »

Going back to basics:

Quote
Malwarebytes picked up this - KEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{549B5CA7-4A86-11D7-A4DF-000874180BB3} (Trojan.Agent)  and quarantined it (can I delete it now?).


Could it be a false possitive and you had nothing to worry about in the first place?
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UncleUB

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #19 on: June 22, 2011, 09:27:14 AM »

The main thing to remember here is Chrissie is only a novice when it comes to computers.All this advice about re-installing,removing this,installing that(no matter how good the advice) can seem very daunting and confusing to many people.

I'm sure all the advice being given is good,but just remember all computer users aren't experts.  :)


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BritBrat

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #20 on: June 22, 2011, 09:35:17 AM »

I agree, but I am no expert either but I get calls from friends and family to fix their computers and if I don't know what is wrong I can normally find out and fix it.

I was just like Chrissie 10 years ago scared to even turn it on, then I decided to build a computer (very scared) but it all went well and in the process I learnt a lot about computers, now recently I have got old computer parts from freecycle and built a few for free.  I had thought about doing that then recycling them back through Freecycle to people less well off than me and giving them an old but fully woring computer.

What I am trying to say is unless you try and do something you never will.  Better to fail and learn something than to never have tried at all because in failing you have still gained some knowledge.

At the moment my sister has problems, well its not a problem just poor wireless connection, I have installed a new network card and that did help but still not 100% so I am loooking at other ways to test/improve the connection, one is to try a different router so I have a DG834GT and a BT2700HGV ready to put all her settings in and take it over and try them, the BT2700HGV can be flashed/hacked to give illegal wireless power signal but I will just leave it at 100, the other idea is to use home plugs but I dont have any of those at the moment.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2011, 09:42:20 AM by BritBrat »
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chrissie

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #21 on: June 22, 2011, 10:08:26 AM »

Further to ss44's comment above, I agree with him that a little recap may be helpful

1) You have two odd files on your computer (a) AVGINSTALLEDAPPX.EXE  and (b) YSIGNU~1.EXE
You are not alone, there are several posts on different forums (Techsupport and bleepingcomputer as examples) with regard to these.....but as yet there is no clear answer as to what they do or if they are legit or nasty.
Other security progs such as malwarebytes/superantispyware are not picking these up as threats...nor are the main "on-line" scanners.
The consensus of opinion amongst the security specialists on these sites is that the files are probably legit and part of the new p2p scanner in the latest versions of AVG...but not even the well known and respected experts in the field can get a confirmation one way or the other from Grisoft/AVG.........so doubts that they may be bad still exist.

2) You are still getting the pop-up that freezes your PC ?
In this respect, the report you have to the effect "You don’t have AVG installed on this computer" is interesting........it may be, as suggested by ss44, that your AVG has expired ( but in that case I would expect a report to the effect that it has expired, not that it does not exist)...........but it may well be simply that your installation of AVG has been corrupted, either by a nasty or some other means.
If that is the case, an uninstall/reinstall of AVG may cure the problem.
How did you originally install AVG.........was it preinstalled when you bought the PC or did you install from a disc or did you install from a file downloaded from AVG. If the latter, do you still have that downloaded file stored on you computer ?

3) Let's not think or worry about re-installing Windows just yet........that is an extreme measure, and the final measure to take only when all else has failed.

4) I am with razpaq when he questions the need for a paid-for av prog. The free ones are every bit as good at detecting and eliminating nasties. The benefits to the domestic user of the paid versions are more frequent definitions updates ( in the case of my Avast, that is every hour rather than every two hours ) and technical help....and despite the fact that you have paid AVG for this help you are not getting very much.

Don't fret and worry, chrissie, between us all we will beat this thing... :)

edit to add..........one crumb of comfort, chrissie, the two odd files in question are to be seen only on PCs with AVG installed.........which does suggest that they are connected with AVG and are not general infections.
  

Hi TD nice to see you back hope you are ok now?  Right I need to recap and thanks again to you and everyone else for your continuing support, you really are a wonderful group of people.

Yes I still have AVG installed and it runs out in 4 days.  I totally believe the nasties (Agent.AVG trojans and anything else) are totally to do with AVG without question. 

1)  The Trojans have been fixed and were picked up by Housecall.  The YSIGNU was and still is being picked up by Housecall but won't fix because it says it could destroy a file...so is this a false positive?   As for the INSTALLEDAVGAPPX.EXE I read that it's something to do with AVG Cloud whatever that is!

2)  The rogue "renew now" box is now coming up everyday so I have to restart PC and it's gone but I've asked AVG support many times what it is and sent them a screen shot of it but they do not answer that question nor other questions about the YSIGNU the INSTALLEDAPPX  they just ignore my questions on this.

I had AVG 2008 installed by the computer shop when I took the PC in for a tune up, I bought the AVG BUT did not receive any disks.  They then had the PC in again the following year and updated AVG to 2010 for 2 years.  It runs out 27th June but in December last I had to update it with download to 2011 as the 2010 wouldn't be supported after that.  I don't have any AVG I can put back on PC if I uninstall it.  (Annoyed now that they didn't give me original disks tho that won't help now).  I think you are right TD the AVG is corrupted because I allowed it to update with LiveKive etc and since then (month or so ago) that rogue box started to come up.

The only reason I've never done the free AV's is purely for technical support.  I know AVG haven't been a bundle of fun with their help atm but they have tried more than if I had to find info out for myself.  They replied to me this morning re the logs I couldn't send this time because when I tried to run their click and fix tool it came up with "You don't have AVG installed on this computer".  However they didn't mention that just asked me once again to download the original tools and do the event logs and AVG config logs/scan et al which I DID BEFORE and they tell me they didn't receive.

Conclusion....I am now thinking what have I got to lose if I uninstall AVG and install a free one (stop banging your heads on the desk... :D) to see how it goes.  However, I don't know how to do this anyway so will have to ask AND does AVAST have a firewall as I need one of those?

I have since done Malwarebytes full scan again with nothing found and Housecall has found only the SIGNU~1.EXE so it does look to me as though everything is clear, it's just the ruddy rogue box for renew that's the problem and I'm so afraid IF I were to renew that this is a scam that will the people out there my card details......I've wondered about this all along but cannot find out if this has happened before!

Again thank you for helping, I just hope I haven't made you swear at your screen when reading my posts....it makes me do that though when trying to deal with it all...scream.

Recapping further....my computer is an HP  with Win XP SP3

Chrissie

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Don\\'t go to sleep ANGRY!!!  Stay awake and plot your revenge......

chrissie

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #22 on: June 22, 2011, 10:16:27 AM »

I agree, but I am no expert either but I get calls from friends and family to fix their computers and if I don't know what is wrong I can normally find out and fix it.

I was just like Chrissie 10 years ago scared to even turn it on, then I decided to build a computer (very scared)** but it all went well and in the process I learnt a lot about computers, now recently I have got old computer parts from freecycle and built a few for free.  I had thought about doing that then recycling them back through Freecycle to people less well off than me and giving them an old but fully woring computer.

What I am trying to say is unless you try and do something you never will.  Better to fail and learn something than to never have tried at all because in failing you have still gained some knowledge.


**  I believe the technical term is "effing terrified" - or it is my case  :lol:  I see where you're coming from BB and wouldst that I could do what you have done, I would love that knowledge.  I would have a go on an old one but haven't got one unfortunately....I would be "e t" about getting electrocuted, shorting things out, not getting the case off/on etc....in fact, making a right pigs ear of it.  The question I have to ask you is.........WTH don't you live near me!!!! ;D ;D ;D
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UncleUB

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #23 on: June 22, 2011, 10:23:04 AM »

Quote
Conclusion....I am now thinking what have I got to lose if I uninstall AVG and install a free one (stop banging your heads on the desk... laugh) to see how it goes.  However, I don't know how to do this anyway so will have to ask AND does AVAST have a firewall as I need one of those?

You can use windows firewall(its built into the o/s),it is quite adequate.

Uninstall AVG and then install Avast..I would then run Malwarebytes (quick scan)once a week as extra protection
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AdrianH

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #24 on: June 22, 2011, 10:30:46 AM »

Avast free edition is proven on tests to be better than many of the full security suites around. There is support via email and on the user forum, I would get rid of AVG it is not a great product. Just go to "Programs and Features" to run the uninstaller.


Avast now also includes "Safe Zone" for online shoping and banking which keeps your details secure from prying eyes.
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BritBrat

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #25 on: June 22, 2011, 10:42:52 AM »

Quote
Conclusion....I am now thinking what have I got to lose if I uninstall AVG and install a free one (stop banging your heads on the desk... ) to see how it goes.  However, I don't know how to do this anyway so will have to ask AND does AVAST have a firewall as I need one of those?


I think that is a good plan, uninstall it reboot computer then do the scans for infection using what you already have left installed and see what comes up.

If now clean install a free version and run a full scan after updating definitions, do not use Norton.

Never ever install two antivirus programs only one.

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tuftedduck

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #26 on: June 22, 2011, 10:43:28 AM »

@ chrissie.

Avast Free Edition does not have a firewall........the paid for Avast Internet Suite does. How the cost Avast IS and AVG compare I am not sure.

The downside of the XP firewall is that it monitors only inbound traffic.......outbound is left to it's own devices so any nasties you may have can "dial home".  ( I think the Windows firewall in Vista/7 is a two way thing ? )Having said that, there are plenty of very good, free, two way firewall to be had.........my own current favourite is Agnitum Outpost ( so light you don't even know it's there.)

There is another solution of course..........you are familiar with AVG and it has served you well until these recent happenings. Unfortunately you have no reinstall disc/file but your current licence runs out very shortly. You could always bite the bullet, resolve to lose the little bit of your subscription which is still to run......and buy a new AVG off the shelf. You would have a clean program and a back up/reinstall program file to store somewhere safe on your PC.

If you wanted to do that, we can guide you through the simple steps of uninstalling the existing set-up and reinstalling from fresh.

Ooops, just noticed AdrianH has popped in.........I agree that Avast Free is a better prog. than AVG......however that still leaves the firewall question that I was attempting to address above.
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AdrianH

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #27 on: June 22, 2011, 10:47:31 AM »

The need for a firewall depends on how you connect. If you use a modem then yes you must have a software firewall, if you are using a router I wouldn't worry so much.

There is a free application that extends the Windows firewall but you need to understand what is going on to use it properly. There are some quite good free firewallss to be had if needed.



I don't know where you are located Chrissie, I am in south Dorset and would willingly assist if your not too far away.
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BritBrat

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #28 on: June 22, 2011, 10:48:20 AM »

I would not worry about a firewall at the moment get the issue fixed first and just use the XP firewall.

I have known people not have a firewall for years and never had a problem so a short time with just antivirus to check system is not going to be a bad thing.
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tuftedduck

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Re: What AV to buy, what to do next? Update
« Reply #29 on: June 22, 2011, 10:58:10 AM »

I'm banging on about a firewall only because chrissie asked what are the alternatives to her current set-up.........and made mention of the one way/ two way thing as we are as yet not 100% certain that chrissie's machine is not infected.
I know also that there are folks who like to see a wee bit firewall icon animation when on line......gives a little sense of security ( Probably misplaced  ;D )

I agree that the XP firewall behind a hardware firewall in the router should suffice for reasonable browsing and avoiding the obvious dangerous sites.
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