How Much Virus Software is Enough?

[chuckiechan]

I Have some sort of IBM anti virus that came with DOS 7.0. It does its thing every Monday- which is fine with me. (If I don't need it how do I disable it?)

However, I have Mc Afee That I keep up to date on-line. So I guess my question is wheather the IBM is necessary.

Also, It is time to buy another anti-virus who has the most bang for the buck? I hear Norton is good, But I'm afraid they may have been poisoned by the Symantec Customer Service Cult. I heard they were bad, and I got a first rate demo on "Bad" when I got Winfax 8.0... Never again - (for awhile)

Thanks in advance...

[CMonster]

It is always best to keep a current antivirus product up to date with regular virus definitions from the vendor's website. Your old IBM antivirus is just taking up space on your hard drive. I guess Mc Afee is okay, I use PC-cillin 6; I feel the same way about Symantec - I have seen too many problems with their Norton Utilities.

[raffi]

I have to agree, PC cilin is the best antivirus on the market by FAR!!!!!!!!!

[Dominus]

I have to disagree with you there. I've used PC-Cillin in the past, and even with the newest updates from the internet, it managed to overlook 293 virii on my comp. I tried out a copy of Norton AntiVirus 5.0, and it found and cleaned all of them (at least to my knowledge)

Using NAV5 along with a copy of AVP 3.0 is supposed to give you the best protection, though nothing is perfect.

[ANTONIO E GUERRA]

Yes, I have to agree: Norton Antivirus 5.0 is excellent--especially the quarantine features. I keep Norton and Macafee updated. These are the only antivirus I use. Pc-cilin was a major disappointment. I liked Innocula and f-prot (the old dos version). However, you are never safe with the new virus like the Chernobyl. My brother in law's computer got that virus regardless of the two antivirus programs running in his computer.

[This message has been edited by ANTONIO E GUERRA (edited 05-25-99).]

[CMonster]

I didn't say there was anything wrong with Norton antivirus - though it is slow, but my beef is with Symantec in general, and in particular with norton utilities 3.0 which was such a disaster I would not even try the new version.

As for PC-cillin, version 3 was a bit cumbersome but version 6 seems to work just fine.

And Dominus, where did you get a number like 293? Did Norton's antivirus tell you that? What do you mean?

As for Chernobyl (CIH), PC-cillin has protection against that and their team is constantly working to keep ahead of the virus creators. But you may not find CIH or Chernobyl listed in their virus encyclopedia by that name, for some reason they use a lot of other alias. But even the best protection wont do you any good if you are not using it properly (i.e. startup scans turned off and such).

Remember the best protection is common sense about downloading and running programs.



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 05-25-99).]

[Nathan]

The more anti-virus programs you have, the more trouble you are asking for. Sure, some seasoned users hear have many of them installed, but they also know how to rebuild their computer too.

Personally I don't have an anti-virus program installed on my system or network.

[StarWatcher]

I have Mcafee and NAV5 that I update weekly. But I don't have them starting with windows or constantly running in the background. There is no need for that and you're just asking for trouble with crashes and freezups with your other APPS.

Norton Utilities has some problems-but you have to be selective with what you use and install. I can't live without Norton Speed Disk.

Pc-cillin 6 crashed my computer so badly I had to format and re-install windows http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

If you already have Mcafee-either NAV5 or AVP are supposed to offer the best protection.

Chuck-You have to figure out what works best with your system and update your virus software religiously. Good luck http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by StarWatcher (edited 05-25-99).]

[Titan]

Call me paranoid, but I think the virus writers work for the anti-virus companies, sort of a form of extorsion if you will.

Imagine this, we hire someone to write a virus, we can make huge amounts of money by writing software to remove it, telling people some of these viruses can threaten your data. Reaching too far??????

[MadMax]

Titan~Good way to go to prison for fraud. That's like an oil company intentionally contaminating its motor oil so you will by its best oil filters.

One av prog is good enough-Just remember to constantly update both the virus database and the version of the prog. If you want protection, buy the new one (they're all good/bad). Virus programmers (educated vandals)stay ahead of old progs.

If you ride a motorcycle alot, would you wear an old helmet just because it was cheap/free?

As far as new av prog... Get the one that you will most likely update the most often. One that has a fast update site that you can access with the least amount of trouble.
I say this because if it's a hassle, you probably won't do it..........most don't.

CMonster~I agree, for what it's worth.

[socalgal]

Good ol' Norton AV came to my rescue twice. Never had a virus til I brought one home from work via floppy disk - a W97M virus. Norton picked it up right away. I keep my AV defs updated and perform regular maintenance once a week. (AV scan, scandisk, defrag, registry cleaning). I only run Norton AV and set it to load at bootup and run it in the background. All internet downloads I scan before opening/executing.

Antonio ~ that's chilling about your bro-in-law's computer. Do you know if he had up to date definitions?

Nathan - you got more guts than me!

CMonster - absolutely, if I don't know the sender, it's history.

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 05-25-99).]

[Nathan]

Hi Socalgal!

I've got my data etc. backed up in three different areas. I wonder how many here back up there data and how often. I do mine once a week.

Anyone else care to be HONEST on the subject?

[Virus]

Nothing beats an upto date floppy virus checker. If a single stealth virus got by your anti-virus software, you will never know it's there and you'll never get rid of it, without a floppy checker. Unless you format your drive. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Virus]

Don't read me.

[This message has been edited by Virus (edited 05-26-99).]

[CMonster]

Hi http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif Starwatcher (really like the name) I was wondering if you tried to uninstall PC-cillin 6 without booting first into safe mode? I discovered that uninstalling PC-cillin after the program has already loaded can crash the computer and royally screw things up... and the sad fact is that I never saw it anywhere in their documentation.

[pray59]

I don't use virus software on my systems, or network also. They all seem to take over your system, slowing everything down.

Whenever I fear infection I use Trend's Housecall free service.
Remember the last CIH scare...The one that rewrites your BIOS? Those are the type of scares that send me to Trend's site.

http://www.trendmicro.com/

[CMonster]

Pray59 good day to ya! I guess you know that www.trendmicro.com is the home of PC-cillin?

I back up all my data and burn the updates and downloads onto CDs in case I have to reload the OS - it helps on installing new systems too. I have 6 systems here now - the 90mhz newest addition is about to be donated to a school. Anyway, I believe that a good antivirus program kept up to date can be a very good idea. I do not think trend's Housecall, or any AV utility, will be able to help you much after your data is already gone or your BIOS is corrupted.

Interestingly enough, hanging out in the software isles of FRY's Electronics, I met quite a few people who said they got nailed by Chernobyl this last time around - pathetic individuals who thought they were protected using outdated AV protections - one using NAV 4.0 who had never updated online. But not one of these people lost the BIOS. One poor individual had a Toshiba laptop which has extended BIOS or something on the first 1MB of the hard drive; this computer would only boot to allow access for an emergency restore CD - he said he had 4 systems and all of his backup was infected too - oops! He got all of them running again except the Toshiba - he didn't have the factory restore CD for that one.

I use caution first, but then again in 4 years of being online and computer active I have never had a virus.



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 05-26-99).]