[Ham-Computers] Anti Virus - the age-old debate

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Aaron,

Well, well.  Welcome back.  Are you back for good, for "a while", or for 
tonight?

In a message dated 05/11/2012 19:37:51 PM Central Daylight Time, 
nn6o.lists at pacbell.net writes: 
> Hi all, it's been a while...
> 
> The problem lies in the fact that virii, malware, and spyware are treated
> differently by security app vendors.  For years, some vendors refused to 
> add
> spyware detection as spyware itself (at the time) was non-destructive and 
> not
> considered a "virus".  They've since added more malicious spyware and 
> malware
> to their detection engines, but are still cautious to add anything that's
> non-destructive or not bot-forming - they leave that up to dedicated 
> malware
> scanners.  Makes sense from a marketing standpoint as most vendors have 
> worked
> hard on making their security suites smaller and faster and don't want to 
> be
> seen again as being slow blowtware.  It doesn't matter if end-users need 
> two
> or three products to fully protect their systems, our product runs fast 
> and
> does what it's designed to do - catch virii and malicious malware.
> 
> With that said, no one product catches everything anyway, so full 
> protection
> still requires more than one product.  Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) 
> is
> a quite good, esp since it's free.  It's now what I recommend.  I 
> previously
> recommended AVG Free, but it's now a bit bloated and the annual version 
> update
> causes some headaches (esp since the version changes are basically
> look-and-feel things, not engine changes).  So far, computers I've 
> installed
> MSE on have been problem free - except for one where the user "allowed" a
> trojan to run (and it was one of the nasty ones - Sirefef.B).  I also tell
> people to supplement MSE with a weekly Malwarebytes (MBAM) scan.
> 
> As for paid products, I switched back to NAV (Norton Anti-Virus) a couple
> years ago (after a 8-year departure from NAV).  Prior to their 2010 
> re-write,
> NAV was a slow, bloated mess.  But Symantec focused on re-writing the 
> whole
> thing and it's actually quite light on resources now.  I'd prefer a more
> "traditional" user interface (e.g. pull-down menus and check-boxes), and 
> more
> granular options, but it does what it's supposed to.  Even the installer 
> is
> simple (a bit *too* simplistic, if you ask me), but that's OK for most 
> users.
> I'm not the only one who's switched back - the upated NAV has received 
> many
> favorable reviews.  The reason I went back to NAV?  It's often *free* 
> after
> rebates from some retailers (such as Fry's Electronics).  If you want 
> network
> security too, then get NIS (Norton Internet Security) - it's NAV with 
> added
> network firewall and internet security features.  The past 3-years, I've 
> paid
> a total of $1.50 or for NIS 2010, 2011, and 2012 (the cost of the stamps 
> for
> the rebates).
> 
> But even with NIS, I still run an MBAM scan once or twice a month - so 
> far,
> MBAM hasn't picked-up anything that NIS hasn't.  When fixing computers, I 
> use
> AVG's Boot CD to do off-line scans, followed by MBAM and MSE (if no other 
> AV
> product is installed).  Some things do escape all three and that's where
> things like ComboFix (use with caution!) and "scraping by hand" come into
> play.
> 
> So there's my 2 cents.  MSE for free products, NAV or NIS for paid 
> products
> (almost free with rebates), and a MBAM (free) scan every few weeks or so.
> 
> 73,
> 
>   - Aaron Hsu, NN6O
>     {nn6o}@arrl.net
>     . -..- - .-. .-   ".... . .- ...- -.--"
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480