Free AV apps/How do you test your AV proggie?

[zekkye]

Hi folks...

Well, I ran NAV2003 for quite some time (and NAV2002 before that).
Decided a change was in order and tried some of the freebies.

Started with AVG6 (www.grisoft.com), but suffered from the now
well-known definition update problem, haven't fixed it yet, decided to
try other AV's instead.

Next came Avast (http://www.avast.com)... wow, I like the eye candy,
but that's not what an AV is there for, and I definitely noticed the
system behaving sluggishly (Athlon 2400+, 512MB ram, WinXP-Pro,
shouldn't be an issue). Also on my wife's laptop (Duron 850, 192MB
ram, WinXP-Pro), several apps (ok, kiddie games for my 4-yr old son)
will not work with Avast, as in blue-screen kinda not working.

So... now I've heard of this AntiVir Guard (http://free-av.com) and
have given it a try. Doesn't seem to be much of any opinion posted
here about this one yet, but so far my systems are behaving well with
it, have managed to schedule daily def updating and weekly system scan
with little difficulty... this one may be a keeper.

BUT... I have not yet really tested any of these AV apps other than
simply installing them and monitoring what they do over a few days.
Some posters in this group have mentioned actually testing them with
certain files. Without wanting to actually purposely infect my system
in order to test the AV protection, what else can I do to test?

Cheers,
Wade

 

[Euclid]

Try googling for "virus test". There are some "look alike" files you can
use. They're not actually viruses, but they trick the anti-virus software.

I've been down a similar road as you, and (like you) currently am trying
AntiVir Guard. I'm not sure if I understand it fully yet, nor whether it's
working 100% properly. I'm not sure whether I want to keep it or go back to
AVG. I definitely won't go back to AVAST.

It looks like it doesn't do partial updates, like AVG. For example I queried
about an update earlier today, and there was none. Now there is one, but
it's 1660 kb. AVG feeds you smaller update chunks as they become available.
-E

Hi folks...

Well, I ran NAV2003 for quite some time (and NAV2002 before that).
Decided a change was in order and tried some of the freebies.

Started with AVG6 (www.grisoft.com), but suffered from the now
well-known definition update problem, haven't fixed it yet, decided to
try other AV's instead.

Next came Avast (http://www.avast.com)... wow, I like the eye candy,
but that's not what an AV is there for, and I definitely noticed the
system behaving sluggishly (Athlon 2400+, 512MB ram, WinXP-Pro,
shouldn't be an issue). Also on my wife's laptop (Duron 850, 192MB
ram, WinXP-Pro), several apps (ok, kiddie games for my 4-yr old son)
will not work with Avast, as in blue-screen kinda not working.

So... now I've heard of this AntiVir Guard (http://free-av.com) and
have given it a try. Doesn't seem to be much of any opinion posted
here about this one yet, but so far my systems are behaving well with
it, have managed to schedule daily def updating and weekly system scan
with little difficulty... this one may be a keeper.

BUT... I have not yet really tested any of these AV apps other than
simply installing them and monitoring what they do over a few days.
Some posters in this group have mentioned actually testing them with
certain files. Without wanting to actually purposely infect my system
in order to test the AV protection, what else can I do to test?

Cheers,
Wade

 

[zekkye]

Thanx for the advice, Euclid...

re: partial updates... I'm not so bothered by having to download the
entire virus def package each time as I'm on broadband and even
bringing down the entire virus def package each time doesn't take that
long.

I checked out the eicar thing... did the trick nicely, AntiVir Guard
wouldn't let me download eicar.com. It did allow a download of
eicar.zip, but it wouldn't let me access the contents of it, so
assuming that's a reasonably reliable test of an AV I'm pretty happy.

Cheers,
Wade

 

[kurt wismer]

BUT... I have not yet really tested any of these AV apps other than
simply installing them and monitoring what they do over a few days.
Some posters in this group have mentioned actually testing them with
certain files. Without wanting to actually purposely infect my system
in order to test the AV protection, what else can I do to test?

try the eicar standard anti-virus test file
http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm if you want to test
whether or not the av is installed correctly and is capable of
detecting anything...

if you're out to test how many viruses the product(s) can detect i
suggest you give up that dream - the man-hours involved in doing it
right just can't be justified by most mortals unless they're getting
paid for it...

 

[zekkye]

Hi Kurt...

I had already tried eicar by the time I read your post, and it did
exactly what I wanted, which was to test out the basic functioning of
the AV. Definitely not interested in throwing actual virii at my
system just to test out the AV protection.

Cheers,
Wade