Recommendations on AV Software Please

I have installed Norton Antivirus on my own machines and all my customers' for about three years now; however, in the last several months Norton AV has begun to give me a lot of trouble with registrations, updates, subscriptions, etc. Solutions to these problems have required me to remove all Symantec software, edit the registry, delete program folders, download various fixes, etc. These so-called (and troublesome-to-use) fixes are arduous, extremely time-consuming and often don't work at all.

I am now looking for another brand of antivirus software for myself and to recommend to my customers.

If you have actual experience with AV software, please tell me your experience (good or bad).

 

You'll find some food for thought here and here.

It's also worth considering how an AV performs against trojans - some have much better detection rates than others (and, surprisingly, some fare better than a number of dedicated AT's). You'll find some statistics here. You, therefore, need to consider whether the user is likely to back up their AV with an AT.

At the end of the day, any AV will detect *most* viruses that cross its path *most* of the time and most of the products on the market actually work rather well ... erm ... with the possible exception of McAfee!

For most people, I'd probably recommend AVG as the best option - it's reasonably effective, it's easy to use, few users report any problems and it's free. You'll note from the above links that, although AVG doesn't often achieve 100% success in the VB ratings, it does perform well in the monthly ICSA tests. Another advantage to putting a free product in peoples' machines is that they're more likely to keep it up-to-date.

Personally, I go without real-time protection and just use
F-Prot for DOS - it's the only product I've tried that has managed to detect the EICAR string no matter how I've hidden it!

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I too run F-Prot for DOS occasionally. As a matter of fact, I have created a batch set of that program that I distribute to anyone for free. I had a need for an AV that would run from boot diskettes and which would be sort of fool-proof for those who aren't computer savvy.

Send me a mail with 9x0009 as the subject and you can also have the set by autoresponse.

However, I need something that runs as a TSR. I'm presently getting 8 or 10 hits of the Klez per day and F-Prot for DOS, although excellent for its purpose, will not catch the Klez as it comes in.

I'll check out your other suggestions.

Does anyone know anything about Dr. Solomon?

 

Alex - while I use (and have good luck with) Norton at home, we have recently gone with Trend Micro at work.

I like it fine but it is a corporate version (server piece, workstation piece, pushed updates, etc.). Quality all the way.

If their home product is anything like as good, it should be an excellent way to go.

Other than that, I have only used McAfee and I do not recommend that one.

 

It is unfortunate you have had problems with Norton, I've been using AV 2000 v6.0 for the last couple of years and all the problems I used to have with updates of previous products, including previous versions of Norton, have all dissappeared, I'm quite happy to subscribe to their update service.

For me, updates are important, if you don't keep updated even the best AV scanner will miss some infections.

I'd also recommend Grisoft's AVG, best free scanner and again a nice update service.

The only product I can recommend above them is Sophos, but subscription is quite expensive.

 

I use AVG on 2 pc's. It's free with kinda regular updates. For trojans, etc., there's another freebie I'm using that's caught several bad guys:

http://lockdowncorp.com/bots/downloadswatit.html

 

There is no way for me to evaluate every AV program out there so these suggestions sure do make the job easier.

 

Have to go with Newt on this one. I bought both McAfee's & Norton's over the years, and was unhappy with the infiltration of the entire system both of those do. I got (Trend Micro) PCCillin free with a motherboard recently, and I like it. Everyone at work, including the server is now using PCCillin - the home version. It has caught numerous problems that both McA's & Norton's have let slip.

The yearly cost was 9.95 for unlimited upgrades, hope that is every year, cuz it's worth it. They have a free download Here . Check it out!!

Good luck
Ski

 

I have used Norton SW 2000, & had no problems on it with updates, just lots of problems with the utilities. I went to Norton 2002 AV only & no problems at all with anything.

 

The problems I've been having mostly pop up when I have loaded other Symantec products, before NAV. The problems are that Live Update fails to work. Subscription service fails to set itself up. The registration screen fails to come up at all on some systems; this, of course, prevents both the subscription service and the live update from working.

And lastly, my customers are supposed to get a year of free updates with the purchase of a new copy of NAV. I have loaded these copies (I bought a dozen and have only two left) and gotten two subscription services that were actually a year. The rest ranged from 3 months to 8 months. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. It just arbitrarily will pick any random number of months from twelve months to three months.

Symantec's suggested "solutions" are as stated in my initial post. I am trying to make a living at this and I just don't have the time to spend many hours spread over several days solving these problems. My customers don't like it either.

Most of the systems I work with are Windows 2000; but, I see no difference in NAV performance between those and Windows 98.

There was a mention of subscription problems on ZDTV several months back and Leo LaPorte said Symantec was working on it. Obviously, after several months, the problem still has not been fixed.

 

9x0009 I sent fotr ang got your av disk [ a batch set of that program that I distribute to anyone for free. I had a need for an AV that would run from boot diskettes and which would be sort of fool-proof for those who aren't computer savvy.

Send me a mail with 9x0009 as the subject and you can also have the set by autoresponse. ]

No 1 is ok , howevere disk 2 is 1.47 m and is too large for a 1.44 m floppy how did / do you copy it to a floppy I tried 166Floppy but it siad it was the wrong format ..
any ideas or help

Thank You......purplemtn.....

 

Alex Ethridge

OK got the 2 disk to work [ it scaned my hds], but the updates are for 18 march 2002 .. any way I can update your 2 disk with the lateses updates I downloaded..???

Thank You......purplemtn.....

 

Sometimes the updates are slow to come out. And sometimes I am slow to update my set. I just updated the set today (June 12, 2002) to a virus definition file dated June 5, 2002.

If you send for the update now, you'll get the June 5 definitions. It will be necessary to replace only the #2 disk as this is the only thing that has changed.

 

Sorry that I'm a little late on this...loading up my new PC...

For home use I have been using Norton AV and have been using it years. I am currently using NAV SystemWorks 2002.

For work we use Norton AV Corporate Edition 7.6. It's great program for we in IT. Software is easy to install and uninstall. We have also set it up so virus definitions are updated to our NAV server and they are then pushed out to the users PC's.

 

avg

I posted a new thread polling this but in my experience I find AVG to be a fantastic virus scanner. It does the job, is reasonably intuitive and you can't beat the price (even if you buy the commercial version). I just hope those guys make over the long haul because, for me at least, AVG has been a fantastic product.