Anti-Virus Software - Need Recommendations

[Crazy Horse]

Hello.

I'm a new user (I'm in the process of installing the original version) of
Windows 2000 Professional, and have made up my mind to do things the
right way; i.e., get a good firewall in place and use a good anti-virus
application.

My general impression is that the two anti-virus leaders are Symantec's
Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) and McAfee. From scanning this newsgroup, I've
also just learned about Grisoft.

My new (DELL Inspiron) laptop came with McAfee, and I have some previous
experience with NAV. Simply put, I'm looking for input on which product
might be the best. Seems like I read one thread here, where someone
mentioned in passing, "not NAV" and given that my laptop came with
McAfee¹, I'm wondering if there's any reason to shy away from NAV. Also,
I'd be happy to hear more about others' experience with Grisoft.

Thanks ahead of time for whatever input you may be able to provide.
_______
-CH
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________________________
1. Maybe worth noting, the laptop came with XP Home edition; I've wiped
the harddrive and am starting over with Windows 2000 Professional.

 

[Guest]

Definatly go with McAfee, I am the head of I.T. at my company and I have tried both NAV and McAfee and by far McAfee is far better and easier to work with.

McAfee also gives a quick scan tool free to anyone who would like to download it, just go to Google and typ in "Stinger" the first link will be Network Associates, Inc. that is the link you want to go to. Stinger is a very small .exe file but it scans for the top 50 or more viruses out there now.

What else are you setting up? A network or just this one PC, you had mentioned a firewall and I could point you in a good direction as far as Spam filters go and so forth.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Chris-

Thanks for your quick reply.

Definatly go with McAfee, I am the head of I.T. at my
company and I have tried both NAV and McAfee and by
far McAfee is far better and easier to work with.

----------------------
Thanks... sounds good to me... and about what I suspected given that my
laptop came with WinXP-Home *and* McAfee.

McAfee also gives a quick scan tool free to anyone
who would like to download it, just go to Google and
typ in "Stinger" the first link will be Network
Associates, Inc. that is the link you want to go to.
Stinger is a very small .exe file but it scans for
the top 50 or more viruses out there now.

----------------------
Great tip. Thanks.

What else are you setting up? A network or just this
one PC, you had mentioned a firewall and I could
point you in a good direction as far as Spam filters
go and so forth.

----------------------
For now, it's just a single PC (although I may set up a wireless router).
I'd be grateful for whatever other recommendations you might have, in
terms of security, in general. As for firewalls, I've looked into
ZoneAlarm; the Free Download version, since in my case, money *is* an
object. For that matter, I'm also considering Grisoft's free anti-virus
package. I may go with both these free products at first... until my
budget allows me to upgrade to more comprehensive software. What do you
think?

Thanks for your help.
_______
-CH
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

 

[Guest]

As far as firewalls are concerned, they are pretty much all the same. The only difference may be the GUI and different features, but in the case that money is a factor and you are not going to be setting up security for a companies network I think you will be safe with your free downloads.

As for security, if you have broadband, and I pray you do if you are going to setup a wireless network, your connection will be active 24/7. There is 1 program I can think of right off hand called "X-Scan" this is a program hackers use to steal y our data and possibly ruin your system. How this program works is the hacker will put in a IP address range and tell it to look for the administrator account, if it finds a blank password, and in the newer versions of the program simple password i.e. "john" or "password" it will be able to crack those and give your IP and your password to the person running X-Scan. A firewall can help protect from programs like these, but that program alone also scans ports left open by the firewall, like port 80 which is your HTTP....and you can't shut that down or you won't have web access. The best way around things like this is making a complex password, or even a password with numbers in it, or a symbol like # $ % @, that will kill the passcrackers word file, unless it is modded, the other and truly best way is to turn your computer off when your not using it.

You can monitor what is connected to your computer at any given time, open up a command prompt and type netstat -a, this will tell you what all is connected to your computer. If you ever have a question onto what a connection is, you can trace it all the way back to its source by typing "tracert adress" where I have adress just replace that with the adress of the connection you want to trace, this will trace it all the way back giving you a detailed report to give to the police, or easy of mind to know it was just your MSN messanger connected.

I hope this helps, I will stick around if you have anymore questions.

 

[Crazy Horse]

:
[snip]
:
I hope this helps, I will stick around if you have anymore questions.
:
[snip]
:

------------------------------
Chris- no more questions at the moment, but what you've told me is quite
helpful. Thank you. I may have some follow-up questions by tomorrow
morning... but for now, I have to "hit the trail". Thanks again for your
help.
_______
-CH
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

 

[Guest]

No problem at all.

:
[snip]
:
I hope this helps, I will stick around if you have anymore questions.
:
[snip]
:

------------------------------
Chris- no more questions at the moment, but what you've told me is quite
helpful. Thank you. I may have some follow-up questions by tomorrow
morning... but for now, I have to "hit the trail". Thanks again for your
help.
_______
-CH
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯