Free Anti Virus programs

blade · Post by **blade** » Tue Jun 24, 2003 6:11 am

Most of us know about avg, http://www.grisoft.com but I found another.

It is avast:
http://www.avast.com/i_idt_1016.html

Free for home users. I installed it in one of my other systems and it looks nice. Has a nicer interface than avg. Not sure if it is as good though.

Anyone running 2 av's at the same time? I am tempted to do that but I wonder if running both at once would interefere.

*Updated 7/1

Another free AV:
http://www.vcatch.com/download.html

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Jun 24, 2003 7:29 am

Since AV's use system hooks I'd be concerned that 2 AVs would interfere with each other.

dadx2mj · Post by **dadx2mj** » Tue Jun 24, 2003 9:17 am

I accident-ly installed NAV on a system that Had Macafee running on it. It caused major problems

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Tue Jun 24, 2003 8:27 pm

I run Norton 2k3 and AVG side-by-side for about 3 weeks because I jept forgetting to disable one. IO had no problems with either AVsoftware.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Jun 24, 2003 9:13 pm

What I would be concerned about, however, is how they react when one or both detects a virus. They could conflict at that point.

I'd test it to make sure they don't defeat each other.

If anyone needs a "test" virus let me know and I'll email it to you. Perfectly safe - it's an OLD virus (don't remember which until I look at the disk) that any AV app installed in the past 3 years should detect even if you haven't updated it.

It's been renamed as a JPG so unless you rename it as a EXE and try to execute it, it's harmless. I keep it on a floppy in my kit to test client's AV apps.

Your AV Email scan should detect it as an infected attachment if it's working right, and if you try to save it to your drive the AV background scanner should prevent it from being copied if it's working properly.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:34 am

Sure, been awhile, gimme a virus

You still got my e-mail addy?

Been curious what AVG would do if I got one in the e-mail at yahoo.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jun 26, 2003 11:01 am

On it's way, but Yahoo has it's own AV blocking I think so I doubt it'll make it through.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 11:43 pm

I got it, thanks.

When I downloaded the file, AVG did not detect the virus, but when I ran a full scan it did! Also reported it cleaned the file.

It did make it through yahoo though as an infected .jpg?

So, now I wonder what will happen if I get a p2p file with a virus? will AVG catch it as it's being downloaded, if I try to run it, or when I do a full scan?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jun 27, 2003 11:53 pm

The only thing that seems to catch EVERYTHING is NAV. That's why I run NAV on my file server.

If I even try to copy that infected JPG to the server from my workstation, NAV on the server will block it.

McAfee won't do that, but I run McAfee on my workstation because McAfee can be copied to a CD and used in DOS mode easily (handy for scanning a client's infected system from DOS).

blade · Post by **blade** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 9:18 pm

Another free AV:
http://www.vcatch.com/download.html

Sean · Post by **Sean** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 9:27 pm

NAV has saved my server's butt a few times from viruses. I use my 400 PII for downloading stuff...dang good antivirus, and it's cheap. if you reformat once a year, you can install it over and over and never have to pay for a subscription update either.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 9:39 pm

Ummm, cough cough, no need to reformat in order to do a re-install of NAV without renewing your subscription. Just think REAL HARD about the only logical places where NAV can store the subscription info....

Sean · Post by **Sean** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 9:44 pm

Oh yeah...

Judg3 · Post by **Judg3** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 5:40 pm

Whats the reg key that talks about subscription? I looked a year ago or so but couldnt find it.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 7:40 am

cough, cough...

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sh ... =&osv_lvl=

You might need this info someday if your subscription data becomes corrupted