Antivirus solutions

[brado426]

Slowness after booting is one of my many complaints regarding Norton Internet Security. In most circumstances, it has taken about a minute for NIS to finish its startup tasks and actually let the user begin working. This is unacceptable behavior, in my opinion.

My second major complaint is that NIS's Office/Outlook Integration is buggy and causes Office to crash on exit, etc.... Disabling the e-mail integration always fixes this problem.

[tomj]

Being mainly a Mac user, I don't run any virus/spyware protection! However on certain PC's that I work on, I install AVG, because it's light and free! On my own Personal Windows machine, I don't use AV, I'm just careful, however I do most all of my surfing on my Mac.

Norton has been infamously tagged as Bloatware, however the Tech Guru Leo Laporte recently was saying that the newest version of Norton is a lot better than it used to be. My brother-in-law who works for a large Fortune 500 company as a network guy said they use Symantec Corporate Edition, and that it's not too taxing on their systems.

[daddy-o-p40]

I subscribe to PCWorld magazine, and they have the exact opposite preferences for antivirus software than you do, brado426.

IMHO PCWorld mag is more of a catalog than a magazine. They appear to favor their advertisers in their "objective" reviews.

Check out this CNET review:

CNET 2007 antivirus performance test scores
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6600_7-665 ... ?tag=sc.tf

What's interesting is Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 does the best from a performance standpoint. The interesting part is the software the Church had used it previously, think it was called Command-C, it used the Kaspersky engine.

So I guess what I am saying is we've been spoiled all along. Now we have enlisted the services of a dog slow anti-virus solution.

[thedqs]

Someone from Ancestry was speaking about things at the PAF user group meeting some time back here and he advised against using AVG because of spyware that allegedly came with it. Not a really bad spyware item, but one that should be taken seriously nonetheless. One of the spyware trappers I run has AVG in their database of known spyware spreaders.

I have a sperate spyware scanner and it doesn't list AVG as a spyware component. Anyway that I could verify that?

[Daryl1]

What about Panda? Or better yet considering a different operating sytstem like what was mentioned by Tomj use the Mac operating system?

I just had a thought. I am not permoting products. Just an observation. Schools throughout America all use to be 90% Mac then someone decided to go PC. Then madness began. It has costs the schools a small fortune to keep the PC up and running. They require maintance daily with registry fix just to keep them running error free. Now they throw the machines away when one breaks. Labor is too high to repair. Throw away society? I know that some landfills can be see from space now. :DJust a side note.

Our local principle showed me the cost of the Mac's new in the late 80's and then the cost of todays PC even with the low price the maintance and labor to keep them up and running is great. Mac's are more initial cost but in the long run less costly due to low break downs and maintance issues.

There are pros and cons to everything, nothing is perfect in our present condition. Reliability and productivitly is key though to be successful in a perverse and corrupt generation. Microsoft operating systems seem to be the most targeted.

Just a few thoughts.

Am I in left field here

[rmrichesjr]

What about Panda? Or better yet considering a different operating sytstem like what was mentioned by Tomj use the Mac operating system?

...

There are pros and cons to everything, nothing is perfect in our present condition. Reliability and productivitly is key though to be successful in a perverse and corrupt generation. Microsoft operating systems seem to be the most targeted.

Just a few thoughts.

Am I in left field here

(It is not my intent to start an OS war. Respect for differing opinions and the people who hold them is very important.)

Another potentially advantageous alternative would be Linux or some other Unix-like OS. In most cases, this could use existing hardware, it would basically eliminate the need for the current problematic anti-virus stuff, and many in the industry would consider a properly administered Unix-like system to have significant security advantages over the current setup.

One nice thing with MLS being based on Java is it can run on a wide variety of systems.

In other threads, mention has been made that more local people are familiar with the current OS. I would suggest that there may be more local people than would meet the eye who are competent to provide local support for Linux or other Unix-like systems or who are willing to learn.

[mkmurray]

I would suggest that there may be more local people than would meet the eye who are competent to provide local support for Linux or other Unix-like systems or who are willing to learn.

I'm amazed at how user friendly the GUI's are getting for some Linux distros like Ubuntu, etc. I believe it's getting close to the time where any average Windows user would feel comfortable with a switch to Linux.

[Daryl1]

Thanks rmrichesjr, I agree and feel the same. I also do not want to start an OS war. I have a respect for differing opinions and the people who hold them. I was just making an observation. I am in no way trying to put down or make fun of what anyone is doing. Everyone is important and can contribute.

I was in a lab and was using some lab computers that I thought were running on windows but later found out they were running on Linux. The GUI (graphics user interface) made Linux very friendly.

I did not know it was Linux OS. I agree It is getting better and better.

[brado426]

I appreciate the fact that the church appears to try to stick with technology that typical businesses use. In my opinion, doing this helps keep costs down and standards in-line.

[oscarschultz]

I would encourage anyone concerned with virus and like problems to try linux (fedora, debian,knoppix, ubunto, kubunto all excellent). Just as important as using first rate tools is learning and training to understand how to use the tools . The comunity has a lot of howtos and kindly folks willing to help those willing to learn.

I switched to linux in 1998. There are things I have had to do without because of my decision but I have not regreted the changeover. For the most part the family has switched as well although the people wanting the latest games have been disappointed. Users in my home range in age from 3 to old. The things everone needs are there - some plugins, video things and games are lacking or limited but those tools are not central to why we have computers in our home.

So far I've had no (zero) virus problems or breakins.

good luck in your adventures

oscar