Anti Virus Tests (OT)

D

Dick Kistler

Thanks a lot for posting this, although I don't agree with his
assessment of Antivir (buggy and unstable with W9X) or Avast! (too
many system resource demands with W9X). However, the links for online
scans are nice. To be fair, the guy is using XP though.
Click to expand...

Certainly agree with you on Antivir. On two fresh installs of Windows ME,
Antivir would crash periodically. Eventually switched to EZ Armor and
haven't had problems crashing. However Pest Patrol needs some serious work
on their user interface. And the overall Antivirus interface in the newest
version was made for computer idiots. The old one was much more useful.
Cannot say anything yet about its ability to see viruses.

Dick Kistler
 
R

Richard Steinfeld

Dick said:
Certainly agree with you on Antivir. On two fresh installs of Windows ME,
Antivir would crash periodically. Eventually switched to EZ Armor and
haven't had problems crashing. However Pest Patrol needs some serious work
on their user interface. And the overall Antivirus interface in the newest
version was made for computer idiots. The old one was much more useful.
Cannot say anything yet about its ability to see viruses.

Dick Kistler
Click to expand...

Well, Avast is a resource hog on my Windows ME system. It runs a great
many processes repeatedly in rapid successsion -- as does Sygate
Firewall. I see the furious action on the Filemon screen. And I've noted
that two metronome programs deliver syncopated beats until this action
settles down.

But, Antivir offers an interesting possible salvation: there are
modules/submodules that can be turned off. For example, Instant
Messaging (I don't use it -- click), Outlook/Exchange (Over my dead body
-- click), P2P Shield (in another lifetime: click). And "Web Shield:" do
I really need this as a resident protection?

So, the question is simply: how much of this thing can we emasculate in
order to make it behave itself?

I've left the "Web Shield" on for the moment, but I'm considering
turning it off. My system seems to be working OK. Of course, I could
gain a little speed without constant AV scanning. When installing or
removing programs, I turn Avast completely off. But I leave Sygate
running (since I've got DSL and don't want to damage my connectors by
constantly unplugging my DSL cable -- my cable modem, in infinite
deco-wisdom, has no power switch).

I wanted to use BitDefender, but it made my system so unstable that I
couldn't use it until I got that sucka off.

Thoughts?

Richard
 
T

TedK

Richard said:
Why?

Richard
Click to expand...

I took a look at the ewido site. It sounds too good to be true.

They talk about using heuristics to nail viruses (in addition to the
conventional approach). About two years ago an av program was presented
to our users group (SCVPCG) that had been developed relying totally on
heuristic programming. The sales pitch was very effective and they
spent some money on marketing tools, but it also sounded "too good to be
true." I think as far as they got was to visit user groups and it
apparently died on the vine.

I don't plan to give ewido a try but if someone does I'd be interested
in the results.

Ted
 
B

Bob Adkins

I don't plan to give ewido a try but if someone does I'd be interested
in the results.
Click to expand...

Ted,

In my short experience with it, it's an excellent program. It's small,
light, simple, and fast as hell.

It catches and cleans or removes certain tough spyware and Trojans that my
other anti-spyware can't. It finds a few Trojans that Nod32 doesn't
(although to be fair, Nod32 is not a Trojan scanner).

I think ewido may just be missing leg of an ideal security "triad". A good
first-line AV program, anti-spyware program, and ewido can just about handle
anything you throw at it.

Would I use it as a stand-alone scanner? No. At least not until I become
more familiar with it.

Here are the memory "footprints" from my triad:

Nod32 17K
ewido 22K
MS Anti-Spyware 20K

Here are the folder sizes:

Nod32 24mb
ewido 9mb
MS Anti-Spyware 21mb

Hope this helps.
 
C

ceed

I saw some personal opinions and impressions, but I didn't see any tests.
Here are actual tests to judge AV programs (Direct downloads a PDF file).
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report06.pdf
Click to expand...

Thank you for this. I also thought it smelled a lot like someones personal
opinion. However, the pdf you point to is a cleansweep for Eset (NOD32),
which happens to what I am using anyway. And yes, I paid for it. Some
software is worth every penny charged. NOD32 is one of those in my opinion.
 
J

jmatt

Why?
Richard
Click to expand...

I use it, to compliment Avast & Microsoft Antispyware scanner.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/issues/issue122.htm
By combining the free AVG anti-virus scanner, the free version of
Ewido anti-Trojan scanner and the free Microsoft Antispyware
scanner, I managed to achieve a 95% detection rate against a
particularly nasty set of 104 assorted malware products that I had
downloaded from P2P networks.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm
http://www.techsupportalert.com/issues/back_issues.htm

* Posted via http://www.sixfiles.com/forum
* Please report abuse to http://xinbox.com/sixfiles
 
B

BasketCase

John said:
Thanks a lot for posting this, although I don't agree with his
assessment of Antivir (buggy and unstable with W9X) or Avast! (too many
system resource demands with W9X). However, the links for online scans
are nice. To be fair, the guy is using XP though.
Click to expand...

Hello John. I use antivir ( I am running W98SE ) and have had no
problems whatsoever with it. Not so with AVG which I was using
previously. It seemed to slow my system to a crawl for some reason.
Pages loading slowly...ng posts loading slowly etc..
A friend experienced similar probs with AVG but upgraded to WXP and has
had no further problems with it.
Guess a lot depends on your operating system.
 
J

jmatt

BasketCase
Guess a lot depends on your operating system.
Click to expand...

Here is what I had to do, when I was using AVG & a lower powered
computer/operating system.

Do you have the AVG ( virus program ) Outlook Express plugin, enabled
?
Don't tick, Use Outlook Express Plug In . Slows it down too much.
Try disabling it - my OE performance improved greatly once the plugin
was removed.
Go to AVG Control Centre, Email Scanner tab to uncheck the plugin.

* Posted via http://www.sixfiles.com/forum
* Please report abuse to http://xinbox.com/sixfiles
 
B

Bob Adkins

Thank you for this. I also thought it smelled a lot like someones personal
opinion. However, the pdf you point to is a cleansweep for Eset (NOD32),
which happens to what I am using anyway. And yes, I paid for it. Some
software is worth every penny charged. NOD32 is one of those in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I have absolutely nothing against Freeware AV scanners. However, the drop
off in quality from commercial to Freeware right now is too much for my
taste. I also happen to use Nod32, but I'm not a loyalist or "fanboy".

I'm keeping an eye on ClamWin. If they add a resident scanner, it could turn
out to be an excellent app; even lighter than Nod32. I would switch in a NY
minute. :)
 
E

ellis_jay

TedK said:
I took a look at the ewido site. It sounds too good to be true.

They talk about using heuristics to nail viruses (in addition to the
conventional approach). About two years ago an av program was
presented to our users group (SCVPCG) that had been developed relying
totally on heuristic programming. The sales pitch was very effective
and they spent some money on marketing tools, but it also sounded
"too good to be true." I think as far as they got was to visit user
groups and it apparently died on the vine.

I don't plan to give ewido a try but if someone does I'd be interested
in the results.

Ted
Click to expand...

I use ewido once a week and it is a nice program

--

Their ethics are a short summary of police ordinances: for them the
most important thing is to be a useful member of the state, and to air
their opinions in the club of an evening; they have never felt the
homesickness for something unknown and far away, nor the depths which
consists in being nothing at all. ___________Soren Kierkegaard

Ellis_jay
 
A

André Gulliksen

Richard said:
Well, Avast is a resource hog on my Windows ME system. It runs a great
many processes repeatedly in rapid successsion -- as does Sygate
Firewall. I see the furious action on the Filemon screen. And I've
noted that two metronome programs deliver syncopated beats until this
action settles down.

But, Antivir offers an interesting possible salvation: there are
modules/submodules that can be turned off. For example, Instant
Messaging (I don't use it -- click), Outlook/Exchange (Over my dead
body -- click), P2P Shield (in another lifetime: click). And "Web
Shield:" do I really need this as a resident protection?
Click to expand...

You can do the same with avast! I am running with standard shield and
nothing else.
 
M

MLC

Il Sun, 24 Jul 2005 21:46:11 +0200, André Gulliksen ha scritto:
You can do the same with avast! I am running with standard shield and
nothing else.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I do me too.
 
T

TedK

Bob said:
Ted,

In my short experience with it, it's an excellent program. It's small,
light, simple, and fast as hell.

It catches and cleans or removes certain tough spyware and Trojans that my
other anti-spyware can't. It finds a few Trojans that Nod32 doesn't
(although to be fair, Nod32 is not a Trojan scanner).

I think ewido may just be missing leg of an ideal security "triad". A good
first-line AV program, anti-spyware program, and ewido can just about handle
anything you throw at it.

Would I use it as a stand-alone scanner? No. At least not until I become
more familiar with it.

Here are the memory "footprints" from my triad:

Nod32 17K
ewido 22K
MS Anti-Spyware 20K

Here are the folder sizes:

Nod32 24mb
ewido 9mb
MS Anti-Spyware 21mb

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Yes, it does. I think I'll download it and give it a spin.

I use Trend Micro's PC-cillen that I received in an upgrade to Office
Suite, which I have used for years. To me it's freeware since it was
included in an upgrade to the suite; its weekly (frequently two or three
times weekly) upgrades of the AV file costs nothing.

Thanks for the info.
 
R

Richard Steinfeld

(Top--posting intentionally)

Bob, thanks for this testimony.
You've caught my interest.
Please tell me a bit about a couple of fine points:
- Do you install it?
- Is there an uninstalled-runnable option?
- If installed, can it be essentially switched off and turned on when
desired (I think that this is called "on demand.).
- When it's running, does it run background processes?

(Note: I've found _Filemon_ to be a great tool in order to see the
background processes in real-time on a Windows 9x box. It's from
SysInternals http://www.sysinternals.com. "Try it; you'll like it.")

Richard
 
B

Bob Adkins

Bob, thanks for this testimony.
You've caught my interest.
Please tell me a bit about a couple of fine points:
- Do you install it?
- Is there an uninstalled-runnable option?
- If installed, can it be essentially switched off and turned on when
desired (I think that this is called "on demand.).
- When it's running, does it run background processes?
Click to expand...

Hi Rich,


ewido must be installed, and has a fair sized folder structure.
There is no simple run or scan option that I know of.
Realtime monitoring can be turned off and on at will.
ewido runs from 2 small background processes.

I'll have to try running it from a CD or USB flash drive. It could really be
useful to rescue some trojan and spyware infested systems.
 

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