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The first question one typically asks is "which virus program is best?" To be honest, even the "best" may not be good enough. Everyone has heard the cry: "The virus is coming, the virus will be here on March 1st" etc. Second, when was the last time you actually had a virus in your system? Or, perhaps you've simply shrugged off the possibility of having a virus attack. Many users have fallen for various scare tactics and bought the first package they heard about or read a review of. This is not to say you cannot get a virus; however, any software is your second line of defense. Careful, prudent procedures that you can take are superior to any anti-virus software. For instance, don't directly load files onto your hard drive and know the source from which you received your diskette. If you then wish to purchase an anti-virus program, then do so as step two - not step one. I know of no program that will ferret out 100% of known virus. If your data is mission critical, buy two programs. Know there are "hazardous materials" lurking, just waiting for you to blink. Editor
Norton AntiVirus 2.0 by Symantec is excellent for detection and easily understood options. Odds are, that at some undetermined time you will come to a heart sinking realization such as:
"My program suddenly takes longer to load."
"The program size keeps changing."
"I can't access the hard drive when booting from the A: drive."
"I don't know where these files came from."
"My Excel and WinWord programs do not respond correctly."
"My files have strange names I don't recognize."
"Letters look like they are falling to the bottom of the screen."
"My computer doesn't remember CMOS settings, the battery is new."
These are just a few symptoms that you may have a virus infection.
Norton AntiVirus (NAV) v2.0 is a jewel of a product. It incorporates many features that were weak or missing in previous versions. NAV checks for all types of viruses known (via the footprint and the internal Virus Definition File) and unknown (via algorithms that detect suspicious activity).The program's virus identification program searches for Boot viruses, Program viruses, Macro viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses. The program loads easily and simply. It attaches itself, with your permission, to your Web browser, to monitor all downloading files. The Autoscan may be loaded on boot-up, it scans the hard disk and notifies you if there are any changes. The program scans files as they are run, opened, created. and politely does it in the background, while you work, or scans per a predetermined schedule.
Symantec also maintains the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center (SARC). SARC claims that they receive and evaluate a minimum of four new viruses each day. They maintain and update the Virus Definition Files which are available on their BBS or Web site. Although the list is updated on a monthly basis they will usually update the Virus Definition Files more frequently. SARC also publishes updates and information on viruses.
The NAV can automatically update itself using Live Update to obtain the current Virus Definition File. It finds your modem, dials the number, downloads the file, places it into your program and then shuts down.
About the only criticism that I have is the advanced feature of Auto-Protect is no longer password protected. Previous releases of this program had the ability to password lock the features Prompt, Allow, Don't Allow. For more info go to http://www.symantec.com.
John Buhr, a HAL-PC member, is a retired Registered Professional Engineer and is an adjunct Computer Lab Instructor at Houston Community College. He can be contacted at jbuhr@hal-pc.org.
Of the various AV programs, Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit by S&S Software International is one of the more sophisticated and unusual. "Unusual" in the sense it is true to its English roots. Its menu driven interface is unpretentious and straight forward - no jazzy buttons or appearances or the feel of American marketing. It has a comprehensive suite of utilities that come on six 1.44 meg disks plus one disk "Magic Bullet" for scanning directly from your floppy drive. Actually, there are two sets of three disks. One set is for DOS and the other for Win95/DOS. If you choose to install the Windows version, it will also install the DOS version if you wish and add a resident part to your Autoexec.bat file (but not to your PATH statement). The documentation is excellent and provides a very good set of study materials for a sound introduction to virus protection. I was also impressed with a small sheet for a quick setup of the program, beginning with the "Magic Bullet" disk to first ascertain if you already have a virus infection. If not, as the leaflet explains, run FINDVIRU, which they don't say is on Disk #2. If you are a first time user and have little computer experience, this leaflet is maybe a bit too brief.
To take full advantage of this program, I'd suggest using the manual installation rather than the automated. There are some features that are not "automatically" added. The Toolkit provides a clear, understandable menu system to access different parts of the program. You have choices and you have on-line help to explain those choices. Unless you have a specific reason not to, accept the defaults which are appropriate for most situations. They are well chosen and there is little chance of confusion. The Toolkit contains three manuals. One is a very comprehensive, but easily understood, "Virus Encyclopedia", which is also available on-line in your computer. There is a "Windows & DOS" manual and the other is strictly a "Windows 95" manual. There is no deficiency in information. Before the table of contents you'll find informational pages on such subjects as "Quick Virus Check" and "Quick Repair". Each is well planned and thought out.
I am impressed with Dr Solomon's AV program. It does its job well and without notice to the user. You can scan inside compressed files; however, this not a default setting. Is this your program? If you are a novice and have local support available, yes. If you are more knowledgeable and occasionally need the Company's support, yes. When you register the program you will receive a quarterly update free. The monthly updates are not free. For more info go to http://www.sands.com.
Richard Serbin, a HAL-PC member, is president of Texas Commercial Brokers, Inc. and can be contacted at txcomb@hal-pc.org.
I opened the IBM Anti-Virus package, selected the OS/2 disks, opened the drive A: icon and clicked on Install and chose Express. The program was automatically installed and my system checked for virus without complications. A folder was automatically added to my OS/2 Desktop.
Simple is the best way to describe this program. The defaults are set to automatically check your system. They can be changed easily by opening the IBM AV folder and clicking on setup, then automated check. It can be set to run on every reboot, or at a given time every day. There are many choices to suit different requirements. It has three of automated protection, automated checking, system shield and scan diskettes on shutdown. Customizing is easy and flexible. It contains an emergency diskette or can be run from the command line.
The package includes disks for Windows 95, OS/2 Warp, Windows and DOS. I am using Boot Manager, so I have a separate DOS partition. I shut down and booted to the DOS partition. The install to DOS also went as smoothly. It checked for viruses when the install was completed. It was straight forward and uneventful, as it is supposed to be.
No virus was sent with the program (as far as I know) so I am not able to give a report on how successful the program is in detecting a virus. I am glad they did not send one in the package.
IBM has an excellent Web page (see below for address). There you will find links to other AV pages, including one to obtain the latest updates for "signatures" (list of virus names that can be detected and cleaned) at http://www.av.ibm.com/IBMAntiVirus/Updates . I downloaded one and installed it easily and without incident.
The Web pages have a lot of information about viruses that I did not know. In fact, I learned more about them than I had intended, but it has been a useful experience. There is a great page at http://csrc.ncsl.nist.gov/virus with links to still more pages. This one is sponsored by National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce. For more information go to http://www.av.ibm.com.
Al Greene, HAL-PC member, lawyer, and former chairman of the Law Practice Management Section, Houston Bar Association. He can be contacted at algreene@ibm.net.
VirusScan by McAfee has its roots as a shareware product and has proven its value over the years. I've been using a computer since 1989, and have never gotten a virus on any of my stand-alone systems. Does that mean I'm smart enough to avoid getting a virus? Not at all.
Knowing my luck can't hold forever, I loaded VirusScan on my hard drive where it nestled itself unobtrusively. Funny thing about a virus checker; if you don't have a problem, it just sits quietly in the background hardly making its presence known.
The program installs very easily and the main menu is straight forward. No technical or virus background is required to understand how to go about using this program. Read the menu, follow the directions - sometimes consulting the well written manual - and begin removing the virus - that have been detected. The program will even keep a record of what and when you removed a virus!
On Access Scanning. VirusScan95 continuously monitors your system ("on-access" scanning) for virus activity through Vshield, a memory resident program. VShield can be configured to load at startup, remain active in the background and be enabled/disabled at will. When an executable file, hard drive, floppy drive, etc. is accessed, VShield will check for the presence of virus.
On Demand Scanning. VirusScan95 can detect whether a computer virus is present on your hard drive, CD drive, in a newly downloaded program or on a strange disk. By using VirusScan in conjunction with Microsoft Plus you can set up scheduled on demand scans.
ScreenScan. ScreenScan can be set up to scan you system every time your screen saver comes on and can be configured so that when it is interrupted, the next time the screen saver is activated, it will resume the virus scan where it left off.
Customer Service Programs. As we know, there are gazillions of viruses out there, with new ones written every day. You get free 90-day (why not a year?) introductory support as follows:
With McAfee's VirusScan, if you use all the built in security measures, regularly download the on-line updates, scan every unknown diskette and new download, you should be protected. VirusScan95 will report to you when a virus is found and follow the actions you have configured to remove the virus. This program supports Windows 3.x and Win95. For more information go to http://www.mcafee.com.
Nancy Ward, a HAL-PC member, is the HALNet Registrar and can be reached at nward@hal-pc.org.
Winter is here which means viruses will follow! Why not try a little PC-cillin II by TouchStone? PC-cillin II is a new anti-virus program (program, not a little utility) for Win95, Windows 3.x and/or DOS. If you need good virus protection, PC-cillin II will work and it has as good, if not better than, removal rate for viruses compared with McAfee, Norton, IBM or Thunderbyte (my other favorites) anti-virus programs.
A virus may attach itself to another program, file, partition table or boot sector of your hard disk. Viruses are usually transmitted through e-mail, the Internet, network downloads or disk usage; floppy, magnetic or CD. The most popular (or unpopular) virus currently is the Concept virus which attaches itself (five infecting macros) to Microsoft Word files and will eventually cause a hard drive to crash. (See February Magazine for alternate protection from this macro virus. Ed.)The second most popular virus is the NYB boot virus which destroys the boot sector of a hard drive and also causes it to crash.
PC-cillin II will clean your hard drive, check your disks and scan your e-mail and Internet/Network downloads before your PC receives virus infected files. This program will alert you know when a file has a virus and you can set the automatic virus removal program called Clean Wizard. PC-cillin II also has a built in Macro Shield to take care of the WinWord virus. It cleans current Word viruses and catches new strains that have yet to be identified! It scans more types of compressed files that any other major anti-virus program.
You have free monthly updates through their BBS. They have free AUTOMATIC update through the Internet for the first 90 days and $29.99 per year thereafter. It has a 24 hour e-mail Virus Lab and an Emergency Virus Removal Service. Their voice help desk (714/969-7746) is only open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. CST.
With PC-cillin II you don't have to be an anti-virus expert to be virus free. Installation is easy, but the program is a resource hog. It will use 6-10 megs of hard drive space and a lot of RAM memory unlike McAfee. It runs on a 386 processor or higher. Suggested retail for PC-cillin II is $49.99 which is less than other major anti-virus programs. Like the other major anti-virus programs, it is available to download for a free 30 day test period. Suggestion: Users should try each of the free trial anti-virus programs and decide which program works best for them.
PC-cillin II is certainly a good choice. Remember, where viruses are concerned, the only wrong choice you can make is not to choose any of the current anti-virus programs! For more info go to http://www.checkit.com.
Todd Rosen, a HAL-PC member, is the Internet Instructor and Southwestern Bell Network Administrator at utmr@hal-pc.org.
Installing this product is about as easy as it gets. They have a quick start sheet that precludes the need to study the manual before starting, so I read it and inserted the CD. I tested on NT 4 with Service Pack 2. Insertion of the CD was detected and the Norton window appeared. I selected the install option and let it continue with all the options on their default settings. It was done installing in less than 10 minutes. Everything except the dial-up registration worked great. The initial virus scan took about 15 minutes to scan all programs, about 6000 files, and found no viruses.
Norton has an FTP server from which the program can download virus information. This is what they call the Live Update feature. After updating, I restarted a scan with the options set to scan all files. It took over an hour to scan everything, about 50,000 files, still found no viruses. I tried it on my machines at work, a Windows NT Workstation and an NT Server, with similar results. It scans pretty quickly but did not find any viruses.
Since I was unable to find viruses to test it with, I searched the Computer Library periodicals on CD to see what other reviewers had to say: Articles read were from InfoWorld 10/28/96 by Earl Greer, PC Week 10/14/96 by Ken Phillips, and Govt Computer News 10/7/96 by Bill Murray.
All these reviews were positive, recommending the product. The InfoWorld article was the most thorough. Most of the infected files tested were detected.
My bottom line recommendation is good, but probably not necessary if you are primarily a user of commercial NT software and have a strong backup program. On the other hand, if you use a lot of freeware and/or shareware then you should be using this program. The cost of this product is probably saved many times over in what you are not paying for commercial software. And make more backups.
One more tidbit: there is a hotfix out from Microsoft that is apparently required before using any anti-virus software. Look for article number Q141239 in the Microsoft Knowledge base. This is a post Service Pack 2 patch that fixes the blue screen of death - the NT STOP screen. The patch is on the FTP server at: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT40 /hotfixes-postsp2/krnl-fix and http://www.microsoft.com. I actually forgot about this and did not apply it and I got the blue screen a couple of times. For more info go to http://www.symantec.com.
Mike Flinn is a HAL-PC member.
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