Which Virus-Scanner?

[Virtualwombat 4]

I use McAfee at work, Trend on my laptop, but I'm happy I changed to NOD32 on my FS9 PC. Footprint is less an issue for business applications than for FS9, where we scramble for every MB of free memory and processor cycle. That's where NOD32 has an advantage. You can also exclude files and folders in NOD32 from scanning; necessary for some add-ons such as those by Cloud9. Cheers,Noel.

[Guest thedoggg]

About 3 years ago I dumped Mcaffee. I now use NO antivirus and have not used it in three years. By this I mean no antivirus installed running in the background on my computers, I have scanned my computers with the free online virus scan by Trend Micro. I do use and recommend the use of firewalls and antispyware apps like Adaware, Spybot, etc. If you are running a server, do internet banking, open untrusted emails, use your computer for work, use Internet explorer instead of Firefox and visit all kinds of porn sites, or anything else that require information confidentiality don't do what I do. Antivirus programs unless you do the above are USELESS RESOURSE HOGS some worse than others. If you have a dedicated FS computer that just accesses the internet for downloading weather or activating Flight 1 products you don't need it period. Make sure you run an good firewall however or in a few hours your computer will be FULL of spyware.If you are behind a router then you already have a firewall running. There was a previous thread on this and I got majorly attacked and called pirate and a bunch of stuff just for stating an opinion so here I am going to say I am not telling anybody not to use antivirus just saying I don't and won't hinder my FS performance by running one. You may do as you choose.P.S. Norton is the worst one of all as farr as using up resourses.Regards,Carlos

[Guest Terblanche]

Thanx guys ...whao that is a MOUTHFUL ~ !!now for the $1 000 000 question - how on earth or on jupiter do I get Norton deleted/removed/uninstalled from my computer?I started to uninstall Norton last night at 10pmat 1am it was still stuck in my registrystarted again this morningand not Registry Crawler or XPRepair could get it OFF... any suggestions?(and Symantec Web Site has NO reference to a remove/uninstall whatsoever)Kind regardsTerblanche

[MD83 1]

I use Command AntiVirus. The total "footprint" is less than 6MB :)www.authentium.com

[tf51d 284]

>>"ISTM that if you have a properly setup firewall, I don't>see any reason to worry about antivirus">>A firewall and AV software are two different things. Know what>you're talking about before giving advice.>>I don't think he was advocating not having a AV program, just that it wouldn't be needed while running FS9 if he had a properly setup firewall. Since the only application accessing the web from his computer would be the ASV6 program. A firewall should prevent an unsolicited attack, so AV would be redundant. Of course the AV program should be reactivated once he wants to browse the web again, or read email.

[RFields5421 1]

Which ever software you use, please read up on what to do when you receive a virus detection warning.Everyone's computer is someday going to report a virus warning.Part of that is of course the massive number of viruses out there, and an even bigger part of the problem is the way ALL ANTI-virus SOFTWARE DOES UPDATES - PUBLIC BETA TESTSAnti-virus software does not recognize or identify viruses. It identifies a section of code within a file which matches an example stored in the A/V software definition file.When I first started working with anti-virus software on Mac's back in 1988, the A/V companies took weeks to test their update definition files to make sure they would not report "false" positives.Today some companies like Norton and McAfee and Avast and NOD32 are releasing beta definition files to the public FOUR TIMES A DAY.And that is exactly what you get - BETA files.Avast users have reported about 10 false positives on this forum in the past year.NOD32 users have reported about 5 false positives on this forum in the past year.AVG users have reported about 5 false positives on this forum in the past year.We've had about 5 false positives from Norton in the past year in the company I work for - and we do get and distribute four beta updates daily to about 250,000-300,000 computers worldwide in the company.The key is to read what the company says to do - and it's basically the same for all the companies.If an anti-virus scan after a definition file update identifies a file which has been on your system for over a month, or is from a commercial software company - quarantine the file and submit a copy of the file and the warning message to the A/V company.This helps them test to see if the file actually has a virus, or their definition file needs to be changed.We have seen a couple dozen people cripple payware software in the past year by deleting files rather than following the procedure which their A/V software company recommends.One final point - re: FREE software - you get exactly the quality you pay for. I believe all the free companies have better products available for very reasonable fees.If your budget is very tight, or you want to try before you buy, that's understandable, but if someone does not support the AV company by buying products to pay for their staff and testing - the company will go away soon.There is a little something called integrity and honesty which seems to be slipping away - especially in the FS community. Treat software companies the way you want to be treated in your own business.

[Guest nem]

>Today some companies like Norton and McAfee and Avast and>NOD32 are releasing beta definition files to the public FOUR>TIMES A DAY.>>And that is exactly what you get - BETA files.>>Avast users have reported about 10 false positives on this>forum in the past year.This explains why Avast threw a lot more alerts at me than Bitdefender... thanks for the heads-up. Anyone know if the latest free Bitdefender is compatible with XP x64? I'd like to switch back now. :)Regards,http://www.bremmekamp.com/img/misc/avsim.jpg

[Guest PPSFA]

Without going into details of why I dont use Nortons, McCaffy, ZA, etc, the best I have found is AVG: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5It does daily updates, its non intrusive, and its free.I havent read all the other replies, but you really don't need an AV running while your in FS. Viruses come from email attachments or websites. Delete any email that you dont expect that has an attachement, and stay away from porno sites and you shouldn't have to worry about viruses :-)

[Guest PPSFA]

Oops, I forgot, I also use a program that stops emails before they ever get to my computer, Mailwasher: http://www.firetrust.com/It lets you see your email while its still on the server, and select what you want to keep before it gets downloaded.

[Hamilton_ 45]

Hi fellows,What about a good firewall,I

[Dean_EGTC 57]

Agnitum Outpost is my recommendation.

[scott967 62]

I agree. As I said in an earlier post, at one time I was getting maybe 10 emails a day with sobig or other viral attachments. When I was on dialup it was so bad I had to use mailwasher to delete it on the POP3 server so I wouldn't spend all day d/ling it. But once the ISPs got better, they now stop all the viral email. Never got a viral email in a couple years. Of course I don't use outlook or other malware. I don't use IM so I don't worry about that source of infection. I haven't seen an infected zip in years (or at least I don't go to the sites where such things lurk). Supposedly McAfee is also looking for spyware (they call it PUP) but it has never found one on my system. All spybot or adaware find are tracking cookies, which I don't care about. the only thing McAfee alerts on is it complains about the scripts that are used in running AITM for workikng on AI traffic files. There seems to be no way in McAfee to turn this off except for a single instance of runnning the program. I guess if you are downloading ActiveX controls or perhaps javascripts you need to be careful, but my point was in regards to running FS9 with active sky weather or the like.I see value in doing system scans periodically with AV software, but if performance is an issue, I don't see the need for continuously running AV if you practice any kind of normal good practices. For firewall, ISTM that McAfee is actually getting worse with new versions. It used to allow for a fairly robust set of rules, but it seems to have been dumbed down in the current version so you can't do much more than allow/ban IPs and applications.scott s..

[Guest nem]

It's as secure as you configure it to be. If all you need is a port filter you can absolutely stick with the SP2 "Firewall"[1]. If you need mail attachment scanning, ActiveX monitoring and whatnot you might want to check out other Personal "Firewall" utilities. Or maybe you should consider switching to alternative (and safer) Internet clients (for email, browsing etc).[1] A Firewall is actually a security concept realized by one or more applications, not an application in itself. Port filters are often integral parts of such Firewall concepts.Regards,http://www.bremmekamp.com/img/misc/avsim.jpg

[W2DR 1,860]

The uninstaller seldom works. But, Symantec does have a recommended removal tool that works in many, if not most, cases. See http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgen...005033108162039 . If both methods given there fail you'll probably have to reformat to rid yourself of all of it.Doug

[W2DR 1,860]

I agree. Great product. I've used it for years and highly recommend it.Doug