Norman Antivirus Review

Norman Antivirus and Antispyware is a solid product that suffers from some small quirks that hold it back from being a top 5 product. The scanning features that are included with Norman Antivirus and Antispyware are great as far as detection of viruses and spyware are concerned. Unfortunately, it slowed down our test computer considerably while we were performing simple actions like surfing the web or taking screenshots.

Ease of Use:
Norman Antivirus and Antispyware is easy to use. It includes a menu that has some options in an intuitive spot, while leaving others deep within a maze of menu options that can be rather difficult to navigate.

For most users, Norman Antivirus and Antispyware has a default configuration that should help to keep them from having to navigate the maze of options and changes that can be made.

Effectiveness:
Norman is certified by VB100%, WCL Level 1, as well as ICSA Labs. It offers protection that is standard to the middle of the pack of antivirus solutions. Norman has shown a commitment to solidifying their scanning abilities by continuing to enhance their antivirus engine. The current engine, while slow in some cases, is another shining example of Norman's commitment.

Updates:
Updates are released daily on average. There is also the ability for Norman to push an update if there is a significant threat found. You have the ability to manually update, or set a time each day to look for new updates.

Feature Set:
Norman Antivirus and Antispyware includes the basic antivirus and antyspyware scanning. Also included are quarantines for both, as well as task scheduling and email protection. The email protection is based on the protocol that is used for gathering and sending email rather than integrating with specific email programs. This allows scanning of email attachments to occur no matter what program you use to handle your email.

Ease of Installation:
Installing Norman Antivirus and Antispyware was simple and only required a couple of clicks to get done. The software didn't require a reboot when finished installing on our test machine, and updated itself immediately after the install was finished.

Help/Support:
Norman has a very effective support website that includes product FAQs, customer support forums, a well-equipped knowledge base, as well as security bulletins and webcasts. They also include phone and email support in the event that you have lost your connection to the Internet.

Summary:
Norman Antivirus and Antispyware is solid option to keep your computer safe from the terrors of the Internet. It includes an award winning antivirus scanner as well as an antispyware scanner. The software does suffer from some issues with overall system lag, but these are due to the on-access scanner, and can be minimized for each system according to Norman's support site.

Eset NOD32 Antivirus Review

ESET's NOD32 is rapidly becoming one of the best pieces of antivirus software on the market today. ESET's NOD32 once again has delivered an excellent product that is highly effective, and now, easy to use. The strength and beauty of this software is its light footprint, relatively fast scanning and superior ThreatSense® Technology that detects malicious software before it has been reported. Its interface is intuitive and easy to use for the average home user, but can be configured and tweaked by the advanced user. The one-user, one-year package is priced at $39.99, which is the middle range of the antivirus software products reviewed.

Standout Features:

• Effective antivirus protection (98%)




• Light footprint on your computer (34M)




• Excellent scanning speed




• Excellent proactive protection




• Is one of the few companies still offering products for legacy O/S's such as DOS and




• Windows 95, Windows 98, etc.

Ease of Use:
ESET's NOD32 is simple to use right out of the box (figuratively speaking … it’s a download) and requires little or no configuring for the average user. Yes, it’s an “install and forget program! The interface is clean and simple with enable/disable toggles and a configure option for those who are into tweaking their antivirus software. Unlike Kaspersky, which allows you to tailor their software based upon the perceived threat and the level of protection desired, advanced configuring NOD32 requires a bit more knowledge of your system. Fortunately, NOD32 works as it should in its default configuration and most users will never have to do anything but simply install this excellent software.

Effectiveness:
ESET's NOD 32 is among the most effective antivirus software products on the market today. Independent tests show that NOD32 removed about 98% of the virus threats it faced, putting it on par with BitDefender, “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” winner, and Kaspersky, “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award” winner. In addition, NOD32 is certified by all the major independent testing laboratories the world over. Of the major antivirus software packages tested, NOD32 interfered less with our other computer operations than any of the other products reviewed. Its spyware protection is a little weaker than one might like, putting it on the same level as Kaspersky's 92%. Where NOD32 stands head and shoulders above its competitors is in its proactive detection and protection.

Most of the reputable antivirus software developers now include a heuristic engine that attempts to detect malware before it has been reported. Some refer to this as “Day Zero” detection because it is able to detect threats before their signatures is has been identified. The idea here is that when the software finds some code that looks malicious, it executes the software in the background to determine if it’s a threat to your machine. ESET has refined this technique like no other antivirus software developer with their ThreatSense® Technology.

This ThreatSense® Technology delivers an excellent detection rate while offering a very fast scan rate. Other antivirus packages offer similar detection rates, such as BitDefender and Kaspersky, but in both of those cases, the penalty you pay are slow scan rates. NOD32 is the only software package reviewed and tested that offered both high detection rates AND fast scan rates, indicating these folks know how to write efficient and effective code (according to the company, NOD32 is written in assembly language, a very efficient, low-level language). ESET could be the sleeper antivirus company ready to take this market by storm in coming years.

Updates:
Unlike Kaspersky and BitDefender, ESET's NOD32 only updates its virus signatures once a day. That's probably a short enough interval considering that ESET has the power to “push” updates to your computer in the instance of attack. Also, with ESET's highly effective heuristic, proactive engine, it is very likely that NOD32 will recognize malicious code before the signature is available. These two features make us more comfortable with the slightly longer update intervals than some of its competitors have.

Feature Set:
ESET's NOD32 is all about effectiveness AND speed. This software uses fewer resources than any of the packages tested and this is a thing of beauty. NOD32 is a breath of fresh air in a world of bloated software in that its code is efficiently written. From the perspective of the average user, this means this software has a light footprint and fast scans, both very good things. Its ThreatSense® Technology’s proactive defense is among the best heuristic programs on the market.

NOD32 offers several layers of protection including real time email scanning, antivirus protection, antispyware protection and rootkit scanner. The email scanner integrates easily and directly into MS Outlook or any other standard POP3 email client. Disappointingly, NOD32 did not have a Parental Control option where parents can block and control what sites their children are able to access online.

NOD32 is among the few antivirus products that still supports such legacy operating systems as DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, etc. as well as Windows XP and Vista.

Ease of Installation:
Installation was prompt and easy. The package is just 34M making it among the lightest antivirus packages we have ever seen. We were disappointed, though, that ESET did not automatically remove the existing antivirus software on our system. Instead, NOD32 prompts you to remove any existing antivirus on your computer before installation.
ESET has made some excellent and necessary improvements in their interface with version 3, making the software far easier and more intuitive to use. Anticipating that the vast majority of people don't want to spend time messing with their antivirus software, but instead just want it to work, ESET crafted NOD32’s interface to be clean and simple. Most people can simply “install and forget” this software. The left-hand column features Protection Status, Computer Scan, Update, Setup, Tools and Help. The right windowpane is reserved for the active feature in use.
Although the features have an enable/disable toggle, the advanced user can simply click on “configure” in any of the features and find all of the advanced tweaks that anyone could ask for. Should you need to remove NOD32 from your computer, there is an uninstall option. After a reboot we found almost no evidence of the product on the machine.

Help/Support:
ESET's NOD32 provides extensive, context-sensitive help files similar to Kaspersky and this feature by both firms should be applauded. It’s about time the other software developers include similar help files. It’s simple and quick for the user and doesn't require much development cost for the software publisher. Online, ESET provides a fairly thorough 32-page PDF file manual for download, plus online FAQs for NOD32, links to an active user forum dedicated to the software, and a web form for contacting ESET customer support. While there is live telephone support offered, the call is not toll free and is available only during business hours, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday.

Summary:
ESET's NOD32 offers the antivirus software buyer one more excellent choice. Its sets itself apart from the competition with its scanning speed and light footprint on your computer resources. Its proactive approach to virus and other malware detection is among the best in the world, its virus detection is excellent, and now with an easy to use interface, this software ranks among the best available. There is no hesitation in recommending ESET's NOD32 and awarding it the “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award” for antivirus software.

Kasper Antivirus Review

Kaspersky Labs has been one of the best antivirus software developers in the world for over a decade and now Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 only strengthens that reputation. Founded by Natalia and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997, this Russian company is often the first to find and identify new viruses. Long used in Russia and Europe, Kaspersky is now making inroads in the North American market. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 is one of the most effective antivirus packages in the world today and boasts a great interface with easy to use and intuitive controls.
Like so many of the other antivirus packages including BitDefender, Kaspersky Anti-Virus comes with an antispyware component. Kaspersky's software is among the best products in the world, but at $39.95 for a one-user for one-year license, it’s on the high-end of the software we reviewed. There are no complaints about Kaspersky's effectiveness or ease­-of-use. As a result, Kaspersky Anti-Virus is the “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award” winner. If you're looking for antivirus protection for small business, you might be interested in Kapersky Anti-Virus for File Server.

Kaspersky's Standout Features:

• Highly Effective antivirus/antispyware protection


• Light on computer resources


• Nearly all features are configurable


• Great interface, easy-to-use and intuitive

Ease of Use:
Kaspersky has always been among the best samples of antivirus software on the market, but has been less than simple to use. With the release of version 7, Kaspersky dramatically improved their interface giving this software an interface that matches the quality of the overall package. Further improvements have been made for the 2009 version. From a geek’s perspective, Kaspersky's interface is probably the best of all the software reviewed. That being said, it may not be ideal for someone who's not interested in fine-tuning and tweaking their antivirus software. Every feature is configurable and controllable with intuitive and easy to use controls in Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

Effectiveness:
Kaspersky Labs has always been known for its ability to effectively detect and remove viruses as well as or better than any software program on the market. Like BitDefender, Kaspersky was able to remove over 98% of all viruses it encountered in the most recent objective tests of AV-test.org. Kaspersky is also certified by all of the major virus/malware testing laboratories. Tests confirm Kaspersky's effectiveness. It found every virus on the test computer.

Although Kaspersky is excellent at detecting viruses and malware, it could use some work in the detection of spyware. Independent tests by AV-test.org showed that Kaspersky allowed 8% of adware/spyware to go undetected. Furthermore, Kaspersky’s proactive/heuristic engine failed to meet the high standards set by BitDefender, NOD32, F-Secure, Panda and some others.

Like other software with proactive/heuristic engines to detect malware before their signatures are available, Kaspersky's scan is relatively slow. The time and resources demanded by these proactive/heuristic engines slows these scans, and relatively slow scans may be the price we pay for this level of protection. Of the antivirus software packages reviewed, only NOD32 (see “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award” winner) scored high on both proactive detection and scan speed.

Updates:
The best antivirus software packages provide virus signature updates on a routine basis. Both Kaspersky and BitDefender update their signatures every hour. That may seem like overkill until a new virus rapidly begins to spread around the globe and your antivirus software only updates every week. That may be too late for you! Since it does its updates automatically, you get the best protection with no effort on your part.

Feature Set:
Kaspersky's feature set is one of its strongest assets. While BitDefender’s interface is primarily an enable/disable feature set, Kaspersky is the software-tweakers dream with controls for nearly all of its features. Like most of the antivirus packages in our review, Kaspersky protects your computer from spyware as well as viruses. Scanning for both viruses and spyware simultaneously is far more efficient in terms of time and resources than stopping to do both separately. Like Bit Defender, “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” winner, Kaspersky scans email and port 80 traffic (port 80 is the port that receives web traffic and must be open while browsing the web) so that this excellent software can detect and block online viruses, Trojans, and various other malware before they can cause you trouble.

Kaspersky also has a proactive defense for your computer. Kaspersky watches for unwanted adware, dialers, rootkits, remote access utilities and locks specific registry keys that malicious code may target to damage your computer. Furthermore, Kaspersky now includes protection from viruses while using IM and ICQ.

Kaspersky, in its ever-vigilance against viruses and other malware, now helps you create a rescue disc in the case that your computer is hit by some malicious code that makes your system unbootable. Although this effort to prepare users for the computer equivalent of Armageddon is commendable, the process is tedious and difficult. If you downloaded your operating system or the system disc is lost or unavailable, this feature will be unavailable to you. Ease of Installation:
Kaspersky is among the easiest pieces of antivirus software to install. Its rather compact 50MB file downloads quickly and installation and activation are a snap. After rebooting, Kaspersky was on the job protecting our test computer. One complaint is that Kaspersky did not automatically remove the antivirus software already on the test computer. This is bound to lead to problems with the average user. Invariably, some will unknowingly end up running two antivirus programs and problems will ensue. With two antivirus packages running, computers run more slowly and error messages become an issue. On a positive note, Kaspersky does come with its own uninstall utility and after running it, no traces of it were found still in the registry.

Some of the other antivirus manufacturers should take note:

How much confidence can customers have in you, if you don't even know how to completely remove your own software?

Help/Support:
Software should be intuitive and easy to use, and if you still have a question, the software manufacturer should have excellent help/support to resolve your issues quickly and easily. Software should not be a source of stress, but instead, should make your life easier and simpler. When a question does arise, Kaspersky has devoted adequate resources to address them. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 provides context-sensitive in-program help files. This is a great idea, and some of the other software developers should do likewise. In addition, there are active user forums and FAQs available online. Finally, you can email or call a toll free number for live technical support.

Summary:
Kaspersky is among the best antivirus software packages on the market today. It’s highly effective, has a great interface, and it’s easy on computer resources. Kaspersky is an excellent choice and was barely edged out by BitDefender, receiving the “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.”

F-Secure Antivirus Review

F-Secure Anti-Virus is a great product that offers many of the standard functions associated with antivirus software, but also goes above and beyond the bar set by others with efforts by F-Secure to educate the people that use F-Secure Anti-Virus on general security practices as well as specific threats.

Ease of Use:
F-Secure Anti-Virus is very easy to use and comes preconfigured with the most effective options for your computers' security. The menus within F-Secure Anti-Virus are simple and quick to display the options under each menu.

Effectiveness:
F-Secure Anti-Virus is one of the most effective antivirus programs on the market. Its heuristic scanner is considered by many to be one of the fastest and most complete on the market.
We did have some problems with its on-access scanner though. The test system we used is a pretty fast system. Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz with 1GB of RAM. The on-access scanner would sometimes bring this system to a halt when opening programs or moving files.

Updates:
F-Secure Anti-Virus checks for updates every two hours. This is fine for most people and shouldn't cause any problems. One issue that we did notice is that one of the updates that was received required a reboot of the test system. While we had a choice in the reboot, it was odd that it should require a reboot to apply new virus signatures or even minor program updates.

Feature Set:
F-Secure Anti-Virus comes with the standard protection you would expect from any modern antivirus suite. Both on-access and on-demand scanners are included as well as a spyware scanner that runs with both. An email scanner is also included for those of us using local email clients like Outlook or Thunderbird.

One feature we especially liked about F-Secure Anti-Virus was the integrated news on the home menu. The Security News section is full of useful information about which new security threats are out and whether you are protected from each threat.
Ease of Installation:

Installation of F-Secure Anti-Virus is fast and easy. It took less than 5 minutes to initially install, but required a very long update upon completion of the install. The install itself required a single reboot as well as the update that was download after the install finished.

Help/Support:
F-Secure offers several options for support. They have a "How to" section with several FAQ's included as well as offering a product manual from within the program itself. Also available are phone support and email support. You may find that support for F-Secure Anti-Virus is difficult to obtain once you get past the self-help options. The site is somewhat convoluted and could use a redesign to make it easier and faster to use. To be fair, most people will not need to contact customer support directly if they use the self help options that are available on the support site.

Summary:
With one of the most thorough antivirus engines available, F-Secure Anti-Virus provides good protection against viruses, spyware and many other security threats. The added benefit of the support and education portion of their website adds to the overall feeling of protection while using this product. While it isn't perfect, and does have issues with significant slowdowns while the on-access scanner is working, the overall product is effective.

F-Prot Antivirus Review

F-Prot for Windows is easy to install and use. This antivirus program has a nice interface, although it would be more user-friendly if the options were available from the Taskbar instead of from the Start Menu or desktop. All of the options are straightforward and practical. Some of these options include right-click, on-demand, on-access and scheduled scanning.
F-Prot claims their scan engine uses very low system resources and therefore runs under Windows 2000, XP or Vista.

The RealTime Protector scans all files your system accesses for viruses. The built-in Scheduler automates tasks like updating the virus definition files and scanning. The program is simple to configure, but still gives you plenty of options. The on-demand Scanner is used to manually scan your files, folders and drives.

You can also scan a file, folder, or drive from within Windows Explorer by right-clicking and selecting "Scan". There wasn't much of a performance hit during normal PC usage.

Comodo Antivirus Review

by Brian Healy:

When it comes to antivirus software, many people prefer to spend their money on commercial, off-the-shelf security products. However, with several free-to-use antivirus packages available, there’s no need to have to pay for internet security. Comodo, one of the world’s leading IT security providers, has a range of security products that are free to use with a lifetime usage licence and Comodo’s antivirus software is just one product in their range. But is it any good?

First of all, it should be noted that the current version of the Comodo Antivirus scanning engine is still a beta version, so users should expect the odd bug or irregularity. Comodo is working on an updated version of the engine, and hopes to release it in the not-too-distant future. While the beta status may put people off, it shouldn’t as the engine is solid and robust.
Comodo’s free antivirus comes with a host of features not normally seen in a free product.

Features of this anti virus software include:
Individual computer and network protection – yes, despite it's being free, Comodo AV can be used in a network environment to protect servers and client PCs, as well as being able to scan across network drives and folders.

• On Access Scanning – Real-time protection against virus infection.
• On Demand Scanning – Check a file, disk or folder for possible infection before use.
• HIPS Protection – Host Intrusion Prevention System enables users to prevent and stop malicious spyware and malware from being installed or executed.
• Removable Device Scanning – Check through all known sources of infection from add-in peripherals such as CDs, DVDs, USB Sticks and even your cell phone.
• Incremental Scanning – Allows faster scans by ignoring files and folders marked as ‘safe.’
• Heuristic Detection – Identifies unknown viruses by analysing behaviour patterns of software code.
• Process Monitoring – Continually scans memory resident applications and processes.
• Email Scanning – Scans both incoming and outgoing email and attachments.
• Worm Blocker - protection against worm programs that attempt to duplicate themselves by sending mass mailings to your contact list.
• Compressed File Scans – Can scan within compressed file formats such as .RAR and .ZIP.
• Daily Updates – Automated daily updates of the virus signature database.
• Quarantine Files – Quarantine suspicious files so they cannot run.
• Safe List – Create a customized safe list of programs and files installed to speed up scans.
• Full Reports – Comprehensive logs and results of all anti-virus scans performed.
• Scan Scheduling – Choose when to update your virus definitions and antivirus scans.
• File Submission – Submit suspicious files to Comodo Labs for analysis.
• For a free product, it’s certainly a comprehensive, feature-rich package far in excess of any of its free antivirus rivals. Some paid-for AV software should also sit up and take notice.
  

Installation
Installation of Comodo Antivirus is relatively painless – there’s no need to register the product and your system will require a reboot to finish the installation process. On first run it automatically builds a custom profile of your files and folders to configure its scanning engine. Comodo’s interface won’t win a style award, but it is clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate. All the key functions of the software are easily accessible.

On Access Performance:
One area where Comodo’s antivirus is impressive is its impact on system resources. On my test system, the resource drain was light and there were no hangs or slowdown from the system when opening files or applications.

Scanning speed was excellent and faster than those of other free antivirus programs with a full scan of my test system taking around 40 minutes to complete. It may not be the fastest scanner out there, but by way of comparison, Grisoft’s AVG 8.0 antivirus took almost double that time to complete the same scan. How accurate that time actually is is perhaps open to debate given the product’s beta status. However, there’s no real reason to disagree about its timing and this difference could well be down to the initial profiling of the system by the software.

To benchmark, the test system used comprised of an AMD64 3200+ Processor, 1GB of DDR400 RAM and a 250GB Samsung Spinpoint IDE hard-drive. Installed was Windows XP and Service Pack 2 and 40GB of assorted files.

Unfortunately, I felt that Comodo was a little weak in this regard. Testing the On Access Scanner I was able to pull the EICAR test virus onto the system’s hard drive without Comodo protesting about its presence. Indeed, all was silent even after it had been firmly planted into the system. However, upon trying to physically access the file, Comodo sprang to life and alerted me to the suspicious file, somewhat redeeming itself into the bargain.

Next, I tried the Email Scanner and emailed a copy of the EICAR file to my email address. Comodo detected this instantly and prompted for a response. It also fared well in the real-world email tests, weeding out many Trojans and other assorted nasties sent via spam emails.

However, the biggest bugbear I had to contend with was the irrepressible and over-zealous HIPS control which bleated constantly whenever I tried to access anything it deemed unsafe – which was quite a lot of things; many of them legitimate processes into the bargain. Even running an installation process for a game CD caused HIPS to throw a wobbler, as did installing the latest Opera browser.

HIPS (Host Intrusion Protection System):
HIPS - for all its good points - is incredibly sensitive until it gets to know your PC and the applications you run. It can, however, be deactivated at the cost of a little security. If you choose to run HIPS, be aware that it can sometimes ‘forget’ you have allowed an application previously and warn you again of its presence. If you can put up with the constant nagging about ‘unsafe’ applications then HIPS is a worthwhile additional layer of security.

Virus DetectionApart from the EICAR test virus, my test rig wasn’t afflicted with any viruses while running Comodo. This was corroborated by running web-based antivirus scans through Kaspersky. In both cases the test system came up clean.

ProblemsI had some issues with Comodo with some POP3 email addresses. The software would occasionally hang while scanning an incoming email, preventing the message--and any subsequent message--from downloading as a result. Short of completely killing Comodo in Windows Task Manager, the only other course of action was to physically log into the mail server and manually delete the message that was causing the issue. This freed up the scanner. In almost all cases, the offender was a spam email, but for anyone who leaves their email running constantly this particular issue could prove troublesome if they don’t notice the issue manifesting itself.

Although a minor irritation, Windows Security Center doesn’t detect Comodo as being installed as a valid antivirus application. This causes the (annoying) Security Center warning icon to appear in the system tray asking you to install a valid antivirus. Thankfully, this can be turned off.

This antivirus offering by Comodo is a good effort by the company and should improve further with the release of version 3. However, while their offering provides a comprehensive suite of set-and-forget antivirus scans with has a good level of detection, it is far from finished. The software’s failure to detect EICAR test viruses until the product has been activated is a concern and one has to wonder what else could have been missed.

The absence of nag screens and banners trying to sell upgrades is a welcome sight, and there is enough overall about Comodo antivirus to merit serious consideration as part of a security setup. However, the fact it is still beta software means I would be reluctant to recommend Comodo Antivirus as a user’s only protection against viruses and malware. Instead users should complement its use with regular online web scans for added security. [Note: it is rarely a good idea to run more than one real-time scanner at a time as doing so can negatively impact system performance.]

If Comodo has addressed the shortcomings of this beta product in the upcoming version 3, then they have the potential to become a major player in the free antivirus software market.

Clamwin Antivirus Reivew

By:
Pete Theisen
(Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.)

Perhaps the oldest scourge of PC users, predating SPAM, is the computer virus. The pervasiveness of these nasties is such that it is impossible to use a Windows computer for any length of time without an antivirus program. ClamWin is a free antivirus program.
Antivirus programs usually cost anywhere between $30 and $40 per year per personal computer, even more in business computers. Gone are the days when you could buy one package and use it on your desktop and your notebook, this is no longer permitted. The AV companies claimed that they weren't making enough money when they let people do that. In my case I have two PCs in my clinic, one in my home and two notebooks, which adds up to about $200 per year for antivirus - something I shouldn't even have to have in a perfectly moral world.

Money is only the half of it, you also have to install the program, and the one I had been using for many years has been getting harder and harder to set up. Not only that, their tech support has been outsourced to somewhere in the third world. This makes it a struggle to understand their accent as well as put your own thoughts across. If you get rid of your computer or change a component and try to use up your year's subscription on the new computer or part you would find yourself trying to make them admit they know what you are talking about.

This is saying nothing about the "Follow the Money" conspiracy theories about who is writing all these viruses anyway, it should be obvious that the ClamWin producers have no financial conflict of interest in there being ever more viruses. It has never been proven that any of the other AV writers were playing both sides of the street - I don't recall that even being investigated, but if there isn't any money to follow then that particular type of conspiracy theory obviously doesn't hold up.

The most difficult part of setting up ClamWin antivirus is finding it. The one most Windows users will like the best is at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/clamwin/clamwin-0.35.1-setup.exe?download. There are quite a number of other Clam antivirus products for every popular flavor of Linux and even DOS, but the Windows version is at this link. Once you are on this page, click one of the download icons and it should be delivered to your computer.

The setup program runs fairly straightforwardly and in a while you should have Clam antivirus installed. Much easier to install than the antivirus program I was paying for. I have used the ClamWin for a couple of weeks now on an old 400mhz notebook and it has worked fine. I installed the DOS version on my home desktop and found it kind of clunky, as DOS programs tend to be. Finally I replaced the DOS one with ClamWin.

It runs by itself when your computer starts, updates itself while you are on the web, tells you if it couldn't get its update, and can be otherwise managed by right-clicking a little icon in the system tray, which launches its control screen. You can scan manually or set up scheduled scans as you wish. When it finds a virus it tells you and will move the virus to a quarantine folder as well if you set it up that way. The interface is pretty on the windows version; the DOS version is just a DOS window.

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Copyright 2004.

This article is from the September 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/

The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.

See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.

CA Antivirus Review

CA Antivirus 2009 is a solid virus scanner that works well to find and eliminate viruses. Unfortunately, this is all it can do. There are no extra features included with CA Antivirus beyond the bare minimums. In many cases, this could be considered an asset due to speed increases associated with many minimalist programs. CA doesn't take advantage of this in the 2009 version which still slows your computer down all around.

Ease of Use:
CA Antivirus is extremely easy to use. Full system scans are only 2 clicks from the main program screen. If you need to change any advanced options, of which there are very few, you will have to go a little bit deeper within the program to find them.

Effectiveness:
CA Antivirus has been known for having solid products throughout their history. They didn't fail to impress this time around. The engine that is used for CA Antivirus is WCL, ICSA and VB100% certified and is well equipped to find and clean any viruses that it finds on your computer.

Updates:
Updates are checked for once a day if set to update automatically. If you have a need to get faster updates, there is an option to change the frequency of the automatic updates. You also have the ability to update manually if you have the need to do so.

Feature Set:
CA Antivirus includes no extended features that we could find in our testing of the product. Standard antivirus features such as a virus scanner, scan scheduling utility and quarantine are present, but comprise the full extent of features included with CA Antivirus.

Ease of Installation:
Installing CA Antivirus was fast and easy. There was a glitch on the registration screen that wouldn't allow us to register the product correctly. This issue did not hold us back as we could just cancel the registration.

Help/Support:
Support for CA Antivirus 2009 includes in-program help as well as online support options. The options available online consist of a knowledge base/FAQs. CA also offers direct phone support for $19.95 per incident. If you are inclined to search around the support website, you will find that they also offer free chat and email support. These additional options are somewhat buried and may be difficult to find.

Summary:
CA Antivirus 2009 is a good product for specific antivirus needs. It includes a good antivirus engine and stops there. Extended features are saved for other products within the CA family. If you have a specific need for JUST an antivirus program, CA Antivirus is a good option.
CA Antivirus

Clam Antivirus Review

By: Ashwin Satyanarayana

The open source revolution touched all but the anti-virus industry probably because the sophistication required of the industry isn't feasible for the open source revolution. However, this article examines the status of the only player in these unpredictable waters.

The open source revolution has literally turned the tables around with its rather bold entry into the industry making the source code accessible to the public. Open source makes things free to users and developers, as the case may be. But has the anti-virus industry seen anything of this sort? If Linux faces off against Microsoft, what pits against the popular anti-virus search engines? The answer is Clamwin Anti-virus, one of the very few open source anti-virus available in the industry. Clamwin (Clam Anti-Virus) managed to survive and fight its lonely, valiant battle.

Clamwin:

The only popular Open Source Anti-virus engine worth looking at
Somehow, the open source revolution has left the anti-virus industry alone and hasn’t bothered to check in. Perhaps, anti-virus – as a technology itself – is rather too precarious for open source to operate in. Maybe the model isn’t prudent at all. But against this backdrop, Clamwin tries to put up a dialog and act out its potential in an industry crowded with software that costs a bomb and has equally impressive features to boot.

Clamwin is an Open Source Software and comes with open source code, absolutely free of charge. All you have to do is download it and run it. It is based on the Clam AV technology for UNIX and has been primarily designed to guard and scan email on mail gateways. Anti-virus software is usually sophisticated and Clam anti-virus just cannot compare to that kind of sophistication.
However, based on some tests done by Larry Seltzer on eweek.com, it turned out to be more capable than what one’s first impressions might project.

Clam Anti-Virus: Does it replace the proprietary anti-virus software?
One really can’t jump ship and say so, simply because there are no numbers to prove that and not much data to play with. The Clam Antivirus does seem to be able to ferret out spy ware and malware but does not seem to have the sophistication of the better known anti-virus engines. Clam Anti-virus does not boast nifty pattern detection systems and instruction frequency detection.

Although the Clam Anti-virus engine has been developed to scan email, it raises some hackles. This piece of software has the “default” email scanning turned off and actually puts up a disclaimer that states it isn’t sure about the results and doesn’t take any responsibility whatsoever. This isn’t comforting, is it? However, a lot of commercial software won't take responsibility either, if you read carefully through their disclaimers.

Where does Clamwin Anti-Virus Stand?
There isn’t much to talk about where it figures among other anti-virus programs simply because there is nothing else comparable to it. Of course there was penantivirus which started a few years ago but there is no trace of that anywhere now. The Clam Anti-virus is being used by quite a few people- but nothing can be judged about its competency and efficiency unless it is pitted against similar software– which unfortunately, doesn't exist.

So you can use it on your PC if you don’t have any other options. But if you do have options, then for the time being, you are better off with the well-known anti-virus engines in the market. The anti-virus industry has yet to see a broad open source movement- and whether this will happen is still in the future.

Bullguard Antivirus Review

The latest version of BullGuard by BullGuard LTD offers a hefty feature set, reliable protection, decent support and includes one of the top-ranked anti-virus programs, BitDefnder. But, its inability to protect against several threats we tested it against kept it from climbing any higher than our #7 spot.

Bullguard Antivirs Feature Set:
This is where this program shines. The firewall features of BullGuard include intrusion detection for detecting port scans and other forms of attacks as well as extrusion detection too monitor programs trying to access the internet. BullGuard also allows the user the ability to switch from beginner mode to advance mode for full control of the internet connection.

BullGuard is one of the few firewall programs that gives you registry control. This feature warns you whenever a suspect change is attempted in your registry. In addition, this program offers file protection, network traffic monitoring and data filtering.

Another notable feature is the free BitDefender anti-virus protection that comes with BullGuard and you get email protection through this product, which protects your computer from threats disguised as, or hidden in, electronic mail.

If you want to view your system's monitoring screen, just click the more statistics button and a graphic view of your system activity will appear. Your taskbar always features a snapshot view of your computer as well.

Ease of Use:
Once you've installed Bullguard, the program remains in your taskbar until an application or event occurs, at which time it prompts on which action to take—we found this very easy to do.
One thing, however, that we feel would make this product even more convenient to use is the ability to change the classification of an application's privileges with more ease, like being able to right-click the application and choose a pre-listed option (i.e. allow, block and so on).

Ease of Installation:
We experienced no problems while installing BullGuard.

Reliability:
We found BullGuard to score fairly well on most of the firewall tests we ran it through, but it did fail to block tests on a referrer, cookies, solicited TCP packets and ping reply. This product also did a good job protecting most of it ports.

Help/Support:
BullGuard LTD. does a pretty good job supporting this software. We especially felt their online live chat support did a good job answering our questions, although we did have to wait a minute or to for our response from time to time.

Summary:
BullGuard has made some great improvements from their earlier versions, offering protection that encompasses your personal files, email and the rest of your computer from viruses and other cyber threats. But, with threats still able to get through, BullGuard just can't keep up with the herd.

BitDefender Antivirus Review

For those seeking the best antivirus software for the money AND an “install and forget” proposition, BitDefender is the right choice earning the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award.” Not only does it protect your computer and files, but BitDefender is easy to use, light on your computer and, maybe most importantly, light on your pocketbook.

No matter how technically capable any piece of software may be, the productivity enhancement it offers is only effective if people use it. This is especially true in antivirus software. The primary reasons people fail to protect their computers from a variety of malware are the cost and the 'burden' of installing and maintaining antivirus software. The best protection in the world is worthless if people find it cumbersome and distracting to use.

The same holds true for price. This is the beauty of BitDefender: It provides comprehensive protection, takes up little space on your computer, costs less and requires little maintenance. If you're a gamer you should consider the special GameSafe edition of BitDefender Antivirus.

BitDefender Standout Features

• Effective antivirus protection
• Light footprint on your computer
• Excellent value (One user license for one year at $24.95.)

Ease of Use:

Most people want antivirus software they can install and forget and BitDefender does just that! In less than a half an hour, you can download, install, follow the prompts, re-boot your system and voilá, you're protected and can forget about viruses, trojans, spyware, worms, and malware. Nobody wants to spend time tweaking antivirus software when they could otherwise be getting work done or watching the latest videos on Youtube. We all want protection without the effort or expense and now we can have our cake and eat it too.

When tested right out of the box with the default setting, BitDefender did exactly what it was supposed to do. It scanned boot-up files, recently accessed files, packed files and incoming and outgoing emails. For those who want more aggressive protection, BitDefender can be enabled to scan HTTP blocks on port 80 and 443 for malicious ActiveX and JavaScript which is nice, but not necessary. Simple installation of the program using the default setting is recommended for the average user.

One of the best advancements in the latest version of BitDefender has been the increase in scanning speed. Softwin makes BitDefender capable of logging when files were last accessed, and if a clean file hasn’t been used since the last scan, BitDefender skips it. This has made scans much faster than they used to be, which is nice because scan speeds were BitDefender’s prior weakness.

Effectiveness:

You might think antivirus software that’s this easy to use and this inexpensive might not be as effective as products with bigger brand names and bigger price tags, but you would be wrong. AV-Test.org is among the most prestigious, independent research laboratories in the world for testing antivirus software. In recent tests, BitDefender received their highest rating for having removed 98% of all viruses and spyware in their rigorous tests. In addition, BitDefender has received the highest ratings for effectiveness by Virus Bulletin (VB100%) and AV Comparatives.org, and was certified by ICSA, Checkvir.com and West Coast Labs for its ability to detect viruses and virus replication while minimizing false positives (detecting viruses that are not there).

One of the key features BitDefender has developed is a virtual machine that runs invisibly in the background on your computer where it tests suspicious code, which is code that looks like a virus but doesn't currently match any of the known virus signatures. In this way, BitDefender can protect your computer from viruses no one has reported yet. In the same tests by AV-Test.org, BitDefender scored higher than Kaspersky, Norton, Computer Associates (CA) and McAfee on its proactive detection of viruses and other malware with this heuristic approach. BitDefender scans somewhat slower than some of its competitors, due (we believe) to this virtual machine running. Naturally, there's going to be a price for this type of protection, but other products like ESET's NOD32 have done a better job at minimizing it.

Although BitDefender is great at removing viruses and spyware, it excels at protecting your system from incoming viruses. The new BitDefender can actually strip viruses from your incoming HTML stream before the virus makes it to your browser. We think every new computer should be outfitted with this kind of protection.

Updates:

Virus signatures need to be updated regularly to maintain overall effectiveness. The heart and soul of antivirus software is recognizing malicious code and BitDefender does that primarily by matching code on your computer with known virus signatures.

BitDefender updates its virus signatures every hour unless you adjust it to a longer interval. Or if you are really into managing your antivirus software (does your photo appear in Wikipedia under the listing geek?), you can set it to “manual” and manually update the virus signatures and decide what other features you want updated. Otherwise, just sit back and know that your BitDefender is updating itself every hour, 24/7.

Feature Set:

In the spirit of “install and forget” software, BitDefender doesn't go in for the blinking red and green lights to notify you of its activity. Instead, a tiny red and black icon appears in the lower-right corner of your desktop, just above the system tray. This unobtrusive icon is the scan activity monitor. A green line indicates when files are being scanned for viruses and spyware. You can remove the monitor by going into the configuration settings.

The antispyware section of BitDefender includes Privacy Protection. This feature is disabled by default, but turning this feature ON is recommended. In the Advanced Setting link, you can enter your credit card numbers or other private information, and if any Windows application attempts to send these over the Internet, it stops and requires your active permission. Otherwise, BitDefender will refuse any program that attempts to send your personal information over the Internet.

BitDefender is the only antivirus software reviewed with a gamer mode. With gamer mode enabled, online gamers are protected without sacrificing much performance. Since online gamers are notorious for disabling firewalls and other protection to optimize performance, this could be a lifesaver for the family computer used for online gaming by members of your household.

Ease of Installation:

Here is where BitDefender really shines. Installation is easy and intuitive. BitDefender also easily and transparently removes any other antivirus software you might have on your computer. This is a requirement for effective use of your computer after installation. Two antivirus packages on your system do not give you twice as much protection, but rather play havoc with performance and diminish protection.

Bit Defender uses about 60MB of hard disk space (new computers average about 200GB hard drive so it uses about .03% of your hard drive space), which is more than Kaspersky and NOD32, but about 1/3 of the space required for Norton AntiVirus.

Help/Support:

BitDefender does its job without you having to fuss or tinker with it. BitDefender is much like your car or phone, ready when you are. It works without you having to. You can rest assured, though, in the rare case when you may need some help, BitDefender offers good live support either over the phone or through live chat online.

Previously, BitDefender phone support required you to fork out money for a long-distance call to Europe. But the manufacturer, Softwin, has since issued a FREE phone support line for you to use (1-888-868-1873), making it cheaper and easier to get support when you need it.
For common issues, BitDefender offers a FAQs page. BitDefender can also be reached via email at support@bitdefender.com, and they have been very prompt and effective in answering questions.

Summary:

BitDefender is nearly everything you’ll want in easy-to-use, highly-effective antivirus and antispyware software. When BitDefender upgrades their tech support and improves their uninstall utility, they will have a nearly perfect product.

BitDefender received the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” as the top antivirus software for its consistent high performance in protecting your computer, ease of use and installation. BitDefender is highly effective and offers trememdous value without making a dent in your pocketbook. For superior performance, protection, and price, we recommend BitDefender Antirvirus 2009.

AVG Antivirus Review

AVG Antivirus has been an up and coming virus scanner for many years. Its free version is one of the most downloaded files on the Internet in the Computer Security sector. The new interface is clean and intuitive while still remaining useful.

AVG went through a re-write of their virus scanning engine and included two of their stand alone products with AVG Antivirus as well. AVG Antispyware and AVG Antirootkit were both integrated with the virus scanner. Also revamped is the way AVG Antivirus uses the hardware within your computer. It has been changed to make better use of the multiple cores which are common in todays computers. This should speed up scanning as well as reduce slowdowns.

Ease of Use:

Though AVG Antivirus is mostly a hands-off program, there may be some instances when you may need to configure some advanced options. For 99% of the population though, the default options will be more than sufficient.
The menus within AVG Antivirus are very simple and offer all the options and information needed to keep your system safe from Internet threats.

Effectiveness:

AVG Antivirus is one of the most complete programs we have found to date. It includes many new options to make it one of the most effective virus scanners on the market. It is still plagued by horrible slowdowns at times. Even things so simple as just typing an IM can be stopped for several seconds for some reason. If you can get passed the occasional slowdowns of your computer, the scanning functionality of AVG Antivirus 8 is top of the line. With the rewrite of the scanning engine, AVG includes multi-processor support. That dual core processor you bought is actually going to start getting a workout now. AVG also includes support for Windows Vista and the 64 bit versions of Windows XP and Vista.

Updates:

AVG Checks for updates every 4 hours by default. You can change this to any interval you wish. The updates section of AVG Antivirus also shows you which virus database version you have, as well as when the last update was. It also tells you when the next update is scheduled. All of this information is also displayed on the main menu screen so that you always have the information at your fingertips.

Feature Set:

AVG Technologies, formerly Grisoft, has gone above and beyond with the new release of AVG Antivirus. Included with the virus scanner, are a rootkit scanner, spyware scanner, an on-access scanner called Resident Shield, email scanner and a link scanning browser plug-in. There is also a portion of AVG Antivirus called Web Shield. Web Shield is a chopped down firewall application that scans standard web ports for any threats encountered while browsing the web. It also includes protection for MSN Messenger and ICQ.

Ease of Installation:

Installing AVG Antivirus 8 was easy and only took about 10 minutes including downloading the additional updates required after installation finished. We had no issues or errors during the install.

Help/Support:

With the name change from Grisoft to AVG Technologies, the support site was updated and saw many improvements over the old design. Support offerings included with AVG Antivirus 8 are a FAQs, email support, phone-based technical support, as well as an inclusive support section within the program itself.

Summary:

Version 8 of AVG Antivirus is a definite improvement over version 7.5. The scanning features have been sped up and the new interface is a clean and modern take on a time-tested product.
Including a link scanner and integrating AVG Antispyware and AVG AntiRootkit provides an even more effective product. An unfortunate problem that has plagued AVG products for quite some time has not been eliminated, even though AVG did a complete rewrite of the virus scanning engine. The on-access scanner still tends to slow down computers to the point where they are not usable at times. This isn't a constant factor and has been improved significantly, but you will notice it when it happens. Beyond the slowdown issue, AVG Antivirus 8 is a complete product that will help keep your computer clean and safe.

Avast Home Edition Review

Avast Home Edition is a complete ICSA & Checkmark certified antivirus, Checkmark certified anti-spyware & anti-rootkit package. Avast includes the following components: On demand scanner with skinnable simple interface, just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the Play button; On access scanner, special providers to protect the most of available e-mail clients; Instant messaging--ICQ, Miranda; Network traffic--intrusion detection, lightweight firewall; P2P protection for Kazaa, BitTorrent; Web shield--monitors and filters all HTTP traffic; NNTP scanner--scans all Usenet Newsgroup traffic and all operations with files on PC; Boot time scanner--scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does.

AOL Active Virus Shield

BY: ROBERT VAMOSI

AOL has released to the general public a free antivirus program, AOL Active Virus Shield, based on Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6. For a free antivirus program, we think it's very good, and we wish other major antivirus vendors would offer light versions of their products. Kaspersky is well known within the antivirus community as one of the better antivirus apps in terms of catching malware, and in CNET Labs' tests, we found that Kaspersky didn't slow our test PC like Norton AntiVirus, nor did it take as long to scan our entire test hard drive. The same is true with this "lite" version, the second free security application to be offered through AOL. For a look inside, see our AOL Active Virus Shield slide show.

Installation requires that you give AOL your e-mail address; it will in exchange send you an activation code good for a year of product updates. AOL may also send you additional information on other security products yet to be offered. When you download the Active Virus Shield, AOL offers Internet Explorer users an additional toolbar that will show a real-time update on your computer's security status via Active Security Monitor, a password manager, a pop-up blocker, and a link to the Whois domain registration database to find more information on potentially suspicious sites.

While it doesn't match what you get if you'd paid, AOL gives you a much better package than you'd expect for free. Like the free version of Grisoft AVG, AOL Active Virus Shield provides real-time protection against active virus threats, meaning the program constantly scans your system for malware as opposed to waiting until you open an infected file, and it also protects against e-mail viruses. Like the paid antivirus programs, AOL Active Virus Shield can pause its antivirus protection for a predetermined time while installing new software, and it allows you to schedule antivirus scans hourly, daily, or weekly, if you prefer. You also get hourly antivirus signature file updates with the AOL product, which is important because other free antivirus apps, such Grisoft AVG, allow only one daily update. In the middle of a widespread virus attack, when a virus might change its signature frequently to avoid detection, you'll appreciate having AOL Active Virus Shield.

What you won't get are rescue disk capabilities; the creation of an emergency boot disk should a virus ka-pow your system is standard with paid antivirus utilities. Also missing are some additional scanning capabilities. But the protection that you do get is good, and AOL Active Virus Shield won't slow your system or otherwise affect its performance.

Avira Antivirus Review

Avira AntiVir Personal Free Antivirus is a comprehensive, easy to use antivirus program, designed to offer reliable free of charge virus protection to home-users only. Avira offers: Extensive Malware Recognition of viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, worms; Automatic incremental updates of antivirus signatures, engine and entire software; Permanent virus protection, with Virus Guard real time monitoring; Install and configuration in just a couple of steps, setup to protect your PC in minutes; Virus protection against known and unknown threats, using an advanced heuristic system; Scheduler where you can set the scanner to make automatic virus scans or updates on your system; Forum and phone support; Knowledge Base with virus descriptions available on web site; Rootkit Detection and Removal; A modularized AV-search engine for improved scan performance.

Version 9 introduces a quick-removal button for eliminating viruses with a single click, enhanced anti-spyware and anti-adware engines, and support for low resolution netbook screens.

McAfee Anti Virus Review

McAfee is an industry leader in computer protection and VirusScan is their #1 defense against viruses. This software comes with a ScriptStopper to prevent viruses from propagating from one computer to another via email, and WormStopper.

Ease of Use:

If you use the default settings, setup is a breeze. The default settings provide very good protection against viruses, Trojans, worms, malicious ActiveX controls and Java applets.
The SecurityCenter has several tabs besides the VirusScan tab. There is one for Personal Firewall+, Privacy Service and SpamKiller. These are other programs offered by McAfee.

Effectiveness:

VirusScan boasts one of the best virus detection records. The software has received the VB100% award, the ICSA award and passed both level 1& 2 Checkmarks from West Coast Labs.

Updates:

McAfee VirusScan 9.0 automatically downloads updated virus definitions from the Internet on a regular basis. Staying up to date will dramatically decrease any possibility that a virus will infect your computer. On Average, McAfee comes out with new virus definitions on a daily basis.
You will have to register and login to get updates making the process longer than it needs be.

Feature Set:

McAfee VirusScan offers a rich list of features. You can set VirusScan to scan your computer at a preprogrammed scheduled time. The program also scans for spyware and adware.
You can't add several tasks to the Scheduled Scan. It would be great to be able to scan all files once a month and only program files weekly or any other tasks you would like to set up.
McAfee has an Antivirus Emergency Response Team that continually monitors the worldwide virus activities to provide you with the utmost safety. The always-on protection guards against viruses, spyware and other Internet threats that may enter your PC via e-mail, instant message attachments, Internet downloads, and web browsing.

One of the newest features is also one of our favorites. It's the QuickScan feature, which basically narrows virus scans to the most vulnerable and frequently attacked parts of your computer. This makes scanning much faster, although we still recommend doing a full scan periodically. Another great feature that can save you some time is SiteAdvisor. This system automatically gives you a visual signal in your browser telling you if the link you are about to click on will send you to a malware site. This can significantly decrease your infection rate, if used properly.

Ease of Installation:

We didn't encounter any problems during the installation process. Recently, McAfee has simplified the setup process, making installation faster than it used to be. But don't get too excited, installation times will still vary depending on the computer.

Help/Support:

McAfee has plenty of help options, including documentation, email and phone support. We were disappointed with their email response time - it took 5 days to respond and they didn't answer all of our questions, hence the low rating.

Summary:

McAfee is a name brand product that does an excellent job at detecting and removing viruses. Their update process can be somewhat tedious and their support department needs to answer their emails in a more timely manner.