[Rain]

Firewall detected 3 attempts to flood my system within 15 minutes, what a horrid world.

This is off bridge topic really, but does anyone have any idea which is the best anti virus? Anyone have any rants about the idiots who create viruses/worms?





r.dog

[spwdo]

hi,

very sure that norton antivirus 2004 pro and having your firewall on is best way to protect your pc, very regular update is a must , i do it every day and i havent had a problem so far, as for the question who makes these things, not very sure if antivirus software developers are completely innocent, dont know but all these newsalert about threarts sure will improve their sales, and sure there are some wizzkids who like to annoie nice peoples lives:(

[Free]

You can say whatever you want, but NORTON ANTIVIRUS IS GARBAGE!! It may be able to detect a lot of virusses, but it can only repair the situation in about 55%, while other virusscanners can repair about 75% with similar detection... But its true: firewall + virusscanner is pretty safe

[Jangvik]

Agree with Free. Working as a developer, with a lot of programdeliveries into companies systems, we have high demands on safe deliveries. Therefor we are using F-Secure who has worked particulary well. We had Norton before, but after accidents with it we shifted to F-Secure. And never had any problems since.

[spwdo]

hi,


i dont know what f-secure costs but (i think its expencise while its used by compagnies) and as for norton antivirus beeing garbage and cant repair, just go the website when your pc is infected and you`ll find all you need, i`m ask regular to repair infected pc`s, all i needed sofar was nav2004 pro, if it cant enter u dont need to repair it but we all have preferences, thats whats live makes interesting


greetings marc

[bglover]

I switched from Norton to AVG (grisoft.com) three years ago. AVG is free.

While I never had an infection using Norton, I did find it caused a lot of conflicts and registry problems, so that is why I switched.

For a short while (maybe 6 months), I used both Norton and AVG running at the same time. In that time period, AVG caught 3 bugs Norton missed (or maybe just caught them first, but with all the other viruses that came through both programs alerted me).

Also use Zonealarm's free firewall. That has caught a bunch of Sober viruses the last few weeks. One did actually get thu (I think I accidentally double clicked on the email when i was trying to highlight for delete and was my fault) but it had been flagged and AVG scanned it out of my system.

I swear by both those products.

[spwdo]

hi,


i think the key with antivirus programs is to do updates very regular, i do it on adaily basis, i download a lot from p2p and i `m sofare!!! very happy with the way my antivirus software works , it takes a little while to figure it out but once u have the settings ok, even add and spyware is stopped , always scan before you open an attachement is a must also


greetings

[paulg]

bglover, on Feb 3 2004, 04:26 PM, said:

I switched from Norton to AVG (grisoft.com) three years ago. AVG is free.

While I never had an infection using Norton, I did find it caused a lot of conflicts and registry problems, so that is why I switched.

For a short while (maybe 6 months), I used both Norton and AVG running at the same time. In that time period, AVG caught 3 bugs Norton missed (or maybe just caught them first, but with all the other viruses that came through both programs alerted me).

Also use Zonealarm's free firewall. That has caught a bunch of Sober viruses the last few weeks. One did actually get thu (I think I accidentally double clicked on the email when i was trying to highlight for delete and was my fault) but it had been flagged and AVG scanned it out of my system.

I swear by both those products.

I've also used AVG (http://www.grisoft.com) and ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com) for years and also swear by them. They are both licensed free for personal use, although in the case of AVG it is for a single computer (and not your home network).

Paul

[Rain]

what about mcafee? I have had norton and mcafee and norton was horrid. Mcafee seems good, but once the year is up I dont much feel like paying ......





Rain

[Free]

McAfee is similar to Norton. It's also a big name, but it has troubles with removing the virusses. Keeping infected files in quarantine isnt the right sollution imo. But these scanners do their job as well, dont get me wrong, but not as good as others. And in case of internet security I think you need the best programs together...

[Gweny]

I lose count of number I see on this current "scare"
I hope fleas of all computers infest by people who make and release such things infest them.

and then bite them very much tee hee

[hrothgar]

Hi All

I'm finally resettled in the US after and extensive vacation in Thailand/Cambodia. I'm sorry that I wasn't arround for the glory days of this discussion. I'm currently working for Symantec (manufacturers of Norton Anti-Virus) and have a middling - fair background with these issues. First things first: I don't want to get into a detailed debate regarding the virtues/defects of any of Symantec's products. This seems too far removed from the scope of this Bulletin Board. With this said and done, I will make a few comments regarding computer security:

First things first: If you are stuck using Microsoft Windows, you probably want to use some kind of specialized security software to supplement the security features built into the operating system. Up until very recently, Microsoft didn't care about the security of its operating system. Microsoft prioritzed "cutting edge" features ahead of basic functionality such as security and system stability. Microsoft's decision to embed Internet Explorer into the operating system also had a significant impact on overall system stability. Microsoft is desperately trying to clean up their act [security problems are starting to impact Microsoft's profitability], however, in the short term Windows has some big problems.

As many people on this thread have already indicated, you probably want to adopt a layered secuity model. A good anti-virus program will provide you with protection against certain types of attacks. However, AV is completely transparant to other security threats. Case in point, an AV solution like Norton Anti-Virus provides zero-portection against a "worm" like Slammer. To defend against this type of attack you need some other type of solution such as a personal firewall.

Personally, I think that security should get a LOT better in the relatively near future. I've seen a lot of good technologies that should go a long way towards solving a lot of the security problems out there. From my perspective, the "best"solutions attempt to extend real world concepts like "reputation" in the digital space. Unfortunately, the technologies require that end users assume a certain amount of responsibility for their own actions. For example, any solution based on "reputation" will ultimately require digital signatures. In turn, this requires that users might need to jump through an extra hoop or two when using their computers. Its very difficult to design a system that is both idiot proof as well as secure. Worse yet, any time that we do succeed, they just introduce and new and dumber idiot.

[Free]

LOL, you're absolutely right about this one!