Virus protection for XP

[FIMbar the Furious]

Hi All

I have skulked around the C+I board for a while and got some good gen from you guys via the search function but would like some up to date advice on a virus checker.

I have just upgraded to Win XP home edition on an AMD athlon 2600+ machine. I have 512mb ram and the MB is an Asus
A7N8X-X. I am running the free version of Zone Alarm as my firewall and wonder what is the best virus checker for XP with ZA.

I have used an earlier version of Macafee with Win98SE but did not find the updates user freindly, in fact it was a positive pain. I was so impressed with the online PC Cillin house call that I tried the CD Version when I was on Win98 but it seamed to clash with something else(poss ZA) that I had to take it off

Many Thanks

F T F

[ORAC]

I use Norton AV and Zone Alarm, they work fine together, including Norton doing it's auto-updates.

[BlueEagle]

I've been using Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus programme with Zone AlarmPro for quite a while now, no problems. An absolute MUST is regular updating of any anti-virus programme other wise it is just a waste of disk space .

So far no virus infections but unfortunately no system is perfect!

[Mac the Knife]

I changed to Norton after many years with McAfee. Norton is smooth, effective and inobtrusive albeit somewhat expensive.

I'm afraid I can't recommend McAfee though I'm told that their latest version has fixed most of the problems.

No broadband here so I can't comment on any of the online scanners.

[spannersatcx]

On the other hand I can recommend McAfee, never had a problem with it, also updates not a problem, it has caught many a dodgy attachment in mail and also on some dodgy websites.

However the one time I tried Norton it dragged my system down so slow that it was painful, took it back under the money back guarantee and haven't bothered with it since.

[P.Pilcher]

Well, I've been using XP pro for some time now and have continued to use Grisoft's AVG. You can be happily surfing the net and suddenly a polite little notice appears that some so and so has deposited xxx virus in your internet temp files folder. Clear the folder, run the checker and get the all clear. I double check occasionally with housecall and have never yet failed to get an all clear here as well. Recently updates have been coming out of Grisoft's website on a daily basis and with broadband, updating is an automated doddle. What is even more important is that the AVG virus checker is completely FREE!.

For AVG click here (http://www.grisoft.com/) and for housecall click here (http://www.housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp)

P.P.

[mini]

I recently upgraded to Nortons 2004 (V 10) It has really hit the performance of my machine. Previous versions were fine. Used Macafee a few years ago and got grief, don't know what the latest ver is like.

:ok:

[fobotcso]

I use both McAfee ver 7 and Norton on XP machines and they are about as good as each other. The auto-updates work fine on both if you use care in setting them up. They are completely transparent if that's what you want or they will ask politely if they may go on line to do the business.

Manual and Auto updates with McAfee seem to be free for life but the Norton updates cease if you don't pay more beer tokens. Both will tell you that they can't guarantee successful co-existence with ZoneAlarm but if you ignore the warning they seem to get along quite happily. Understandably both McAfee and Symantec want you to use their own Firewalls

The is a problem with McAfee on the XP Pro machine on which I'm running a trial with the Beta version of XP Service Pack 2.

The "Console" won't start. All this means is that the "Scheduler" won't start and therefore there wouldn't be any scheduled auto scans if I wanted them. As I don't want any, it doesn't matter. .

So, for the moment, until that little bug is sorted, and if you can go with the paid-for updates, I'd have to say Norton is the better.

[Out Of Trim]

I'm also on XP Home with free version of Zone Alarm and Norton AntiVirus 2003.

No problems at all; and no performance penalty!;)

[Keef]

I had a one-year sub to Norton, and the "automatic" update didn't work properly - as I found when a virus arrived.

That sub ran out, and I now use Grisoft AVG (free version). As soon as I installed AVG, it found a virus in the machine that Norton had missed. It's spotted a couple arriving since then.

It works flawlessly with ZoneAlarm - two free packages that do a professional job!

[allthatglitters]

till very recently I have been using Computer Associates e Trust Anti-virus programme, but the updates have gradually been more and more painful to download, using cable, even failing. After contacting CA they said to disable or remove Adaware, which I did and made no difference what so ever.
Outcome reloaded Adaware and changed to Grisoft AVG 6, the updates are normally in small packages, works a dream.
Please be aware, I have noticed Norton have a lower priced Anti-virus package, which when you load it turns out to be a 90 day version and have to pay out for further updates.

[FIMbar the Furious]

Guys

Thanks very much for all the quick replies it is much appreciated.

I have just downloaded the Grisoft AVG6 and run it, no viruses found thankfully. It doesnt seem to have draged the system down yet and the updates seem a lot easier than Macaffe. As a Scot the price is also an attraction.

I will continue to back it up with Housecall as this has found viruses in the past that an updated Macafee did not.

As I said in my original post I have used this forum for about 18 months to get any info I need from Excel queries to building a system, and prefer it to any of the PC magazine websites which tend to be full of too much geek speek. Keep up the good work and hopefully I may be able to return the favour one day

Cheers

F T F

[shack]

Using both XP Home and Pro I have no problems with AVG as the antivirus and the Symantic Personal Firewall working in tandem. As I see that a Jock is involved I must add The Symantic Personal Firewall is FREE.

Didn't do to well last evening eh Jimmy?

[Ausatco]

My two penn'th...

I have two machines, both P4s running XP Home and networked.

On the lappy I use Vet (http://www.vet.com.au/).

On the desktop I use Trend Micro's (http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/global/enterprise.htm) PCCillin 2003.

Both are supplied by my employer, so both are registered and auto update seamlessly. Both are excellent. Most time the machines just check themselves, but occasionally I do a manual scan, using one machine to cross-check the other. So far, according to Vet, PCCillin has not let anything slip through, and vice versa.

AA

[gas path]

Norton 2004 here (updated from NAV2000!), running on a '98se machine no problems at all, auto updates fine as do the scheduled scans.

[FIMbar the Furious]

Shack

Thanks for the info about the firewall, always a good price however I am very happy with Zone alarms.

As for a bad evening yesterday it capped a truly unforgetable bad week for a Scottish sport fan. From someone who has seen it all from the Peru game in 1978

cheers

F T F

[mcdhu]

Interesting thread! I wonder if somebody could help me with this please?

I recently bought a more powerful Dell machine running Win xp home. On my previous machine running Win 98 SE and using AOL had the free Zone Alarm firewall and the basic Norton Antivirus. These seemed to get along together and the 'Liveupdate' worked well with the yellow window appearing stage right every so often to tell me that it had done its business.

On upgrading to Win xp, I found the Zonealarm firewall was a bit difficult to manage so I installed the free download from AOL of the Macafee 'Personal Plus' firewall which seems to sit there and do the job unobtrusively. However I cannot get the Norton Antivirus to update itself automatically. I follow the Norton instructions religiously. If I click on the 'Liveupdate' icon on the Norton Panel, it will run through it and update if necessary, but it will not do it itself. Before you ask, Automatic Live Update is ticked in the box and the firewall grants Liveupdate Com Module full access.
Any ideas anyone? Win xp, AOL, Macafee Personal Plus firewall,
and Norton Antivirus.
Cheers,
mcdhu

[ORAC]

See here (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/d3c44a1678bd8f45852566aa005902cb/b4062595593cbef488256b2600712ada?OpenDocument&prod=Norton%20AntiVirus&ver=2004%20for%20Windows%202000/Me/98/XP&src=sg&pcode=nav&svy=&csm=no).

[mcdhu]

Thanks Orac, I'll get onto it!

mcdhu

[mcdhu]

.........and the little yellow window has just entered stage right to tell me that all is now back to normal!

Thanks, Orac.

mcdhu

[Wiley]

I used to use Zone Alarm until I upgraded to XP, when my resident computer guru advised me that it wouldn’t be necessary to install ZA if I enabled XP’s built-in firewall.

I’m interested to see so many of you are still using a separate firewall with XP. Is there a problem with XP’s built-in firewall? It seems to work OK for me.

[sprocket]

I'm using XP and ZA (free version) with the XP f/wall disabled. No problems once you're setup.

[ORAC]

If you had a house where the press had a new report every week saying how, yet another, trick had been found to open the front door lock without a key, would you fit additional one built by the same people?

Gibson Research (http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm):

The Windows XP built-in firewall:

Just so you know, WinXP's built-in firewall does not attempt to manage or restrict outbound connections at all. It appears to be a useful firewall for hiding the machine from the Internet (it has "stealth mode" unsolicited packet handling), but you will still need to use a good third-party personal firewall if you wish to manage and control outbound connections from your system."

[goates]

As ORAC pointed out, XP's firewall does not allow you to control any outbound connections. This is important as many of the viruses and other malware, once on your computer, will either start emailing and/or attacking other computers, or try to download more software to yours. If more people had had a proper firewall for the last couple of years, most of the viruses which were in the news wouldn't have spread as far or caused as much trouble.

goates

[lame]

I use McAfee, have for many years, cannot fault it. :ok:

The automatic updates work excellently. :ok:

[ratsarrse]

I use Kaspersky Anti Virus. When I first installed it, it found two (inactive) viruses that had sat on my PC for two years and had never been found by Norton Antivirus.

This site might give you further food for thought:

http://www.software-antivirus.com/index.html