Problems with antivirus

I'm having some apparently incompatibility problems that I can't seem to solve.

Usually I download stuff using two download managers: JDownloader2 and Mipony. I have a Simply Debrid premium account that I load on both programs.

The first program to have problems was JD2, and the solution they suggested, if I'm not wrong was deactivating web protection in Avast, my AV program.

As I thought that would left me unprotected from internet attacks, I didn't do it and started using Mipony.

But two weeks some update, on Avast or Mipony seemed to corrupt all the files I was downloading.

As I have hardware firewall on my modem and Windows firewall (which I don't know how good protection it provides) I tried uninstalling Avast to see what happened. And everything went fine from then, no corrupt files anymore.

At the JD forum they say to stay with no AV, but I'm not sure that's wise.

What do you think about that statement? How can I do to keep protection and have no more corrupted files anymore?


Carlos

If Avast "eats" part of your files because it detects malware, the solution is to change antivirus. If Avast simply corrupts your downloads without detecting malware, then there is a solution to do without leaving yourself without antivirus. It's probably Avast's web shield doing the damage.

Install Avast with custom installation. During installation select only the file shield and behaviour shield, proceed installation. The result is you keep 98% of your normal protection. Simply, detections will occur when a file reaches your hard disk. Your internet traffic will not be scanned unless it reaches your computer.

See if that helps.

P.S.: A firewall's job has nothing to do with antivirus's job. If you are behind hardware firewall, windows' firewall is pretty much redundant, unless you use a 3rd party manager program to control outbound connections (such as Windows Firewall control, Tinywall, etc).

OK. your seems like a smart suggestion. I have File Shield, Web Shield and Mail Shield. What Behaviour shiled is that you mention?

How do I avoid Avast not touching the files I'm downloading? Pity I can't put or don't know how to put an image of all the things listed that it will do, to see which might be affecting my files.

carlmart said:

OK. your seems like a smart suggestion. I have File Shield, Web Shield and Mail Shield. What Behaviour shiled is that you mention?

How do I avoid Avast not touching the files I'm downloading? Pity I can't put or don't know how to put an image of all the things listed that it will do, to see which might be affecting my files.

Click to expand...

I haven't used Avast 2014. The previous one, had a behaviour shield too if you opted for custom installation. Maybe this version doesn't.

File shield should be enough. Mail shield does the same thing basically, it's just separate for publicity reasons. File shield means that anything that touches your hard disk, gets scanned.

You may also look in options if there is an exclusion option, where you can manuall add a folder to get excluded from normal scanning. I don't remember whether there is or not.

Sorry i can't give more details, but i am working from memory with what the previous Avast was doing.

Also in the file shield, you may also want to uncheck "scan for PUP" (potentially unwanted programs). You know, things that aren't strictly malware, such as cracks, keygens and stuff, get flagged if PUP is on.

OK, as the comments took some time to come, I went ahead and installed Avast, but without the "web shield", not the "file shield".

On this first test I did, downloading a file, it seems to be fine, though I haven't watched it yet. What I do to test it is remerge it with MKVmerge. The corrupted ones became smaller in size. This one at least got past that test.

Should I uninstall it and install it again not installing file shield?

I took away web shield because I seemed to remember that was what JDownloader's forum did advice.

What I don't know is how unprotected I am without web shield, and what can I do about it.

carlmart said:

OK, as the comments took some time to come, I went ahead and installed Avast, but without the "web shield", not the "file shield".

On this first test I did, downloading a file, it seems to be fine, though I haven't watched it yet. What I do to test it is remerge it with MKVmerge. The corrupted ones became smaller in size. This one at least got past that test.

Should I uninstall it and install it again not installing file shield?

I took away web shield because I seemed to remember that was what JDownloader's forum did advice.

What I don't know is how unprotected I am without web shield, and what can I do about it.

Click to expand...

Without web shield, you lose, let's say 2% of protection. There are some exploits, that can use the code of an internet facing application to execute the payload before the file shield catches it. What are the chances? Very slim. I have always ran Avast with just file shield in the past. All antiviruses up to a few years ago, had only the file shield. Then they started added the rest, of mostly redundant shields as a pubblicity gimmick. For me, the web shields never worthed the trouble they cause.


http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r27436446-The-truth-behind-AV-shields

Web shields also known to reduce your websurfing speed and corrupt downloads on occasion.

You want to mitigate this problem?

Run your browser through this program and you will never have to worry about internet exploit anymore. It makes the web shield utterly useless and even the antivirus from browser incoming malware. Everytime you flush the sandbox, anything inside, malware included, is flushed down the toilet. You have the option to save what you need each time, before you flush.

http://www.sandboxie.com/

Same for this, with the difference that it will virtualize your entire hard disk partition. Anything you write on it (including virus), will be undone at reboot, except for selected folders you must choose to retain data. Even if you get a malware, the malware will "infect" a virtual enviroment that will be gone (together with the malware), every time you reboot. It's a short lived victory for the malware... It's like having a virtual reality of your PC running at all times and malware doesn't know...

http://www.shadowdefender.com/

Many people do without antivirus just with running one of these or both. They are the easiest way for non expert users. Both applications have been tested over and over again in security fora and are extremely resilient and reliable against malware. You 'd need to win the "unluckiest man of my country" award to find a malware that will pass through them and infect your real system.

There are other solutions too, but they require more skill.

Faethon said:

You want to mitigate this problem?

Run your browser through this program and you will never have to worry about internet exploit anymore. It makes the web shield utterly useless and even the antivirus from browser incoming malware. Everytime you flush the sandbox, anything inside, malware included, is flushed down the toilet. You have the option to save what you need each time, before you flush.

http://www.sandboxie.com/

Click to expand...

I'm willing to try to run my browser (Firefox) through it. How do you do that?

My concern with the browser is it to save my cookies, so I don't have to log in every time I load into a recurrent page; and save the pages that are open on one session so they will open again when I open the browser. Can I do that?

On second thought, your case is exactly why antiviruses were made in the first place. They don't require any effort on user's part.

I 'd say you 're best with Avast. Enjoy downloading and don't think much about it!

Oki oki. Should go on like that then, with web shield off.

Well, I'm afraid disabling web shield in Avast was not enough to solve the problem: corrupted files are turning up again.

It's quite likely the updates that complicated things up, compared to how they were at the beginning.

But using an AV that can't be updated to new menaces would be meaningless, wouldn't it?

So what should I do? What another AV program can I try?

AFAIK, Avast will have to be uninstalled, because it's barring things it should not. Or tell me what should I change inside it so it doesn't bar the files I download.

carlmart said:

Well, I'm afraid disabling web shield in Avast was not enough to solve the problem: corrupted files are turning up again.

It's quite likely the updates that complicated things up, compared to how they were at the beginning.

But using an AV that can't be updated to new menaces would be meaningless, wouldn't it?

So what should I do? What another AV program can I try?

AFAIK, Avast will have to be uninstalled, because it's barring things it should not. Or tell me what should I change inside it so it doesn't bar the files I download.

Click to expand...

I hate it when new menaces become meaningless.
Sorry to bag on your english, the sentence made me laugh.

I enjoy humor as anybody, but I can't really get the joke I did... unwillingly.

What is meaningless is an AV that can't be updated, and to block the updates seems like the only solution.

I already did that with Windows XP, installing with SP3 and blocking the updates, because they made several of my programs stop working. I thought that wouldn't happen with Win 7, which was foolish to believe so. So I reinstalled Win 7 and blocked all updates.

But recently there was something that did update something on Win 7 without any warning, as several of my XP games stopped working.

So I'm used and warned that such things may and will happen. Murphy's law at full speed.