What anti-virus program do i buy?

[taperino]

Hi,

What is the best anti-virus program to buy. Norton? Mcafee? or something else?

Thanks, ganaan

[solarpowered candle]

http://www.wilders.org/anti_viruses.htm

blackcats thread for anti virus on lighter systems is worth reading also http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=28952

my own preference is e trust v7 promo which has both Vet / innoculateIT and is also free .I run with win98 also and only have 128 rams and find it the best on my system .http://www3.ca.com/Solutions/Collateral.asp?CID=41370&ID=3249

http://etrustantivirus.ca.com/v7/eav7promo.exe ( direct download link )

[AMRX]

i take it that you are running Win 98SE. well i'll recommend NOD32 or AVP. both are good but the former can cause some lag if your hardware is not powerful. in addition keep the DOS version of F-Prot which is absolutely FREE.

[taperino]

Thank you. I hadn't seen these posts before. Had notification set wrong. I am upgrading my system. I had to add WinSP because I ordered dsl, and it wouldn't install with windows98 properly. So meantime, I am using Zone Alarm. Am on another thread now about this upgrade.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=30529

Thank you for your replies.

Taperino

[eyespy]

I always have the same answer (up to this point anyway!),
DrWeb. Fast and light, with too good heuristics however. But that's not necessarily a bad quality. ;)

Regards,
bill :)

[bigc73542]

I will put in that I prefer the eTrust Promo with the two scan engines From computer associates. It actually runs pretty light on the system. and updates daily.

[taperino]

Dear Bigc75432,

You wrote that E-trust is good. I am using NOD32, but read article posted by them that they catch 85% viruses.

With E - Trust (the free for a year) it has a firewall. Since I am new to firewalls I d/l'd Zone Alarm and am using that, since I didn't need to set anything. (I just realized e-trust is not the microsoft a/v firewall.)

I guess I'm asking about E-Trust. Can I trust that as well as Zone Alarm to use for a firewall? Is it already configured that I can just run it?

I don't yet know what a firewall does, so don't know how to configure one.

Do you use more than one a/v or just E-Trust.

Thanks, Yahoos

[ronjor]

I notice you have a dsl connection. My advice would be to learn about firewalls.
Get a router for your system in addition to an antivirus.
Nod32 or F-Prot are both good, small in size, smooth running antivirus programs.
No antivirus program comes with a 100% guaranteed detection promise. :)

[Paranoid2000]

{QUOTE-> I guess I'm asking about E-Trust. Can I trust that as well as Zone Alarm to use for a firewall? Is it already configured that I can just run it? <-QUOTE}Running two firewalls is likely to lead to serious conflicts (leading to Windows crashes) and may cause them to interfere with each other - use one only. However getting a separate router with its own (firmware) firewall is an excellent addition since it will block the onslaught of incoming worm-created traffic leaving your PC's firewall free to focus on outgoing traffic.

How Firewalls Work (http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm) is a fairly good introduction and explanation. For a beginner I would suggest ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/) - it requires very little configuration but is correspondingly somewhat inflexible and can be a problem to uninstall. If you want more control over what your applications can do, then look for a "rules-based" firewall (i.e. one where you can create rules for each application). Outpost (www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/) is the one I use (and the Web-Hiker's Guide (www.outpostfirewall.com/guide/) does provide a very good introduction on using it). There are others (Kerio, Sygate, Norton, Look 'n Stop) so if you have the time, check the details on each one and visit the relevant forum to find out current issues (although the Outpost forum (www.outpostfirewall.com) is down at the moment).

A firewall and a regularly updated (weekly at least) anti-virus scanner are "must have" utilities - however a firewall will require more work to get a configuration suitable for your system. So selecting one you feel most comfortable with and learning its configuration thoroughly is important. However, there are plenty of people on hand to help, whatever your choice... :)

[JimIT]

{QUOTE-> Hi,

What is the best anti-virus program to buy. Norton? Mcafee? or something else?

Thanks, ganaan <-QUOTE}

Personally, I think the setup you have is great--ZA plus NOD32 will give you great protection.

With regards to NOD32's "85 percent" detection: I believe the figure you are referring to describes the detection rate of IMON's Advanced Heuristic module--a figure which is pretty incredible considering it's attained without using signatures. When NOD32's signatures are figured in, that percentage rises considerably--giving you great protection from threats.

NOD32's detection rate of viruses that you are most likely to come in contact with is right at 100%.

;)

[taperino]

Thank you all for your posts.

After what you all wrote, I feel that my system is protected. Phew!

I will look into the router. I never heard of that.

I can't imagine how many people are unprotected against spythreats, virus's, and now intrusions; it was only 3 months ago I heard of the problem spythreats. Not only must my system protect me, but I need protection from those that email me.

Keep up the good fight! The light always wins. Thanks for shedding it on my situaton.

Ganaan

[slow-thinker]

As far read pc magazines, results:
[detect based on availabe signatures]
- sure they all can catch evils.
- "time of outbreak" response : best with McAfee (beta signature provided)
[false alarms] : scanning almost 4,000,000 files
- Mcafee AV and NAV2004 with 01 falsitive one; 30 with NOD32; almost 30,000 with GFI's Trojan & Exe. scanner.
[Heuristic Scan/detection] : scanning viruses came from email/email attachments without uptodated virus signatures for 2 weeks long. 3 brandnew viruses appeared in mailbox: HTML_BAGLE.Q-1, PE_BAGLE.N-O, WORM_NETSKY.P
- GFI MailSecurity : catched all 3.
- NOD32 : detected 1 : PE_BAGLE.Q-1
- SurfinGuard Pro (sandboxing tech): caught WORM_NETSKY.P
- OSsurance Desktop (sandboxing tech) : caught PE_BAGLE.N-O, WORM_NETSKY.P
- NAV2004 : missed all 3!!!!!!!
- McAfee 2004 : not shown (?)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Paul Wilders]

...indeed: pc magazines...

regards.

paul

[Tinribs]

The way this old dog see's it is that you need an av with top notch hueristics, the chance of getting hit by an old and 'past it' virii are slim and if its a known virii then the sigs will take care of it anyway, its the unknown that is the threat.

With that in mind I pick an av with strong heuristics, this happens to be Nod32, I have used it for over 2 years and it has never let me down, I'm still clean :)

[bigc73542]

{QUOTE-> Dear Bigc75432,

You wrote that E-trust is good. I am using NOD32, but read article posted by them that they catch 85% viruses.

With E - Trust (the free for a year) it has a firewall. Since I am new to firewalls I d/l'd Zone Alarm and am using that, since I didn't need to set anything. (I just realized e-trust is not the microsoft a/v firewall.)

I guess I'm asking about E-Trust. Can I trust that as well as Zone Alarm to use for a firewall? Is it already configured that I can just run it?

I don't yet know what a firewall does, so don't know how to configure one.

Do you use more than one a/v or just E-Trust.

Thanks, Yahoos <-QUOTE}
Nod is an excellent av, I would assume that they catch more than 85%. The firewall that comes with eTrust is zone alarm lite. I have used it and have had no problems with it. While you are still learning about firewalls it would be a good one to use. After a little times go by and you pick up more knowledge about firewalls you may want to try some other ones. Regarding AV's you should never run two av's set to run on access (realtime) one should always be set to on demand only. I use bitdefender 7.2 free it is an on demand only av. I have never had any conflicts running Bitdefender with other av's If you want to try it it can be downloaded here (http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/products.php?p_id=24)


bigc

[taperino]

I guess I'll stay w/ZA and Nod for the time being. I keep forgetting to run Nod on a regular basis though, but it's guarding me on the net.

Been good hearing all the different things available and the pros and cons. I'd like to get much better at understanding security issues. Just need to take the time I suppose.

take care,

ganaan

[bigc73542]

{QUOTE-> I guess I'll stay w/ZA and Nod for the time being. I keep forgetting to run Nod on a regular basis though, but it's guarding me on the net.

Been good hearing all the different things available and the pros and cons. I'd like to get much better at understanding security issues. Just need to take the time I suppose.

take care,

ganaan <-QUOTE}
It does take time and we are all continousley learning so just keep up the studying and you will pick it up.

[HELLSTROM]

I would recommend KAV 4.5 or NOD32, not particularly in that order. Free trial versions are available. Try them both and see which suits you best.

I am not overly impressed with KAV 5.0.