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Anti-Virus Research and Notes
Anti-Virus software is important in keeping your data secure and making sure your office runs smoothly. PCC has researched and tested a number of Anti-Virus solutions and would like to share the results of our research and our recommendations. Here is a complete list of the Anti-Virus products we researched and our recommendations based on the following qualities: usability, ease of install, compatibility with PCC software, manageability, and effectiveness.
The following selections are for workstations not for servers and do not have firewalls included. Information pertaining to the following notes was taken from personal testing, recommendations and information from technical contacts, and online reports from AV Comparitives.
Note: Although PCC has tested a number of these products and recommends some over others, we do not provide technical support for any anti-virus solutions.
For more information, read our article on Virus Protection: Frequently Asked Questions.
Antivir
Company: Avira
Product: Antivir Professional
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year $55.50
System Reqs: XP and 2K. Small bandwidth req., works on 32 and 64 bit.
Support: free 14 day installation support, buy other support
Detects:
Virus and Malware
Rootkit
Heuristic Analysis and Detection
Real Time Protection
Internet Guard
Email Scanner
NOTES:
• Has a firewall component
CONCLUSION: Do not recommend
Company: Avira
Product: Antivir Premium
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year $26.95
System Reqs: XP, 2K, Vista 32 and 64
Support:
Detects:
Virus and Ad/Spyware
Phishing
Rootkit
Drive-by/Webguard
Email scanner
Rescue System
NOTES:
• Easy install, but requires internet connection for registration
• Quick updates
• Install does not require a reboot
• After bringing up the antivir desktop GUI, choosing logout of the OS, created a program not responding alert
• System slow after logging in again
• Scheduled scan failed due to inactivated check box
• Passes EICAR tests well. Does give the option to ignore the warning.
• A smaller memory footprint would be better
CONCLUSION: An OK product, but requires too much setup. Slow while scanning. Better products are available.
Company: Avira
Product: Free personal
Pricing: Free
System Reqs:
Support:
Notes:
• Not for professional use
Avast!
Company: Alwil
Product: Avast!
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year $39.95
System Reqs:
Support:
Detects: Virus and spyware
Rootkits
P2P and IM shield
Web Shield
Network Shield (similar to a firewall)
NOTES:
• Easy installation
• Has restart option at the end of the installation which didn't restart the computer
• Allows you to choose to scan upon first reboot
• Main screen has less and more detail options
• Difficult to find the option for setting a scheduled scan
• System tray holds two icons, one for the virus recovery database and one for the on access scanner
• The vrdb is like “time machine” on OS 10.5 where it makes a backup of files three iterations back to restore if a virus compromises it
• The on access scanner is real time protection. You can adjust the sensitivity by clicking on the icon
• You can schedule a boot time scan but not a scan whenever you want
• UI not intuitive
• Different skins totally change the appearance of the program
CONCLUSION: The product seems to work (passing the EICAR tests with flying colors) but the Graphical User Interface is very confusing. Not Recommended.
AVG
Company: AVG Technologies
Product: AVG Anti-Virus Pro
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year $34.99
System Reqs: XP or Vista
Support:
Detects:
virus and malware
rootkits
downloads
IM
Real time protection
NOTES:
• Can be purchased for 1-10 computers (license)
• Comes with an AVG toolbar (with yahoo search bar) that you need to unclick before
• Finishing the installation if you don't want it
• Includes First Run Wizard for configuration
• Has a “resident shield” that may act similarly to a firewall
• Has a very medical seeming terminology... Removed and healed infections!
• Decent memory footprint while scanning
• AV comparatives reports many false positives
CONCLUSION: Some concerns about the Resident Shield would interfere with openvpn and printing in the home environment. Otherwise, this seems like a good product.
GDATA
Company: GDATA Securities
Product: AVK 2009
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year 26 euros
System Reqs:
Support:
NOTES:
• Very slow download of the trial version, possibly due to an active av scan
• Slow installation but that could be the computer, not the product
• Easy installation
• Have to register to get updates
• Slow system when scanning
• No way to stop a scan
• Prompts for update when you log in
• Prompts for virus scan
• Dfficult to tell when it is performing updates
• Decent user interface
CONCLUSION: Not a bad product, but too intrusive. This is not a set it and forget it system.
F-Secure
Company: F-Secure
Product: F-Secure AV 2009
Pricing:
System Reqs: XP Pro, Home, ME, 2K. Vista 32-bit
Support:
Detects:
Virus and spyware
Real-time protection
Rootkit detection/removal
Automatic installs/updates
Centrally manageable
NOTES:
• Can't easily find the free demo download
CONCLUSION: Not recommended
Ikarus
Company: Ikarus
Product:
Pricing:
System Reqs:
Support:
* Can't find an English page easily
CONCLUSION: Not Recommended.
Kaspersky
Company: Kaspersky Labs
Product: Kaspersky AV 2009
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year $59.95 (download) $79.95 (CD)
System Reqs: XP, Vista
Support: Free hourly updates
Detects:
Viruses, malware
IM
Scans email, files and internet traffic
IE vulnerabilities
Disables links to phishing sites
“Global Threat Monitoring”
Keyloggers
NOTES:
• Small memory footprint
• Not compatible with spybot S&D
• Installation simple but kind of long
• Installation includes configuration wizard which needs to connect online
• Updates slowly but in the background
• Restart after install
• Restart after updates
• System try icon starts and says the data base is obsolete before it realizes it isn't
• Can tell it what to do with the computer after a scan, shutdown, restart, keep going,etc.
• Can be set to scan and update automatically
• Passed all EICAR tests with flying colors; wouldn't even allow a download of them.
• Uninstallation, very easy.
• Upon reboot after uninstallation, screen resolution was too big
• AV comparatives reports many false positives
CONCLUSION: A good product, with a nice Graphical User Interface. Relatively easy to use and customize. Appears to work very well.
NOD32
Company: ESET
Product: NOD32 v. 3
Pricing: 1 user, 1 year $59.99, 2 years $89.99. 2,3,4 user packs available for less.
System Reqs: XP, Vista (all 32-64 bit) v. 2.7 can support 95 and 98
Support:
NOTES:
• Easy installation
• Nice Graphical User Interface
• Small memory footprint
• Scheduled scan possible but not totally easy
• Standard and Advanced GUI views
• Passes EICAR tests though it does allow you to download the embedded .zip file.
• Has an easy click function to temporarily disable AV functioning.
• Not as centrally manageable as Kaspersky
• AV comparatives reports few false positives
CONCLUSION: Good product. Easy to use with good features.
