Post by thread:[EE] recommended anti-virus packages

I'd like some advice or recommendations for an effective anti-virus package that consumes the minimum amount of system resources. Most of the machines here at Trinity currently use one of the many Symantec Norton variants but I am increasingly unhappy with them due to resource hogging. I also have a number of personal machines that I am running a variety of packages on: Trend security suite p3 - 700MHz laptop Win98se Zone Alarms security suite Athlon 2500 desktop WinXP home 512MB McAfee version 8 (2004) Celeron 400 desktop Win98se McAfee version 9 (2005) Celeron 533 desktop WinXP home 512 MB Norton System Works 2003 P4 - 1.7GHz desktop WinXP home 768 MB Nod32 (purchased but not yet installed) I'm relatively unhappy with both McAfee versions for a number of reasons: 1) keeps prompting for me to log into their web-site and re-enter my registration information if I haven't manually updated for a couple (or more) weeks. Both machines (and a couple of others also running McAfee 9) are set for automatic updates and should already have the latest and greatest - my manual check is to simply confirm that. 2) Always insists on scanning any mapped drives with no visible means to confine scanning to local drives only. This is behavior contrary to McAfee versions 3, 4, 5 (which I was completely happy with while they were supported). Zone Labs security suite - dunno about this one yet. I had a lot of problems with the initial installation (100% CPU hogging) but was eventually fixed. I don't yet have a feel for how much the machine slows down with the software suite active. Trend security suite: seems to work OK but I can't have the automatic updates enabled or the machine locks up. Prompts me weekly to take care of some critical MS updates that were in fact installed (and verified) shortly after they were released. Again - I yet don't have a good feel for how much the machine slows down with the software suite active but it can't be too bad - I use that laptop all the time. What I do know is that the Celeron 533 running WinXP slows down to completely unacceptable performance with McAfee running. Performance is slow but livable when McAfee is turned off. Does anyone have recommendations for an anti-virus package suitable for slow machines? Free is nice but I don't mind paying for a reasonable package (all the packages mentioned above are legal / purchased version). dwayne -- Dwayne Reid <spam_OUTdwaynerTakeThisOuTplanet.eon.net> Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 21 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2005) .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email.

Dwayne wrote regarding '[EE] recommended anti-virus packages' on Mon, Nov 28 at 15:16: > I'd like some advice or recommendations for an effective anti-virus > package that consumes the minimum amount of system resources. I like ClamWin for virus scanning on Win32. It's well updated, and works nicely. It won't slow the system down, because it's not an on-access scanner - it's one that you run nightly from a scheduler and that you can tell to scan a particular file before you run it. So, it doesn't do things like protect you from web problems. But really, as long as you're not using IE / Outlook Express you're in pretty good shape there anyway. :) There's a plugin for Outlook if you want that, though. Oh, and it's free for the "full" version. http://www.clamwin.com/ You can just go to http://housecall.antivirus.com for a free, always up-to-date scanner as well - if you just want to scan your machine once in a while. --Danny

Dwayne, I use hardware Anti virus I pay $150 a year by Sonicwall. The hardware is about $500 it also has firewall built in. In my pc I do not have any anti virus software installed. Software is easy to mess with it but hardware is not. there are 7 pc's at home and my kids are downloading music no problem. Andre Gerhard Fiedler wrote: {Quote hidden}>Dwayne Reid wrote: > > > >>I'd like some advice or recommendations for an effective anti-virus >>package that consumes the minimum amount of system resources. >> >> > >Grisoft AVG: http://www.grisoft.com/ or http://free.grisoft.com/ > >Haven't had a problem with it. Can be set to do on-access scanning or >nightly scans (which are of course much less resource-consuming during >normal use :). > >Gerhard > > >

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:13:43 -0700, Dwayne Reid wrote: > I'd like some advice or recommendations for an effective anti-virus > package that consumes the minimum amount of system resources. I like Norman Virus Control, from http://www.norman.com in Norway. They seem to get out updates when day-zero viruses appear faster than any of the others (Norton and McAfee always seem to be some way behind). There's a weekly update on a Monday morning, and ad-hoc updates happen whenever necessary (I've seen three within a morning, when things were getting really ugly out there!) and it will check regularly for these, plus you can do a manual check with two mouse-clicks whenever you want. You can download a 30-day trial (you have to get a registration key for this, but it's free and they don't pester or nag). As for resources, the only problem I've found is using Skype while it's doing a full-disk scan - sound quality is a bit more random then. If you schedule overnight full-disk scans they will happen out of usage hours, obviously, but if the machine was powered down when the time came it will do the scan a little while after the next power-up. There is a slightly noticeable degradation while that happens, but it's not a problem. At least it means that scans are done regularly, regardless of the power-up habits of the user - some other more well-known scanners miss the boat if the scheduled operation doesn't happen when it should, which could mean they never get done! The on-access scanner (that looks at each file as it's used during normal running) seems to impose no noticeable overhead at all. And it's available for a multitude of platforms, obviously all the usual desktop ones but also including Lotus Domino and MS Exchange servers. Cheers, Howard Winter St.Albans, England

Nate Duehr wrote: > Grisoft (of course) also sell AV software for profit, and the free > version is a little bit limited (one update per day) and harder to find > on the website, a little bit. If you want to, you can schedule more updates through another scheduler. They are not fully automatic, but at least they get started. And if you want to, you cant automate them with AutoIt... :) Side rant: I don't really know why so many programs insist on running their own scheduler; if there is a separate scheduling service, that's usually the first thing I disable (if possible). Gerhard

----- Original Message ----- From: "Nate Duehr" <EraseMEnatespam_OUTTakeThisOuTnatetech.com> To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclistspam_OUTmit.edu> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 1:33 AM Subject: Re: [EE] recommended anti-virus packages {Quote hidden}> Victor Faria wrote: > > > try http://www.grisoft.com > > I'm very happy with their AVG. > > They also have a great price. > > victor > > You might mention to folks to specifically look for their > "personal/free" version on their website. > > Grisoft (of course) also sell AV software for profit, and the free > version is a little bit limited (one update per day) and harder to find > on the website, a little bit. > > Nate I did start out with the free version. It was good but it was a pain to remove a virus but it was finding them more then any other AV I had used before , so I purchased it!! They do have a great price I belive it was $19.00 for 2 years. > --

Swedish language literate people might want to read www.radron.se/templates/test____3569.asp , a test in a very well respected consumer magazine. Only Kaspersky found all viruses in their test in 2003. I have been using kaspersky for some years, and now my father too. But now this morning after reading this thread I last hour switched to ClamWin free antivirus as my subscritoin went out, and I anyway want to investigate alternatives for my gilrfriends and aunts computers that use Norton and Panda that is not working very well... Whatever is it with the big companies (Dell, IBM, ...) that preinstalls Symantec Norton antivirus, the by many tests and users and program support and own experience is the worst choice of antiviruses?? (fat update files, high resource usage, expensive, bad support, program incomapatibility (Autocad support said it was the worst of *viruses* ;) ), and difficult to uninstall) /Morgan -- Morgan Olsson, Kivik, Sweden

Morgan Olsson wrote: > Whatever is it with the big companies (Dell, IBM, ...) that preinstalls > Symantec Norton antivirus, the by many tests and users and program > support and own experience is the worst choice of antiviruses?? (fat > update files, high resource usage, expensive, bad support, program > incomapatibility (Autocad support said it was the worst of *viruses* ;) > ), and difficult to uninstall) They do preinstall Windows with MS Office also, don't they? :) Seriously, what they preinstall has to do with marketing and finances only, I think. Quality of the application is not a big concern, as few people who don't like the preinstalled apps would count this as a reason not to buy a computer that they otherwise like. Gerhard

Gerhard Fiedler 12:04 2005-12-12: >They do preinstall Windows with MS Office also, don't they? :) Good point. :D I have mailed Dell *twice* to ask what computers are linux compatible, and what the price will be to deliver it without any OS, Office, or antivirus. I have recieved NO answer at all! Talk about bad marketing. >Seriously, what they preinstall has to do with marketing and finances only, >I think. Quality of the application is not a big concern, as few people who >don't like the preinstalled apps would count this as a reason not to buy a >computer that they otherwise like. Yes, but to guys like us they seem to lack a lot of quality and customer service. /Morgan -- Morgan Olsson, Kivik, Sweden

> Gerhard Fiedler 12:04 2005-12-12: >>They do preinstall Windows with MS Office also, don't they? :) > > Good point. :D > > I have mailed Dell *twice* to ask what computers are linux compatible, and > what the price will be to deliver it without any OS, Office, or antivirus. > > I have recieved NO answer at all! > Talk about bad marketing. > I don't think you're going to get an answer. I recently researched what laptops were compatible with FC4. By the time someone makes notes on compatibility, the model is discontinued. So, I found an HP model that was close to something I found FC4 installation notes on. It had the same I/O (ethernet, video, wireless LAN, etc.), so I gave it a try. Worked great! Powered it up for the first time with the FC4 install disk in the CD/DVD drive and installed it over Windoze XP. Anyone want a Windoze XP restore disk for an HP laptop? And, I got to decline all the extra cost options from Best Buy on virus protection, maintenance contracts, etc. Harold -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

We used Norton Antivirus for several years. After a while it started saying we needed to reinstall it. Reinstalling it would not fix the problem. We then tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it. That didn't work. We then looked at their knowledge base and found that the uninstall does not remove all the files it spews over the hard drive. Spent a few hours deleting all those files, then reinstalling. It worked then... for a few weeks. Then we got the same problem over again. Uninstalled it, got rid of all those files again, and installed AVG antivirus. We're running it on 6 or 7 machines here at work with a couple multi-machine licenses. Also running the FREE version at home on the few remaining Windoze machines. Harold -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

Gerhard Fiedler 17:31 2005-12-12: >Morgan Olsson wrote: > >> I have mailed Dell *twice* to ask what computers are linux compatible, >> and what the price will be to deliver it without any OS, Office, or >> antivirus. > >I've seen some forums and sites that collect information about this (Linux >on Dell). You know about these, don't you? I think that's more effective >than trying to get something from Dell that's not in their normal line of >business. Yes, i briefly googled, and found out they do sell linux boxes in some other country, and also linux laptops to some school in USA. So why don´t they answer a request to buy something they have. I would guess some maybe-not-so-legal contracts with MS (and maybe Symantec) makes them not want to get into discussion. Thye also have a plug about them recommending MS WX all over their site. I also read something from Lindows(Linspire) a while ago that they were into discusson of preinstalling their system, but suddenly Dell backed out (maybe higher bosses and lawyers etc...) So I hope more people would nag them about it! That said, yes I am on this 7 year old machine still using Windows. (And on the laptop Mandriva) But I plan to buy a new main machine. And I do not want to pay Symantec nor Microsoft some bounus for making life harder for a lot of users than need be, and help them bash OS and program suppliers *I* like. That would be contra-productive, unfair, unethical, etc... /Morgan -- Morgan Olsson, Kivik, Sweden

Harold Hallikainen wrote: > We used Norton Antivirus for several years. After a while it started > saying we needed to reinstall it. Reinstalling it would not fix the > problem. We then tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it. That didn't > work. We then looked at their knowledge base and found that the uninstall > does not remove all the files it spews over the hard drive. Spent a few > hours deleting all those files, then reinstalling. It worked then... for a > few weeks. Then we got the same problem over again. I've gone through the same procedure probably five times with various clients' machines, often accompanied by mysterious slowdowns that went away as soon as Norton was removed. So, my first step now in tuning a cluttered, aging PC is to exorcise all things Norton. Often that's all that's needed; sometimes it's made a machine useful again that the client was ready to replace. One marvels... -- Timothy J. Weber http://timothyweber.org

Gerhard Fiedler <@spam@listsKILLspamconnectionbrazil.com> wrote: > Morgan Olsson wrote: > > I have mailed Dell *twice* to ask what computers are linux compatible, > > and what the price will be to deliver it without any OS, Office, or > > antivirus. > > I've seen some forums and sites that collect information about this > (Linux on Dell). You know about these, don't you? I think that's more > effective than trying to get something from Dell that's not in their > normal line of business. Emperor Linux (http://www.emperorlinux.com/) is in the business of selling laptops preconfigured with Linux (any of several distributions). Even they can't buy the laptops from the manufacturers without Windows, even if the license is going to be thrown away, as I did on mine. -- Dave Tweed

> Morgan Olsson wrote: >> I have mailed Dell *twice* to ask what computers are linux compatible, >> and what the price will be to deliver it without any OS, Office, or >> antivirus. >> >> I have recieved NO answer at all! >> Talk about bad marketing. > Dell is one of the few vendors that actually offer "No OS" machines. You can find them right on the website. They use the suffix 'n' to identify them. Some examples: Optiplex GX620n, GX520n, 170Ln Dimension: 5150n, 1100n Basically, most Dell models can have an 'n' tacked on to get a Linux/No OS flavor. You may find that you have to look at the "Small Business" side of the Dell site. Notebooks are another issue. I am not sure if they offer them in an OS-less state. Bob Ammerman

Morgan Olsson wrote: > I have mailed Dell *twice* to ask what computers are Linux > compatible, and what the price will be to deliver it without > any OS, Office, or antivirus. > I have received NO answer at all! > Talk about bad marketing. I've read an article on CNet talking about the high efficiency of Dell Desktop plants in USA. The Windows installation is part of the manufacturing process and is automatic. To install Linux will save the Windows license fee (which is very cheap for Dell) but will increase the cost of assembly and testing supporting. That is why often a Dell Linux Desktop will be more expensive than Windows. I think a no-OS Desktop will also be more expensive since they need to wipe out Windows after that automatic testing. You can always buy the PCs with Windows and install the OS you prefer. To me dual-boot is always a better option but you can choose to wipe out Windows if you like. Regards, Xiaofan

> -----Original Message----- > From: KILLspampiclist-bouncesKILLspammit.edu > Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:40 PM > On Dec 12, 2005, at 4:53 PM, Chen Xiao Fan wrote: > > > I've read an article on CNet talking about the high efficiency > > of Dell Desktop plants in USA. The Windows installation is > > part of the manufacturing process and is automatic. > > > But Dell DOES sell desktops with linux or no OS. At least in the > US... > > BillW And often it is more expensive than the one with Windows and normally without any rebate... It is often cheaper to buy the Windows PC and install Linux distribution of your choice later. Regards, Xiaofan