OT: Comments on AntiVirus Brands?

J

Jim Thompson

Guest
My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
 
Jim Thompson wrote:
My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

Jim Thompson
Click to expand...

I use AVG from http://www.grisoft.com. I remove Norton and McAfee
from a lot of infected computers, after cleaning the hard drive up with
AVG. I install the free version on all the computers that I give away
to disabled Veterans, along with AdAware and ZoneAlarm.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
"Jim Thompson"

My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
FWIW, I used to recommend Norton over McAfee as the lesser of two evils
kinda thing. Now that Norton shoves their Internet Security crap at
people, I no longer see them as a tolerable alternative. Besides being
incredibly slow, Norton Internet Security causes more problems than any
piece of software I've ever seen. Since (as Mr. Terrell said), virii
get right past them both anyway as they travel allot faster than
updates.

Lately, I've been trying out the EZ Trust stuff on people. It's WAYYYYY
less burdensome (<-- major understatement there) on the CPU and seems to
be just as effective as anything else. It's not as fancy (read as
insanely complex) as the others, but it loads quick enough and hasn't
resulted in any major headaches for me so far. Personally, I don't run
anything.
 
On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:30:33 GMT, "Anthony Fremont"
<spam@anywhere.com> wrote:

"Jim Thompson"

My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

FWIW, I used to recommend Norton over McAfee as the lesser of two evils
kinda thing. Now that Norton shoves their Internet Security crap at
people, I no longer see them as a tolerable alternative. Besides being
incredibly slow, Norton Internet Security causes more problems than any
piece of software I've ever seen. Since (as Mr. Terrell said), virii
get right past them both anyway as they travel allot faster than
updates.

Lately, I've been trying out the EZ Trust stuff on people. It's WAYYYYY
less burdensome (<-- major understatement there) on the CPU and seems to
be just as effective as anything else. It's not as fancy (read as
insanely complex) as the others, but it loads quick enough and hasn't
resulted in any major headaches for me so far. Personally, I don't run
anything.
Click to expand...
I just tried a scan... significantly faster than Norton, but who knows
the efficacy.

I'm running thru an SMC Barricade which blocks all the direct attacks
and I'm quite cautious of what I open.

Probably the most useful thing is Firefox' blocking of Javascript.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
 
"Jim Thompson" <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
message news:76gr12p7t6jbb15bqthea9chko0uvf72k9@4ax.com...
On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:30:33 GMT, "Anthony Fremont"
spam@anywhere.com> wrote:


"Jim Thompson"

My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

FWIW, I used to recommend Norton over McAfee as the lesser of two
evils
kinda thing. Now that Norton shoves their Internet Security crap at
people, I no longer see them as a tolerable alternative. Besides
being
incredibly slow, Norton Internet Security causes more problems than
any
piece of software I've ever seen. Since (as Mr. Terrell said), virii
get right past them both anyway as they travel allot faster than
updates.

Lately, I've been trying out the EZ Trust stuff on people. It's
WAYYYYY
less burdensome (<-- major understatement there) on the CPU and seems
to
be just as effective as anything else. It's not as fancy (read as
insanely complex) as the others, but it loads quick enough and hasn't
resulted in any major headaches for me so far. Personally, I don't
run
anything.

I just tried a scan... significantly faster than Norton, but who knows
the efficacy.
Click to expand...
CA is a real big player in the IBM mainframe arena, sort of like MS in
the PC world. They buy/crush all their competition and then rebadge the
product with an inventive name like CA-1 or CA-7. Sound familiar? ;-)
BTW, what version do you have (7 or 7.1?).

I'm running thru an SMC Barricade which blocks all the direct attacks
and I'm quite cautious of what I open.
Click to expand...
Two very good practices. IMO, anyone with broadband should use an
external router of some sort.

Probably the most useful thing is Firefox' blocking of Javascript.
Click to expand...
Just using a different browser and e-mail client will do wonders to
improve security. Of course nothing is 100% effective.
 
"Jim Thompson" <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
message news:9lar125e663lvmj49bivqicpa1veol9pd2@4ax.com...
My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

...Jim Thompson
I have had both Norton and McAfee. Both had problems. Now using AGV I like
Click to expand...
it. WW
 
Well, it is now 3 of us for AVG ... very telling (or a statistical fluke).
 
Jim Thompson wrote:

My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

Jim Thompson
Click to expand...

I recently got hit with the Win32.Parite virus while searching for a
better newsreader. This is an old virus and has been around since at
least 2001:

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32paritec.html

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99690.htm

After suspecting a virus was on my computer, I tried to run all the
antivirus programs I had carefully downloaded and installed. They
were all damaged by the virus and could not run. So they were
competely useless.

I found the Avast Cleaner and ran it:

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_cleaner.html

It removed all the infections, and running the Microsoft System File
Checker confirmed all the files were restored to pristine condition.

This experience taught me a lesson. There are still plenty of old
viruses around, and they can render your computer unusable by
destroying the antivirus programs on your hard disk. Some will even
stay resident and try to disable any AV program you try to run, so
they leave your system helpless against them.

Avast is recognized as one of the top AV programs available, with
among the highest virus detection rates of any AV program.

It also has a memory-resident mode that checks all programs that try
to load and run. It stops viruses from loading, so they never get a
chance to infect your machine.

There is a very brief pause while it checks the program, but it is
hardly noticeable on my old 450MHz machine, so it should be
undetectable on more modern machines. It doesn't take much memory,
and there is a free version for home use:

avast! 4 Home - English version (length 10.02 MB)
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

As far as a new email and newsreader program, I found Pimmy to be
excellent. It handles an unlimited number of email and newsgroup
accounts, is very fast, and the free home version is very usable. It
won't run attachments, and you have to uudecode binary files
yourself so there is no possible risk of getting infected via email
or newsgroup postings. I plan to upgrade to the commercial version
soon to take advantage of better thread handling and other features:

http://www.geminisoft.com/en/pimmy/

Best Regards,

Mike Monett
 
Jim Thompson <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote:

I'm running thru an SMC Barricade which blocks all the direct attacks
and I'm quite cautious of what I open.

Probably the most useful thing is Firefox' blocking of Javascript.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Click to expand...
Firefox is slow as mollasses and still has 2 out of 27 Secunia advisories
marked as "Unpatched" in the Secunia database:

http://secunia.com/product/4227/

Opera is blazingly fast, has many more highly useful features, and has 0
out of 13 Secunia advisories marked as "Unpatched" in the Secunia database:

http://secunia.com/product/4932/

You can enable/disable javascript, images, cookies, and many other
parameters with Alt-T, Q, and a single keystroke. Much faster and more
conventient than Firefox.

Try Opera. You'll love it!

http://www.opera.com/

Best Wishes,

Mike Monett
 
On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:55:45 GMT, "Anthony Fremont"
<spam@anywhere.com> wrote:

"Jim Thompson" <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
message news:76gr12p7t6jbb15bqthea9chko0uvf72k9@4ax.com...
[snip]

I just tried a scan... significantly faster than Norton, but who knows
the efficacy.

CA is a real big player in the IBM mainframe arena, sort of like MS in
the PC world. They buy/crush all their competition and then rebadge the
product with an inventive name like CA-1 or CA-7. Sound familiar? ;-)
BTW, what version do you have (7 or 7.1?).
Click to expand...
v7.0.1.4

I'm running thru an SMC Barricade which blocks all the direct attacks
and I'm quite cautious of what I open.

Two very good practices. IMO, anyone with broadband should use an
external router of some sort.

Probably the most useful thing is Firefox' blocking of Javascript.

Just using a different browser and e-mail client will do wonders to
improve security. Of course nothing is 100% effective.
Click to expand...

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
 
"Charles Schuler" <charleschuler@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:aZKdnVjBQ9gDU4DZnZ2dnUVZ_s2dnZ2d@comcast.com...
Well, it is now 3 of us for AVG ... very telling (or a statistical fluke).
Click to expand...
Add my vote for AVG too - When I first got online I went in search of an
antivirus app and found that the NAV website had been brought down by
hackers! Prior to that I had been using AVG4 for DOS & Win 3.11 and had been
impressed by its heuristic scan function, this apparently analyses fragments
of code within a file and determines its intent to decide whether to flag an
alert. This helps it keep ahead by not being entirely dependant on new virus
definitions updates.
 
"Jim Thompson" <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
message news:9lar125e663lvmj49bivqicpa1veol9pd2@4ax.com...
My new XP machine came with Computer Associates eTrust ezAntivirus
installed

In the past I've always used Norton Antivirus

Comments, Recommendations?

Thanks!

I gave up on Norton last year, switched to Mcafee. Works well, doest hog
Click to expand...
resources like norton. I also run avast on the laptop. Both are very
good. I believe Mcafee had the edge over norton at the time I switched.
We also use Panda at work, I dont recomend it, but it catches all the
crap too.

Cheers
 
"Ian Field" <i.field3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:0ZkTf.6856$Mx1.1668@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...
"Charles Schuler" <charleschuler@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:aZKdnVjBQ9gDU4DZnZ2dnUVZ_s2dnZ2d@comcast.com...
Well, it is now 3 of us for AVG ... very telling (or a statistical
fluke).


Add my vote for AVG too - When I first got online I went in search of an
antivirus app and found that the NAV website had been brought down by
hackers! Prior to that I had been using AVG4 for DOS & Win 3.11 and had
been impressed by its heuristic scan function, this apparently analyses
fragments of code within a file and determines its intent to decide
whether to flag an alert. This helps it keep ahead by not being entirely
dependant on new virus definitions updates.
I use a SonicWall router, with their firewall/virus protection, and then
Click to expand...
AVG SoHo edition on the internal systems (together with a couple of
spyware blockers). My opinions of the systems change with time. Norton,
used to be good, and then seemed to 'loose it' a bit. McAfee, at it's
'core', seems to work well, but some of the software has been subject to
specific attacks, and the default configurations can be really annoying
(it is however their virus database, that is used by the SonicWall, and by
several similar products). AVG, has proven to be at least as effective for
several people I know, as the other products, and especially if combined
with a different browser, is a 'good' solution.

Best Wishes
 
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