Anti-virus

Message

slagmi · #31 Post by **slagmi** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:46 am

I dunno carbon_unit, I could email you 2 somethings right now (but I won't) that McAfee will pickup that AVG ignores.

For some reason on some Windows installations, the AVG 7's startup scans take way too long. I'm not sure why but have seen this twice. Both after uninstalling AVG 6 and attempting to upgrade.

McAfee and Norton in particular have broadened their detection as far as what sort of products they catch. But if you install it yourself and click OK to a license agreement, is it really a virus?

I'm staying free of any one single product on purpose!

And yea, don't load more than one antivirus product, for a few reasons, including the 'you may not be able to start Windows afterwards' one!

Leon · #32 Post by **Leon** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:56 pm

Food for thought.......

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,,1760324,00.asp

#33 Post by **carbon_unit** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:51 pm

Well for now I recommend AVG, AdAware, Spybot search and destroy and SpywareBlaster because these are the best free programs I can find at this point but I am always open to suggestions.
Everyone has their favorite programs and right now these are what I choose. I also use Hijackthis, CWShredder and other more specific tools to remove problems but these tools are too dangerous for the non-techie person to use.
Most of the people I work for are regular moms, dads and grandparents who know how to surf and email and that is all, they don't want it to be any more complex than necessary.

I'm know there are things these tools miss but they are the lesser of the evils for my needs. No one tool is perfect and that is why I recommend a two pronged approach. As the problems evolve my choice of tools will change to keep ahead of them.

slagmi: feel free to send whatever you want, I run linux on my Thinkpad exclusively and windows viruses won't effect me in any way.
After dealing with viruses and spyware all day I don't want to deal with it at home so I run linux and the rest of the family has Mac's.
I spend 0 minutes a week repairing my home setup.

Still I don't want to convert everyone to linux or my business will dry up.

Leon · #34 Post by **Leon** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:11 pm

carbon_unit (and all), what is your opinion of Spy Sweeper (I know it's not free) and the new Microsoft anti-spyware?

#35 Post by **carbon_unit** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:00 pm

I heard that the Microsoft product provides false positives just like the Giant software it came from. Spy Sweeper gets mixed reviews.

ibmuser · #36 Post by **ibmuser** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:05 pm

so it would appear Microsoft is getting into the antivirus business:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050208-4595.html

Leon · #37 Post by **Leon** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:25 pm

good find!

Milton Miller · #38 Post by **Milton Miller** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 12:28 am

I have been using Computer Associates eTrust EZ Antivirus and EZ Firewall for almost a year. It is the best program of all that I have used.

jjackson02 · #39 Post by **jjackson02** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:21 am

Just because it came with my computer... I use EZ AntiVirus.

slagmi · #40 Post by **slagmi** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:39 am

carbon_unit, linux generally does run pretty well on Thinkpads, doesen't it! I go back and forth, I choose to use Windows about 1/2 the time. Mostly for Photoshop. I've got Xandros 3 on one and Mepis/Debian HD install on the other. We have a Mac as well but it's pretty much used as an iTunes server & not much else though.

The LiveCd/start from ISO model of Mepis, Knoppix and others is pretty interesting-- clean slate each boot. Only thing like that in the Windows world I can think of would be maybe XP SP2 with Deep Freeze, or perhaps that PocketPC -right after you press the hard reset- LOL.

ibmuser · #41 Post by **ibmuser** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:06 am

Leon wrote:good find!

Leon,
Can you imagine Windows bundled with its own antivirus?
Remember what happend to Netscape when IE was bundled with the system!

Michael1980 · #42 Post by **Michael1980** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 1:04 pm

Using F-Secure for virus, firewall and spyware. Don't know how well it compares to others, but it is free to us at work.

pphilipko · #43 Post by **pphilipko** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 1:48 pm

PC-Cillin is the best anti virus software I have used so far...

#44 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 2:15 pm

Been using SystemWorks/AV on my T42 for a while, every time I reinstall the OS it starts a new expiration period, so for that reason I have kept it. I also use MS Spyware Beta, Adaware. On my T30 I've been using AVG, MS Spyware, Adaware. Installed AVG on 9 pc's at work a year ago and have not had any issues there. McAfee is way to dramatic at startup, all the notifications and crap. Some of my customers have the McAfee suite, way to intrusive. In some way I think all the bells and whistles that McAfee has are there to make the user feel like the NSA could not get into their system.

MadeInJapan · #45 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:25 pm

AVG was free up until a few months ago...now they're charging for it. For Window, what's the best free one out there?

#46 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 6:05 pm

I checked the Grisoft web site and from what I can see they still offer the freeware version 7.30.

dokein · #47 Post by **dokein** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 2:24 am

Nod32 anti-virus with Look 'n' Stop software firewall.

Bob Collins · #48 Post by **Bob Collins** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:36 am

MadeInJapan wrote:AVG was free up until a few months ago...now they're charging for it. For Window, what's the best free one out there?

http://free.grisoft.com

MadeInJapan · #49 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:04 pm

Thanks Bob. A friend of mine told me it wasn't any more. I never checked for myself. Possibly his firewall blocked updates to version 7 and he assumed himself. This is great news and I can recommend it to our students again. One kid got the Sasser virus on his Toshiba laptop yesterday (wasn't that a virus that came out over a year ago) and we had a time killing it. I finally ended up taking his HDD out and putting it in my T30 via the HDD adapter and scanning it that way with Norton's Corporate. It worked great and he's back in business again.

tpforever · #50 Post by **tpforever** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:43 am

i can only recommend NOD32, which was mentioned already. great program, uses only few ressources, great email-scanner, super-fast system scans.
i dont need stuff like pop-up blockers and that kind of stuff in a virus scanner since most browser are equipped with such functions anyway.

ps: forgot about the firewall: sygate personal pro...cheap, good, easy to configure, low resource use

Bob Collins · #51 Post by **Bob Collins** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:04 am

MadeInJapan, glad to help. I have used AVG since it was mentioned here many moons ago. I have been tremendously pleased with it nad it's capabilities. I have my Mom and Sisters using it on their home systems. So far so good. Also moved them to Mozilla, although that is not an antivirus thing per se.
Cheers

fschwep · #52 Post by **fschwep** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:30 pm

HM. I feel a bit more sympathy for Sugo than many, I guess. I tried Norton AV and found it caused more trouble than it prevented. So I removed it Tried McAfee and found it actually needs IE and ActiveX to work. So I removed it. I may consider the full version of ZoneAlarm with built-in AV, but generally it seems to me that background scanners tend to slow down processes and fairly often prevent software from working or installing properly. So I don't use a background scanner. Like sugo, I do use a firewall (Zonealarm), and I do manual scans pretty often using the Stinger from McAfee. For e-mail I use The Bat (older version, but very capable and it never allows infected attachments through), I browse with Firefox (and switch off Java and JavaScript for sites I don't totally trust). I also run AdWare.
The point is, if you run a plethora of application software, chances are a virusscanner will not agree very well with one or more of them. I run Corel WP Office (WordPerfect is my main tool, but this also means having Quattro Pro and Corel Presentations) but also have full MS Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook), full Acrobat 5, Acrobat Reader 6, Adobe GoLive, Paintshop, OmniPage, Photoshop LE, Photostitch, WinZIP, Psion connectivity software for my trusty old Psion 5mx PDA, topographical mapping software, Lotus Approach, Lotus Organizer, a huge number of drivers for printers, scanners, external ISDN adapters, etc... My T42 is the laptop version of a multitool. It requires regular cleaning and some light greasing, so to speak, but it does not agree with background AV programs - and my Stinger almost never finds any virus in spite of spending sometimes up to 100 hours a month on the web. My main internet providers also use AV scanning of mail before it gets to me, and they sure as hell update every day. For the rare occasion when I have to use IE, I have set its security settings quite high to prevent ActiveX stuff from being activated or software installed without my explicit authorisation (same in Firefox: no software installs allowed, no Java enabled as standard...). .doc documents are opened standard in WordPad, not Word.
Not just a scanner counts, behaviour does as well. It's not 100%, but nothing is.

#53 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:57 pm

I use Norton System Works 2005. I have not had the problems fschwep mentioned. The only conflict I ever ran into was with Bytemobile software which came with Cingular Connection Manager EDGE communication software. Fortunately I could uninstall the Bytemobile portion without uninstalling Cingular Connection Manager. The Bytemobile software uses (very) lossy compression for images to enable faster web page loads (I didn't like it anyway). I will say that Norton AV is somewhat of a system hog for slower systems. I am satisfied with the performance on my T42, but when I ran it on my 600E (PII-400), the 600E was quite slow to boot up.

ps24eva · #54 Post by **ps24eva** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:55 pm

Kaspersky is the best antivirus in every single way:

code base stability
virus detection
performance

People, you need to wake up. This is the best AV. Period.
I have been using it for years.

http://overclockers.com/articles1260/

James314 · #55 Post by **James314** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:21 pm

I must say I am a little dissappointed at the lack of knowldge on the subject of AVs on this site. I agree with ps24eva, KAV is the best as are the following:

Best for detecting known viruses/trojans: Kaspersky
Best for detecting unknown viruses/trojans: Nod32
Best free AV: Avast or if you can deal with the silly update system which doesn not allow incremental updates - AntiVir.

In addition, I recommend the following anti-trojans:

Ewido security suite - great all rounder to have in addition to your AV, protects specifically against trojans, diallers and spyware. Has a real time memory scanner and an on-demand scanner. It is light on system resources.

BO Clean - Also very good and is great value for money - you can install it on as many machines as you like! It has no on-demand scanner, if you would like to know why check out their website; the developer reasons that detecting/stopping them by scanning the memory is more effective than scanning files etc. It is very light on system resources!

Other than the above, use your head - no serial/crack and warez sites!

Norton has come a long way in terms of improving its detection rate but it is still a resource hog. As for AVG Free , its detection rate is laughable! But it is still better than no AV at all.

The following is a useful guide but must be taken with a pinch of salt - http://www.av-comparatives.org/

J.

#56 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 7:01 pm

James314 wrote:I must say I am a little dissappointed at the lack of knowldge on the subject of AVs on this site.

You're posting 'on this site', Not?

James314 wrote:The following is a useful guide but must be taken with a pinch of salt - http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Great link. Thanks.

Navck · #57 Post by **Navck** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:57 am

PC-Cillin is what I use over Norton, hate Norton myself.
Then I had their online scan and liked it.

Ralfalla · #58 Post by **Ralfalla** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:34 am

I use Avast home edition. Switched from Norton AV which is a bloated program in any incarnation except Corporate. Works like a charm and have been virus free for over a year. Free.

Thanks,
Roberto

Rule of Survival: Pack your own Parachute.
TP 21 PIII 850
512 MB RAM 40 GB HD
SXGA+
WIN XP PRO SP2/ Sygate Firewall/ Avast Ant Virus
Odered TP 42P Can't Wait

aabram · #59 Post by **aabram** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:20 pm

Another vote for Avast. After you disable the sound effects, graphical gui and silly notification messages it's rather unobtrusive and does a good job catching those pesky viruses. I have VRDB generation disabled though, I find it relatively useless for myself. At work I use NOD32 and despite my initial scepticism it has turned out to be a decent one too.

That said I do support sugo in the issue of having no AV installed and surviving just fine. I've been running various windows boxes for years without AV without any problems. It's not silly nor careless if you know exactly what you are doing. All my mail goes through virus-checking mailserver, I never do any suspicious sites, I don't use a browser which allows unwanted/malicious pop-ups/pop-unders and whatnot. I don't usually share files with strangers and I don't download just anything that has a "try me" written on it. On my work computer I started to use AV this spring just because we switched from F-Secure (bloaaat!) to NOD32 but I haven't had a single alarm yet. At home I do have Avast on all the time since I'm generally more adventurous when browsing online and I have had some alerts on some sites but that's pretty rare too. Last time I actually had a virus was back in 1995 I think, some good old floppy bootsector virus. In 1997 or so I had a lone Word macro virus too but it's been all quiet from that point on. At least I don't recall anything catastrophic from time between.

And no, it's not like having uprotected sex. It's like having unprotected sex with strangers. And that I don't do. In fact I always have batch of viruses stored on my server (unix) that I use to test virus scanners. Great help when testing mailserver antivirus software.

leon55 · #60 Post by **leon55** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:28 pm

I use AntiVir it is free for home users, and I am free from viruses and spyware for 6 month by now

Anti-virus

Which anti-virus program do you use?

Avast

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