spybot question

KK · External Since: Aug 21, 2006 Posts: 8

Hi,

When I run Norton anti-virus it checks about 200,000 files on my pc (full
system scan).

When I run Spybot it checks about 42,000 files. Is this OK or is there
someting in Spybot's settings I need to alter ?

Thanks

K

Wolf K · External Since: Sep 04, 2006 Posts: 16

KK wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When I run Norton anti-virus it checks about 200,000 files on my pc (full
> system scan).
>
> When I run Spybot it checks about 42,000 files. Is this OK or is there
> someting in Spybot's settings I need to alter ?
>
> Thanks
>
> K

Actually, Spybot is checking for the _presence_ of any one of these 42K
files. They are the 'bots it's looking for. Both programs check every
file that could be infected.

David H. Lipman · External Since: Jul 04, 2003 Posts: 2116

From: "KK" <trebor.RemoveThis@yeleek.nospam.freeserve.co.uk>

| Hi,
|
| When I run Norton anti-virus it checks about 200,000 files on my pc (full
| system scan).
|
| When I run Spybot it checks about 42,000 files. Is this OK or is there
| someting in Spybot's settings I need to alter ?
|
| Thanks
|
| K
|

Anti Virus software uses Heuristics and signatures and need to scan sleected files or all
files to match signatures vs whats in each file. Additionally, if a given anti virus
package is told to scan archive files one file may represent many files thus increasing the
total number of files scanned. this is often shown if you compare the number of files found
on a hard disk vs. the number of files scanned. That number of files scanned could be much
larger if the "scan archive files" is es enabled. such files are; ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM,
etc.

SpyBot is a a RULES based scanner. That means it uses a a fixed set of rules to search
specific areas for malware known to the software. when you download SpyBot updates, you add
additional rules to the list to scan for.

Thus you are comparing apples to oranges and I hope Wolf K and I have given you enough
information to understand the differences.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm