Anti-Virus software

[bill]

Been thinking about picking up that Webroot combo deal on sale at Best Buy. Has anyone used Sopho's/Webroot's Anti-Virus? Bloated? Works well?

I know Spy Sweeper gets good reviews but haven't heard anything about Sopho's AV.

Protect your PC from Spyware and Viruses
Get complete protection from the two most dangerous threats on the Internet -- spyware and viruses - in a single, easy-to-use solution. Spy Sweeper with AntiVirus incorporates virus protection by Sophos to offer the most advanced detection, blocking and removal available to beat all types of dangerous viruses, spyware, worms and Trojans.

http://www.webroot.com/consumer/product ... antivirus/

http://www.sophos.com/

[Justin42]

I get Spysweeper through a site license at work (That covers home PCs as well) and geez, if this is really what a top rated anti-spyware app is, I'd hate to see a crappy one..! It runs ok about 90% of the time, but then it decides to nag me about updating the defs, or running a sweep (Which I see no point in running sweeps if I run one and the system is fine). I can't find ways to turn it off, and the support staff is fairly useless (granted, it's support through work, and not Webroot-- and I have a feeling our "site" version has some options disabled and hidden, although I've dug through the registry)

And if you turn on the "spy communication shield" it locks you out of sites with no way to "Whitelist" sites you DO want, even if they're on the list of "bad" sites-- like ebates.com. (I have to turn it off just to go to ebates)

It's not bad but I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it.

We also get Sophos AV and I haven't tried the latest version, but the last version was CRAP. Took up way too much CPU time, I know there were TONS of issues with the server version. It got so bad that they finally got Sophos to come and do a TWO-DAY training seminar. Which seemed insane that was needed for an anti-virus product. (one of the other departments actually came up with a huge, like 20 page, document along the lines of "ignore the manual, here's how to really make it work right")

Sophos struck me as way overly complicated and not particularly good. (and, strangely enough, there was a massive conflict between installing Sophos AV and Spysweeper; I hope it's fixed now that they're bundled together! )

It got so bad with Sophos that a sorta small (but noticeable) group of department got together and demanded that they re-license McAfee enterprise products (which we had but lost in a falling out of some sort). I know lots of people hate McAfee but their enterprise VirusScan has always worked well for me with very little configuration/setup effort involved.

I have been assured that the latest Sophos is much, much better, but who knows.

[bill]

Hello Justin

Let me guess, you don't work for Webroot's marketing division

Thanks for the well detailed explanation, that's exactly what I needed. I was going to pick up a few copies of the Webroot software but limited myself to one copy, thanks to you. Figured for $20 it wouldn't be a total disaster if the product hadn't been improved with this recent release. Time will tell, I'll let you know how it works out on that PC.. So far, CPU usage averages about 18% with spikes to 50% and memory usage runs about 72,000k during a full system scan.

What started the search for a new AV is that we still use Norton 2003 on several PCs. The definition update feature still works due to occasional clean installs. But the scanner is four years old, so i'm starting to feel unnecessarily vulnerable.

We had tried Norton 2004 but it was a resource hog. Norton 2005 had a vulnerability during live update so we skipped that version. Here we are rolling up on the year 2007 so it's time for a upgrade.

I don't really care what we use, Norton, McAffee, PC-cillian etc.. Just looking to find out who might have the better product (currently) for home use. What would you, or anyone else following this thread, recommend? Any likes or dislikes about other products? Don't want to be cash foolish but cost isn't a major concern with this decision.

Thanks again

[Ian]

I used to use Norton Antivirus but got sick of the license running out every year. When our university got a site license for Symantec Antivirus Corporate, I switched to that and haven't looked back. My only complaint is the occasional vulnerability. That just shouldn't happen.

[Spazmogen]

lol.

Where's matt been lately?

Anyway, I use NAV. I get it free from my Canadian ISP. As well as Personal Firewall.

I bought Spysweeper after chatting with matt here about 2 years ago. He was one of the developers of it, I believe.

I highly recommend Spysweeper, but I disabled its new built in anti-virus ability.

[margrave]

If you want a lightweight but highly rated antivirus app look at NOD32 from Eset...

[bill]

Sorry to have taken so long, it's been a bad week..

I did get a copy of NAV 2006 installed on the office internet computer. Haven't had any response from the folks in the office as of yesterday.

NOD32 looks very interesting. Almost all of the comments that I've read seem very positive. The thirty day trial version is now installed on a home PC and I hope to give it a workout this weekend. So far, no nag screens!

I'm still curious about Symantec Antivirus Corporate. I'm assuming that it's set up as one server with everything else as a client? Is it possible to update the client's definitions after the initial install if the client doesn't remain on the server's network?

[smartin4]

You are correct about Norton Corporate. It gets installed on one or more servers and gets all the updates.

You then decide which pcs are clients and add them on that particular server, which then pushes out the def updates to the clients. It also schedules the scans on the client pcs based on a schedule that you set up.

Never tried taking one off the network and tried to update, so I'm not sure if that would wokr or not, though I would think that it probably wouldn't because the option to update the client is grayed out due to it being an AV client

[Ian]

I'm still curious about Symantec Antivirus Corporate. I'm assuming that it's set up as one server with everything else as a client? Is it possible to update the client's definitions after the initial install if the client doesn't remain on the server's network?

Yeah, it can operate independently. By default, it gets its updates directly from Symantec.

[bill]

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll give Symantec a call next week and check pricing.

Nod32 found a problem on one PC, A.exe was in my system32 folder. ZoneAlarm's AV missed it completely. When I get a chance I'll move it to a PC with Norton 2003 to see what happens.

Also worth noting, Nod32 found a tool that i use to identify passwords for e-mail etc. when repairing PCs .. So far so good..

[CowboySlim]

I don't like NAV.
If you ever decide to switch out of it, it's almost impossible to totally uninstall.

I much prefer Trend Micro Pc-Cilin.
Look at buy.com or Fry's for periodic sales.

Then once you have it, you can use those sales to get it for $0, AMIRs,
because one of the rebates is the upgrade/competitive type.

Or if you have a Norton or McAfee CD to send in, it's the competitive aspect.