Anti-virus tools comparison

[Iain Cheyne]

http://pricelessware.org/2004/PL2004SECURITY.htm#Anti-Virus

My main criterion for anti-virus is ease of use. My theory is that they
all offer comparable protection levels, and what I really want from my
anti-virus programs is invisible removal of the hassle of dealing with
virus infections.

F-Prot Antivirus for DOS
This was the only Pricelessware anti-virus I did not try, as it's only for
DOS. From what I can gather, its main use is a second-line protection for
full system scans and virus removal, rather than constant protection.

AntiVir Personal Edition
I liked this, as it did its job unobtrusively, but sadly it does not deal
with XP user accounts. If I logged on while my wife was still online, or
vice versa, we got constant annoying error messages until we disabled it.
Due to this we were infested with several viruses.

avast!
After Antivir, we tried avast!. This looked good at first, but eventually
drove us mad with constant notifications about virus definition upgrades
and noisy, obnoxious dialog boxes whenever we got a virus-infested email.
This was appropriate a few years ago when there were far fewer viruses
about, but with so many viruses about it's very annoying to be asked to
delete every virus individually. Apparently this is not a problem in the
full version. Another black mark was the fact that it did not tell you how
to remove the nastier viruses.

AVG Anti-Virus System
In desperation, I turned to the last Pricelessware anti-virus. So far this
has behaved very well. It can be configured to just delete viruses with no
notifications or other hassles and we have not had any other problems. By
default it leaves pointless anti-virus certification messages to the
bottom of every email sent out, but you can disable that. Grisoft also get
kudos for giving away a virus removal tool for free on the web page. I'll
continue to evaluate AVG, but so far it's the best.

 

[jo]

Iain Cheyne wrote:

. If I logged on while my wife was still online, or
vice versa, we got constant annoying error messages until we disabled it.
Due to this we were infested with several viruses.

You get 'infested with viruses' due to an insecure working environment
and an over reliance on security software.

After Antivir, we tried avast!. This looked good at first, but eventually
drove us mad with constant notifications about virus definition upgrades
and noisy, obnoxious dialog boxes whenever we got a virus-infested email.
This was appropriate a few years ago when there were far fewer viruses
about, but with so many viruses about it's very annoying to be asked to
delete every virus individually.

Sounds to me like you need Magic Mail Monitor, or similar, to scan
your mail on the server and delete unwanted viruses.
It is literally years since an email virus got near my HD.

AVG Anti-Virus System
In desperation, I turned to the last Pricelessware anti-virus. So far this
has behaved very well. It can be configured to just delete viruses with no
notifications or other hassles and we have not had any other problems.

Virus checkers give too many false positives for me to like this way
of working.
For example, many standalone SMTP clients are classed as viruses by
loads of AV software, as are 'screenmates'.
Sheep.exe is a cuddly little desktop sheep that many AV apps will
class as a virus. He is here, amongst other places:

http://www.getty.net/download/

 

[Bob Adkins]

avast!
After Antivir, we tried avast!. This looked good at first, but eventually
drove us mad with constant notifications about virus definition upgrades
and noisy, obnoxious dialog boxes whenever we got a virus-infested email.
This was appropriate a few years ago when there were far fewer viruses
about, but with so many viruses about it's very annoying to be asked to
delete every virus individually. Apparently this is not a problem in the
full version. Another black mark was the fact that it did not tell you how
to remove the nastier viruses.

I used Avast for quite some time, and don't remember any annoying
notifications. Are you sure there isn't a way to silence them?

If you get desperate, the best Shareware AV I have ever used is Nod32. It's
very light, and as silent or as noisy as you wish. It doesn't interfere with
SpamPal or Spamihilator like some others do.

Bob

 

[Iain Cheyne]

Sounds to me like you need Magic Mail Monitor, or similar, to scan
your mail on the server and delete unwanted viruses.

I'll check it out.

 

[Iain Cheyne]

I used Avast for quite some time, and don't remember any annoying
notifications. Are you sure there isn't a way to silence them?

I looked hard and couldn't find any way of doing it, which comes to the
same thing.

 

[Bob Adkins]

I looked hard and couldn't find any way of doing it, which comes to the
same thing.

Point well taken If it's that damn hard to find, it's no use anyway.

Bob

 

[Bill Rucker]

Point well taken If it's that damn hard to find, it's no use anyway.

Bob

I too have used avast! Personally, I don't want software to access the net
without letting me know. Some software requires excessive clicks -- Norton
LiveUpdate being a prime example. avast! set to automatically update merely
pops up a temporary message saying it is checking.

 

[Iain Cheyne]

I too have used avast! Personally, I don't want software to access
the net without letting me know. Some software requires excessive
clicks -- Norton LiveUpdate being a prime example. avast! set to
automatically update merely pops up a temporary message saying it is
checking.

I found the update notifications slightly annoying, but what irritated me
was when the update failed and having to go through dialog boxes to
acknowledge it.

What drove me mad was my Mum coming to me saying she couldn't read her
email, because the damn anti-virus program was telling her she had viruses
and asking for confirmation of what she should do with them, i.e.
quarantine or delete or examine etc.

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

| AVG Anti-Virus System
| In desperation, I turned to the last Pricelessware anti-virus.
So far this
| has behaved very well. It can be configured to just delete
viruses with no
| notifications or other hassles and we have not had any other
problems. By
| default it leaves pointless anti-virus certification messages
to the
| bottom of every email sent out, but you can disable that.

You can turn off Grisoft's certification message permanently.
Just look for this in one of the menus. There are a few different
options that are selectable. This should put a smile on your
face.

BTW, Avast drove me crazy. If I recall correctly, there were a
few user interface inhumanities. AVG seems exceptionally
well-crafted to me.

I'm using AVG; you'll notice that this post has no
"certification" message. Aha!

Richard