Which Anti-Virus solution?

[Tridene Solutions]

I resell both AVG and McAfee. My preference for business-level antivirus is AVG, purely because it's not too heavy on system resources (unlike Symantec antivirus) and you can manage all the PC's from the server. It has a great admin console from which you can roll out the software across your network, initiate network-wide updates and on-demand scans. It also allows you configure each machine's settings from there too. The McAfee enterprise solution is a bit more clunky and not as well integrated however detection rates on McAfee are good.

Don't forget, if you have a hardware firewall on your network, then you don't want a software firewall installed (unless you're on a laptop which is used elsewhere). It'll just slow you down so make sure you're just using a plain antivirus package, not one of these suites of software (AV/AS/Firewall combined etc). They are a tremendous pain.

For home use, then AVG free edition is perfect.

As for recommended firewalls, for business use I generally use Watchguard, cisco (if you have the budget!). For home, don't use a USB ADSL modem, get a proper router. My choice is a Netgear DG834 wireless router. In fact it's a great crossover product for both home and small business. It has all the features you'd ever need and is totally secure and invisible to the internet. use Home of Gibson Research Corporation to test yours!

Many Thanks,

Rich

[trevorwood]

Originally Posted by Tridene Solutions

if you have a hardware firewall on your network, then you don't want a software firewall installed

beg to disagree - a hardware firewall will protect incoming nasties, but if you've got a trojan on your system it may not. A good software firewall will have a a list of allowed applications (e.g. Outlook, IE) and ask you about others. It will also spot when an allowed application has changed - just in case something has infected it.

Software firewalls can also have privacy filters so that if you have kids (for example) you can set them to block certain websites.

I would recommend having a software firewall as well as a hardware fire wall, a good anti virus program and a good anti spam program.

IMHO of course (but speaking as a person who has never had a virus or trojan infection on any of his (now 6) computers in the last 20+ years)

[AdamW]

Eset NOD32. Best I've ever used!

[B_Cal]

Norton - Resource hog - ditched four / five years ago

Been with Panda Software since - very pleased with it and the associated support.

Using it on three different platforms, Vista, Windows XP and Ubuntu

Rgds

Roy

[Gerry Brannigan]

The only people that recommend Norton AV are those who are trying to sell it to you. McAfee is slightly better than Norton but I wouldn't recommend either of them.

I use bitdefender. I found bitdefender when I got a virus when I had AVG installed. Haven't had any problems since installing bitdefender.

AVG is OK for the average user as long as you install SpyBot SD and Ad-aware to ensure you get full protection.

bitdefender total security has it all. Currently in discussion with them about becoming a partner.

[Tridene Solutions]

Hi Trevor, yes you're right, however in a business environment there is no need for "child" filters. Microsoft state that no software firewall is necessary in their supported network configurations probably due to a lot of network-based communication between the network PC's and servers in a business environment. The only exception is Windows Essential Business Server which comes with an internet-facing security server running Microsoft Forefront. We always go by Microsoft's rules, purely because when implementing their solutions, it saves on hassle.

As for BitDefender, we are a reseller for them and whilst not a bad product, our customers found numerous issues with performance so we dropped it.

Many Thanks,

Rich

[Gerry Brannigan]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the info regarding BitDefender. good to know these things before I go with them as a partner.

Hi Roy,

I too have used Panda AV 2009, a great product, no complaints about it.

[Tridene Solutions]

One other thing that's just sprung to mind is that we've all been talking about antivirus software. NOT Antivirus solutions.

To all you businesses who are running small networks somewhere in the region of 5 PC's and upwards, or who are running Microsoft Small Business Server networks, you should be considering the following:

1) PC file scanner
2) Hardware Firewall
3) Internet-based Email filtering as a service. (Antispam, Antivirus and content filtering)

This is probably the best you can ask for. Why would you waste your bandwidth downloading junk/virus email only to delete them when they land on your system? Filtering them out before they reach you saves you time, effort, bandwidth and risk.

If you would like more details, please feel free to ask.

Many Thanks,

Rich

[whistle ink]

I got the Kaspersky free through Barclays - seems to be ok.

[mandyjane]

I have dabbled with many of them over the years, on my laptop I use shield delux 2009 because so many comparison sites rated it highly Compare 2009 Antivirus Software
Mandy
HP

[Nigel]

Originally Posted by Timmo

I always avoid McAfee and Norton takes up so much of your RAM and slows load up times quite a lot, I always advise customers to either remove it or remove it when their subscription is up. Personally it depends on what you use your computer for, if it's just general web checks and email you'll be perfectly fine with AVG or Avira and Spybot: Search and Destroy. If your using the internet for more than that and you have kids etc i'd look at investing in Eset:Nod32 anti virus, just as good as Norton and McAfee if not better and doesn't slow your load time down or hog your RAM.

I have to disagree with the comment on Eset Nod 32. I had it installed and I clicked on a link that my teenage son sent me and was infected with the mother of all viruses. This virus swept past Nod 32 and proceeded to disable windows defender and a specialist malware removal tool I use called Hijack this!

I also have a russian programme called unhackme by Greatis software which deals with rootkit trojans and this was also outwitted by this virus now known as Max ++ I eventually removed most of it with a very specialist piece of freeware called combo but its use is not recommended withou supervision. I did and got away with it. after uninstalling Nod32, I installed McAfee snd it runs nice and fast and found further infections.

Here is a link to a useful FREE utility called Stinger that McAfee produce that can be used to report or repair infected machine if you have suspicions. You do not need to buy anything or indeed alter your existing anti-virus setup to use this. So If your machine is running slow or you have doubts its not a bad option. My son has kept me on my toes lately so if anyone has probs I would try to help if poss if you message me. I would stress though that Im not a professional computer expert, just someone who has managed to keep his head above the shark infested waters on the internet!

Here is the link for info and a free download of Stinger by McAfee

McAfee Threat Center

Cheers

Nigel

Nigel Heaton
Capital Business Sales And Finance
Confidential Business Transfer Specialists

[webhostuk]

Hello,

I personally like Norton, McAfee is also a good option.

[Mark]

Do you not find both are massive resource hogs?

I'm currently using COMODO and it's amazing.

[writecombination]

I find the most effective anti-virus is to keep the kids away from the computer!

Seriously, I hear lots of different stories from different people and I think it's all down to your own experience and the way you use the internet.

[Gerry Brannigan]

After testing many different security solutions we became partners with AVG and all of our Business customers now use the AVG Internet Security for SBS. We made a decision not to sell the AVG Anti-Virus but to only offer customers the complete Internet Security as some users can get easily confused about what protection they have.

[Mark Hutchinson]

I use AVG in conjunction with malwarebytes not had a virus or malware in over 5 years