I’ve recently upgraded from BitDefender 8 Free to BitDefender 10 Free, which I use, after Tech’s recommendation during a previous problem, as an on-demand scanner. I have set updates to manual, and prevented it from starting automatically with Windows (removed startup entry in Spybot).
When I connect to the internet, I do so first through Outlook Express to check any mail, and then open up Internet Explorer afterwards. Having installed BD10, when I connect to O.E., ZoneAlarm Free firewall comes up with a warning that “BitDefender Security Service is trying to access the trusted zone”. If I click on ‘deny’, O.E. comes up with an error and won’t connect to the server to check messages. If I click on ‘allow’, O.E. connects and works as normal.
Does anyone know:
How can I stop BD10 doing this, or is there no need to stop it?
What is this “BitDefender Security Service”, what exactly is it doing, and why is it doing anything since it’s supposed to be an on-demand scanner?
Will it be interfering with Avast’s mail scanner, since it is another antivirus program?
I think BD free is a bloated software, with a lot of running process only for demand scan. No, thanks.
I think BD 10 is for people have not got resident protection.
The question is related to Avast, and since the program was recommended by a very knowledgable Forum member, I naturally came here again for advice. I hadn’t realised that you’d been appointed as a moderator. If a particular question or topic doesn’t interest you, it’s very easy to simply move on to the next one without feeling the need to make unproductive comments.
I was led to believe that quite a lot of people use additional on-demand scanners as a way of double-checking for viruses on their systems.
Well yeah, I can understand that. Myself, I prefer to have an on-demand scanner on my PC, but am unsure what this ‘Security Service’ is, and whether it is likely to affect Avast. While I’m glad of your interest, and am interested in what you are saying, because I’ve learnt an immense amount from the people on this Forum, I am hoping that someone will be able to answer my queries, rather than turn this into a discussion on the pros and cons of on-demand and on-line scanners.
Since "viruses" are rare nowadays, compared with malware such as
trojans, worms, keyloggers, generic Dialers, rootkits, etc , and your HJT
Log posted in June showed you had Counterspy, AVG AntiSpyware, and
Spyware Terminator ( which would seem to provide adequate coverage ),
WHY would you want another antiVIRUS program on your computer !?
Perhaps you would be better off using a SPECIALIZED anti-ROOTKIT
program instead of another AV !?
There are 4 services that seems too much for an on-demand scanner only. You can set them to manual and start when you want to update and scan your computer.
It shouldn’t interfere as it does not use low level drivers and resident parts.
I tried to do this both with administrative tools/services and then through the Services tab in WinPatrol. At least one of them, and I can’t remember which now, changed from manual to automatic by itself on restart. BitDefender wouldn’t open though, as you suggested, and so I’d have to go throught the process of restarting them before I could use the program, which does seem more trouble than it’s worth!
I had used BitDefender and Clamwin (which I didn’t like) in the past. When I had a few ‘issues’ a while ago and Tech suggested BitDefender, I just stuck with it as an extra ‘check’ for viruses. I do run AVG and Panda Anti-Rootkit scanners every now and again.
I agree, this does seem too much, and as I said to ggf31416 above, setting to manual and restarting is too much of a hassle to bother with!
As such, I’ve removed it.
As always, many thanks for everyone’s input, which is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
BitDefender 10 Free has an e-mail scanner but it’s not documented anywhere.
In the 2nd screenshot you can see that vsserv.exe attemps to connect to 200.40.30.218, which is the IP address of the Adinet (free e-mail service from AntelData company) server. As you can see in the 1st screenshot bitdefender deletes messages with infected attachments without prompt. That is one of the reasons I don’t longer use BD 10 Free.
No, vsserv is the email scanner but BD doesn’t start if it isn’t running. (It’s possible to use a batch script to start/stop the services with a double click)
Anyway I think it’s better to use the online scanner, no resident services and 0 risk of conflicts. Copy the shortcut to internet explorer and add http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html after the path to the IE executable.
