OT: Poll - which antivirus software?

[dennis]

replace your dns server with

they also filter dns names to avoid nasties. You do sometimes end up with their search page and ads but only if you mistripe a url.

[David]

I use Avast, I also found Trend micro to be effective but it slowed down the computer significantly.

IIRC the 2007 version didn't slow down the computer as much as the latest one.

[John Rumm]

Renewal prices for 5 seats are currently:

AVG Anti-Virus 5 computers 2 years Renewal Key @ 63.82 + VAT AVG Internet Security 5 computers 2 years Renewal Key @ 82.97 + VAT

(drop me an email if you are having difficulty - I can order them for you from our reseller portal)

[Bruce]

How do you know that? You might feel comforted when it occasionally detects and removes a threat, but how can you possibly know what it has missed?

For that reason, it is dangerous to accept recommendations about anti-virus software from non-experts.

[geoff]

In message , Howard Neil writes

AVG paid for let something through on one of my machines at work last year which went roaming around one of my machines, opening up and inspecting files

[PeterC]

Yes - I'd forgotten that one, it is reckoned to be good.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Lobster saying something like:

I have AVG running a weekly scan but the guard is disabled. For guard purposes I run AntiVir and scan weekly with that too.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

Lumpy crank?

[John Rumm]

Its equally dangerous to accept them from experts - since in this case there is no such thing...

None of the companies provide definitive lists of what they can detect, and they certainly don't list what they can't *which lets face it, even they won't know in completeness) . Even the so called independent tests can only certify how they perform against a collection of threats that are perceived as likely. While there will be a big overlap in threats detected by most AV apps, there will always be some individual ones that are detected by one and not the others.

This is a general problem with all security related software/appliances not just AV - the vast majority of people (whether expert or not) just don't have the information to make an informed choice. All you can really do is make a choice based on secondary features (like ease of use, smallest performance penalty etc), and anecdotal reports of where product X did or did not perform well.

[John Rumm]

Another very useful one is HijackThis - particularly good for fixing browser hijacks. (paste results into

rather than attempt manual analysis of the results)

[geoff]

In message , Arthur 51 writes

Its free for Barclays online banking customers

[Bill]

In message , John Rumm writes

Hmmm, I was quoted £274.85 renewal for 5 users, 2 years.

I will be in touch by email.

PS My son says pay nothing as Microsoft One Care AV is about to become free.

[Adrian C]

Wow. In the meantime, exactly *who* has your browsing habits been sold to? OpenDNS / Phrom - Same Boat.

[Adrian C]

I will mindwipe you all to say I meant to type "Phorm" :-)

[Alan]

In message , Bill wrote

And Micro$oft have clean record on producing software that is bug free and immune from viruses. There is no need to update M$ products on a regular basis in order to fix the security deficiencies.

Didn't they once release a beta version of Windoze with an inbuilt virus?

Microsoft products are targeted by every virus writer in the world as an ongoing sport. For this one reason I would recommend any third party tool in preference to anything that Bill Gates gives away.

[Adrian C]

AVG free does it as well. :-(

Apart from setting 'Spybot Search and Destroy' to avoid the download in the first place (because it's _not_ mostly through Email that these these things come nowadays), the next thing is to get into AVG's advanced settings and where ye should have set up schedules to maintain daily updates for ...

- "virus database updates schedule" - "program update schedule"

... in each of those, make sure the following option is ticked

"run on computer startup if task has been missed"

It is not set like that on default!

It's always a game wondering if you are patched up for new viruses before the threat strikes. This applies for any AV solution, but then there are the things that don't show a consistant signature and are missed by some AV products and not others. Life :-(

If that freaks ye out too often, installing Ubuntu (or Xubuntu) is the answer... (buy the kids their games console)

[Adrian C]

Disagree. Windows update is pretty well mandatory in my book. It's inconvienient if compatibility problems show after an update, but the likelyhood of that occuring is still less than the likelyhood of another problem hitting your machine as it's unpatched.

Well, you'd be stating the dubious abilites of 'One Care' and 'Defender' and all the other stuff that Microsoft maybe didn't originally write - they themselves bought it from a third party.

A recommendation for "any" third party tool must then include things from Symantec and McAfee. Yikes, are you sure?

[The Natural Philosopher]

web browsers. At last the non MS ones.

[meow2222]

useful info on AV choices:

was also a table online showing detection rates for main AV brands , and in several classes the detect rates were abysmal, ie none of them provide full cover for the huge number of known viruses - let alone the other malware types.

NT

[John Rumm]

Mozilla are usually pretty fast - but that can still leave exposure for days to known exploits. That also assumes that the exploit was found by the good guys first!