This is topic Looking For Recommendations On Anti-Virus Programs in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-21-2004, 12:40 PM:
I need to install a good anti-virus program in a PII 233mhz machine (100mhz front speed bus) with 128 megs of DRAM that won't bog the machine down bad, and yet have a good firewall protection.
Mcafee does not "cut the mustard" - it not only slows the machine down, but sometimes cannot figure out if a file is a virus or not.
Norton Pro just lunched a few system files and broke the Windows 98SE.
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 02-21-2004, 01:50 PM:
Paul, you've got an itchy trigger finger. I'm sure that some moderator will come along and delete your douple post.
I've had good luck with AVG and the price is right. There is a free version.
Home Page
Free Version
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-21-2004, 01:57 PM:
Duplicate thread deleted!
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-21-2004, 02:18 PM:
I run Norton Anti-Virus 2004 on my home machine. But I have had problems with NAV Pro 2004 on my computer at work.
With that particular machine it turned out the power supply was going bad. I had backed up everything and formatted the hard disc and was getting Windows blue screen of death messages upon install. I had a local computer shop order and replace the power supply, and they put the free version of AVG on there. So far it works fine. But I may dump it and reinstall NAV Pro on there since it was already purhcased.
It should be said anti-viral software alone is not enough. You need firewall protection and anti spy ware applications. My home machine is behind a Linksys router which gives one level of firewall protection. Then I have Zone Alarm on the computer itself with it set to high. I also run Ad Aware and Spy Bot Search and Destroy. Spy Bot seems to uncover more threats.
On the basic level, if you use Internet Explorer go in and change the Internet security level from low to at least medium or medium high. Tell Outlook Express to only read e-mail in text form, not HTML (that option is under the "read" tab in the Tools>options dialog box). Also be sure to check that box under "security" that says "do not open or save any attachments that can potentially be a virus." Leave that on by default. Only uncheck the option if you absolutely know an e-mail attachment is safe.
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-21-2004, 03:19 PM:
Thanks, Bobby.
BTW, I don't know how the double post came along. I made an edit on a typo, and somehow it came up with a double post I didn't even know it was there. Sorry.
Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 02-21-2004, 03:53 PM:
I've found panda antivirus to be really great. Constant updates, not much resources used, great interface.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-21-2004, 05:10 PM:
For corporate use, I really like Sophos. It's light on resources and easy to keep updated without requiring an NT server. It isn't cheap, though, and they don't really sell to individual end-users (but they might if you ask nicely).
Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 02-21-2004, 05:45 PM:
Like Bobby, I run Norton Anti-Virus, Ad Aware, and Spy Bot Search and Destroy on XP Pro. All are excellent performers on all my machines.
I have tried to use Norton NAV Pro 2004 with NO luck! Nothing but problems EVERY time I try it. I tried it in 4 different machines and every time it crashed the system or was just toooooo GD hard and confusing to use! I finally gave up on it and used the CD for skeet-shooting practice.
>>> Phil
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-21-2004, 08:05 PM:
The weird thing about NAV Pro is that it seems to work well on some machines and then like crap on others. I have not had any problems at all with my home version. But the "Pro" version on my machine at work kept glitching out.
When booting the machine, it would give me this error "Norton has encountered a problem. Please reinstall Norton Anti-Virus." etc. I would get variations on this error, but it always led to me having to reinstall the damned thing. It would run fine for a few days and then crap out all over again.
I'm not sure if the failing power supply was the culprit in causing the problem. But it did give me some scares on occaision. Once, it glitched out and when brining up the NAV screen it listed a bunch of modules in the program as "tampered." Remote virus scans and other stuff uncovered no infections or other threats. Just a anti-viral program freaking out. I may try reinstalling the thing now that my work machine is fixed. If it screws up again, I can always reinstall the "free" version of AVG.
It doesn't really matter all that much I guess. That work PC is getting old and I always do redundant backups of my art files on multiple PCs and disc. So computer vandals can eat my shorts. My data is safe. And they need to do something legit for a living.
Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-22-2004, 12:30 AM:
I can't say enough good things about Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security : a/v, firewall, and more rolled into one package that just works. I work with a bunch of very fussy programmers who won't tolerate problems with this stuff -- they'll disable it on the sly if it interferes with their work. Norton and McAfee are unacceptable for them, but they can live with the Trend product running all the time.
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-22-2004, 01:40 PM:
Thanks for all the input. It is very much appreciated. I'll probably have to re-install Norton so I can remove all the other superfluous programs that I can't uninstall because the main program is gone.
I don't know enough about hacking into the registry to remove all that crap manually.
Again, thanks to you all.
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-22-2004, 10:49 PM:
You'll need to look at doing some registry editing for doing a proper reinstall of Norton Anti Virus (along with deleting a couple other folders, etc. the uninstaller does not remove). Symantec has fairly easy to follow instructions for doing this.
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-23-2004, 12:39 PM:
Actually, I discovered that there was an "Uninstall all" on the orginal disk. I did just that, and all the programs (such as live updates, etc) were removed.
The computer seems to run just great, has plenty of speed, no conflicts, etc. I think part of the problem was it had PC-133 DRAM. Even though the guru I asked said it should run just fine in that thing, it didn't. A 256 meg stick came up as 130 megs, and the computer seemed to be not feeling so well. I replaced it with PC-100 and lot of ills went away.
The only problem left is I can't defrag it. ??? Cow Hum?
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 11-04-2008, 02:44 PM:
It has been 1716 days since the last post.
Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 11-04-2008, 02:44 PM:
My ISP is discontinuing their free security suite before the end of the year. Does anyone have any recommendations for (totally) free anti-virus software? Has anyone used Avast!4 Home?
---Rick
Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 11-04-2008, 03:29 PM:
Don't laugh, but is there any current Anti-Virus software that will run on WIN 98? Does not have to be free.
Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 11-05-2008, 12:48 AM:
Rick, check this free AV program out. Not a memory hog like Norton or Symatec and still catches the nasties.
Our computers at all of our theatres have AVG installed in as well as my computers at home. Abolutely no probs with AVG.
. - Monte
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-05-2008, 12:57 AM:
Although he posted it quite a while ago, I'm with David on TrendMicro's Internet Security Package. I've been using it for about 4 years and it pretty much runs seamlessly in the background with little disruption. And even when a scan is running I don't feel like it bogs my computer down.
One comment that I'll make about Panda is that you get what you pay for. I've helped a couple people who used Panda and it basically put a strangle hold on their computer. Granted, these people were usually running other programs that caused problems, but I still wouldn't recommend Panda.
Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 11-05-2008, 04:01 AM:
I T technician recommended AVG to me ages ago it does the whole job for free and updates are regular, run scans manual, or does it itself the best iv`e ever had .give it a go
Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 11-05-2008, 08:29 AM:
But the newest version of AVG claims to only be for win2k and higher. Though it might run on 98.
Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 11-05-2008, 03:24 PM:
Thanks for the help guys, I think I'll give AVG a shot.
Mitch---
Check [here]
Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 11-05-2008, 04:53 PM:
Go with Monte's idea , I have used AVG free at work and home now for quite some time with no problems, it does work exceptionally well. nice and simple and effective.
Posted by Todd McCracken (Member # 4718) on 11-05-2008, 07:50 PM:
+1 for AVG free :
Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 11-05-2008, 08:49 PM:
AVG Free works fine for me. Occasionally it has trouble getting the updates, but it takes just a few seconds to do it manually. I don't consider it a big problem.
Posted by Tom Doyle (Member # 1474) on 11-06-2008, 08:57 AM:
Mitch, I've been using AVG7 on my Win98 box for a long time. The only problems I've had were a couple of times when it had problems installing the automatic updates, but manually downloading them resolved it.
Grisoft doesn't seem to provide a link for it on their web site, but if you search for 'AVG 7.5' you can find places where it's hosted. It's still updated regularly with the latest virus definitions.
You can also check out other freeware anti-virus software here:
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/security/fwvirus.html
I hope that helps!
Posted by Edwin Sheldon (Member # 4001) on 11-06-2008, 09:10 AM:
Here's another vote for AVG.
Posted by John Lasher (Member # 968) on 11-07-2008, 04:05 PM: