Virus checkers (and Mcafee, what idiots!)
A post for all my techie mates out there ... Virus checkers? Which one do you use?
Up until last night, I was using Mcafee Virus checker. It told me my virus defintions were out of date and I needed to renew my subscriptions. I went, like a good honest person to buy them, and it came back telling me that my software was too old and I needed to upgrade! How annoyed was I?! For a second or two I thought about jumping ship and dumping Mcafee, but then I read the reviews of Norton on Amazon, and changed my mind.
Who do you use for checking viruses/firewall? Before you mention Mr E. I won't be touching AVG with a barge pole, it failed to spot stuff on my computer before ...
posted by Paul (aka Lappy) @ 3/01/2006 02:12:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I used to use McAfee on my first PC, before switching to Norton 2003 & 2005, but it's such a bloated system hogging (virus missing) piece of software thesedays, I wouldn't touch it again - period.
Instead, when my subscription ran out last year, I switched to Esets NOD32. It may not have the most user friendly interface (or those pretty boy graphical ones Norton/McAfee throw at you, but it's what's under the hood that counts), but you're not a novice and you'd find your way easily. It's also the only AV software never to have missed a single in the wild Virus over the last seven years! A 100% claim no one else comes anywhere near. It sits quietly in the background, using the minimal system resource and only springs to life when it's needed. Updates are regular too, so you're always covered :)
£23 well spent!
http://www.nod32uk.com/home/home.htm
... oh, and to answer the Firewall Question, I use Zone Labs' Zone Alarm Pro, which has served me well.
I must point out that I've been running the paid version of AVG for two years now on my network and it's not let a single virus past. That said I think the problem is that people see anti-virus software as a panacea for their illicit vices - if you open an .exe from an untrusted source no amount of AV software is going to stop it. Likewise a virus is not a firewall, or a substitute for keeping your PC patched (this applies to Windows and Linux). My network has been safe for 4 years because it's behind a hardware firewall with a software firewall running on each PC, and all workstations and servers are patched up to date (automatically). In fact I didn't run AV on two of the machines until last week and it never caused a problem. But then I don't download msi/exe/etc files from porn sites, nor do I use P2P software - IMHO using P2P is like inviting a drug dealer into your house; they may just sell you drugs, but the chances are that once your back is turned they'll nick the family silver.
In answer to your original question though (finally!), if AVG doesn't float your boat then Sophos is definitely worth a try.
p.s. Incredimail is another sure fire route to infection - anything with that much active content is bound to be bad news!
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