Anti-Virus - what do folks here use?

[Kevin P]

I've been a longtime Norton AntiVirus (NAV) user but have been disappointed with the direction Symantec has been going with their products (bloat in 2003 version, activation :wtf: in the 2004 version), I'm in the process of evaluating alternative products.

So far I've tested out:

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) Personal Pro 4.5 - top notch in detection performance, but it can be slow if not tweaked properly. GUI is somewhat clunky. No POP3 or SMTP email scanning. Updates are easy to install, but they're on a schedule rather than automatic. :4:

Eset NOD32 2.0 - nice lightweight AV with automatic updates and POP3 scanning. Probably closest to NAV in terms of feature set and detection performance, and is currently my top choice for my desktop at least. :35:

Grisoft AVG 6.0 Free Edition - not bad overall. It had decent detection performance (though hit or miss for catching things as they were downloaded). It has SMTP and POP3 scanning, as a separate download. Can't beat the price (free), but it didn't impress me that much overall. :3:

F-Secure Anti-Virus 2003 - In two attempts to install this POS on my Win2K laptop, I wound up with no desktop on reboot. I had to boot up in safe mode and remove the registry entries that launched it. Therefore I couldn't evaluate its performance (though it is supposedly one of the best as it uses 3 AV engines including KAV). :1:

Extendia AVK - not yet evaluated, as a trial version isn't available for download. If I find a cheap copy at WalMart I'll pick it up and try it.

Any others I should check out. I don't like McAfee. :throwup:




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[Gordon Moore]

Hi Kevin,

here's the AVK 2004 trial download link:

http://www.antiviruslab.com/e_download.php?lang=gb

Some things I've noticed about the cheap version I picked up...

It's version 11 which is 2 versions behind but virus defs come in daily for the KAV engine and the RAV engine is a little slower...like 5 days.

In the 2004 version, They have dropped the RAV engine since it will wind up in the next version of Windoze (now that M$ has monopolized RAV).

So they've now include BitDefender as the second engine for scanning packed files.

Still the 11 version is great as a resident and scheduled scanner but the POP3 for release 11 anyway is kind of lame. In outlook express if the scanner discovers an infected email it quarrantines the entire inbox dbx file so that all your inbox messages are toast if the AV system can't disinfect. That bites as far as I'm concerned. Why they couldn't trap a single email is beyond me. This may have been rectified in the 2004 version but it is something to watch out for. The double scanner is a powerful tool though so I think I have a way around the pop scanner and I'll continue to use it as a resident scanner.

More details shortly...


Trendmicro has a new version which is supposedly pretty good. I've also tried Panda Titanium which is a nice scanner but is rather spotty on packed files.

My beef with AV systems is that they are trying to pack in firewall, anti-spammer, antihacker etc... when they should just concentrate on AV scanning. Small beef. I checked out NOD32 as was fairly impressed with that product. I agree with your conclusion with F-Secure (BTW their contract is ending with 2 of the AV manufacturers, so maybe there's more to your conclusion about it being a POS then you think. )




"A RONSTER!"

[Kevin P]

Uh, Gord, that AVK trial is in German. Doesn't do me much good when I can't understand what it's saying... :sos::




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[Gordon Moore]

WHAT????????????????????????

You don't spreken ze deutch?????

ops: I didn't try it myself...but that's what my program linked to on the english page so I just assumed it was the english trial. There's no language setting in there? Sorry about that. I knew this is tied the the german Anti Viren Kit hence the AVK. Entendia is the American division of Boomerang Software who I guess is the U.S. distributor. WHOOPS. Sorry Kev...I tried

Update on the POP scanner in AVK. I finshed emailing tech support and what haoppened was that the resident scanner picked up the email before the POP scanner and declared the whole inbox dbx file as infected, so it quarantined the inbox.dbx. The guy at tech support said that I had to make inbox.dbx an exception in the monitoring program and leave the email checking to the POP scanner.

Yup that works fine BUT that's not intuitve nor is it documented. I hope this has been fixed in 2004. I suggested that his instructions should be added to their FAQ.

So POP scanning is working again. I was slightly offended when he said it was "user error" and not "program error". That's not a grand way to keep customers . If I told my clients that everything they did was user-error I wouldn't have clients for long (sure I think it but I don't tell them to their face :twisted: ). On top of that if you don't document these "hidden features" then what good is that nor could you expect someone to just figure this out. Any ways gripe over because I'm still rather happy with this scanner now that it's working properly. I'm Glad to find out that it's being overly aggressive at scanning rather than not enough.




"A RONSTER!"

[Kevin P]

I've been AWOL from the board for a while but now I'm back. And I've officially ditched NAV and chosen NOD32 for my desktop. So far I've been impressed with NOD - frequent and quick updates, fast scanning, POP3/SMTP scanning and decent detection of malware, which is what an AV is for anyway, right? NOD32 was one of the first to respond with an update for the Mydoom virus that hit last week. Symantec? One of the last. :roll:

On my laptop, I'm currently using Computer Associates eTrust EZ Antivirus, which is free for a year. It's not as good as NOD32 but for free who can complain? When Kaspersky 5.0 comes out I might jump on that.




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[Chris D]

I've always used NAV. Currently have Systemworks 2002 installed.

Kev, I might have a virus question for you here. I'll let you know.




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[Kevin P]

Kev, I might have a virus question for you here. I'll let you know.

I might have a virus answer for you then. :B

[brag]Did you know I posted an analysis of the Mydoom/Novarg virus on Broadband Reports before most of the AV companies had any info on it? I received a sample shortly after it hit and I pulled it apart and posted my observations on it, including the fact that it would attack SCO's website. [/brag]




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