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From: frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: F-DRIVER.SYS (v 1.14) problems & questions (PC)
Message-ID: <0008.9104091351.AA04984@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 8 Apr 91 15:32:53 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

nelson@bolyard.wpd.sgi.com (Nelson Bolyard) writes:
>With F-DRIVER.SYS installed, there is a 24 second delay when I run a
>TSR called PSFX.  NO error message is displayed, and no warning sounds
>are emitted from the speaker during this inexplicable 24 second delay.

This is odd - F-DRIVER normally only adds a fraction of a second to
the loading time of each program.  I would very much appreciate a copy
of the PSFX program, so I can determine what the problem is.

>In truth, I don't know exactly what protection F-DRIVER.SYS supposedly
>gives me, what types of problems it supposedly prevents, nor what I
>should expect to experience (i.e. what F-DRIVER will do) if and when I
>actually encounter a virus.

The main purpose of F-DRIVER is to prevent the execution of any
program virus on the computer.  If you attempt to run an infected
file, it will not be executed, and a message will appear.  Example:

		This program is infected by the Magnitogorsk virus
		Access denied

If this happens, just disinfect the affected file, or replace it with
a non-infected copy.

I try to keep F-DRIVER.SYS fully up do date, and it is able to stop
around 400 virus variants.  However, unlike F-FCHK, it will not
produce an accurate variant identifiation.

F-DRIVER will also attempt to analyze the system on boot-up, in order
to determine if the machine is infected with a boot virus.  If this is
the case, it will display a warning message and hang the computer,
forcing the user to reboot from a (hopefully non-infected) system
floppy.

I am adding an option in version 1.15 to disable the second feature,
as it occasionally caused problems on computers with network Boot
ROMs.

- -frisk