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Anti-Virus Software

Bob Blaylock said:
Norton is crap. Just about anything from Symantec for about the past five or ten years is crap.

You know who I really pity? Peter Norton. In his day, he was a genius. He wrote and sold some very, very good stuff. He sold out to Symantec, not only his products, but his name as well; and now, as a result, his name and his image is associated with software that is utter crap.
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Probably belongs in the CT forum but circa 199~ I was convinced that both norton and macafe were creating viruses just to create a market.
 
Avoid Symantec/Norton like the plague.

It's better to get infested with every virus and rootkit known to man than to install that utter piece of crap.

Personally I've tried both AVG and Avast! They're both good.
 
Rob Lister said:
Probably belongs in the CT forum but circa 199~ I was convinced that both norton and macafe were creating viruses just to create a market.
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A company called Intego was caught red-handed doing exactly that a few years ago. They claimed to have “discovered” the very first virus to target MacOS X. Of course they assured us, their own fine antivirus program for the Macintosh would stop this virus.

Turns out, they themselves created the virus in question.

Under no circumstances will I ever buy anything from Intego.
 
Antivirus is a bit over-hyped. Full-time scanning is beyond paranoia, since it can convert your screaming-fast performance PC into a 386 clone of yesteryear, only it still needs to run today's bloated software.

If you suspect infection, install a free virus scanner, patch it up, run it, uninstall it, and you're good to go.

If you stick to 'safe' practices with your computer, a virus is not going to get you. Back up your boot partition(s), backup your data, and there's nothing a virus can do to you that you can't solve in 30 minutes or less.

Of course, if you have an airhead in the house who accepts and opens executable email attachments, follows strange links for 'special FREE offers', etc., then maybe you need full-time scanning for that person. Or make that person do their stuff in a virtual machine with a snapshot to revert back to.

Being a Linux user now, viruses and spyware and such are pretty much non-existent for me. All the nastiest take-over-your-computer and rape your file system stuff is made for Windows.
 
pingnak said:
Antivirus is a bit over-hyped. Full-time scanning is beyond paranoia, since it can convert your screaming-fast performance PC into a 386 clone of yesteryear, only it still needs to run today's bloated software.
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Indeed.

Hence my recommendation in post #15 for ClamWin, which can be used to manually scan a file, directory or drive :)
 
We use antivirus software from Trend Micro at work, and it is terrible. It constantly tells me that I might have a virus, but it can't clean it or even isolate it. I have to install AVG to take care of those.
 
Yeah, I remember work machines that had 'full time' virus scanning on them. I didn't have the permissions to change the antivirus settings, but it didn't take much tinkering to find the start-up registry settings and disable all of it, once I got the process names from the task manager.

I shouldn't have been able to do that, but it was a 'development' machine, and the IT guy couldn't be bothered to isolate specific security allowances to build with. Oh, and it was Windows XP (if it weren't windows, there would be no need for antivirus), so making the security work right from the top down would've been a dreadful hassle on all those machines.
 
I actually pay for my main one, I use ZA Internet Suite, but I have backup with Adaware virus and spyware and Spybot
 
if it weren't windows, there would be no need for antivirus
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This isn't entirely true, there are viruses written for both Mac and Linix, the difference being that since those two have very little of the OS market they aren't considered worth attacking by most hackers. As they get more popular, they'll also attract more attention from virus writters.
 
I've used Norton AV for over ten years and it's never given me any problems. Same with my roomates and family members.
 
SusanB-M1 said:
Six7s #15
That is very interesting. I use the keyboard a lot, but with magnification can still use the mouse as well - which is about 2 inches long, coloured blue and looks as if it is a solid block. The local computer shop man suggested Panda AV which I have had since about March and which has given no trouble at all.
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PAV is what my schools district uses, the only problem is the auto update will make you think your machine is dead.


It also gets a bug where is writes to the disk endlessly and needs to be reinstalled, but that may be an issue mainly because of the sites some users go to.
 
Grisoft has recently issued an AVG software update. A friend asked me to upgrade his kid's machine. Pressed the button and twenty minutes later it was up and running. He then asked for his business machine to be upgraded with the latest Norton. He had this installed on his machine on purchase and against my advice paid for a year's subscription. Started the upgrade process and over an hour later and four reboots, it eventually started working, if that is a verb you can apply to it. Strangely, when the subscription runs out he wants AVG. Getting rid of Norton is a problem but repeated deletion in the registry usually does the trick.

The free version of AVG doesn't come with a firewall, but if required, I use ZoneAlarm.

BTW the latest version of AVG seems much quicker and now allows selective virus scans which makes it even quicker.
 
According to PC Magazine, the 2009 version is the lightest on resources out of all of the new versions tested and installs in less than a minute. I can vouch for the installation part...it was swift and painless. Got it installed in no time on my machine as well as my two roomates' (it's a 3-user license). I spose it just doesn't work well with certain machines.
 
Just want to add my voice to those warning against Norton or any other Symantec product. They are much more trouble than they need to be.
 
Bob Blaylock said:
The 2009 version of what? Without specifying which product you are talking about, your posting is meaningless.
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The 2009 version of Norton Internet Security, which includes Anti-Virus 2009. Does my post have meaning now?
 
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tripi said:
The 2009 version of Norton Internet Security, which includes Anti-Virus 2009. Does my post have meaning now?
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Just put that on my laptop and desktop. I have used Norton on all my machines for I guess the past 10 years, without any issues whatsoever. I am not going to recommend it since I’ve used or have had a chance to interact with so few of the current softwares. I had McAfee before Norton, it was a $45 dollar purchase with a $50 mail in rebate, can you say better then free. I had no problems with that either.
 
Dancing David said:
PAV is what my schools district uses, the only problem is the auto update will make you think your machine is dead.


It also gets a bug where is writes to the disk endlessly and needs to be reinstalled, but that may be an issue mainly because of the sites some users go to.
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thank you - I'll make a note of that. The local chap also recommends buying a new version each year, rather than renewing it on line.
 
erlando said:
Avoid Symantec/Norton like the plague.

It's better to get infested with every virus and rootkit known to man than to install that utter piece of crap.
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QFT. I've never seen a machine run properly with NAV installed. I consider the software as Malware at best. Even a simple step such as uninstalling it is a nightmare.

AVG and Avast are pretty good for the free ones and if you are willing to pay then I recommend NOD32.

There are some simple practices to avoid viruses.

1. Buy a router. They have built in firewalls.
2. Run Firefox. (I understand that MS IE is now much better than it used to be.
3. Surf the net using a "limited account" and not "computer administrator". (Must admit I don't do this but I should :blush:)
4. Turn on Windows Firewall.
5. Use an antivirus software package but NOT Norton!
6. Use your loaf. If something looks dodgy it probably is so don't go clicking on stuff willy nilly.

Spybot S&D, Adaware, Hijackthis are handy programs if you suspect trouble.

I can't remember the last time I had a virus. Must be 4 or 5 years.
 
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