Yet more Evidence

[Mercutio]

... that Symantec is evil.

Recently found some machines that had fairly large numbers of viruses - java-based trojans, actually, in the usual locations for such things (Windows Temp Folder and Temporary Internet Files), using my good friend housecall.
The funny thing is, I vaguely remember Symantec AV finding and cleaning those viruses in the past.

Oddly enough, the latest versions of NAV 2005 and SAVC 9 just came out a few weeks ago. NAV 2005 has a new category of bad things, basically for spyware and worms.

Guess what category Symantec puts the viruses I'm finding in for the 2005 version of Norton?

Hmmm...

 

[Tea]

I'm slow today. You better explain in more detail. (Not explain that Symantec does X-rated things to babies, I know that, explain about the categories thing.)

BTW, we clean out nasty worms and things off machines with the latest Norton products installed and up-to-date as mere routine. You see it all the time. Basically, as an anti-virus product, NAV is utterly incompetent.

 

[Mercutio]

Instead of merely calling everything a virus and having appropriate definitions, apparently NAV2005 breaks down malware into categories (Worm, Virus, Trojan etc), with different definitions.

Some of the things that used to be called viruses now aren't, and may (?) have been removed from current SAVC/NAV definitions.

I think. I'm still investigating.

Anyway, we all know Symantec sucks. We all hate it. We all know people who use it. It's our standard where I work (Boss has always used it etc). I *DO* happen to hate it less than Mcafee.

 

[Tea]

I hate it more than MacAwful. But probably only because we only see MacAwful once a week or so and we see Suckmantec and Nausea Anti-Virus every bloody day. I have grown to despise uninstalling the damn thing: around 50% of the time it won't uninstall and you have to do it the hard way: via REGEDIT. And it's a bitch of a job, as Suckmantec sprinkle random entries in the registry around with a very large bucket. It takes ages.

 

[EdwardK]

Tea, my sentiments exactly! I posted here once where I uninstalled NAV2003 and totally lost my internet connection. Then I was not bothered to do a REGEDIT. So I just re-installed Windows.
In my opinion, Symantec is becoming like Microsoft where "If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em out"

Cheers,
Edward

 

[LunarMist]

I dislike NAV as well, but what is the best AV alternative?

 

[Bookmage]

yes, what is the best AV alt? other than linux
I'd have to recommend NAV over Crappafee.
so please, enlighten us to a better alternative...

 

[The JoJo]

F-secure?

 

[LunarMist]

F-secure? Is that an abbreviation?

 

[The JoJo]

http://www.f-secure.com/

Again, recommended.

 

[Tea]

PC-cillan isn't perfect, but it's close.

VET is OK but has a couple of weird and silly issues, notably with Nero. It was much better when it was a stand-alone Aussie product instead of a swallowed-up CA aquisition.

IBM Antivirus used to be excellent but it got swallowed up by Symantec and turned into pox.

Norman Antivirus is another worthwhile one.

Of course, at home I do the same as Mercutio. I don't run any of them. I have a hardware firewall, I don't use known high-risk software (Internet Explorer, Outbreak, MS Office) and I don't open attachments. Now and again I scan with Housecall. Practically never find anything.

At work, the machines that matter run OS/2. Totally virus-free.

 

[Fushigi]

I dislike NAV as well, but what is the best AV alternative?

http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2004/7/10/163331/710

 

[Buck]

NOD32

Not only do I mention this option because of Eset's great record of detecting In the Wild Viruses and generating No False Positives across many platforms according to Virus Bulletin, but also because through personal experience NOD32 always comes through when the more popular anti-virus scanning engines have failed. Plus, the performance hit on the machine in negligible. For the situations where a customer has been infected, running an online virus scanner has proven impossible because of virus interference, yet, the installation of NOD32 has always worked for me. The one option that I have not tried and would like to try is, as JoJo mentioned, F-Secure.

 

[Will Rickards WT]

yes, what is the best AV alt?

NOD32 by Eset

 

[Bookmage]

I was just checking over the recent systems I've been working on and realised... I forgot to install some form of AV on it. I have NAV running on my daily box but nothing on my servers. Then I realised why. I don't access the internet on them, don't receive email, don't any weird/unknown programs and
all they do is store data. My daily box however, runs Outlook, Office, Mozilla and I'm still virus free. I still use Outlook cause I have yet to find a good alternative to it, that does email, calender, notes, and tasks in one program.

OS/2???
Does the BOFH run your office?
:mrgrn:

 

[Tea]

You know how the BOFH always makes jokes about OS/2 users? Both of them? WEll, that's me and Tannin. :wink:

 

[time]

NOD32. Twice as fast as anything else, yet more thorough (according to the detailed Virus Bulletin subscriber-only reports). And fuss free.

However, there is no such thing as perfect A/V software. While I was disinfecting a machine just a few weeks ago, NOD and Housecall both found one or two viruses/trojans that the other didn't. I thought about notifying the vendors, but I wasted enough time as it was - if you can't rely on the tools, you have to painstakingly check everything.

 

[The JoJo]

time, what does the ranking of virus bulletin look like know for the different vendors/products?

 

[time]

Sorry, I don't have any recent info, but here's the last three 'On Demand' performance tables from their website:

June 2003 - Win XP Pro

November 2003 - Win 2003 Server

February 2004 - Win NT

Unfortunately, their test collection was months behind for the February test.

I notice that NOD32 no longer enjoys the huge speed advantage it had a year ago (5 times faster than NAV).