Gossamer Forum
Home : General : Chit Chat :

AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective

Quote Reply
AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective
Hello , I have been using the free personal version of AntiVir for a while.

I just used it to clean 2 friends computers whom had McAfee [dead/ killed by virus ?] and Norton [out of date defs] installed.
They had 6000+ and 12000+ infected files, most NetSky.C as stated by AntiVir.

Has any one else used this free anti virus from http://www.free-av.com/ ?

I was really surprised to see the end report of 12807 files infected from the Norton Anti Virus
protected computer with the virus definitions out of date.

Any thoughts ?

Thanks cornball
Quote Reply
Re: [cornball] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
I purchased, installed and ran 2004 Norton only 6 hours earlier. Fixed a few minor problems.

Installed the free one mentioned. Picked up a heap Norton missed. Have uninstalled Norton.
Quote Reply
Re: [Gypsypup] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
Hello Gypsypup, I think that Norton Anti Virus has lost it's focus.

The virus writers have figured out how to tunnel and bypass the interrupts
that the anti virus checks.

Peter Norton was a great programmer but since his sale to symantec
the product has continued to fall short of it's goal.

The free AV from the germans seems to work.
I just wish I could buy the germans professional version locally in a store.

I really don't want to use an anti virus at all.

Viruses and anti viruses are a pain in the butt.

I want an OS that does not allow a program to run in memory
that is not authenticated in some way, shape or form, by me or by the vendor
of the software package.

i.e. The anti virus checks it self on starting.

Sorry I babble and I kinda want the perfect OS without viruses or adware.

Thanks for your comments

cornball
Quote Reply
Re: [cornball] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
Installed that antivirus on two other computers. Results?
Appears that there is a fair amount of stuff comes from MSN groups via Hotmail that this AV picks up. So I wonder who the real spyware culprit is out there? And why? No-one wants to upset MSN and Hotmail?

Reports are not a single popup (IP spamming) and spybot runs through without finding a single problem.

Computers run cleaner and faster, the boot up time is better, and no headaches.

Interestingly, had to reload windows XP Pro the other day on my own PC. The AV and Spybot picked up heaps - mainly in the media player - the one that comes standard from Microsoft.
Quote Reply
Re: [Gypsypup] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
I guess it is all worth a final comment after now running for two solid weeks.

Not a single pop-up, except site related ones. Not a single problem at all. Picks up the lot and the computers are really running well.

Spybot is now bored out of its tree since nothing gets into the registry anymore to gum up the works.
Quote Reply
Re: [Gypsypup] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
Quote:
Spybot is now bored out of its tree since nothing gets into the registry anymore to gum up the works.

LOL!

When I get my ADSL (the 19th of next month...finally!), I may download a copy of this. Norton and MrAfee seem to be a load of crap recently. I've had so many viruses get through, and the only reason popups are stopped is because of the Google ToolBar (which is pretty cool, in case you don't already have it Tongue).

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
Want to give me something back for my help? Please see my Amazon Wish List
GLinks ULTRA Package | GLinks ULTRA Package PRO
Links SQL Plugins | Website Design and SEO | UltraNerds | ULTRAGLobals Plugin | Pre-Made Template Sets | FREE GLinks Plugins!
Quote Reply
Re: [Andy] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
Another thing to consider is that the anti-virus software is listing "false positives".

I have attempted to use AVG (from Grisoft) a few times, but I always get false positives on some software that I know is clean (because I wrote it, and just recompiled it).

I've seem many posts on other forums where people are "switching" virus scanners, based on the fact that more "viruses" are found, but I don't think this is a reasonable way to judge the effectiveness of a virus scanner. Unfortunately there is no "good" way to test a virus scanners effectiveness, as we are pretty much at the mercy of what it reports.

(I've attempted to contact the AVG guys many times, to make them aware of the "False Positive" report, and they seem to do nothing about it. REMEMBER - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!)

Another thing to consider are the organizations that "test" virus scanners to ensure that they find/fix the viruses to a high level of accuracy. I've written them several times to notify them of potential "false positives", but my messages were not responded to, and the AVG people are still listed on the site... http://www.icsalabs.com/...ation/certprod.shtml

Continually pass inspection...
http://www.icsalabs.com/...s/notes/tr0404.shtml (I think one should question the legitimacy of these orgs, as I rarely see a fail in any of the reports (Panda Titanium Antivirus in February 2004, and a bunch in March 2002), makes me wonder if they missed a payment that month)

Anyhow... just my 2cents
Pf
Quote Reply
Re: [powerfinger] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
If you want to have problems then use Norton ;)
it causes Oulook express to crash when receiving mails, it's slow and ugly :)
I really prefer f-prot, but AV is really quite good one and is really frequently updated and it is FREE, So forget Norton a nd if you can't afford F-prot then download AV and sing :)
Quote Reply
Re: [Gypsypup] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
Hi,
Just uninstalled Norton System Works (2002) and installed Antivir 9x on my old Win98 laptop.
Can't believe the difference in speed!!!
I do have a couple of question though -

1/ Does Antivir monitor incoming and outgoing email like Norton? I haven't received a virus since installing so I'm wondering what happens, will I get a pop up message if I receive a virus via email? How does it work?

2/ Now that I have dumped Norton System Works , does anyone have any recommendations for software to check my system for general problems?

Thanks.
Simon.
Quote Reply
Re: [cornball] AntiVir Personal Edition [ FREE ] ?? effective In reply to
I've been using antivir for a week now and except the core downloads(4-5 MB) it's quite good!