I couldn't make up my mind which anti-virus software is a better solution? I want to see your preferred choices... Currently using Norton, but Housecall seemed to detect a trojan on my computer which Norton can't detect?

-_-...

Norton is great. It's uninvasive, works very well, and is update very frequently. I haven't had any real problems out of it.

I use whichever has a free online scan when I feel like checking...
Last time it was Trend's, before that McAfee's...

I used to subscribe to McAfee, but stopped after I realized I mostly turned if off after starting my machine...

So now I'm AV free, until I think I've gotten something contagious, and thus save system resources...

Note: I'm not saying this is a very safe option though...

I also run Norton, and I like it very much, but just like any anti-virus software probably would do, it slows the computer down a little bit.....

I used to use McAfee, which I feel is best for features and configuration options, but it also gave me much aggrevation and frequently caused severe problems with my OS, so I uninstalled it and switched to Norton. No more problems since.

A lot of people I have worked with seem to think that AVG is one of the best.
Good integration all round I think. Although like Mr Gaibaldi, I tend not to run one at home, since they usually hog the system resources. If you are careful, then you should be ok without AV software (although I don't recommend it). :/

AVG?

I used to have McAfee, but used Norton because I wanted since I used Utilities, might as well switch to a product of the same family. I just wondered whether I missed out on any better Anti-Virus solutions that are out there.

For my usage, I dare not surf the net without an Anti-Virus software guarding. KaZaA, a web server and an FTP server. An almost 24/7 online connection. Too risky.

I use Norton AntiVirus 2003 Pro, SystemWorks 2003 and PersonalFirewall 2003. They manage to serve me well, except recently when a trojan horse got by me undetected (discussed in the #3DSpotlight IRC Channel); thankfully Nodsu checked it out for me and confirmed my worst fears :) . I guess that's what happens when you try to download Keygens from Kazaa :giddy: .

BTW, is it just my software, or has Norton not released any updates for a week or so? (usually several virus definitions available for download every week).

Yeah! That's exactly the reason why I'm shaken with Norton's solution! The trojan TROJ_CODERED.C got into my com but Norton did not discover it, instead, Housecall did, which led me to post this question here.

That's one of the problems with downloading illegal software, its one of the main ways to distribute trojans. :p

A far as best Anti-virus goes, you only need to look at the virus list to see that the different anti-virus vendors each provide different definitions lists, so they will each have their own strengths/weakness. If you are really paranoid, then you could always try running two or more anti-virus software concurently, but that's just overkill for most users.

If you want to avoid trojans and viruses then don't download warez and don't visit warez websites as some of these sites will try to infect your computer while you are accessing their wares. :dead:

I've known several people that have gotten infected using Norton. It only detected the virus after the package had been triggered and their computers at that point were infected resulting in major work to clean up the mess. I've used McAfee since the mid 90's. I've only ever found 2 viruses in attachments but VirusScan caught them before they were executed so they didn't infect my machine.

AVG (http://www.grisoft.com) doesn't use anywhere near the resources of the big 2, with Regular updates, and free

Having installed it 2 years ago when InoculateIT started charging, I have still to catch something (touch wood)

I use NAV, it works well and it doesn't get in my way. I used to use something called Thunderbyte, but they were bought by another company who ruined the program.

One thing you have to remember about AV software, they are not foolproof, they may not all always catch everything, and you have to keep them updated for them to properly protect. Also, heuristic scan is a good thing, it can give false alarms but it rarely lets anything slip through.

I think the best antivirus is yourself. Use your head when downloading things and be smart about it.

^.- Hello that's pretty insulting.

There are softwares and videos which you want to download from the web and you can't possibly gurantee that they are safe from virus. You can't read binary data!

Through these inevitable things, having an anti-virus software is a better solution.

^
^, I don't find that insulting. If you download from known places, your chances of getting a virus are pretty slim, but I probably don't download as much stuff as most of you. I use NAV though, and have never gotten a virus. I do use HotMail though, which scans for virus's and it has stopped a few.

I do not use an anti-virus scanner.

Because I never get infected.

Period.

Best anti-virus protection is common sense!

I think what Poert is trying to say is not to just trust the AV software to be a filter for everything. There is a certain amount of common sense you have to use. Like, don't open attachments on emails with hta or vbs or pretty much any extention you are unfamiliar with. Scan downloads before opening them, download from trusted sources when possible.

My email server scans for virii, and I usually get a few Interscan notifications about things that it has blocked, usually vb script attachments, but sometimes one gets through and Norton catches it, today however, one slipped through both that may or may not have been a virus but it looked suspicious and was an hta extention. I treated it as if it were a virus.

Yes I do take certain precautions like not opening funny attachments and downloading from trusted sites.

However, I do download things from peer-to-peer programs and therefore I cannot gurantee that it's clean, since it passed through the hands of many other users as well.

Thus I feel that without any AV solution, my com is a goner!

I use many p2p programs and download from irc heavily. I have for years. I have yet to be infected by a single virus. It's more about knowing what can and cannot be done then anything, at least IMO.

My NAV detected some viruses from some of the downloads from kazaa. A recent one is the W32.Supernova (Something like that). Still I find it safer to have an AV active than without, though it takes up some of my RAM.

How are you guys getting virii from kazaa? You downloading .zips and .exe and such? If so well then you should almost expect that.
Are videos carring this crap now? I have never gotten a virus from kazaa, but all I'll dl from there is videos and mp3s.

Yes StormBringer I am just saying be careful what you download. Don't just go getting everything you want and run it right away. I know that most viruses are semi-small in size. If you are looking to download something that is 50meg and you see one that is only 2meg, obviously don't get that one. That is all I am saying, keep an eye out for things that don't look right.

I once downloaded a copy of Frontier Elite from what seemed to be a popular and respectable website dedicated to the Elite games. After running the game's '.exe' nothing happened and the game didn't start. On the next reboot I was unable to load windows 98 and instead got a scrolling Star Wars style message, in Spanish - I had been infected by a virus that had overwritten a vital windows '.com' file and I ended up formatting my drive to get rid of the virus, which McAfee had not detected. Luckily the virus was not a destructive one (so I did manage to backup my personal files first), but things could have been far worse, so don't surf without that virus scanner and firewall.

Something to bear in mind is that the best way to distribute trojans is through 'free' software, as the user will surely run the 'install' or executable, so infecting their PC, while they are blissfully unaware of what has happened.

Originally posted by Rick
Norton is great. It's uninvasive, works very well, and is update very frequently. I haven't had any real problems out of it. It's uninvasive?????????????

You got to be kidding!

It is the biggest, bloated POS on the planet. Only Idiot Exploiter is worse!

It comes up more than any problem in anybody's troubleshooting section that causes problems especially at time of installing other programs! It puts itself in the root of C and hogs your system to death!

Just look at Task Manager at the I/O bytes readings!

Give me System Suite from vCom and TrendMicro's AV anytime. Besides, the updates are free!

Originally posted by Soul Harvester
I do not use an anti-virus scanner.

Because I never get infected.

Period.

Best anti-virus protection is common sense! Yea, don't go on the internet!

That's almost as bad as saying I don't wear seatbelts!:confused:

I don't use any virus scanners either - because BeOS doesn't have virii. For others, I recommend F-Secure's F-Prot for DOS (http://www.f-prot.com/products/home_use/dos/), although it doesn't work with NTFS very well. No automated background scanning for lazy people though :P

What is the difference between Norton Personal Firewall and Norton Internet Security? Besides.. those programs are useless. NAV and NSW are useful :)

I recommend F-Secure's F-Prot for DOS

I think F-Prot is a product by Frisk Software.
F-Secure offers a product called F-Secure Anti-Virus.

Both are great and recommended by me :p

install linux and then you will never have a virus, because the people creating virii make them in linux.

LOL Phant. Is that true?

Also, I don't see anything wrong with Norton products, even though a Trojan got passed me once before. I mean, their constant updates must accomplish something!?! Is McAfee any better? Or should I just stick to my intentions to change to F-Secure next format as advised by Nodsu in the IRC channel?

I got a virus yesterday, took me 2 hours to fix it. The virus lagged my computer soooooo much! Thanks to Norton (50%), and my brain (50%) for getting rid of the virus :)

I prefer not to use an antivirus program due to performance overhead that will be there - reguardless of which AV software you choose. I do, however, use McAfee on two of my machines - and any files that come in from the internet are passed through one of these machines before they are executed on any of my other machines. One of these machines also scans all the files on my other machines (can't scan registry of course, but I'm just really careful with my other machines) when I'm not using them. I've never had the best luck with anything from Symantec except Ghost - but I think it's just bad luck on my part because I know several techies who love symantec.

LNCPapa

and has an automatic updater.............never any issues like with mcafee or norton

Originally posted by Soul Harvester
I do not use an anti-virus scanner.

Because I never get infected.

Period.

Best anti-virus protection is common sense!

If you never scan for viruses how do you know you haven't been infected?

I use Grisoft AVG 6.0, the price is right.:)

In our office I have deployed the following AV protection:

29 win98 PCs w/ internet access, but not email:
McAffee VirusScan

1 winXP laptop w/ internat and pop3 email
Norton Internet Security w/ NAV and personal firewall

9 win2000 PCs w/ internet access & pop3 email (Outlook Express & Outlook)
Norton Systemworks 2003 w/ NAV 2003

2 win2000/NT servers internet access, no email
Symantec Small Business 8.0 Corporate Edition (for Servers & PCs).

I've had some problems with email viruses not detected using Mcafee, so I switched all email users to NAV (Systemworks). Most of our internet users are browsers, so our infections were mostly Melissa style emails, and the ocassional virus hoax alert. Since switching to NAV (past year) we haven't had any problems, and Systemworks has other perks (Ghost, Disk utils, Reg clean, etc).

We probablly encounter 1-2 virus infected emails each week. NAV catches the emails before the user is able to open the infected attachements, etc...

I recently deployed Symantec AV on our servers (this week), and plan to eventually migrate all of my win98 PCs to Symantec as well (to take advantage of virus definition deployment and alert methods.

Firewall:
We haven't yet been hacked, but are using Linksys Router with IP forwarding (only pcAnywhere and Terminal Server currently fwd), but I will start to worry more with up-coming deployment of Exchange Server and remote access of email.
I'd also like to find a cheap copy of Symantec Antivirus with Exchange filtering if possible.

I have Norton Professional and it works fine...
I've never had a virus that i've had to hunt down.
I do however have a reoccuring explorer.exe in my C: drive that's pissing me off....

The great taste that won't fill you up but never let you down. :) Make it a Norton.

(I stole that from a beer comercial).

Originally posted by alphnumeric
If you never scan for viruses how do you know you haven't been infected?

There are other ways to tell if your computer is infected by virus.
I) Your pc has been acting mysteriously slower than usual
II) You have trouble running some programs or receive some weird messages while attempting to run one


Honestly speaking, both my pcs don't have any AV software installed. I have been using P2P software for ages and never had problems with virus infections.

I feel the same way, as long as you are smart you shouldn't have any problems.

Originally posted by timmoore
LOL Phant. Is that true?

Also, I don't see anything wrong with Norton products, even though a Trojan got passed me once before. I mean, their constant updates must accomplish something!?! Is McAfee any better? Or should I just stick to my intentions to change to F-Secure next format as advised by Nodsu in the IRC channel?

Yes, its true.

Why would you want to make a virus to do harm to Windows while designing it on Windows? Where's the test phase?

While we're on the topic of viruses...
My favorite hoax is the "if you find jdbmgr.exe (which icon looks like a teddy bear) this file on your computer, delete it and email everyone you know that you were infected, and might have passed it on".

Any time you are nervous enough to send an email to everyone in your address book, take a deep breath and make sure it is for real. -this goes for un-believeable urban legends as well.
http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/
http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/jdbmgr.html

Its one thing to look stupid because you executed a virus and broadcast a melissa style virus to everyone in your address book. It is quite another when someone like me sends a email back to you with links to the virus hoax on mcafee.com.

C

After purchasing McAfee in 1997 for my laptop, and doing it again several years later when they went and got all hotsy totsy on me and became subscription based, I went to Trend Micro because it came OEM. I liked it very much. So much for the other one. Tried Symantec. Stat. Then discovered AVG and have been using it ever since. But still go to Housecall just often enough to keep my system honest.

AVG free

I have been using Norton myself and never had problems with a virus, whereas I know others who have used other products have, Maybe I have been lucky but I try to be careful too.
It's true that no one program will detect all virus's but using one does give some protection against most.

Norton SystemWorks 2003 w/ Personal Firewall......no problems as of yet. i like it.......isnt slowing my computer down any that i can notice either....... :)

videobruce - "That's almost as bad as saying I don't wear seatbelts!"

If you had razor wire around you instead of a seat belt, I bet you'd take more care to avoid accidents.

Common sense has to be the most important AV tool. The AV companies only develop cures when the viruses (correct plural according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) are on the loose (unless you're a conspiracy theorist who believes that the AV companies are writing them!). People who download executables and run them, thinking that their AV package knew what to look for, are the AV companies' guinea pigs.