Re: Anti-virus

The message <6ucbh5FervmdU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
from Adrian C <email@xxxxxxxxxxxx> contains these words:

Derek wrote:

I agree I've been a fan of AVG for years but they seem to be going the
Norton bloatware route the increased delays in loading and connection are
annoying the scan times have more than doubled . I will watch this thread
with interest before I finally junk AVG.

I've no problems with AVG 8.0 free as it's bought in the spyware
scanning database which will understandably take longer to scan. However
I also scan risks and update immunity & bad hosts lists with Spybot.
Because of that, I can get rid of AVG's link scanner.

Well said! ;-)

If your system is deficient in spare memory then yeah junk AVG. Just
google AVG 8.0 and you will see a load of people who have decided to go
that way. Have a look at the windows build of clamAV for something also
free you might get on with.

I tried it but, unless I missed a trick, it doesn't appear to provide a
"resident shield" function. Also, it takes ages to complete a full
system scan (Avira's scan of the same system took much less than a
quarter of the time it took clamAV)

I can't be bothered with firewall programs - the hardware one in my
router, the use of NAT and the one built into XP is quite enough IMO.

Again, well said! I can't understand why winXP users elect to inflict
_any_ third party _software_ personal firewall on a machine running an
OS already slugged by its own built in firewall (regardless of whether
it's enabled or not) that's no more and no less vulnerable to the more
sophisticated malware which usually arrives as a drive-by-download via
the IE and FF web browser route (thus, totally bypassing _any_ type of
firewall protection).

The only time a third party software firewall can be tolerated is when
the OS isn't already encumbered with a built in one and you need WiFi
hotspot access. There's absolutely no benefit to be gained by
substituting the perfectly ok (FSVO ok) built-in firewall of winXP (or -
spit!!- Vista) with a third party offering which noticably affects the
responsiveness of the whole system.

The one built into winXP is fine as far as that class of firewall
protection goes. The initial problems created by the original and SP1
versions were eliminated with SP2. Since it doesn't seem to make any
difference to winXP's performance whether it's enabled or not, it might
as well be left enabled, even if you only connect to the internet via a
gateway firewalled router appliance.

--
Regards, John.

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