Anti-virus poll

[mvd]

Which do you use? I currently use KAV 4.5 (Kaspersky) because of its excellent detection of both viruses and trojans/malware. Also has great unpackers. And it has almost daily automatic updates. Beware, though: older systems wouldn't do well with it. It even slows down my Windows XP a little bit, which is why I'm keeping NOD32 in mind.

[lcordero]

1. Norton AV 2004 has gone to a product key and online activation type

scheme. I'm not particularly fond of this so I have the free edition of AVG installed instead.

[Fatima]

2. AVG free is pretty good and I can't complain

but I did have difficulty removing the MS Blast worm with it.

Then again, so did a lot of people with expensive anti virals.

[lcordero]

7. it got rid of it on one of my computer just recently:D

[Deja Q]

4. That's been bugging me too

I LOVE Norton Internet Security 2003. But the product activation crap annoyed me too.

On the plus side, I will be ditching compuserve and the windows emulator, so I can stick to Linux and its firewall.

[lcordero]

6. I'll be trying out freebsd soon

just to see what it's like. I'm hoping that it has something similar to run levels and rp-pppoe or pppoeconf.

[Deja Q]

19. FreeBSD is groovy,

but I don't think it's compatible with Linux. :-(

[mvd]

5. That's one reason why I changed

I just don't want to pay to protect 3 computers with Norton.

[arwalden]

20. Thanks For The Head-Up... I'll Just FREEZE Here With NAV2002

... and just purchase the annual virus database upgrades.

-- Allen

I suspect their new registration/activation process is in response to how easily their software can be illegally copied and distributed.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. Macintosh operating system

I think I have a superfluous program called Norton Anti-Virus. Once I clicked on a button and it claimed to be doing something.

[LightTheMatch]

8. Other

Get

a

Mac.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

9. Dump Windows, Install Linux

[DS1]

10. *snore* "get another OS", the most oft-repeated and useless

advice on DU, bar none.

[Atlant]

11. You know, it's a funny thing.

Here on DU, we routinely point out the problems with the
political party that currently runs the country and we advise
people to "get another political party". And you all say "Amen".

But when some of us point out the problems with the
operating system that currently runs the country and we
advise people to "get another operating system", the
advice is called useless.

Honest, running an operating system that routinely
abuses you is no more intelligent than voting for a
political party that routinely abuses you.

There ARE alternatives in both cases, political
and computerish.

And in both cases, you'd feel much better if you
adopted one of the alternatives.

The Democrats suit some people while the Greens,
Socialists, or what-have-you suit others.

The MacOS suits some people while Linux, Solaris,
BeOS, VMS, MVS, or what-have-you suit others.

But I understand that you probably "voted" for Windows
so now you feel that you must defend your decision.

Atlant

[DS1]

15. no, it's not the same at all

This poll is about a particular type of software for a particular OS. Not everybody has the money or resources to switch.

"Poll: I need winter tires", "Answer: Walk". <- Along the same lines. Well yeah, he could walk, but if walking was an option, he probably wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.

[ReadTomPaine]

12. Also - online virus scan at housecall.antivirus.com - very handy!

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Been using AVG for years...

and haven't gotten virus one yet, but it does have a problem finding trojans.

There might to be a keylogger on my system somewhere, but I have to run a bunch of other stuff to sniff it out.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. As a computer tech, I've found a combination that works

for cleaning computers that are currently infected.

--The Enterprise version of Mcaffe includes a command line scanner that can be burned to and run from a cd in all 32 bit versions of Windows (additional dll files that are not included are required to scan in Win98. They are easily found and downloaded). Updated weekly, it is extremely efficient. While many new virii can detect and deactivate Norton, McAffe command line cleans a computer without going memory-resident, and thus is pretty much safe from deactivation. It can be run while in the GUI. I created my own tailored batch file to include all the switches I wanted.

--Once that is run, Norton will be able to come back online. Update it or reinstall and run it, and it will usually finish the job nicely. I usually update the machine to Internet Security 2003.

I've cleaned many computers with this technique.

Kaspersky 3.x is okay, but it's not user friendly. Most people who try 4.x find it doesn't work properly under XP, thus they revert to 3.x. I used it for over two years, and eventually switched. Its advantage is it live-updates as often as you like-- I used to have it update daily. Their research crew seem to be on the ball. It includes a Linux-based Fat16/32/NTFS partition command line scanner, but there's no documentation with it, and it's diffiecult to get to to work well.

Most good antivirus companies have an online scan utility that if not complete, will at least give you an idea of what you might have. Most work "adequately".

[mvd]

16. Kaspersky 4.5 runs pretty well on mine

Most of the slowness comes on full system scans. I don't want to switch as it's considered one of the best, if not the best.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

21. They may have cleaned up the problems

the first 4.x releases often crashed XP. I switched and haven't tried the latest release. If true, I may give it another try, because it seemed to work pretty good. I just didn't like a few of the interface features.

[mvd]

22. You don't have to have the control center involved

Personally, I don't mind how the CC looks - but you can just have all the features installed separately. The looks don't bother me when the AV detects so much.

I'm watching my computer's performance, and it seems to be better than when I first installed KAV. I'll keep watching. I think you'd be ok on an XP version, especially if it's a brand new computer.

[xJlM]

17. Mandrake Linux

A virus is the last thing I worry about. In fact, the worst thing I've had to worry about was a storm that zapped my cable modem this summer. I got the cable line (along with everything else) onto a surge protector, and now I'm wondering what new to look out for.

[Padraig18]

18. I use AVG

I had Norton, but downloaded a trial copy of AVG. I used both for the trial period and AVG caught 4 separate viruses and trojans that Norton missed; Norton caught *nothing* that AVG missed. I was sold. :thumbsup:

[sujan]

23. none

I use housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ once in a while but I dont have anything installed.