Author Topic: Anti virus questions  (Read 9320 times)

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Ice

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on: August 29, 2009, 06:01:47 am
What do our resident tech freaks and plain ol end useras think a bout McCaffe, Norton and Avast anti virus these days?

Thanks
Ice
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jdrouin

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Reply #1 on: August 29, 2009, 06:11:00 am
I use Linux or Mac, which don't need anti-virus software.

Linux will feel familiar to the Bullet, in that you'll have to tinker to make it work the way you want.  ;)

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daves02ES

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Reply #2 on: August 29, 2009, 07:44:43 am
Norton and McCrappe are just system hogs.
I use the free version of Avast and it's not bad, but probably not the highest rated AV. AVG is supposed to be pretty good.
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Reply #3 on: August 29, 2009, 10:52:29 am
I second AVG Free or Avast. Both are good and not too much of system hogs although AVG is slightly simpler Avast has more configurable options.

AVG has never let me down never let me down yet on yet on various PC's from xp through to Win7..


Chasfield

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Reply #4 on: August 29, 2009, 01:45:35 pm
I have been using Mandriva Linux for a couple of years, so I am not up to speed on WIndows AV software. However, as I remember:

Norton was a system resource hog and didn't seem to want to let go of the PC when I un-installed it - it left bits of itself lying around in memory.

Mcafee seemed to have less performance impact and I had great faith in the product from deploying it on networks that I looked after over a 10 year period.

I used AVG for a couple of years without any problems.

The last thing I tried before moving to Linux  was Panda anti-virus, and that wrote thousands of log files to the hard disk, which took twenty minutes to delete when I gave up on it and went back to AVG.

Linux is a good family of secure, high performance, free operating systems. I just wish it was underpinned by a universal method for installing programs, and standardization of driver software for connected devices (with proper OEM support).
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ace.cafe

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Reply #5 on: August 29, 2009, 01:50:58 pm
I've used AVG free version for years, and I think it's good.

A big improvement for me was switching to Mozilla Firefox as my browser, instead of using Internet Explorer. Alot of the viruses and spyware are targeted at Internet Explorer, and they don't get into Firefox . Just using Firefox lowers your chances of infection, and Firefox is a great browser. The multiple tab browsing selection is a great feature, and I like Firefox alot more than IE.

I have some computer geek friends that use Linux. They like it, but they all tell me that it's more for computer-savvy type people, and there are some things that you have to work around, and some things don't work with it. They are all software engineers, so it's no big deal for them.
So, that's why I haven't gone there.
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Chasfield

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Reply #6 on: August 29, 2009, 02:03:03 pm
Also, Firefox is much faster loading than IE  on Windows PCs and it is the browser of choice under Linux because Microsoft disdain to support this OS.
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t120rbullet

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Reply #7 on: August 29, 2009, 03:38:08 pm
I use Avast, Windows Defender and Firefox.
Both free and don't affect any of the other programs on my PC.
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daves02ES

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Reply #8 on: August 29, 2009, 04:12:28 pm
I agree with Ace and others about Firefox. Much safer than IE and only use IE when a site refuses to run on Firefox. I also use a plug-in for Firefox called NoScript. http://noscript.net/

It will prevent JavaScript, Java and Flash from running unless you approve it. If you want these to run on a site you have to click the NoScript icon and approve the site or page. As it learns your approved sites, this becomes less frequent.

I think this is a good plug-in to have because scripts, in many cases, are a bigger threat than viruses.
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doomed1

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Reply #9 on: August 29, 2009, 05:50:21 pm
i run McAfee as a anti-virus and Google Chrome as my browser. yes, McAfee is a bit of a system hog, but it works pretty well nonetheless. i get it for free, so i can't really complain. what i REALLY love is Chrome, which asks me every time i download an exe or related file if i want to keep it or not. if it's a file i didn't want downloaded, i just discard it and it's like it never happened...


Thumper

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Reply #10 on: August 29, 2009, 06:13:38 pm
What do our resident tech freaks and plain ol end useras think a bout McCaffe, Norton and Avast anti virus these days?

Thanks
Ice

After about 15 years I just switched from Mcaffee on my and my kids computers (4 total) to BitDefender. Mcafee seemed to forget just whose computers they were! (And that was manifested in many ways, for example, not allowing me to cancel an ongoing scan when I chose to.)

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jdrouin

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Reply #11 on: August 29, 2009, 06:19:45 pm
Just FYI, tucows.com is a good website for finding free software like virus and malware scanners.

Jeff


Ice

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Reply #12 on: August 29, 2009, 08:04:55 pm
Thanks fella's.
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Geirskogul

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Reply #13 on: August 30, 2009, 04:21:54 am
Avast! anti-virus is my favorite.  Smallest system footprint, and free.
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rideOn

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Reply #14 on: August 30, 2009, 04:43:36 pm
Avast....McAfee and norton blow. McAfee blows real hard
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Ice

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Reply #15 on: August 31, 2009, 02:06:31 am
We are going to test ride Avast.
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StephenCB

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Reply #16 on: August 31, 2009, 07:20:43 pm
Another one that I have had success with is Avira.  Much much smaller footprint than McAfee or Norton.

The one thing I do have an issue with Avira is the "nag" screen that pops up (asking you to consider upgrading to the pay version) when it is doing the full system scan, but one click of the mouse and it's gone.



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Reply #17 on: August 31, 2009, 09:47:53 pm
Avira actually let me down whilst having it running on a media centre.  Caused me hours of work.


birdmove

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Reply #18 on: September 01, 2009, 02:42:32 am
  I downloaded and ran AVG today. I had to cut the first scan short to download,sign and fax a document. It deleted seven problems. But it also listed a mess of tracking cookies. I didn't see a means to delete them. Anyone know if AVG will delete these tracking cookies. My rather old and outdated computer (a hand-me-down that we actually bought for one of our kids years ago to use at college) is operating excruciatingly slow, and goes into brain fart mode, especially when we go to check our email at yahoo.com. Often when it does this, it shows it is waiting for "adyieldmanager".

  Thanks, Jon
Jon in Keaau, Hawaii


daves02ES

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Reply #19 on: September 01, 2009, 03:11:28 am
 But it also listed a mess of tracking cookies. I didn't see a means to delete them. Anyone know if AVG will delete these tracking cookies

  Thanks, Jon

To find and delete tracking cookies you can use "Spybot - Search & Destroy" or "Ad-Aware". Both have free versions.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
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StephenCB

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Reply #20 on: September 01, 2009, 03:13:36 am
Avira actually let me down whilst having it running on a media centre.  Caused me hours of work.
Hmm, important to know.  It had been climbing up in the ratings on download.com


Chasfield

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Reply #21 on: September 01, 2009, 01:29:48 pm
  I downloaded and ran AVG today. I had to cut the first scan short to download,sign and fax a document. It deleted seven problems. But it also listed a mess of tracking cookies. I didn't see a means to delete them. Anyone know if AVG will delete these tracking cookies. My rather old and outdated computer (a hand-me-down that we actually bought for one of our kids years ago to use at college) is operating excruciatingly slow, and goes into brain fart mode, especially when we go to check our email at yahoo.com. Often when it does this, it shows it is waiting for "adyieldmanager".

  Thanks, Jon

Tracking cookies (as far as I know) are just cookies that you don't want around, so you can use the cookie deletion options in the browser to knock 'em out.

In Firefox 2 under Linux  you would select Edit/Preferences/Privacy/Show cookies to bring up options to point and zap individual cookies or zap the whole lot.

I regularly zap all of mine at the cost of losing a bit of local customization on my favourite web sites.

I assume that IE will let you do the same - though one never knows with M!cros0ft stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if it background e-mailed the whole lot to the FBI twice a week whatever you do.

 ;D
« Last Edit: September 01, 2009, 01:35:39 pm by Chasfield »
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Reply #22 on: September 01, 2009, 08:02:18 pm
Hmm, important to know.  It had been climbing up in the ratings on download.com

Yeah it was nasty.  I was running it on an xp media centre and really happy as it took up hardly any memory but...  Sorry I cant remember the name of the trojan that got through but it not only deleted all file associations (including system ones) but took out all of the shortcut paths in the whole system.  Ended up not being able to run anything without half an hours research..  AVG identified it later after using the hd as an external on another system and cleaned it up but the damage was done and after a few days of trying I had to do a complete reinstall...  Will only test things on old systems in the office now.  AVG or Avast for me...


Geirskogul

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Reply #23 on: September 02, 2009, 06:39:47 am
Spybot is a bit slow nowadays.  The free version of Malwarebytes is much better.
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Reply #24 on: September 02, 2009, 10:10:31 pm
using ESET nod32 on pc w/vista. wasn't free,but worth the money. much better and lighter weight than kaspersky. no problems. 8)
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fenrirlupus

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Reply #25 on: September 06, 2009, 05:09:19 am
I use Linux or Mac, which don't need anti-virus software.

Linux will feel familiar to the Bullet, in that you'll have to tinker to make it work the way you want.  ;)

Jeff
I second that statement about linux.  I bought a used  powermac g4...  was it a year ago?  it's faster than my linux pc was, and mac os is nice, but i do miss linux...  it was fun to type all sorts of stuff into the terminal without having much experience, and wondering what sort of problems i was causing...  i typed the wrong thing once, and couldn't get back to the login screen.  after that, i was a bit more careful about following the instructions i got off the ubuntu forum...

i'd have to suggest getting a mac or installing linux on your machine.  you'll never have to deal with anti-spyware or virus protection again, and the guys on the ubuntu forum can tell you how to do anything...  windows fanatics or the ignorant will tell you that linux won't be able to run your windows programs...  but the truth is...  you can absolutely run your windows programs, it just takes a bit of tinkering.