Need Recommendation

[Newby]

Greetings to all. I would appreciate recommendations for a free antivirus
program to install on my laptop. The operating system is W2K, SP4. The
laptop only has 64MB memory and is used mostly for e-mail.

Thanks,
Newby

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Newby" <[email protected]>

| Greetings to all. I would appreciate recommendations for a free antivirus
| program to install on my laptop. The operating system is W2K, SP4. The
| laptop only has 64MB memory and is used mostly for e-mail.
|
| Thanks,
| Newby
|

I strongly suggest adding RAM. That is the minimal amount for the OS but once you run an
application it is insufficient. Even for email.

AntiVir -
http://www.free-av.com/ - FREE

 

[Duane Arnold]

From: "Newby" <[email protected]>

| Greetings to all. I would appreciate recommendations for a free antivirus
| program to install on my laptop. The operating system is W2K, SP4. The
| laptop only has 64MB memory and is used mostly for e-mail.
|
| Thanks,
| Newby
|

I strongly suggest adding RAM. That is the minimal amount for the OS but once you run an
application it is insufficient. Even for email.

AntiVir -
http://www.free-av.com/ - FREE

My sister has a printer on her desktop computer, which I needed to use
on a recent visit with my family back home. She had XP Home running on
the machine. When I turned the machine on and it booted, it took about 5
minutes for it to even get to desktop as it struggled.

I told her this thing is dead slow and taking forever to get to the
desktop and you must have some kind of virus that's got it this slow.

After taking a look around, I come to find out the machine only had
128mb of ram. I told her about www.crucial.com and she ordered 256mb of
ram along and has 384mb total now and the machine is lighting fast
according to her.

I can only imagine how slow that laptop must be running Win 2K with 64mb.

Duane

 

[Newby]

From: "Newby" <[email protected]>

| Greetings to all. I would appreciate recommendations for a free antivirus
| program to install on my laptop. The operating system is W2K, SP4. The
| laptop only has 64MB memory and is used mostly for e-mail.
|
| Thanks,
| Newby
|

I strongly suggest adding RAM. That is the minimal amount for the OS but once you run an
application it is insufficient. Even for email.

AntiVir -
http://www.free-av.com/ - FREE

The maximum memory for this computer is 160MB which includes 32 on the
mother board and a 128 EDO mem. stick.

If I could buy more mem. at a good price (for me), I would. This laptop
does what I want it to do even without the extra memory.

Newby

 

[Newby]

My sister has a printer on her desktop computer, which I needed to use
on a recent visit with my family back home. She had XP Home running on
the machine. When I turned the machine on and it booted, it took about 5
minutes for it to even get to desktop as it struggled.

I told her this thing is dead slow and taking forever to get to the
desktop and you must have some kind of virus that's got it this slow.

After taking a look around, I come to find out the machine only had
128mb of ram. I told her about www.crucial.com and she ordered 256mb of
ram along and has 384mb total now and the machine is lighting fast
according to her.

I can only imagine how slow that laptop must be running Win 2K with 64mb.

Duane

I tried crucial dot com; they didn't have any memory to fit. Now back to my
original question re: recommendations for a free anti-virus. David offered
one which I shall check into. Any others?

Thanks.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Duane Arnold" <""Yep-Don't-Bother\"@[email protected]">


| My sister has a printer on her desktop computer, which I needed to use
| on a recent visit with my family back home. She had XP Home running on
| the machine. When I turned the machine on and it booted, it took about 5
| minutes for it to even get to desktop as it struggled.
|
| I told her this thing is dead slow and taking forever to get to the
| desktop and you must have some kind of virus that's got it this slow.
|
| After taking a look around, I come to find out the machine only had
| 128mb of ram. I told her about www.crucial.com and she ordered 256mb of
| ram along and has 384mb total now and the machine is lighting fast
| according to her.
|
| I can only imagine how slow that laptop must be running Win 2K with 64mb.
|
| Duane

As the OS and software components are loading the OS has to swap in and out of virtual RAM
so often that it really slows down the boot process dramatically. On a notebook where you
traditionally have slower hard disks, than desktop platforms, such a slowdown is even more
notable.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Newby" <[email protected]>


|
| The maximum memory for this computer is 160MB which includes 32 on the
| mother board and a 128 EDO mem. stick.
|
| If I could buy more mem. at a good price (for me), I would. This laptop
| does what I want it to do even without the extra memory.
|
| Newby
|

It sounds like it was NOT designed for a NT Based OS but for Win9x/ME.
Must also have a PII CPU or less

 

[Art]

I tried crucial dot com; they didn't have any memory to fit. Now back to my
original question re: recommendations for a free anti-virus. David offered
one which I shall check into. Any others?

It's not as simple as you seem to believe. You need more RAM. Period!
It's a wonder you can run your operating system with only 64 meg. You
can't expect to run modern applications of any kind on your laptop.

If you were a experienced user and not a newby, I'd suggest a good
on-demand av scanner such as the ones for KAVDOS32 I have available
at my web site. But you have to know what you're doing. You have to
learn "safe hex". Newbys require having a antivirus running in the
background. It's called realtime scanning. And you can't expect to
have one running (or anything running) in the background of your
PC. So the bottom line is as I said. You need more RAM.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Duane Arnold]

I tried crucial dot com; they didn't have any memory to fit.

They also have Tech Support you can call and maybe they can recommend
something to you, as you need more ram on the machine to run the NT based
O/S.

Now back to my
original question re: recommendations for a free anti-virus. David
offered
one which I shall check into. Any others?

I suggest you go with what he said I am a NOD32 man, which is one of the
bests but it's not free.

There is AVG I think that's free but I have never used it.

Duane

 

[Ed]

Greetings to all. I would appreciate recommendations for a free antivirus
program to install on my laptop. The operating system is W2K, SP4. The
laptop only has 64MB memory and is used mostly for e-mail.

Thanks,
Newby

Don't you love people going on about your specs? Windows 2000 and
email will run just fine on 64meg (which is was designed to do) and if
it runs fine for you, then that's all that matters.

Shock, horror, I use a PII 400mhz laptop with XP and Office 2003 in
128meg, even takes a wireless card and runs Firefox fine. If you
accept that its performance isn't going to set the World on fire, then
there are no problems.

To answer your question, I use AVG on it, get it at
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 not the best AV, but it's
free. If I was to pay for AV it would be NOD32.

Hope that helps.

 

[Newby]

Don't you love people going on about your specs? Windows 2000 and
email will run just fine on 64meg (which is was designed to do) and if
it runs fine for you, then that's all that matters.

Shock, horror, I use a PII 400mhz laptop with XP and Office 2003 in
128meg, even takes a wireless card and runs Firefox fine. If you
accept that its performance isn't going to set the World on fire, then
there are no problems.

To answer your question, I use AVG on it, get it at
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 not the best AV, but it's
free. If I was to pay for AV it would be NOD32.

Hope that helps.

Finally, someone who understands.

It did help, thanks.

There are too many people who only see things from their frame of reference
and want to impress everyone with how much they know. To heck with the
original question, here's my answer, "your machine is too slow".

You are right, I know the limitations of the machine and am willing to
accept them.

Thanks for the AVG suggestion.

Newby

 

[Duane Arnold]

Finally, someone who understands.

It did help, thanks.

There are too many people who only see things from their frame of reference
and want to impress everyone with how much they know. To heck with the
original question, here's my answer, "your machine is too slow".

Absolute nonsense you're speaking here.

You are right, I know the limitations of the machine and am willing to
accept them.

Then accept them and stop crying about it.

You should have never posted the specs then and just asked for a free AV.

Duane

 

[Newby]

Absolute nonsense you're speaking here.

Then accept them and stop crying about it.

You should have never posted the specs then and just asked for a free AV.

Duane

I accepted them when I started using the machine.

 

[Ed]

You should have never posted the specs then and just asked for a free AV.

Duane

Without knowing the specification of the hardware, how would one know
what to recommend? There may be free AV software that is inappropriate
for a 64meg machine, therefore it is common sense to post the spec.

I fail to see the issue with running an Operating System, written to
run on 64meg, actually on a 64meg machine. I also wonder why there is
so much concern surrounding the OP who is happy to continue to run a
64meg machine for email and I guess, browsing.

If the OP is happy to do so, then so be it.

 

[Art]

There are too many people who only see things from their frame of reference
and want to impress everyone with how much they know.

Since you prefer to listen to only responses that you want to hear,
I'll try to accomodate you (but probably not).

For email, you need background scanning like you need a hole
in the head, for one thing. Just make sure you select to use
plain text only, and delete all unsolicited email attackments.
Save other attachments to a test folder but wait a couple of
days before scanning them to give time for av vendors to
develop detection for new malware. Use the util for KAVDOS32
from my web site as one of your on-demand scanners. Use it
to scan all downloaded software.

Use a decent alternate browser such as Opera or Firefox,
make it the default browser, and avoid certain unsafe browsing
habits such as visiting porn sites and the like.

You're now in a position where having some second rate free
realtime antivirus underfoot is not going to increase malware
prevention enough to make it worth the drag on your
under-spec PC, especially since you said you use it primarily
for email.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Ed]

Since you prefer to listen to only responses that you want to hear,
I'll try to accomodate you (but probably not).

The hostility in this thread to towards the OP has me somewhat puzzled.

Save other attachments to a test folder but wait a couple of
days before scanning them to give time for av vendors to
develop detection for new malware.

Using this method you may as well get your contacts to post it to you,
it would be quicker.

You're now in a position where having some second rate free
realtime antivirus underfoot....

If you are suggesting that free AV software is "second rate" then you
are mistaken.

 

[Art]

The hostility in this thread to towards the OP has me somewhat puzzled.

The hostility to those of us who are trying to actually help is what
causes the hostility.

Using this method you may as well get your contacts to post it to you,
it would be quicker.

Using this method is by far the safest way to handle downloaded
software. It's called "safe hex". You can't rely on rely on realtime
scanners to detect new and "unknown" malware. The fact is that
reliance on realtime av for protection is precisely the way many
users take hits. We hear it here all the time. "My AVG (or whatever)
failed to catch ... blah blah" and they come here for help since their
av can't bail them out. It's really quite pitiful the way naive users
depend on their av to protect them rather than learn how to
protect themselves.

If you are suggesting that free AV software is "second rate" then you
are mistaken.

No, I'm not mistaken. None of the ones with realtime scanning
capability compare favorably in detection with the best non-free
products. The closest one, perhaps, is Antivir which David
recommended.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Ed]

The hostility to those of us who are trying to actually help is what
causes the hostility.

However, it appears that the hostilty is directed at the OP for not
accepting that their machine is capable of running Windows 2000 with
64meg (which clearly it is). This had *nothing* to do with the
original post asking advice on which free AV software to use.

Using this method is by far the safest way to handle downloaded
software.

It is also unrealistic for your average user. Waiting a couple of days
to open an email and then scanning it with an online scanner is
paranoid. If you choose this method, good for you, but it is based on
paranoia and not nescessary.

You can't rely on rely on realtime
scanners to detect new and "unknown" malware. The fact is that
reliance on realtime av for protection is precisely the way many
users take hits.

Having used Avast, AVG and recently NOD32, I don't appear to have the
problems you describe. This is despite my years of browsing very
"dodgy" sites. Not one problem despite my reliance on realtime
scanning.

We hear it here all the time. "My AVG (or whatever)
failed to catch ... blah blah" and they come here for help since their
av can't bail them out. It's really quite pitiful the way naive users
depend on their av to protect them rather than learn how to
protect themselves.

So rather than help them you ridicule them? What a nice welcome to new
users seeking advice.

Some so-called "experts" preach their method and criticise those that
don't agree with it, they have this superiority complex and believe
that mere mortals shouldn't be allowed near PCs because they are so
"naive". Pathetic.

No, I'm not mistaken. None of the ones with realtime scanning
capability compare favorably in detection with the best non-free
products. The closest one, perhaps, is Antivir which David
recommended.

I couldn't give a rats-arse about comparisons. They are meaningless
drivel with AV vendors developing their products to pass the equally
meaningless tests. Only the anal get excited by them, you can picture
it now, sphincter boys all over the AV newsgroups feverishly waiting
for the next round of results. My AV is better than your AV, blah blah
blah. Jesus, get life.

My real World test is very simple. After years of browsing porn,
downloading warez and passing emails around, is my machine infected?
No? Well AVG/NOD32/whatever must be doing its job then.

 

[aalaan]

Completely agree. I posted a couple of questions here and the only answer I got
was a useless '*that* old machine and only *that* RAM. Scrap it!'

 

[Art]

It is also unrealistic for your average user. Waiting a couple of days
to open an email and then scanning it with an online scanner is
paranoid.

I didn't say anything about online scanners, dimbulb. Nor did I say
to wait a couple of days before opening email. You're a perfect
example of why trying to help some here is a waste of time. Get
lost.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg