Virus Protection

[Humphreys]

Okay, I'm going to be working away from home for a while, so my boss tells me I MUST have Virus Protection on the machine.

What's everyone's opinion on what is the best, bearing price in mind. I don't want to pay anything outrageous.

Edited to add: Please don't say "condoms".

[tkingdoll]

I would never pay for Virus Protection. There are plenty of great freeware options, as long as you have a broadband connection to update it regularly.

I use AntiVir. http://www.free-av.com/

It works very well for me.

Avoid Norton like the plague.

I would add that if your boss is making software mandatory, he should pay for it.

[Humphreys]

He wouldn't be happy with free software. It'll need to be something updated automatically.

Thanks for the reccomendation, though.

I would add that if your boss is making software mandatory, he should pay for it.

Usually you'd be right, but not in this case. I'm leaving the country, and he's being REALLY good letting me still work for him. This was my choice, and I'm no position to call the shots here.

What's up with Norton?

[tkingdoll]

He wouldn't be happy with free software. It'll need to be something updated automatically.

Thanks for the reccomendation, though.



Usually you'd be right, but not in this case. I'm leaving the country, and he's being REALLY good letting me still work for him. This was my choice, and I'm no position to call the shots here.

What's up with Norton?

AntiVir updates automatically, daily. There's no difference between freeware and paid-for software other than it's free :D

Norton is overpriced and uses a lot of RAM, people basically pay for the name. I've been warned off it by pretty much every techie I've met.

I'm not really sure what a good paid-for antivirus choice would be, sorry.

[ohms]

He wouldn't be happy with free software. It'll need to be something updated automatically.

Thanks for the reccomendation, though.

AntiVir, AVG and Avast, which are probably the three most popular free ones at the moment, all have automatic updating. The free versions are licensed for personal use only. All 3 also have various licensing options for business use

http://www.av-comparatives.org/ may interest you.

[BPSCG]

My mom has Norton AV on her PC, keeps it auto-updated, and yet got a trojan horse (muvipaz) a couple of weeks ago. I made sure her PC had the latest virus definition file from Norton, and we ran a complete scan. It still didn't find the trojan. She had to have a friend come over; they went and bought a copy of Norton's 2006 internet security suite for $79.00 less $79.00 in rebates (i.e., free), and installed it. Her friend still had to spend a couple of days removing the trojan and cleaning out her registry.

So Norton didn't stop the trojan from infecting her computer, didn't recognize it once it got there, and was ineffective in removing it. Otherwise, it is an excellent product...

I use AVG and AntiVir on my PC (I know, it's like using two condoms...), but along with Prevx, ZoneAlarm, and Spybot S&D, I haven't seen a successful attack since forever. And I've been known to go to some pretty sketchy sites.

Question: Are you saying you're cruising the web with no AV software installed? If so, I can just about guarantee you have lots of viruses and trojans and other malware.

[Mongrel]

AntiVir updates automatically, daily. There's no difference between freeware and paid-for software other than it's free :D

Norton is overpriced and uses a lot of RAM, people basically pay for the name. I've been warned off it by pretty much every techie I've met.

I'm not really sure what a good paid-for antivirus choice would be, sorry.

I would say that the above applies to the home edition of Norton. If you have access to Norton Corporate through work then it's really good, low profile AV software.

If not then try Panda AV (https://shop.pandasoftware.com/producto.aspx?categoria=Particulares(CatalogoPanda )&idProducto=PIS10&idoma=en-us&duracion=12&returnUrl=producto.aspx&track=25195&pais=63), I've heard a lot of good things about it

[Humphreys]

Question: Are you saying you're cruising the web with no AV software installed? If so, I can just about guarantee you have lots of viruses and trojans and other malware.

Not yet, no. It's a new laptop, untouched. I won't do anything until the protection is installed. I don't want to bring my whole company down, whilst looking for dodgy warez, or something.

[BPSCG]

Not yet, no. It's a new laptop, untouched. I won't do anything until the protection is installed. I don't want to bring my whole company down, whilst looking for dodgy warez, or something.Okay.

FWIW, we have the Norton corporate edition here at work, and, yes, it is pretty low profile, but I suspect that a lot of crap gets caught way upstream from my desk; I work for a U.S. government agency, and you have to assume that a lot of hackers would consider Uncle Sam to be the juiciest target for attack.

I mentioned I run AVG and AntiVir at home. They both appear to be stable and reliable, and I've been using them for about two years (I had Avast! for a while but didn't care for its interface and the free version seemed to me to be rather limited in flexibility, so I dumped it). I have both apps set to do auto sig file updates every night (a minute or so each), followed by complete system scans every night (an hour or two each). In the last two years, they've detected maybe two viruses and promptly dispatched both of them.

ZoneAlarm is a firewall; I like it better than Windows's firewall, though it is a bit intrusive, and doesn't recognize when you've installed an upgrade/update to a program, so when a new version of AVG or AntiVir gets loaded (or Firefox), it asks if I want to allow them to contact the internet. Note, that doesn't interfere with virus sig file updates.

Prevx is an anti-intrusion app. The most important thing it appears to do is intercept any attempt to write to your system files, directories, or registry, and ask if it's okay. his means any new program installation (or again, upgrade/update) gets interrupted. If you're installing a program and therefore need to allow writes to the system area, you can temporarily suspend Prevx, or alternatively, allow the write and have Prevx remember your answer for future installations of the same software.

Spybot S&D catches spyware. I've found it very effective; its resident program works very unobtrusively.

IMHO, everyone should have these or similar products installed on their machines. No, I do not have any financial interest in any of them.

[rocketdodger]

Question: Are you saying you're cruising the web with no AV software installed? If so, I can just about guarantee you have lots of viruses and trojans and other malware.

This is not necessarily true. I don't use anything other than the windows sp2 firewall and my machine has been virus free ever since microsoft pulled its head out of its arse. Of course, I cruise the web using IE with every single security option set to "prompt."

If you know what you are doing it is completely safe to work with no AV in place at all.

I didn't know about prevx, I had been planning to write my own application to guard against writes to the system directory on disk and kernel memory in ram, its good to know I don't have to waste time doing that now!

[Miss Whiplash]

Use AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/) for virus protection.

Dump IE for Foxfire (http://www.mozillafirefoxinstall.com/).

Scan for spyware with Ad-Aware SE (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/).

My firewall is a Linux computer.

One virus in 12 years and that's because I missed an update. (my S.O. is a network engineer and forgot to tell me!)

[rocketdodger]

Dump IE for Foxfire (http://www.mozillafirefoxinstall.com/).



Yes yes I use firefox for visiting dependable sites. I only use IE for surfing porn and possibly malicious sites. IE is completely secure as long as you turn up all the security features, even more secure than firefox in the default configuration I believe. The only problem is I have to answer a billion prompts every time I open a page.

[Miss Whiplash]

I've had no problems with Firefox. IE is a pain. I really don't like "Windoze" at all and am in the process of dumping PCs altogether for a Mac.

And this weekend marks 16 years of my being on the internet on daily basis under this username. My first logon was in 1985.

[Humphreys]

Okay, I've looked at AntiVir, and it looks good.

I'll just tell him I paid a bajillion pounds for it, to keep him happy.

[RayG]

IE is completely secure as long as you turn up all the security features, even more secure than firefox in the default configuration I believe. The only problem is I have to answer a billion prompts every time I open a page.

I wouldn't know, I have IE turned off so it can't access the net. :D

RayG

[Bob Klase]

And this weekend marks 16 years of my being on the internet on daily basis under this username. My first logon was in 1985.

Wasn't 1985 21 years ago?

[BPSCG]

I'll just tell him I paid a bajillion pounds for it......and that you want to be reimbursed.

I checked AntiVir's and AVG's web sites to see what the paid versions of the software offer, and see that they don't offer spyware protection or system area intrusion protection. So check out one of the good spyware blockers, and Prevx for intrusion prevention.

[tkingdoll]

Spybot S&D catches spyware. I've found it very effective; its resident program works very unobtrusively.



I love Spybot S & D! I did a comparison test recently, I ran it against Spydoctor (for which you have to pay) and Spybot was twice as effective. Rock and roll!

Kudos to freeware.

[Beady]

I've run F-Prot and Spybot for several years. Both update and run every 24 hours late at night, are virtually invisible, and I haven't had a single problem since adopting them.

[Miss Whiplash]

Wasn't 1985 21 years ago?

That was my first log on to the internet ever - not daily use.

Count back 16 years for daily use under this screen-name.

[voidx]

For additional spyware detection use Microsoft Anti-spyware, or its new version Beta Windows Defender. Both are free and work well in conjunction with Spybot S & D. I also say go with AVG as it works well. Norton is basically no more as its all part of Symantec now. I use Symantec AV Corp edition and it works well, but it does have some performance things to watch out for. In particular an auto-created startup scan that likes to chew up memory and processor cycles and make the pc run like a dog. Theirs a registry fix for it however.

I use IE on a daily basis and as mentioned, when configured right, its pretty much as secure as anything else. A lot of these issues come down to personal preference and how convinient particular features are. If you want to lock down IE, you can certainly do so.

Lots of people dislike IE because it doesn't always faithfully follow set HTML standards and the like, which prompts people to design web interfaces to work with IE rather than W3 standards. But whatever. I'm not a web developer, so it doesn't really impact me :D.

[voidx]

Norton/Symantec AV tools are fine and while I don't think their excellent, they do get the job done. However, I'd stay a long ways away from any Norton disk utilities. They still scare me. Although I do use Symantec Ghost, and on occasion have had to use Live State Recovery, and they work quite well.

[TobiasTheViking]

Okay, I've looked at AntiVir, and it looks good.

I'll just tell him I paid a bajillion pounds for it, to keep him happy.
Or, altenatively, Get th company to pay for it(shouldn't they do that?) and give the developers some well earned money.

[Mrs. Hmmphries]

Or, altenatively, Get th company to pay for it(shouldn't they do that?) and give the developers some well earned money.


I refer you back to post #3.
Enjoy all the explainy-goodness.

[kevin]

If this is a company owned machine then why don't you use what the company uses?

Also note that some of the free anti-virus programs (AVG in particular as that is what I use) are not free for corporate use, so again if it's a corporate owned machine you are supposed to pay for using AVG on it.

In addition to other recommendations Trend Micro has a nice product too.

[TobiasTheViking]

ETA: i'm an idiot, just a min.

[TobiasTheViking]

I refer you back to post #3.
Enjoy all the explainy-goodness.
Ah, ok, missed that. Oh well.

[Donn]

Firefox.
Clam-AV (open source I'm pretty sure)
or AVG (I have run it for a few years.)
Win SP 2 (mandatory)
If it wasn't a laptop, I would say use Gnu/Linux!

[Humphreys]

Okay, AntiVir seemed to want money for automatic updates, and so on.

I was really lazy and bought Norton for £70 to appease my boss.

This thread was pointless on account of me not listening to any of the good advice.

[Mrs. Hmmphries]

Okay, AntiVir seemed to want money for automatic updates, and so on.

I was really lazy and bought Norton for £70 to appease my boss.

This thread was pointless on account of me not listening to any of the good advice.

That's so you, tho, babe.

[Humphreys]

That's so you, tho, babe.

Oh yeah, well...take some of THAT http://www.jameshumphreys.net/insane2.gif

[Mrs. Hmmphries]

Oh yeah, well...take some of THAT


You're very attached to your poking smilie today.

[Humphreys]

I could totally take you with that stick.

You wouldn't even have time to get those missiles readied, before...bang, you're poked. It's over.

[Mrs. Hmmphries]

I could totally take you with that stick.

You wouldn't even have time to get those missiles readied, before...bang, you're poked. It's over.

Like I need the missles to kick your butt, babe.
I'd break that stick in half if you weren't enjoying it so much...

[Humphreys]

Like I need the missles to kick your butt, babe.
I'd break that stick in half if you weren't enjoying it so much...

Heehee. You're so CUTE.

[Humphreys]

If this is a company owned machine then why don't you use what the company uses?

I missed this. It was a business license and only works on the business network. It's mapped to the office for updates and so on.

[kevin]

I missed this. It was a business license and only works on the business network. It's mapped to the office for updates and so on.

Ah, so you won't have VPN access then. We still put our av software on our out of office laptops but they have VPN access to get updates and such.

I think it's too late for this recommendation but if your company has a corporate license frequently the company you're licensed from will offer discounts on the retail version for home users. I think our users can get McAfee for under $10. (I still perfer AVG so I'm not sure on the actual cost)