What Firewall and Antivirus tools you use ?

Forums › Microsoft Windows › What Firewall and Antivirus tools you use ?

1 | 2 | 3

paulchinnz

Circumspice
793 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86785 15-Sep-2007 15:36

Still waiting for a reply to above.

By the way, what about anti-spyware tools?

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#86786 15-Sep-2007 16:15

Different programs, different actions, that's all... Mind you ZA is not an anti-virus and EICAR is a virus test-file.

paulchinnz

Circumspice
793 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86790 15-Sep-2007 16:33

Yes but presumably EICAR is useful because it has characteristics a virus scanner would recognise in a true virus.

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

#86792 15-Sep-2007 16:33

Personally, I don't think so, because it identified and quarantined the "threat", but it's up to you.
I'm not familiar with either ZA or NOD32, but it sounds like NOD has a similar module to Avast, in that it is able to identify suspect content prior to download, and prevent the download.
I like that added layer myself, but if the scanner is able to stop the threat when it tries to run, it's still doing it's job.

[EDIT] (cross posted)
The characteristics are, I believe, the identification of the file via signature database, rather than by "guessing" its likely behaviour.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#86794 15-Sep-2007 16:36

paulchinnz: Yes but presumably EICAR is useful because it has characteristics a virus scanner would recognise in a true virus.

Are you using the Zone Alarm AntiVirus product or just the Zone Alarm firewall?

As I said EICAR is a test file. All anti-virus have to react to it. How they react os different from product to product...

paulchinnz

Circumspice
793 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86797 15-Sep-2007 16:54

Ah I see what you mean by different actions Mauricio. It may not make a difference to the outcome whether the scanner recognised EICAR while saving the file or after saving the file.

Tarq, I thought heuristics or something means that some scanners can predict whether a novel programme that is not in it's database is a virus or not.

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

#86800 15-Sep-2007 17:18

Yes, heuristics is that, as far as I understand.
I would guess that all virus/malware scanners would have the signature of the EICAR file in their databases.
Avast (and, I guess, NOD) don't need to rely on heuristics to block it. I guess they have a wee peep at the download source, first.
But all should alert to it when it is saved.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

paulchinnz

Circumspice
793 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86825 16-Sep-2007 09:47

So does anyone use programmes specific for anti-spyware?

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

#86827 16-Sep-2007 09:58

Yes. http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=45&TopicId=15505&page_no=1#83900

paulchinnz

Circumspice
793 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86828 16-Sep-2007 10:05

Thanks Tarq had read that, hence my question about specific (i.e. doesn't do anything else e.g. I've heard Webroot Spysweeper's pretty good) programmes peole use for antispyware.

rscole86

4973 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86829 16-Sep-2007 10:10

Both of my PC's run Windows Defender. Also, the XP machine runs SPYBOT Search and Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-aware 2007.

All of these are free, and do a really good job.

The Vista machine only runs Windows Defender.

I also run anti-virus software...

paulchinnz

Circumspice
793 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#86839 16-Sep-2007 13:14

Had forgotten about Lavasoft and Spybot. Thanks for the reminder!

1 | 2 | 3