Anti Virus (AVG versus BitDefender) 3

[Vol4Ever]

After our network connection fiasco (thread buried somewhere below), we've decided to officially PUNT Norton. The software works great, but it's too much of a resource hog & we're constantly having to tweak it to work with our other legitimate software.

Both AVG and BitDefender get really good reviews. Any thoughts? Thanks again for all the help. This site is great.

~Vol

 

[bcastner]

It is very difficult to get unbiased reviews of Antivirus software.

Everyone I have seen has a clear or hidden sponsor by an AV company or trade association.

I use this:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15690127

____________________________
Users Helping Users

 

[Vol4Ever]

Yeah. Based on my own research, I had already seen that there were seemingly 100's of AV opinions. I did download the freebie version of AVG, and my coworker tried BitDefender on his. Once I got rid of Norton, I noticed a **HUGE** performance increase. Everything is running faster and my boot time almost cut in half. My coworker commented that BitDefender seemed to be a bit of a resource hog again, and he has since switched to the AVG.

Our main question now is how to prove that the software is actually doing something. How can we figure that out short of having someone shoot a virus at us on purpose?

~Vol

 

[stduc]

Get the microsoft virtual PC - download from microsoft - it's free. Install the O/S, don't share any drives with the host PC, Don't join any domains or workgroups, but allow it to connect to the network. It should get its own IP address. Make a virtual PC for each piece of software you want to check. Install a different anti virus in each one. Surf a few dodgy sites and download a few files (the same in each VPC) and you should soon be able to judge which suits you better. If you have a couple of Gig of RAM and a duo core processor you should be able to run up to 4 XP VPC's on each real PC simultaneously.

BTW - you only have to install the O/S once - then you can copy the virtual hard drives and one at a time make them unique.

You can create a DOS virtual PC and take a trip down memory lane - if you still have any DOS disks install disks to hand.

 

[avanderlaan]

You might look at NOD32. I have found it works well even on older machines (ex. 1.8 GHz Pentium with 256MB memory running XP).

 

[cmeagan656]

How can we figure that out short of having someone shoot a virus at us on purpose?

Throw the EICAR test virus at it (

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm).

Cheers.

 

[linney]

Besides IECAR there is a test WORM in this download.

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=irclean.

 

[firewolfrl]

i have had great success with Avast antivirus

http://www.avast.com

the free home version is great too.
Avast is very network friendly and not a resource hog

 

[cmeagan656]

Ooh. I hadn't seen that one before. That might come in handy someday. We've got our network locked down pretty tight but we hire a fair number of accounting co-op students and it seems that one of their favourite pastimes is trying to make an end run around our blocks. They're only hired on 4 month work terms so I guess some of them don't care about the consequences.

Thanks linney!

Cheers.

 

[stduc]

As I need to either re-subscribe pretty soon to McAfee, or switch I am actively looking for alternatives.

Using virtual machines I have so far discovered that only Avast is actually free and up to date, Bitdefender 8 is free and I have yet to test that. AVGFree informs me that it will expire Jan 15 2007.

McAfee, AVGFree and Avast all detected the eicar test virus, but AVG was a tad inelegant in the choices offered on detection. None of them detected the worm you can download from

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=irclean

On startup Avast seems to start the fastest - in that the icon is in the notification area straight away.

I am still undecided though.

I hope to find time to test bitdefender soon. Norton I have had too many issues with in the past to even consider and the NOD32 website put me right off it!

Both Norton and McAfee are resource hogs.

 

[bcastner]

stduc,

You are aware that for each Virtual Machine of XP you have running, you need a seperate license?

If I, for example, created a new Virtual Machine for every application I run, I could need hundreds of licenses for XP, depending on what I was running at the moment. Your solution of creating a virtual sandbox of the entire machine strikes me as very strange and extremely expensive.

In addition, there are several programs that use their program folders for data storage. With your solution everything is gone -- settings, data, shortcuts, everything.




____________________________
Users Helping Users

 

[Vol4Ever]

So far, our experience with AVG has been stellar. Most of the PC's in our office have now been converted over. I was completely blown away by the Virtual PC comment above. Sounds interesting, but there's no way I'm savvy enough to pull that one off!

I still don't have the proverbial warm fuzzy that we're fully protected, but it caught all the variations of the EICAR test including the one buried several levels deep in a ZIP file. I'm just crossing my fingers that we haven't made a bad decision here, but I really can't imagine going back to Norton at this point. My overall system performance is so much better now.

Any other comments or test ideas welcomed.

~Vol

 

[gbaughma]

I do know that an issue of a magazine I read (Ummm... either PC World or Maximum PC) put AVG, McAfee and Norton's head to head, and AVG kicked their butts.

Personally, I hade Norton/Symantic.... it's bloaty, has let a lot of things slip through....

I use AVG and Microsoft Windows Defender. I haven't had any issues. E-mails get scanned, web pages, files, etc. I just have no complaints about that combination.



Just my 2¢

"When I die, I want people to say 'There was a wise man' instead of 'Finally, his mouth is shut!'" --Me
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[BionicJohn]

McAfee, AVGFree and Avast all detected the eicar test virus, but AVG was a tad inelegant in the choices offered on detection. None of them detected the worm you can download from

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=irclean

I use Avast!, and it detected the worm immediately. Avast! is somewhat quirky but seems to do the job.

It's alleged weakness is that it's prone to false positives. However,

http://virusscan.jotti.org/

is a handy site for running a suspect file through 15 or 16 scanners.

I also agree with the earlier comments about Norton AV2006 being a resource hog.

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[linney]

stduc,

There is some good and bas news about AVG contained in this thread.

AntiVirus & Firewall
thread779-1300948

The current AVG Free was able to detect the "Worm" when I tested it the other day. It might be a configuration problem, or may be it wasn't possible in 7.1 but is so in 7.5?

 

[stduc]

bcastner

I obviously didn't make myself clear. Let me try to explain more thoroughly.

Using the virtual machine (VPC) for testing seemed to me a good idea a while ago fo several reasons. Using it to test anti virus scanners and having more than one running at a time was a recent idea.

I was not for one moment suggesting that anyone used virtual machines in a production environment, nor that you installed production software on them. By software (above) I meant anti virus package. What I do like VPC's for though is initial software testing. They are also great for quickly seeing 'what happens if I .....' etc. For example I used a VPC to see what I thought of internet explorer 7. My suggestion of running 4 at time was meant to be a bit tongue in cheek.

One reason I like using a VPC is speed of set up. Once you have created a baseline VPC - in my case XP Home with no antivirus - you can simply copy it and use the copy for testing. You know you start from the same point each time. Repeat for each anti virus product. When you are done, trash the virtual machines by deleting the files. But you know each one started from the same state.

On licensing.
This is my story - please don't take this as advice or a recommendation. Make your own check with microsoft.

Like most people I prefer to stay legal. I decided not to install my own copy of Pro on a VPC - I thought that might cause me problems, never mind the legality. So I used an unused OEM licence of XP Home I had from a old Dell that now runs Fedora. I called microsoft first and finally got through to a human who could make decisions. I explained what I wanted to do. They said it was not a problem provided I didn't give it to anyone else and continue to use the virtual machines afterwards. When I installed the first VPC it licensed itself over the net quite happily. The copies I make from that one update themselves if I want (the baseline VPC is set to no auto update) and only live a day or two anyway - well OK - a week or two at the moment with this anti virus test I am running. They don't ask to re-license. The pass Microsofts verification process during an update.

Now - as to how legal I am being - I am not sure - but I feel I am staying within the spirit of the license - I mean each VPC is running on the same hardware - is it not?

The bottom line is I can play the - let's suck it and see game' at home without needing a second PC and the advantage I can go back to square one in a matter of minutes.


SlimJohnD

By the test worm I am talking about testworm.exe from the diamondcs site. I am testing using a right click in explorer to "scan with". Neither AVG nor Avast detected it for me. I do have an old DOS program that McAfee used to detect as a virus - falsely. McAfee doesn't complain about it anymore, nor did Avast, but AVG said it was a virus. So at the moment things are not looking good for AVG from my perspective.

So the current score at the moment is.

Eicar - detected with AVG, Avast and McAfee
testworm.exe - not detected
Old DOS detected by AVG - False +ive.

I'll check out jotti as soon as I get a mo. Thanks for that

linney

I can see this being the prelude to the end of free AVG. To misquote Churchill, maybe not the end of free AVG, maybe not even the beginning of the end of free AVG, but certainly the end of the endlessy free AVG.

 

[porkchopexpress]

stduc don't let the NOD32 site put you off the product and support are fantastc we moved from Symantec and it's on another planet picking up test files far more efficiently than Symantec Corp. It also has a very small footprint and uses seperate scanning modules so you can turn some areas down to help support old clients (never a really good idea but sometime necessary).





When you are the IT director, it's your job to make sure the IT works. If it does work they know already and if it doesn't, they don't want to hear your pathetic excuses.

 

[linney]

Is the free AVG AntiVirus going away?

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/061116/#langa0

 

[porkchopexpress]

Yep it looks that way my free edition tells me i will have to pay from january.





When you are the IT director, it's your job to make sure the IT works. If it does work they know already and if it doesn't, they don't want to hear your pathetic excuses.

 

[linney]

Did you read that article? I take it as a rebuttal and that the free version is here to stay. It is only 7.1 that is disappearing, 7.5 is still going to be free and available after January.