AV Software that allows port opening?

[Santilli]

Hi
I've been trying to open a port in the current trial version of eset. No joy.
Is this feature avaliable, and just not useable in the trial version?

If not, any other suggestions for AV, that allows using Vuze?

 

[MaxBurn]

I much prefer to keep AV and firewall separate and I don't have problems with utorrent or ventrillo server port opening when using avast. For the firewall it is a combination of windows firewall and a 3com office connect.

 

[Tannin]

What Max says. Short answer: third-party firewalls suck, especially when they are part of an AV suite. Never seen a good one yet..

 

[Mercutio]

What does antivirus software have to do with firewall functionality?

 

[ddrueding]

ESET makes the good program, NOD32, which is a great antivirus app (IMHO, the best)

They also make "System Security" or some such that tries to replicate all the crap that Norton and McAffee do; firewall, app scanning, internet nannying, etc.

 

[time]

Translation: you downloaded the wrong product, Greg.

 

[Stereodude]

And why on earth are you using Vuze? Try this instead.

 

[Tannin]

What does antivirus software have to do with firewall functionality?

Is that question supposed to be for me? I'll answer it anyway, or at least answer a related question:

Firewalls that are part of an AV package are add-ons, afterthoughts, products introduced primarily for one-more-tick-on-the-box-in-the-supermarket reasons, not as an actual security product per se. They tend to be pretty horrible.

Firewalls that are sold stand-alone tend to be products specifically designed to do what they do. That's a big difference.

Unfortunately (unfortunately in a way), the Windows Firewall does pretty much everything that any rational person could want a firewall to do, and that means that the third-party firewalls have to offer all sorts of crap functions that Microsoft very sensibly left out of their product, otherwise no-one would buy them, so they wind up as disgusting bloatware just like Mcafee and Norton. Hell, have you looked at Zone Alarm, lately?

Last time I looked at it Comodo seemed sort of OK. But it's probably horrible by now too.

 

[Santilli]

http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN2149

 

[Santilli]

The above feature is NOT in the trial version.

 

[ddrueding]

Yeah. Don't do the Smart Security. It isn't so smart, nor any more secure then the good stuff (NOD32).

 

[Mercutio]

You guys know that Microsoft made Security Essentials free for all their client OSes, right?

 

[Howell]

Vipre is the bomb. Protect 3 or more PCs for $50 a year.

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/VIPRE/

 

[Mercutio]

I said YOU KNOW MICROSOFT MADE SECURITY ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE FREE FOR ALL THEIR CLIENT OSES, RIGHT?

 

[ddrueding]

I said YOU KNOW MICROSOFT MADE SECURITY ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE FREE FOR ALL THEIR CLIENT OSES, RIGHT?

I do. I just haven't used it enough to trust it yet.

 

[MaxBurn]

Am I the only one sitting here thinking who the heck is vipre antivirus? The next gen MPXVQRS marketecture crap is sending up red flags in my head, really easy to make things up and throw together a chart and say hey look no one else has this!

 

[Mercutio]

They're also the only ones with "next generation" malware protection, so that must be good.

 

[Will Rickards]

I do. I just haven't used it enough to trust it yet.

Same here. Because it is from MS I have this expectation that it will be slow to have definition updates. Maybe that isn't the case.

I still use NOD32 for myself. For others I recommend NOD32 but if they don't want to pay, I use avast. Maybe I'll recommend the MS thing if they don't want to pay.

 

[LunarMist]

I though MXV was a tire.

 

[Tea]

I though MXV was a tire.

Correct! Michelin MXV

 

[Tea]

Sorry Merc. My chain of logic works like this:

A: It's a security product
B: It's from Microsoft
C: A and B don't match. Obviously, it's not really a security product.
D: Look elsewhere.

OK, I'm soundig flippant and dismissive, but why the hell wouldn't you be dismissive of yet another useless insecurity product from that same stable. Unless you have compelling evidence that this really, really is the very first MS security product that's worth a bucket of camel spit, I'll pass.

 

[Mercutio]

I've seen it actually catch viruses. Which, compared to some security products I've tried, is a marked improvement. Also it seems to be very light on system resources, which is almost more important.

Really. Give it a try.

 

[Bozo]

I have MS Security Essentials installed on a few computers. It was the only one that found and removed 'Internet Security 2010' scamware.
Updates appear to show up daily.
At work, Symantec Corp Edition was screwing with our proprietary software. After removing Symantec and installing MS, no more problems.

So far, so good.

 

[Santilli]

Been using AVAST, and, I like it. I like an easy interface to scan certain files, constantly, manually.

I wish it had an OFF button...I also like not having another firewall, since I'm using windows, and Peerblock...

 

[MaxBurn]

MS updates their malware scanner every day, using that plus avast under win7. I have MSE in my virtual machines and use them a couple times a week and it updates about every time I run them. I have been paying attention to other forums on the MSE question and I haven't really found a lot of people bad mouthing it which seems really good.

 

[Tannin]

Some very deep (and very well-earned) suspicion emenating from the Tannin household. Frankly, I don't believe it. Not long-term. Not unless the worm has turned and the leopard changed his spots is a most dramatic way.

I'll wait and see. Someone else - someone with more of a desire to take risks than me - can beta test what is, apparently, the first ever Microsoft security product that actually works.

Remind me to look at it again in two or three years time. If it is still getting good reports then, I'll consider it.

 

[LunarMist]

Leopards have rosettes. Cheetahs have spots.

 

[Tannin]

Hoolie doolie! Nice to see that I'm not the only pedant still surviving after all these years. Damn it, I was quite proud of myself for being able to spell "leopard", now I'm going to have to learn to do "rosettes" as well.

 

[LunarMist]

I've spent entire days watching leopards, so I know them well enough.

 

[Mercutio]

Remind me to look at it again in two or three years time. If it is still getting good reports then, I'll consider it.

Security software changes rather more quickly than that and you know it. Right now, MSSE is free and good. It's lightweight, unobtrusive and seems to be bug-free. It's well worth the time needed to evaluate such a thing, especially when you have tons of customer machines, undoubtedly many with expired AV software, to experiment on.

 

[MaxBurn]

I was under the impression that MSE was a result of MSFT purchasing some company so it isn't exactly an in house thing.

 

[Mercutio]

Kind of. It's the result of improvements to OneCare Live, which I think came from something they bought or licensed from Panda Antivirus back in 2004 or 2005.

 

[Howell]

I said YOU KNOW MICROSOFT MADE SECURITY ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE FREE FOR ALL THEIR CLIENT OSES, RIGHT?

I'm actually running MSE on my laptops right now as it is free. I like it ok for the two machines I have my hands on daily. However, installing pre-release software into multiple environments where collectively nodes run into the thousands is not my idea of a safe bet.

Anecdotally, my coworker removed MSE and installed Vipre on his home computer and Firefox launches went from 14 sec to 2 sec.

The easiest sale is when Vipre removes viruses and rootkits that other properly installed and updated anti-virus didn't even notice (so far NAV, SEP, AVG, Komodo, Trend). It doesn't hurt that Vipre will extend the length of their license to cover your existing AVs remaining license.

I realize we are paid to be cynical about "new and improved" but I really do think it's that good. DoubleTake is also made by Sunbelt Software.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm not arguing that Sunbelt is a good name, just that I've never heard of their antivirus product. If it's OK, that's good, but it goes in the pile with NOD32 and Kaspersky as something I might evaluate at some point when I need corporate licenses again for some reason.

MSSE is not pre-release software. There is a for-pay commercial product, Microsoft Forefront Security, which offers the usual corporate security software perks (management console, local update server, plus hooks into normal Windows management stuff etc) that uses the same underlying engine. Microsoft makes the client available free for any machine that passes a Genuine Software check.

 

[Tea]

Microsoft makes the client available free for any machine that passes a Genuine Software check.

Wow! You mean this is, in those famous words, "one of the many benefits of owning genuine software"? Wow! Tell me about the other benefit!

 

[Tannin]

Shutup Tea.

Haven't you ever forgotten to untick the box after the WGA crap has finished installing?

 

[ddrueding]

Wow! Tell me about the other benefit!

You get to keep your desktop wallpaper?

 

[Tea]

Well, yes, but I just closed the window without looking.

 

[Tannin]

Well, you should have looked! I have.

 

[Tea]

Really, Tannin? What did you find?