WAY O/T A/V program

[Tim Taylor]

What anti virus do you all use? Seems my Symantec product wants me to send them some more money for another year. Seriously considering the free AVG.

[Jim]

NOD32 on my laptop Norton on my desktop. It would be NOD32 everywhere if Norton were not so difficult to remove. Maybe if I start a month or so in advance, I can get Norton exorcised.

Jim

>

[Rick Samuel]

Yeah, free AVG. That's what we use, seems to work well, two years running.

[Larry Blanchard]

[Saudade]

McAfee on my corp laptop. AVG Free on all of my own.

[Tim Taylor]

Believe me, I've seriously thought about that!!!! Or a Mac.

[CW]

If enough people go that way, they will have just as much virus problem. Viruses are written for maximum effect. That means Windows.

[Tim Taylor]

Yea I realize that, but it seems to me Mac users along with Linux users are among the minority, at least for now. So, that's why I'm leaning away from Mr. Gates' and the popular Windows theme.

[Swingman]

AVG ... but all anti-virus software is is more or less a virus itself, albeit friendly.

[CW]

No doubt about it as anyone that has tried to uninstall Norton will attest to.

[fredfighter]

IIUC Windows has always eschewed Code-Data separation. That results in orders of magnitude more security 'holes' than in software written to 1980 industry standards.

[CC]

I have used AVG Professional version for several years. Pay a little each year. It has saved my machine several times. I have been very happy with it.

[Leon]

I don't think NAV has anything over AOL. LOL...

[Puckdropper]

"Tim Taylor" wrote in news:- YGdnR7n0r5VzqDYnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

*snip*

Go with OS/2. You can attempt the same things people attempt now, and since it's so unpopular you don't have to worry about viruses!

Puckdropper

[Puckdropper]

"Leon" wrote in news:Hyf%g.17106$ [e-mail]:

I treat them about the same when removing them: FORMAT C: /S

Puckdropper

[Mark & Juanita]

Been using AVG on one machine and Avast! Anti-virus on two other machines. Both seem to work well, for no quantifiable reason, I'm more inclined toward Avast!

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Prometheus]

Didn't use any for a while- just checked the registry periodically, and used the Symantec site's free instructions for manually removing viruses. After a few that were particularly tough, I switched to AVG, and it works fine.

Couldn't pay me to have Norton or McAfee. Tried them both, and they were worse than viruses with the amount of crap they ran on the systems.

If you do go the AVG route, it pays to download something like SpyBot (also free, last time I checked) to remove spyware and adware. Don't recall if the big two mentioned above check for those or not, but AVG does not. A lot of times, spyware is worse than a virus- at least in terms of annoyance and system drain.

[Larry Blanchard]

It'll be a cold day in you know where before Linux takes over from Windoze. The amount of additional knowledge required to properly maintain a Linux system will always be a deterrent to most. Not that it's hard to learn, but it requires more effort than many are willing to give.

Agreed. Unless you can get root/admin permissions on any Unix-ish system, it's difficult to destroy very much. Of course, that implies that the system was set up to take advantage of the security features.

[Kat Burright]

Gah, no kidding. Took me a year to finally clean all that crap off my old desktop.

AVG is good, especially used in conjunction like AdAware. Though I've given it up in favor of something better. As much as I liked AVG, I found it bogged down my computer more than I cared for. Granted, my laptop isn't the best in the world, but it's not exactly a weak machine. I'm using Prevx

now. It makes AVG look like Norton. Doesn't bog down the system resources, their virus database is updated about every ten minutes (you can do a Google search for the filename and many times Prevx's online database is the only info on a virus too new to show up elsewhere), it remembers what choices you pick on certain programs so it doesn't try to authenticate everything you start unless you tell it to (AVG and I had a little "discussion" about its tendency to ignore my input), and I've found it to be a lot more effective.

Earlier this year I got smacked with a Trojan. AVG and AdAware recognized it, but were unable to do anything about it. As soon as they tried to remove it, the damned thing kicked into action and shut both programs down. Even worse, the Trojan propagated itself and the new programs would change their file name to appear to be legitimate processes. I spent almost a week going insane from this. I happened to find Prevx's web site when I searched for a virus filename; in fact, Prevx was the only thing that had shown up. By this time, the new viruses were too new to be recognized by AVG or AdAware (or anyone else).

Prevx was able to isolate all the viruses from the rest of the system and eliminate them completely on the first try. I still ran it a few times along with AVG and AdAware because by then I was paranoid, but all the subsequent scannings resulted in no viruses.

Prevx scans your system on startup, when a new application opens, updates itself frequently (though not anywhere near as annoying as Norton or Windows Update reminders since it doesn't require a computer restart and doesn't bog the system down), and can be used in conjunction with any other antivirus software you have (i.e. it doesn't get all conflicty and cranky like McAfee did to me). it's got a very easy to use interface and lots of settings that can go anywhere from "ah use teh computars" to "i program computers." The only thing is for some reaosn, Windows does not recognize it as an antivirus program so it will occasionally remind me that not only have I blasphemed by turning off my firewall, but now I have no antivirus program. Windows is an idiot.

You do have to pay for Prevx. It's all of $20 a year. They also give you a 30 day, fully functional trial, which is why I was initially impressed. Most other pay antivirus programs tell you there's a virus but won't do anything about it during the trial period.

So anyway, that's my little story and recommendation. I've been so thrilled with it that I tell anyone who asks for antivirus help. I just wish I got a commission.

Also, I'm a previous (and current) Mac user. Two years ago I started using Windows computers (business purposes) and have gotten one hell of a crash course in how to deal with viruses.

-k

[Lee Michaels]

Thank you for that recommendation. I will definitely check it out.

I have been having some problems with some redirect adware. Throwing several spyware packages, windows defender (which keeps telling me that everything is OK), and AVG (which also gives me an OK) I managed to stop the redirects from going to the ad pages. But I still get redirected to a blank page. Thus losing the original page I wanted.

Although I am generally happy with AVG, it is a resource hog when it comes to checking my email from the spam buffer. My spam filter software directs all email to a separate location to be filtered. Only authorized email ends up on my reader. AVG will really bog down and will sometimes take twenty minutes on a single email before just giving up on it.

All the time this is happening, I cannot send emails or newsreader posts. I suppose I could change spam filters. But once it is trained, it is the best spam filter I have found. It is a little hands on heavy at first. But when it is tuned, it works wonderfully. I am getting about 98% spam filtered right now. The spam filter is Spam Slueth and the URL is

I should point out when heavy filtering is done like I am doing that many first emails will not get through. I just go to the buffer, review everything and if I want to make somebody a friend, I can do so. Not a big thing to do when removing literally hundreds of spam messages a week.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up on Prevx. I will be checking it out.

Lee Michaels