Best "fit and forget" virus scanner

[jrbarnett]

All,

A client of the company I work for has a major problem in that he keeps getting viruses - when I scanned his system last week it had 33 viruses in files on his c: drive and network (all email attachments and Word documents).

I finally persuaded him to fork out for a virus scanner, but his computer knowledge is non existent, and he has asked me to recommend one.
His level of computer knowledge is typical of many postings on the techtales web site, to give you some idea of his expertise.

Does anybody know of a decent system which is not expensive, available in the UK which can be installed and set to download the updates automatically via a network proxy server (running on Win98SE) and install them without user intervention.
He is a cheapskate when it comes to computer equipment, so the corporate editions are out of the question, and the files shouldn't be too big to download as he uses a modem dial up connection.

My initial idea of using a batch file run from the Windows scheduler to login to an ftp server, download the files and unzip them I found is too unreliable.

Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated.

John

 

[hnd]

Hi John,

A fit and forget Scanner does not exist, because one step has to be done periodically:

Update of the Virus definitions.

The Live Update (Symantec, Norton antivirus) comes to your requirement pretty close. But you should check if the live update has been performed properly.
hnd
hasso55@yahoo.com

 

[polymath5]

Check out Titanium from Panda.

http://www.pandasoftware.com

or www. pandasecurity.com

It's anout as set and forget as you can get.

 

[Kento]

You can schedule Live Update on Norton to automatically check for updates.

 

[2ffat]

I still like Sophos

http://www.us.sophos.com

or

http://www.altcomp.com

.
James P. Cottingham

I am the Unknown lead by the Unknowing.
I have done so much with so little
for so long that I am now qualified
to do anything with nothing.

 

[yizhar]

HI.

Anti virus program with updates is very important as mentioned. But it is not enough.
The most important protection is a good backup procedure.

Another important thing is attachment blocking.
This is important because most anti virus programs fail to detect new virusses that have just been discovered.

This depends on the software used at the client and servers.

If your client is using Oulook Express, I recommend upgrading to IE6+OE6, and then enabling the new security features:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q291/3/87.ASP

And here is my modest addition to the OE6 virus protection:

http://teachers.sivan.co.il/yizhar#NUTS

If your client is using another email client, check the options and patches of that program.


Bye
Yizhar Hurwitz

http://come.to/yizhar

http://teachers.sivan.co.il/yizhar

 

[jrbarnett]

Yizhar,

The client uses Eudora 5.02, which is a blessing in that it is far less vulnerable to viruses than the Microsoft products. Even so, I got him to switch off the MAPI server and automation requests, just in case.

John

 

[CMASPE]

My vote would be Inoculate!! Set it up and the rules and forget about it, it does the rest!

 

[bigfoot]

Inoculate is now kown as my e-truse. And I use Incredimail. It works like Outlook but has much more features, and it is NOT prone to virus attacks.

 

[petermeachem]

Spending £30 on Nortons is going to be cheaper than getting you round to sort his computer out isn't it. And it does automatic updates. Even my most clueless customers manage as it doesn't really require any input from them. Peter Meachem
peter @ accuflight.com

 

[AVChap]

Why scrimp on something that can save you more times than a tow truck?

Have him spend on a quality AV program with regular updates and support.

Some suggested AV proggies:

McAfee (VirusScan)
Symantec (NAV)
Trend Micro (PC-Cillin)
Sophos (Sweep)

I'm sure you've seen some of the suggestions above, but from experience, nothing beats having support from the vendors themselves.

My 2c worth,

AVChap

 

[Kjonnnn]

We use Nortons.
You can set it to update the definitions regular and you can set it to scan the hardrive on a regular basis.

 

[jrbarnett]

Everybody

Thank you all for your contributions. As I am no longer working for the company in question it is no longer my problem.
The client had a copy of Norton with a 4 month upgrade license bundled with the PC in question and the license expired, and he was too tight fisted to fork out for the upgrade fee.
While Norton may be an easy to use reliable AV scanner which supports automatic updating, this one fact is why I don't like it. McAfee give you perpetual updates through the superdats, and AVG 6 Free edition looks pretty good as well. I would have recommended switching to InoculateIT but it is no longer free.

The last I knew he still had about 30 viruses mostly word macro on his hard drive, but as this was 10 months ago I don't know what is going on now, and to be honest I don't much care any more.

My last task at my former employer was to remove the BadTrans virus from this PC, editing the registry via PC Anywhere, as his Norton signatures were 1 day below a year old at the time. Go figure.

Regards,

John

 

[JimInKS]

It's amazing what some people will go through to think they are saving $25! It's hard to calculate how much all those viruses are costing him.