24 replies to this topic

[Humpty]

Not that I agree with his assumptions as everybody's setup is different.

Am trialling Kaspersky AV 6 with proactive defence and it seems to be workin fine here.

Quote:

For those of you coming late to this party, over the last six months or so the newsletter has pursued an ongoing series on alternative antivirus packages. Back in December 2005 I wrote that I'd given up on Norton Antivirus and had been testing alternative antivirus utilities since the summer of 2005.

During the last year of testing, I've examined a wide range of antivirus product, and I've explored the features and options of many others. Products tested during this period include Avast 4.6 free and 4.7 Pro, AVG 7.1 Pro and Network Editions, BitDefender 9 Standard and 10 RC1, CA EZ Antivirus and eTrust Antivirus r8, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2006 and Internet Security 2006, Kaspersky 5 and 6, Nod32 2.5, Panda Titanium 2006 and Platinum 2006, and ZoneAlarm Antivirus. I've considered the features and specs of at least a dozen other products and rejected them because something didn't meet my ideal antivirus criteria.

Scot's article

[Eldmannen]

Scot who?

VirusBulletin rate NOD32 the highest, I think...

My personal opinion is that Norton sucks. I also dislike most AV software, due to they all come with dumb skins and stuff. I like ClamWin, though I don't think it suites everybody.

[TwistedMetal]

I have used many and I found eTrust to be the best I have used so far. Also, ClamWin is a must for a secondary scanner, as it does not have real time protection.

[Andavari]

TwistedMetal, on Aug 3 2006, 10:47 AM, said:

I have used many and I found eTrust to be the best I have used so far. Also, ClamWin is a must for a secondary scanner, as it does not have real time protection.

Agreed! eTrust EZ AV is awesome.
However other freeware AV's can be used as a secondary scanner if you install them without the resident shield such as AVG and AntiVir plus they scan allot faster than ClamWin.

[TonyKlein]

Eldmannen, on Aug 3 2006, 12:12 PM, said:

Scot who?

VirusBulletin rate NOD32 the highest, I think...

Well, Scott likes it as well:

Quote

That's because the Nod32 is the anti-bloatware antivirus product. It's fast, uses few system resources, can be configured to operate silently, and it updates regularly. It coexists superbly with anti-spyware products (tested with Windows Defender and Spy Sweeper 4.5). And it also traps spyware on its own. In short, you can set it and forget it. It doesn't have problems. It doesn't get in your way. And it offers rapid, reliable protection.

The only thing that puzzles me is that he states that Nod32 only offers support to Outlook, not Outlook Express.
That's just plain wrong; Nod32's Imon internet/pop mail scanning component most definitely scans incoming email. (Never really understood the rationale for scanning outgoing email anyway....)

[TonyKlein]

... I emailed Scot and he replied saying he advised against Nod32 for Outlook Express users precisely because of the missing outbound scanning component...

To each his own, but I do think that really is a bit rich, and I replied:

Quote

Shouldn't the main purpose of an email scanner be to protect you from getting infected in the first place? In that respect inbound scanning is what really matters.

I've never really seen the point in having outbound scanning. I mean, if you're running a good antivirus the resident scanner (in Nod32's case Amon) would have caught any virus beforehand anyway, so an outbound email scanner wouldn't even get a chance of springing into action.
It mainly serves to reassure the addressee that he/she is receiving a clean email...

In view of that, is it really fair to advise against an otherwise excellent product just because it doesn't have outbound scanning? I do think that's a bit exaggerated...

I guess we'll be disagreeing on the issue... LOL!

[TonyKlein]

... incidentally, Humpty, I do applaud you for your choice of Kaspersky AV. Where Nod32 excels in the field of heuristic detection, there's hardly an antivirus that equals KAV with regards to the size of its AV database, paying equal attention to fast moving threats like worms as it does to trojans and adware, or for the speed with which it reacts to new threats.

You'll be very well protected!

Do make sure you also have the extended database options enabled.

[Humpty]

Well Tony,you and a lot of the regulars are way ahead of me in these sort of things.

Just got bored and over at a security forum I visit read how much the latest KAV had improved so made a ghost image and gave it a whirl.

Tried KAV 5 quite a while back and got hit with those alternative data streams with the startup grinding at my 3.5 at startup.

Even though I had E-Trust as on demand KAV wanted an uninstall .

Let it do what it wanted and I am quite impressed with the newest KAV.,

That "scan only new or changed files" is pretty good.

Early days as yet but I like it so far!

[zaphirer]

Kaspersky has always been a very good AV, excellent feature and scanning.

[Andavari]

Unfortunately you can't even try out the KAV 30 days trial with other av's installed - even if those other av's have their resident shield fully disabled. KAV does however offer to remove already installed av's.

[TonyKlein]

I read here that, although if during the install, KAV detects another AV running on your PC, it will certainly advise you to uninstall it.

However, you can do that OR you can disable the existing AV program and then press Yes to continue.
That only stands to reason, as I do know a few folks that use KAV as a backup scanner to their resident AV.

Also, here is a Kaspersky Forum thread where RejZor, whom I know from other security forums as an experienced malware researcher says:

Quote

KAV is checking uninstall strings in the registry. So just remove it for the time of installation and add it back after you're done.

One of those two options ought to do the trick for you, I should think.

[Humpty]

There's a 6 month trial of F-Secure AV at the link below for anyone interested.

At a 60 meg download (I think) it's not my cup of tea.

Link

Quote:

Antivirus software & firewall protection

Get special offers from the following software companies for antivirus and firewall packages.
• Computer Associates
12-month free trial
• Antivirus
• F-Secure
6-month free trial
• McAfee
90-day free trial
• Antivirus
• Firewall
• Panda Software
90-day free trial
• Symantec (Norton)
90-day free trial
• Trend Micro
90-day free trial

[RAM]

before remembering to uninstall AVG (back in April) - KAV warned me about having other AVs in my PC + it was OK before with others bu NOT THIS TIME - ASAI got it downloaded it told me to reboot + it LOCKED up + could NOT boot up SO - I did a Safe Mode system restore back 1 day + that fixed it - then cleaned em ALL OFF + tryed KAV only again + it was too slow so now I use cheap + free stuff + Adaware too

[zaphirer]

Andavari, on Aug 4 2006, 10:19 PM, said:

Unfortunately you can't even try out the KAV 30 days trial with other av's installed - even if those other av's have their resident shield fully disabled. KAV does however offer to remove already installed av's.

Yeah, I hate conflicting AVs. One thing that totally does not make any sense to me

[Greenknight]

I have Bitdefender 8 Free Edition as a backup scanner (behind AVG). Same scanning engine as other Bitdefender products, without realtime protection: http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--...ee-Edition.html

[RAM]

zaphirer, on Aug 7 2006, 02:12 AM, said:

Yeah, I hate conflicting AVs. One thing that totally does not make any sense to me

it seems to me that it's ALL about competition + sales

[TonyKlein]

RAM, on Aug 7 2006, 03:47 PM, said:

it seems to me that it's ALL about competition + sales

It really is mainly because two AVs running residently IS in fact a very bad idea. It will weaken instead of strengten your defenses, as the two products might conceivably deny each other the right to deal with a baddie, with possibly dire consequences...

[Andavari]

Exactly Tony!
I remember before I knew about it being a bad thing of having two resident shields running many years ago in my humble beginnings on Win98 that Windows had something along the lines of "warning two antivirus detected" in some configuration file, don't remember which one though it's been a long time.

[TonyKlein]

Not sure I recall Windows 98 being able to issue that type of warning; could it have been one of your AVs crying foul?

Or then again, I may of course be wrong...

Whatever the case, I guess we sure agree on the principal premise.

[Andavari]

TonyKlein, on Aug 7 2006, 11:18 AM, said:

Not sure I recall Windows 98 being able to issue that type of warning; could it have been one of your AVs crying foul?

It wasn't a visible warning on-screen to inform the user, it was when I was looking into some file possibly an .ini file - I really don't remember because it's been so long but it had in a file a text with a warning about 2 av's being installed. Anyways no sense in reminiscing about Win98.