Which products has (good) mail protection?

My main concern is the risk of getting a virus/evil script through e-mail. Some antivirus products apparently has no e-mail protection features. Which one has?

 

The ones I know without checking:
Norton AV, AVG, McAfee and NOD 32.

Maybe the best policy here would be to visit some sites of producers of AV software to see what they are offering and do some reading on boards like this one to find out wich ones are considered good protection.

Regards,

Pieter

 

EMail virus protection is more a hype than a real need. If you do not use a real unsecure (e.g. old version of Outlook) than the only way to get infected is to start an attachment to an email. If you do so your virus scanner will check the file first and block it if it is infected.

I think more important than email scanning is good heuristics or unpacking features.

wizard

 

I agree with Wizard!

To Add:
If you use outlook or OE make sure that you applied all patches from Microsoft web site!

Never open or run suspicious attachments! NEVER! Especially with .DOC, .VBS, .BAT, .XLS, .CMD, .PS extensions!

Now if you really are insisting on your original question, I'll follow Pieter_Arntz post and add some more AntiVirus products with pop3 email checkers!


PC_cillin
KAV (only with MS Outlook)
DrWeb32 ( still in beta)
RAV (only with MS outlook)
Bit Defender
Avast32
eScan
Command AntiVirus (4.72 with MS Outlook)
Panda AntiVirus Platinum (MS Outlook)



Technodrome

 

OK that makes sense. How can I tell if a product has good heuristics?

 

I can recommend some of them!

- DrWeb32
- NOD32
- F-prot
- KAV
- Command AV
- RAV

You can give atry and see what suite you best ( in terms of price, compatibility, size, GUI, updates, detection rate etc)


Technodrome

 

KAV and DrWeb scan emails as well. They simply scan the email clients databases. Different method than the pop3-scanners that other products use (e.g. NOD32) but not less effective.

In your case I would recommend to try NOD32. This might be the optimal solution for you. NOD32 has very good heuristics and a pop3-email-scanner. Also it is very fast and is very good and acurate in detecting in-the-wild malware.

wizard

 

Still in beta but works perfect on my machine (XP Pro + Outlook 2002)

 

Hi Wizard

I am running NOD32 for quite a while and I can second you about virus detection but NOD32 is not very good with other malwares like trojans, it is first of all an AV product for ITW virus.
KAV IMHO is the sole as good for detecting virus AND trojans but it is slow and consume a lot of resource.

As for me, trojan detection is not the job of a AV, there are other means

Cheers,

 

Care to elaborate Jack? What Trojan software are you suggesting would be compatable and efficient with NOD32

I've tried KAV 4, which brought my system to its knees (Win XP, Athlon 1Ghz, 384 mb Ram, 30 gig hard drive, etc., running ZA free). I'm now trying KAV 3.5, which works, but I notice it's slightly harder (slightly) on system resource than NOD32 (I tried it a while back). NOD32 was interesting, but I must say I didn't like the GUI. It's not that I didn't understand how it all works, but I do like simplicity. I hear they might be coming out with an integrated GUI soon. Can anyone verify? KAV 3.5 is alright, but I hear (again can anyone verify) that they've stopped updating the 3.5 version and are only updating the virus database for it.

Lastly, other than perhaps a slight hit on resources, what's the problem with NAV 2003? Anyone have any input? I know it does detect some trojans, more probably than NOD32. Care to discuss??

Cheers,
Also Jack.

 

Hi

I don't use KAV either : slowing down my system.
AFM, I have no problems about detecting Trojan with a startup Monitor, (System Safety Monitor) and a decent FW (KPF 2.1.4 v3.beta2 is not yet to a good level about stealth mode).
TrojanHunter with its guard module seems a good solution in conjunction with any AV or TDS-3 (which I don't use for personal matters)

I don't care about the GUI when security is involved but about efficiency

NOD32 is on its way (beta whith a new GUI and only one icon in the systray.

IMHO, let alone KAV, no AV has a satisfying rate about trojans detection.

Rgds,

 

Jack,
Is 'System Saftety Monitor' a program? If so, where might I find it?
If it's a program, would Trojan Hunter do just as well? Any tests to support that?
I tried TDS3 for trojans, and found as an average user that its interface was unbelievably complicated. But TH's interfaces seemed manageable.
Thanks,
Also Jack
BTW, still no comments from anyone else about NAV

 

Hi Jack,
TDS might seem complicated but does a lot of work and is not a specific scanner. See the specific threads here in the DCS forums on this board. And keep an eye on their new products to come somewhere in the next few months, which might suit your needs better.
In the meantime shop around and keep posting here, as we all learn from each other.

 

Hello,

Yes, it is and youcan find it on the d/l page of this site
Last v is 1.9.1beta2 and no, TrojanHunter cannot do the same

Rgds,

 

Hi Jooske

I know TDS, very good indeed but I don't use it for personal matter.

BTW, could you run PCAudit http://www.isa-llc.com/downloads/audit.php

Tricky test for FW and AT (behave like a trojan to bypass FW protection)
I am not sure at all TDS would prevent its execution and let it phone home.

Rgds,