What is the best anti-virus software for XP? I have plenty of memory and a fast CPU if that makes a difference.
Reviews on CNET say pc-cillin 2000 is crap, and that Norton 2002 is great, but slows your pc down big time.
Grateful for anyone’s opinion.
btw, i am currently using a fake pc-cillin 2000, but want to ‘go legit’ so that I can get regularly update.
If you have plenty of RAM and a nice CPU, get Norton AV. Has been working fine for me. Definitely an improvement from past editions.
Kong
I have XP on one of my rigs, P3 600 with 256 RAM, and I got no problems. That’s because you can schedule it to run full scans whenever you’re not using the pc.
I’ve been usin’ NAV for a long time and never had any pest problems. Just the other day, I was downloading a file through kazaa, and I wasn’t even done downloading, when NAV caught that sucker by the head, swallowed it whole and just pooped it out like a little shitter, amazing.
Anyway, NAV is the thing to get.
Invircible is my favorite. Not like PCCilin and NAV, it stops them right THERE, before they get in. Try it from: invircible.com CPU consumption is no problem at all.
THT, tell me you’re kidding. Or admit you’re some reseller of theirs.
‘Invircible’ is argubly THE most infamous crap to have ever grazed the PC scene. They lost all credibility a very long time ago.
One version of theirs was known to wipe out the whole HD! :shock:
Check this out:
And alot of other weird stuff.
That thing’s evil!
I gotta say that of all the AV software I’ve ever used, I’ve never found a perfect solution. I’ve found Norton to be the best of the contenders though against both viruses and worms. I get worm attacks across my corporate LAN about a dozen times a day, and it great to see Norton pop up and say its nailed them. I’ve also found Norton to be the easiest to keep updated and least likely to hang your system.
my NT$2 on the subject
I recently updated to Norton Anti-Virus 2002. I bought it direct from the Taipei Symantec Office by mail for NT$900. It scans incoming and outgoing email.
Has anyone noticed any slowing down of their pc after installing NAV 2002?
That seems to be the biggest gripe in the online reviews I’ve read.
Not really. The slowdown you read in the reviews happens while scanning. But as I said, you can schedule scanning for when you’re not working.
Thanks for all your comments. Know anything about Norton Ghost.?
I was talking to someone about it today and I don’t really know what it is exactly. Haven’t looked on the Web yet for info.
Ok forget about Norton Ghost, I pretty much know what that is about now.
I reckon I am going for Norton Internet Security which includes NAV 2002.
Richard, could u tell me the address and phone number of Symantec in Taipei? If u got NAV for nt$900 it’s much cheaper than the prices I’ve seen in Taichung Nova (nt$1200).
Thanks 
Also, I guess u paid by credit card over the phone, right?
Oh, and do they have the English version of NAV?
Try this one, it’s free and updated regulary with lot’s of features and functions:
Hey Jeepper–“Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer – Adolf Hitler” - can you explain?
Both references, above, are from '97/98 and I can tell you from my own use - they are irrelevant anymore. Sounds like rubbish.
The tests by Juha Saarinen were proved to be skewed. Read in
groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&l … .avana.net
what a real professional says about Saarinen’s tests and competence.
Ironically, the very same Nick FitzGerald (then editor in chief of the Virus Bulleting) that supposedly conducted the virus tests for the review, and claimed that it failed some of his boot virus samples, now systematically recommends the
same utility (IVINIT) that he tarnished, in dealing with boot virus matters.
groups.google.com/groups?q=boot+ … ick&rnum=2
Anyhow, I guess it is all personnal taste. I am using IV for two years now, and never got one virus into mine. Many IV warnings and stopings only.
Has anyone tried AVG? It has an 88% approval rating with 430 votes & 196,409 d/l’s…
download.com.com/3120-20-0.html? … tg=dl-2001
You can check out the user reviews of loads of hardware and software at www.download.com (including anti-virus software of course) to see what people have to say about their personal experiences. You can sort by # of downloads, approval rating, etc., as well as view only negative or only positive user reviews.
RE: Norton AntiVirus
I use SystemsWorks 2002 (AntiVirus included) on Win98SE platforms (800 MHz AMD PC w/256MB RAM and a 450 MHz AMD Compaq Presario Notebook w/192 MB RAM) & haven’t had any problems nor noticed any performance degredation.
Up until July, I was using the Norton AntiVirus that was part of a copy of Norton2000 that someone had given me in 2001. LiveUpdate (which only downloads updates) didn’t work so I would d/l the whole virus definition file manually (approx. 3 MB at that time) everytime I got attachments - egads!
But then I decided to support a product that has saved me from plenty of viruses (mainly in attached e-mails) & purchased Norton SystemWorks Pro 2002 online this summer (of course I was also looking forward to LiveUpdate!). It was USD$79.95 (after a $20 rebate) which seemed like a decent deal considering that it came with a Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Utilities with One Button Checkup (which has lots of goodies like File Compare, SpeedDisk (basically defrag), Find & Fix Problems, Disk Doctor, WinDoctor, Registry change tracker… ), a fax program (WinFax), Norton Ghost (for disk images), CleanSweep (which records all the changes to your system during installations), Go Back (for system recovery) and more.
Note: I had mine delivered to a USA address & picked it up while I was there this summer, so I’m not sure if they deliver to Taiwan from website orders. At that time though you could download most of the products (like AntiVirus), but were not able to d/l SystemWorks (had to have a box w/CD shipped).
o I just checked the website & it looks like current version of SystemWorks Pro 2003 is $79.95 after a $20 mail-in rebate…
symantecstore.com/dr/sat/ec_ … E_ID=39910
note: SystemWorks Pro 2003 doesn’t seem to include WinFax.
o AntiVirus2003 is $49.95.
symantecstore.com/dr/sat/ec_ … E_ID=39910
The plot thickens...
o SystemWorks Suite 2002 (which doesn’t seem to include Ghost nor WinFax) is $49.95 after a $20 mail-in rebate.
software.symantec.com/dr/sat/ec_ … E_ID=39910
Note: Above info from US website; just checked for global sites & the closest one to Taiwan is Hong Kong, where AntiVirus2003 is going for HK$468 (about US$60).
They don’t show SystemWorks…
symantecstore.com/dr/sat/ec_ … 0000061512
That should give you something to compare when you check for prices in the stores…
I just went through an online order to try to find out if they ship to Taiwan… Good news - I was able to select “Japan & Asia.” On the other hand, the only shipping method available is FedEx at a charge of a whopping $41.95, not to mention “International Shipments: Shipping charges do not include any Brokerage Fees, Customs Fees or Taxes that you may be charged.” GADZOOKS!!!
I’d recommend:
a) If you get SystemWorks, order it to a U.S. address & have someone send you the CD (or if you know someone who has it here, burn a copy & then use the serial # from the CD that’s in the States)
b) just get Anti-Virus which you can download
c) check out the prices at a store here. I think SystemWorks is quite expensive in stores here though…
Good luck!
Harold
Harold - thanks for the post. Isn’t Norton System Works overkill though? I was thinking more in terms of Norton Internet Security or just the plain vanilla NAV 2002. Most people get by fine with just the latter don’t they?
So my new question to everyone is Norton System Works (or Norton Internet Security) really necessary?
It’s german for “One people, one empire, one leader.”
Know whats an ‘Arsch kind’ ?
It’s pretty obivious that anything thats different or unknown to you is difficult for you to comprehend, and thus labeled rubbish.
I cycle my favorite quotes once a week. You think it’s stupid?
Stupid is you, working for TaiwanHighTech.com linking to a Deja posting by the usual suspect. Grant Scurrah who works for virusdefence.co.nz
Read the first line of my post. I ask you if you’re a reseller of ‘Invircible AV’. And what do you do? You point to a ‘Invercible’ reseller to back your claims!?!
Someday, when you become mature, you’ll realize that a flame war at Deja, between a product tester and it’s reseller, doesn’t prove ‘Jack Shit’. You can quote me on that, boy.
Better luck next time at spreading mis-information and lies. He does not recommend IVINIT, what he says is and I quote:
“I won’t be around much longer tonight though so look for responses from Bob Green and/or Zvi Netiv – they are pretty much the boot problem experts here.”
Actually, if you weren’t busy trying to twist the facts, Its Robert Green who suggests downloading ‘the bootstrap integrity checker (IVINIT)’.
Since you mentioned IVINIT, here’s alittle more info on it:
“…The problem that IVINIT saves copies of the boot sectors at fixed and easily locatable (and modifiable) places was also already mentioned as a serious security hole…”
Read and weep here:
I know your german sucks but this is in damn plain english, boy. Zvi Netiv’s from invercible.com, the makers of ‘Invircible’. And being an expert does not make your products the best.
Here’re some Independent test reports, not from resellers, mags or anyone in need to pick a bone:
[ul]http://vx.netlux.org/lib/avb06.html
http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vtc/
ftp://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/pub/texts/tests/pc-av/
http://www.check-mark.com/cgi-bin/redirect.pl
http://www.icsalabs.com/html/communities/antivirus/index.shtml
http://www.av-test.org/index.php3?lang=en
[/ul]
Some tips for the newbie:
[ul]
1).Researching takes more than just hitting the Google button.
2).Do not include company name with stupid posts.
3).Know where to stick your green horn, boy.[/ul]
Know whats an ‘Arsch kind’ ?
No, and I don’t think there is any such word or term in German …
[quote=“Rascal”]Know whats an ‘Arsch kind’ ?
No, and I don’t think there is any such word or term in German …[/quote]
Und du hast gewonnen! 
Arschkind.
1st, I just noticed that Rascal’s link:
grisoft.com/html/us_downl.ht … d56cb15b07
is to the AVG anti-virus program…
Anybody tried it???
It’d be interesting to try it on some attachments with viruses that Norton AntiVirus caught…
2nd, my experience is with Win98SE, but most of this info should apply to XP as well… hopefully some XP users out there can offer you some insights.
If you have ADSL or a cable modem, you should definitely have some kind of firewall, be it h/w or s/w. There are also some free s/w firewalls. Check the reviews at: www.download.com & search for “firewall”). If you sort by User rating, make sure to note the number of downloads – I have suspicions that some companies that don’t have many d/l’s might be adding their own ratings!
Does anyone know of another good place for h/w or s/w reviews???
I tried BlackIce & ZoneAlarm around a year ago or so (before I got a h/w firewall router) & found them a hassle to use. They also slowed my computer down… maybe the new versions are better, but the approval ratings aren’t great… Tiny Personal Firewall has an 85% approval rating.
Has anyone else used a software firewall? What did you think???
I have a router with IP sharing so that I can share my internet connection with my laptop & PC as well as share files between them. It acts as a firewall and has NAT (Network Adress Translation) which hides your IP address from people on the internet which makes it difficult for them to get into your computer. But my router won’t allow voice or video with MSN Messenger 
Otherwise it’s very fast, has a nice web interface & a painless setup. 
Internet Security might be a good bet if you don’t have a h/w firewall as it comes with a firewall program as well as AntiVirus. It is quite pricey though – $69.95 according to the web site (didn’t see any rebates).
In the end, it looks like you could:
a) possibly get by just using free programs… on the other hand, I wouldn’t expect much in the way of e-mail support!
b) get Norton Internet Security (note: it also has ad/banner blocking capabilities and is downloadable after you purchase it)
If you don’t use Ghost & aren’t really interested in the other programs that SystemWorks offers, but want to
I know that there are some Windows programs that offer the equivalent of a few of the important SystemWorks programs (e.g. Win98 has defrag & regscan to improve disk performance & clean up the registry)…
I’d guess that’d apply to WinXP as well… Can any of you XP users verify that?
c) just get Norton Anti-Virus (which will save you $30 over SystemWorks Pro or $20 over SystemWorks)
If you have a h/w firewall, then AntiVirus should suffice for your virus protection
d) get NortonSystem Works or Norton SystemWorks Pro
either of which include AntiVirus plus lots of other intuitive tools that will help keep your computer healthy, especially if you’re not a power user.
But you’d still need a firewall (esp. if you’re using cable/adsl)… I’d recommend a 4 port router w/IP sharing if you have more than one computer where you live… And wireless h/w is getting pretty cheap now… wouldn’t it be great to move the laptop from the bedroom to the living room w/out losing your connection? And not have network cables running all over?
One last thing – several weeks after buying SystemWorks2002, I got an e-mail offer by one of their partners to by SystemWorks2002 for $29.99!
Great if you have more than one computer.
<<Date: 8/26/2002 6:13:06 PM Taipei Standard Time
From: SystemWorks@crucialoffers.com
To: mraulston@aol.com
When it comes to virus protection and system utilities there is only ONE name to trust…
NORTON!
The software contained in this suite has a combined retail value of OVER $300.00!!
Take a look at all the great titles that come with Norton Systemworks 2002:
Norton Antivirus - The most trusted antivirus software
Norton Cleansweep - Used to remove unwanted programs fully from Windows
Norton Ghost - Used for disk drive imaging and safe system upgrading
Norton Utilities - Solves all of your computer’s problems
Winfax PRO - Fax using your computer - NOW for Windows XP!
GoBack 3 Deluxe - Full system recovery
Act now and get it for just $29.99 WITH FREE UPS GROUND SHIPPING!
Hope this helps!
Harold
Thx Harold.
I can’t understand why System Works doesn’t include a firewall. Weird. I guess to make more money. If only Norton could combine System Works with Internet Security!
Does anyone know the address or phone number of Symantec in Taipei? I have checked their website but can’t find it there. Richard won’t tell me either for some reason. Busy I suppose. 