[pchelpers] Re: AVG no longer free
- From: Scott McNay <wizard@xxxxxxxx>
- To: pchelpers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 01:35:57 -0500
Hi,
I've been running Vista 64-bit for over a year now. When I first
installed it, I got whatever free AV was supposed to work with it
(there was only one at the time), but it wouldn't install, saying that
it wasn't supported. So, from then until now, I've had NO antivirus
installed.
I installed AVG 8 on a customers computer earlier this week (the only
reason I don't use AntiVir is the popup message), and liked it. I
installed it on my system and it installed just fine. I scanned, and
all it found was what I expected; as a tech, I have lots of techy
tools that most AVs don't like seeing on the computers of mere
mortals. :)
I have a router (which acts as a hardware firewall), and I also have a
Smoothwall box, which also does some blocking. I also have the Vista
firewall running. Vista, of course, comes with IE 7, which has more
protection built in than 6; I have the phishing filter and popup
blocker turned on. For some reason, I haven't used Firefox in a
while. I keep Windows and applications (such as Java) reasonably well
updated.
HEAR THIS! I don't normally go to "dark alley" sites, look at spam,
and so forth. If I did, or if I had other people using my computer
that I thought were not very discriminating, I'd have run-not-walked
to an AV that would install properly on Vista 64.
The only reason I didn't have infections was because I have a NAT
router and because I avoid things like spam, porn, warez, and sites
with excessive amounts of advertising. This is not something that I'd
recommend for the average user.
Effective antivirus programs:
The April edition of Virus Bulletin announced that 5 programs scored
100%:
Avira Antivir Personal
ESET NOD32
Fortinet FortiClient
Frisk FPROT Antivirus
Symantec Norton Antivirus
Of those, only AntiVir is free.
Runners-up, scoring 98-99%:
McAfee Antivirus Enterprise
Microsoft's Forefront Security Client and Windows Live OneCare
Webroot Spysweeper
Bitdefender Antivirus 2008
CA eTrust Antivirus and CA Internet Security
Check Point ZoneAlarm
Kaspersky Antivirus
MWTI eScan Internet Security
Redstone Redprotect
Sophos Anti-virus
Bullguard
Well, perhaps I should take another look at Avira AntiVir.
*************************
Firewalls:
A company named Matousec Labs tests firewalls, considering a number of
factors. You can see their results here:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/
For those who want a short summary, 2 programs get a 100% rating, and
both are free. Comodo, of which I've heard much good, is one of the
two; I installed it on a customer's computer the other day and liked
it. It has modes for training (on a clean computer) and for
installing.
Zone Alarm scores 74%. Norton, Sunbelt, Avira, AVG, PC Tools, McAfee,
Windows Live OneCare, and BitDefender firewalls scored 18% or less.
How much less? Try 5% for Windows Live OneCare.
--
Scott.
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