I wanted feedback from users on anti-virus programs. Thanks in advance.
I use NOD32 (http://www.nod32.com/home/home.htm) myself. Compared to McAfee and Norton, at least, it:
Costs around the same (in fact, it's a bit cheaper)
Offers the same (if not better) virus detection, both for hard drive files and e-mail attachments
Also has daily updates, and offers automatic update options
Scans a lot faster. Scanning my whole 8GB drive takes about 7 minutes, as opposed to Norton taking 20 minutes to scan the 1GB drive I have at work. (Plus Norton slows things down while scanning, while NOD32 doesn't.)
Is smaller (5MB download, 10MB installed) and takes up a lot fewer resources. Back when I used McAfee I actually had to turn off the in-background scanning because it kept my modem from staying connected properly. :P
Is available for many OSs, including Mac, Linux, and DOS (!) Not to mention being available in many languages.
If you find your current anti-virus clogs down your system too much, I recommend giving NOD32 a try. ;D
Peace & Luv, Liz
Norton is great but a resource hog imo --
no experience with Nod32
I want to try Trend Micro PC-cillin Inernet Security 2004
Best Buy in June issue of PCWorld
Dew: If you're curious, NOD32 actually has a fully-functional trial version you can download and run for 30-days. ;D
(Yes, I'm about as subtle as a water hose to the face, why do you ask? ;) )
Peace & Luv, Liz
Just wondering -- as you can see I am stong willed about certain topics I may try the program one of these days --- thanks for your opinion
Norton is the only thing I've used, for extended periods of time. It works well, and is updated regularly.
Yeah, my dad actually likes and uses Norton too.
Except with Linux, I just use whatever that distro comes with. If anyone can name a good one for Linux, I'd like to hear about it.
I tried installing Norton Systemworks and couldn't get it to work :( It just crashed my system every time I tried to run it, claiming it's missing files and sometimes not claiming anything at all :-\
Anyways, the computer I'm using now had an updated Norton Antivirus for a while, with weekly scans and all. Norton didn't find any virus, but when AntiVir (free antivirus program) was installed it found 2 viruses. Weird :S
Quote from: Jeysie on June 05, 2004, 11:30:07 AM
Scans a lot faster. Scanning my whole 8GB drive takes about 7 minutes, as opposed to Norton taking 20 minutes to scan the 1GB drive I have at work. (Plus Norton slows things down while scanning, while NOD32 doesn't.)
How fast it scans depends on HDD speed and cpu speed. If you're scanning a computer with only a 1GB HDD, then it must be ancient, and slow....
1GB hdd wont scan faster than a 8GB hdd. The 8 will have a higher RPM, access speed, response time etc...
;)
But, even though I use Norton, I have to agree that it uses up system resources! ;]
I use Norton, and usually disable it when doing file-intensive tasks (like installing MS Office or something) since the auto protect slows down the computer.
I like that it automatically updates itself and scans incoming and outgoing e-mail. :)
I installed AntiVir on a friend's machine and it found 2 viruses which it cleaned.
The Worst Virus Scanner ever IMO would have to be Pc-Cillin ;)
And the Best Virus Scanner IMO is Avast and NOD32 ;D
I can't remember the name of the worst antivirus I used... it scanned OK and everything, but it's "immune" option literally killed files. Lost some games that way IIRC :(
I may stick with AntiVir because it is from a German company and has worked fine for me so far. Remember, a German young adult was responsible for Sasser so Germans seem to know their computer stuff all right. BTW, Avast continually scanned on my computer and I found the interface annoying. I have not yet tried NOD32.
Avast is continually running while you use the computer ;D, it also stops viruses coming from the net while you are connected because it realises the viruses incoming ;D, it also gets rid of viruses really well unlike Pc-Cillin ;D
NOD32 picked up a few virus e-mail attachments I got lately. Durn spammers... bad enough they send you spam, then they get infected and send you viruses on top of it. :P
Peace & Luv, Liz
Posted by: racx_00 Posted on: Today at 06:04:49am
Avast is continually running while you use the computer , it also stops viruses coming from the net while you are connected because it realises the viruses incoming , it also gets rid of viruses really well unlike Pc-Cillin
Dew7's opinion:
I do not want an antivirus program that continually runs and drains resources and that is why no AVAST on my machine. Thank you very much! I need resources to run games. :> :> :> ;B ;D ;) ;-D :D :)
That's why I switched from McAfee... McAfee's background monitor used way too many resources, and would muck with my games and especially my modem. But I kept managing to almost forget to scan stuff I downloaded, so I looked for something that would allow me to have background monitoring while only using a small amount of resources.
Peace & Luv, Liz
I had Sophos virus checker on my system for the past year and it just didnt really do much at all. For updates you ahd to manually go to the site and download all the new virus definitions etc and then copy them into the file! Call me lazy but when most virus checkers have automatic updates I dont understand why a virus checker used by major companies world over couldn't include a simple feature such as that >:( Also I kept getting various pop up trojans and stuff like that despite it being on 24-7 so I got rid of it.
Now I've got the free virus checker AVG which works wonders and includes a automatic updates too!
In the microsoft newsgroups that I frequent, everyone seems to like either AVG, AVAST or AntiVir for virus prototection.
Quote from: dew7 on June 14, 2004, 09:20:39 AM
I do not want an antivirus program that continually runs and drains resources and that is why no AVAST on my machine. Thank you very much! I need resources to run games. :> :> :> ;B ;D ;) ;-D :D :)
It doesnt use that much :-\, and i dont have any problems running games while its on ;D
To each its own -- the constant scanning bothers me and I will not use Avast. Thanks for your input and the Avast topic is closed. Feel free to comment on other aspects of antivirus programs.
Most of the virus programs I know of include background scanning, and allow you to disable it if you want, so that's not a big criterion. (Well, in the sense of being or not being a feature. It's a big criterion how many resources a program sucks up with its background scan. ;) )
Peace & Luv, Luz
Most of the ones that run in the background do let you choose how much resources to use, you can set a minimum and maximum usually ;D
BTW i wasnt trying to talk you into using Avast ;), sorry for making you think i was ;D
No problem, Jason. I did not want to start a pointless argument about how good Avast is since I tried it and did not care for it and you tried it and liked it and that is fine because we all need to make our own choices in how we use our own individual pcs. :> ;B 8) ;D ;)
I use Norton Utilities manually, I hate auto protect. ;P Slows the heck out of everything and keeps some things from working. ;P
I had Norton on my old computer ;D, its really good but really expensive too :-\
I'd just like to randomly say that in 18 days my virus program has picked up and deleted 15 viruses that I've gotten in my mailbox. :P I hate spammers. (I don't have near enough regular e-mail contacts for those to all be from "legit" users, plus I didn't recognize any of the addresses.)
Peace & Luv, Liz
I use two e-mail addresses. One for everybody and the other one for family and close friends. I treat this second e-mail address well and I hardly get any spam in this address. I also login using 128 bit encryption in my e-mail addresses, have scrambled passwords, change the passwords sometimes, etc. :>