Which Anti Virus

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hi all,

I've been a fan of Norton for the past 6 years but after several system
problems with 3 installs of NIS 2005, I'm beginning to lose faith. Anyone
recommend a good alternative that is stable and more importantly, does the
job ? Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Kaspersky, Sophos or AVG ?
TIA.

Regards Colin.
 
I have used AVG (free) with no problems in the past. I now have McAfee
Viruscan 9 (paid) set to scan every 12 hours and it works just fine and is
updated almost every day automatically.
 
Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply. I've never really trusted McAfee since a few problems
(well, a newspaper company I was working for nearly shut down for the day to
be precise !) with the Lovebug virus which McAfee didn't seem to stop at the
time. We even had McAfee engineers out to us and they couldn't stop it either
:) Mind you, that was a while ago using 4.x. I believe that it is a much
better product now but I'm still wary.

Regards Colin.
 
Hi all,

I've been a fan of Norton for the past 6 years but after several system
problems with 3 installs of NIS 2005, I'm beginning to lose faith. Anyone
recommend a good alternative that is stable and more importantly, does the
job ? Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Kaspersky, Sophos or AVG ?
TIA.
Click to expand...

I have more than 1000 systems across the country running Symantec
Antivirus Corporate Edition, now on version 9, and have never had an
infected/compromised system. I trust Symantec to protect our systems and
with our other measures I can honestly say that I've never had a
compromised machine, and I've been working with computers since the mid-
70's.

The home versions are kind of heavy on memory/bulk, but the corporate
editions are fast, small foot-print, and are not bound to the 1 year
updates issue that the home ones are.
 
Colin said:
Hi all,

I've been a fan of Norton for the past 6 years but after several system
problems with 3 installs of NIS 2005, I'm beginning to lose faith. Anyone
recommend a good alternative that is stable and more importantly, does the
job ? Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Kaspersky, Sophos or AVG ?
TIA.

Regards Colin.
Click to expand...


You'll get nearly as many differing opinions as you will
responses.

I used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton Internet
Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP, all
without any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that.
But it's been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee
products. Their quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they
were acquired by Network Associates.

However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security 2002 came up for renewal (at a cost substantially
higher than the preceding year's subscription), I decided to try less
expensive solutions. I downloaded and installed the free version of
GriSoft's AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ) and the
free version of Sygate's Personal Firewall
(http://smb.sygate.com/free/default.php ). Both have proven to be
easily installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally, I
was pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable
improvement in my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec
product.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Hey Colin.

PC World conducted very thorough tests and evaluations recently on several
anti-virus programs, several anti-spyware programs, and several firewall
programs. According to PC World, the best anti-virus program is Neither
Norton, nor McAfee Anti-Virus. There are also specific details given in
this article about what problems Norton and McAfee had, that led the judges
to name Neither one as the best. You can find the article at

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,115939,pg,1,00.asp

When judging any anti-virus program though, it is important to keep in mind,
that almost all anti-virus programs ( except one that I can think of ) have
the same Achilles Heel vulnerability. The weakness is that each and every
anti-virus program updated this evening, with all the latest virus
signatures known as of today, will probably not protect you from a new virus
strain that appears at dawn tomorrow, simply because the new virus strain is
Not in the internal signature file yet.

This is exactly why it is important to have several layers of defense
protection on your PC. For example, a hardware or software firewall that
stops only incoming attacks (properly referred to as an "Intrusion Detection
Program") is better than nothing, but a firewall like ZoneAlarm that does
all that Plus stops unauthorized outbound breaches of security (e.g. a
Trojan Horse which tries to open a back door and call home ) is the best
choice for a firewall. Also a Free Spyware Removal program ( that does not
run until After your PC is already infected ) is better than nothing, but it
is best to have a Proactive anti-spyware program that is Always Running in
memory.

Another layer of defense I like to use is never sign on with Administrator
privileges when surfing the wild wild web. If something/somebody weasels
their way past your other defenses while you're on the internet, what can
they do ? If you signed in with Administrator privileges, then they can do
to your PC everything an Administrator can do. And I can tell you exactly
what they will try to do, because my Event Viewer shows every Failed Attempt
they make to start Services, change Permissions, monkey with Registry
settings, and delete or replace files in folders named \Windows and \Program
Files. I know that because (1) I set Auditing to log every Failure, (2) set
up a special user account for surfing the wild, wild web, and (3) for that
special user account, I removed all privileges to the folders named \Windows
and \Program Files, except Read/Execute. (Obviously, the account I use for
saving confidential family documents is not the same user account I use to
surf the wild, wild web.) I also use SpyBot S&D.

Still, all these layers of defense do Not guarantee 100% security. They are
all just deterrents. But given a choice, which would a burglar prefer ? A
house with no fence, no barking dog, no cars in the driveway, no lights on,
and all the windows wide open ? Or a house with lights on, a TV blaring,
bars on all the windows, trucks in the driveway with gun racks, Rottweilers
running loose in the yard, and a chain-link fence covered with poison ivy ?




Hi all,

I've been a fan of Norton for the past 6 years but after several system
problems with 3 installs of NIS 2005, I'm beginning to lose faith. Anyone
recommend a good alternative that is stable and more importantly, does the
job ? Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Kaspersky, Sophos or AVG ?
TIA.

Regards Colin.
 
Hi,

Thanks to all that replied. I'm surprised that Trend Micro came out on top
in the PC World tests but then again, the Win 2003 SBS newsgroup users seem
to use it quite extensively so it must be good. I was thinking of going with
AVG but I noticed a vulnerability in the product in another newsgroup
(although the guy may have been referring to the old version, 6.x and not the
new 7.x) Looks like it's going to be NAV Corporate or Trend Micro. Once
again, thanks all.

Regards Colin.
 
Very excellent points about having several layers and the article is a
good reference.

About corporate A/v and spyware... I have always been leary of the all
inclusive home suites like mcafee and Norton. I have seen many problems
arise, just search the groups here. However, when choosing the software
part of our anti-virus package we chose Symantec A/V corporate (not the
norton home user suite). It has served us very well.

As to the spyware and adware , when detected by symantec and not
removed I use Ad-aware and Spybot to clean and then spywareblaster and
spybot for additional IE protection. I have created a link to a
personal website for the people at my work so they can find the
programs I use here to remove spyware and the nasty VX2 malware. It is
at

http://www.myhelpdesk.org/spyware

(it is a free and non-spyware/adware/malware site set up to help
employees at my work).

We leave the XP firewall on in addtition to having several layers of
hardware firewalls and other security devices. Like it has been said so
well already, several layers is best.

Sincerely,

- Derek S
 
Reading this question and responses has been very revealing. I have been
angry and frustrated the past week, trying to clear problems that began
after installing NIS 2005. I have tried a dozen fixes, from manipulating
firewalls, reinstalling, conferences with techreps, and a new modem. Now I
have just about decided to uninstall NIS, ask for a refund, and try either
McAfee or some of the other programs recommended in this discussion. Many
thanks to all contributors here for confirming that I am not the only person
in the universe who has had these infuriating problems with Norton. I never
had problems with Norton Antivirus, but I have reached the end of my
patience with NIS 2005.

Harlan
---
[If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from the
address.]


| Hi all,
|
| I've been a fan of Norton for the past 6 years but after several system
| problems with 3 installs of NIS 2005, I'm beginning to lose faith. Anyone
| recommend a good alternative that is stable and more importantly, does the
| job ? Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Kaspersky, Sophos or AVG
?
| TIA.
|
| Regards Colin.
 
I have been
angry and frustrated the past week, trying to clear problems that began
after installing NIS 2005. I have tried a dozen fixes, from manipulating
firewalls, reinstalling, conferences with techreps, and a new modem.
Click to expand...

I've been working with computers since the 70's and would like to share
one thing with you that I've learned the hard way over the years: Anti-
Virus vendors make some really nice av products, but don't buy their
other products.

I've run Norton AV or Symantec Corp Edition AV on every machine I've
owned or managed and never had a single virus on any of them, but I
would never consider installing NIS on any of them, nor on any machine I
control.

NIS has been a pain for every user I've met, known, read about. Same
with many other suites, but they do make a great AV product (at least
the Corp Versions are great).

If you want a firewall, get one from a firewall vendor - Kerio, Tiny,
ZoneAlarm.....
 
Hi Harlan.

Whatever firewall you decide to get, be sure to follow these 3 steps to test
it.

(1) Run ShieldsUP! at www.grc.com (Look for services labeled Common Ports,
All Service Ports, Messenger Spam, and File Sharing);
(2) Download and run Leaktest from www.grc.com ;
(3) Temporarily rename Leaktest.exe to some other familiar program, such as
WMplayer.exe (of course, you will first have to temporarily rename the
original). Then rerun Leaktest using it's new temporary name, just to see
if your firewall objects or not. If the firewall does not question it, then
any Trojan Horse could do the same thing.

There is plenty of other worthwhile and eye-opening reading at www.grc.com

Here's a clip from Leaktest's dialog box

Automatic Rule Creation

If your firewall (like Norton's) is dumb enough to automatically create
rules for "known" applications, then any Trojan or Spy software can simply
rename itself after one of those programs and your own firewall will give
the Trojan or Spyware complete Internet access permission without even
asking you!

For example, by default, Norton's firewalls recognize 878 different programs
and never bother to let you know when permitting them to access the
Internet! Simply rename leaktest to any one of them to bypass Norton's
firewall.



Reading this question and responses has been very revealing. I have been
angry and frustrated the past week, trying to clear problems that began
after installing NIS 2005. I have tried a dozen fixes, from manipulating
firewalls, reinstalling, conferences with techreps, and a new modem. Now I
have just about decided to uninstall NIS, ask for a refund, and try either
McAfee or some of the other programs recommended in this discussion. Many
thanks to all contributors here for confirming that I am not the only person
in the universe who has had these infuriating problems with Norton. I never
had problems with Norton Antivirus, but I have reached the end of my
patience with NIS 2005.

Harlan
---
[If you reply to my email address, please delete the word REMOVE from the
address.]


| Hi all,
|
| I've been a fan of Norton for the past 6 years but after several system
| problems with 3 installs of NIS 2005, I'm beginning to lose faith. Anyone
| recommend a good alternative that is stable and more importantly, does the
| job ? Anyone have anything good/bad to say about Kaspersky, Sophos or AVG
?
| TIA.
|
| Regards Colin.
 
Back
Top