OT: antivirus software and the like

[Mark Wieder]

Jon-

Sunday, June 5, 2005, 10:27:50 AM, you wrote:

J> Any particular reason why you use/like NOD32?

Everyone's got personal preferences about system software - it's like
text editor preferences - a lot of it depends on what you're used to.
I've had nothing but bad experiences with Symantec products over the
years. They have a track record of buying up companies with good
products and running them into the ground, among them Think C and the
Norton line of sofware. It's not for nothing that they've gotten the
moniker of "where software goes to die". (I suppose the same could
also be said of Computer Associates and Corel...)

The problem with utilities like antivirus software is that in order to
do their job they need hooks deep into the operating system - they'd
be too easy to get around otherwise. I got into the habit over time of
installing just a subset of Norton Systemworks on systems in order to
minimize the rate of the OS crashing, then finally decided that I
needed to find an alternative.

The final straw was when I tried to install the latest Norton
Systemworks on my newly-installed Windows 2000 Server.

Nope. Doesn't install on server products.

You need to buy the Corporate version. I don't know if you're familiar
with this particular piece of misbegotten bloatware, but its draconian
management features make Microsoft look benign. And the combination of
it with email clients can (and in my experience has) easily bring CPU
usage on a dual processor system to 100% and stay there.

When I first installed NOD32 on the server I ran Norton on a
workstation as a backup. Did this for about six months. Nothing ever
got past NOD32 to the point where Norton could even hiccup. I
eventually uninstalled Norton and I've been happy ever since. This is
not to say that there aren't other good antivirus programs out there,
just that I've found one that

a: works on my hardware
b: keeps my network safe
c: is easy to configure
d: mostly stays out of my way

We've never had a virus or a worm or a trojan in here.

-- 
-Mark Wieder
 mwieder at ahsoftware.net