Looking For Virus Protection?
For what it's worth...
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 by PoSmedley | Discussion: Industry
I've seen a few posts on and off topic when it comes to anti-virus protection. It can be a touchy subject for a lot of people due to poor customer experience when it comes to 'paid-for software' and just finding one that will do the job without 'messing' with their computer. Sometimes, 'uninstalling' an anti-virus' program in itself can be frustrating.
I have often put my two cents in and have been an advocate for Avast. I'll tell you why.
1. It's free. Like Adaware, you can run a free version or upgrade to the paid PRO version.
2. Unlike some other free programs, it covers all the bases. It works on P2P, email,messenger and everything else you would want it to.
3. It updates frequently, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. (That is, if you choose to run the automatic updates)
4. It does a 'boot-time' scan.
5. It's skinnable! (Like WinAmp or some other Apps, you can make skins for it or download skins.)
I switched to AVAST after going through Norton, MacAfee, and AVG. My particular problem was running across viruses that the one would detect and not the other. Or one 'mistaking' the wrong file for a virus. Or..one finding a virus but not being able to remove it. I bit the bullet and tried AVAST and have had NONE of those problems since. I deleted my 'paid-for' version of Norton and have been running AVAST for the past 7 months with NO problems. To the best of my knowledge, it has caught everything that has tried to get on my PC. It woks great with Limewire, messenger, and my email.
Some 'reader' reviews on CNET say it is a system hog, has slowed down this and that. When I installed it, my PC only had 256mb of 'shared' memory and it didn't affect my PC's performance at all, with the exception of the automatic updates. When they occured, things would lag a 'little', but not enough for me to turn off the automatic updates.
AVAST does require that you register even the free version. No fee involved. Again, some people seemed to have a problem with this at CNET. Basically, because they thought it was just 'inconvenient'. And, again, I did register and have suffered no problems because of it.
For me, this App has worked better than NOrton, AVG, and MacAfee. I have had absolutley no problems. The ONLY software conflict has been with ZoneAlarm. If you have it installed, AVAST will detect it on install and give you the option to shut off the AVAST setting that conflicts, leaving your ZoneAlarm just as it is and NOT affecting AVSTS performance!
So why am I going on about this. AVAST, for what it's worth, has just won SC MAGAZINES READER CHOICE AWARD 2006 for best ANTI_VIRUS Program. So if your looking for a new or better anti-virus program, this may be the one to check out.
AVAST wins award>Link
SC MAGAZINE AWARD WINNERS>Link
I have often put my two cents in and have been an advocate for Avast. I'll tell you why.
1. It's free. Like Adaware, you can run a free version or upgrade to the paid PRO version.
2. Unlike some other free programs, it covers all the bases. It works on P2P, email,messenger and everything else you would want it to.
3. It updates frequently, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. (That is, if you choose to run the automatic updates)
4. It does a 'boot-time' scan.
5. It's skinnable! (Like WinAmp or some other Apps, you can make skins for it or download skins.)
I switched to AVAST after going through Norton, MacAfee, and AVG. My particular problem was running across viruses that the one would detect and not the other. Or one 'mistaking' the wrong file for a virus. Or..one finding a virus but not being able to remove it. I bit the bullet and tried AVAST and have had NONE of those problems since. I deleted my 'paid-for' version of Norton and have been running AVAST for the past 7 months with NO problems. To the best of my knowledge, it has caught everything that has tried to get on my PC. It woks great with Limewire, messenger, and my email.
Some 'reader' reviews on CNET say it is a system hog, has slowed down this and that. When I installed it, my PC only had 256mb of 'shared' memory and it didn't affect my PC's performance at all, with the exception of the automatic updates. When they occured, things would lag a 'little', but not enough for me to turn off the automatic updates.
AVAST does require that you register even the free version. No fee involved. Again, some people seemed to have a problem with this at CNET. Basically, because they thought it was just 'inconvenient'. And, again, I did register and have suffered no problems because of it.
For me, this App has worked better than NOrton, AVG, and MacAfee. I have had absolutley no problems. The ONLY software conflict has been with ZoneAlarm. If you have it installed, AVAST will detect it on install and give you the option to shut off the AVAST setting that conflicts, leaving your ZoneAlarm just as it is and NOT affecting AVSTS performance!
So why am I going on about this. AVAST, for what it's worth, has just won SC MAGAZINES READER CHOICE AWARD 2006 for best ANTI_VIRUS Program. So if your looking for a new or better anti-virus program, this may be the one to check out.
AVAST wins award>Link
SC MAGAZINE AWARD WINNERS>Link
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Adamness
Reply #22 Monday, March 13, 2006 12:16 AM
Reply #22 Monday, March 13, 2006 12:16 AM
We should have a poll to see if that should be a poll. 
PoSmedley
Reply #23 Monday, March 13, 2006 12:40 AM
Reply #23 Monday, March 13, 2006 12:40 AM
We need to have a petition first, to see if we should have a poll on the poll. 
Island Dog
Reply #24 Monday, March 13, 2006 6:40 AM
Reply #24 Monday, March 13, 2006 6:40 AM
But we still need to finish the petition about stopping petitions before any more petitiions are posted.
Bichur
Reply #25 Monday, March 13, 2006 11:42 PM
Reply #25 Monday, March 13, 2006 11:42 PM
so...we need a poll as a short petition to see if the petition to stop petitions should go ahead so we can post a petition to have a poll? 
Larry Kuperman
Reply #27 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 8:12 AM
Reply #27 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 8:12 AM
Uh... I can't resist the semantics battle.
It should be "This sentence doesn't seem to JIBE with my definition of "exclusively"" not JIVE.
Jibe: To be in accord; agree.
Jive: Slang. To talk nonsense; kid. or To play or dance to jive music.
It should be "This sentence doesn't seem to JIBE with my definition of "exclusively"" not JIVE.
Jibe: To be in accord; agree.
Jive: Slang. To talk nonsense; kid. or To play or dance to jive music.
Katrinakat
Reply #28 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 9:19 AM
Reply #28 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 9:19 AM
Yeah, you're right. I was wondering about that after I'd written that message, but I was hoping nobody would notice. Little did I know the whole thing would escalate like this!
Little did I know the whole thing would escalate like this!
Notok
Reply #29 Friday, March 24, 2006 10:46 PM
Reply #29 Friday, March 24, 2006 10:46 PM
Avast and AVG don't have that great of detection rates - http://www.av-comparatives.org
I personally like NOD32, light and fast with very good detection rates. The heuristics are also the best of any (see the retroactive tests at the link above, they test new malware with old signatures, so all detections are purely heuristic or use generic signatures). Then I like Ewido for backup scans (http://www.ewido.net/ - trial turns to free version after 14 days).
If you want to beef up your protection for free and don't mind using beta, you could use Prevx1 R - http://free.prevx.com/ It's very versatile and detects a lot of malware. The database is central, so you don't have to wait for updates - they're instant, and it also has behavioral heuristics that catch a lot. There's a lot to this program, so it's worth reading the website. The betas have never been very problematic for me, they do as much testing as they can before putting them out. I think the worst I've encountered was some high CPU usage, but that was fixed pretty quickly.
I personally like NOD32, light and fast with very good detection rates. The heuristics are also the best of any (see the retroactive tests at the link above, they test new malware with old signatures, so all detections are purely heuristic or use generic signatures). Then I like Ewido for backup scans (http://www.ewido.net/ - trial turns to free version after 14 days).
If you want to beef up your protection for free and don't mind using beta, you could use Prevx1 R - http://free.prevx.com/ It's very versatile and detects a lot of malware. The database is central, so you don't have to wait for updates - they're instant, and it also has behavioral heuristics that catch a lot. There's a lot to this program, so it's worth reading the website. The betas have never been very problematic for me, they do as much testing as they can before putting them out. I think the worst I've encountered was some high CPU usage, but that was fixed pretty quickly.
bakerstreet
Reply #30 Saturday, March 25, 2006 2:12 AM
Reply #30 Saturday, March 25, 2006 2:12 AM
Has anyone noticed that avast hits its database file constantly? Watch with filemon. I kept hearing my HD and I wondered what it was. I opened up the file monitor and avast was hitting the database 2-3 times per second. I don't know if that is the norm for virus checkers, or if it is something wrong with the version I have. If it isn't the norm I think I'm going to find one that doesn't behave that way. Why would it do that?
bakerstreet
Reply #31 Saturday, March 25, 2006 2:20 AM
Reply #31 Saturday, March 25, 2006 2:20 AM
P.S. Kupe: I've come to the conclusion that 'jive' has taken hold, like it or not. If you google "that doesn't jive" you get 11,900 entries. If you google "that doesn't jibe" you get 11,400. Chalk that up with 'bad', 'sick', etc.
I always assumed it was an abuse of 'gibe', as in a joke or taunt, as Hamlet uses it when he says "Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?"
I always assumed it was an abuse of 'gibe', as in a joke or taunt, as Hamlet uses it when he says "Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?"
RedBuzzard
Reply #32 Monday, March 27, 2006 2:06 PM
Right click on your avast system tray icon and highlight VRDB. I think you'll see that yours is set to "Generate VRDB when computer is idle". I beleive that is what's doing the accessing.
Reply #32 Monday, March 27, 2006 2:06 PM
| avast was hitting the database 2-3 times per second |
Right click on your avast system tray icon and highlight VRDB. I think you'll see that yours is set to "Generate VRDB when computer is idle". I beleive that is what's doing the accessing.
Adventure-Dude
Reply #33 Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:47 AM
Reply #33 Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:47 AM
Thanks for all your thoughts. I am a new owner of a laptop and was looking into AV protection. For some reason when I put the condom over the phone jack my internet stopped working 
. J/K
I think I'll give Avast a shot. Thanks again.
AD
PS Anyone know how to remove the smell of latex?
. J/KI think I'll give Avast a shot. Thanks again.
AD
PS Anyone know how to remove the smell of latex?
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Reply #21 Sunday, March 12, 2006 1:25 PM
Uh-oh, Now I have been "Jafo'd" Boy I wish I could find my eraser!, LoL
Hmmmmmmm, heres a thought, why dont we run that statement on the front page in the "poll" section? at least it will give us all something else to vote on!