Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 41

If you're going to be out surfing on the internet and downloading your email, you'd better have a reliable antivirus program installed on your system. "But which one?", you might ask. Well going over all the different antivirus programs in one show would be impossible, but here's a few of my own opinions based on what I've seen and read, and, I'm afraid, is subject to frequent change.

First of all, I'm not particularly keen on programs that try to do it all. Usually, that means they end up lacking in all aspects. So, I'm not keen on Internet Security programs that have antivirus, firewall and spamkiller all in one. I find it makes the program too big and uses too many resources compared to using standalone programs. I find this is true for Norton, McAfee, TrendMicro, Kaspersky and all the others. The resources needed for these programs to do it all-in-one are usually more than a couple of standalone programs would need, and the job doesn't get done as well.

Norton and McAfee were the original antivirus giants, but I think some of the newcomers have created smaller and superior products. Although it's great at nabbing nasties on your system, Norton 2006, and even 2007, is particularly hard to install and slows even the fastest systems to a crawl. I find McAfee's newest program to be an all around pain in the neck and there are parts of it I will refuse to install on a client's machine unless they insist.

Online reviewers tend to think that Kaspersky currently has the best all around product. It's pretty easy to use and is able to find most of the viruses it encounters. Trend Micro's PC-cillin ranked fairly high as well. The highest rated program at identifying viruses right now appears to be NOD32. It's a very fast and small program that has been written mostly in assembly code, so it doesn't use much in the way of system resources. Unfortunately, the user interface isn't the greatest, so it can be a tough one to use if you're a novice user.

Free antivirus programs are just that. Free. I do recommend them over nothing, but they won't be as good as the paid for products. By all means install AVG, or Avast or AntiVir Personal, but every now and then, get online with Symantec or TrendMicro and take advantage of their online scanners. Using both the free antivirus and the online scan will help keep most of the nasty stuff out of your system.

Stay tuned next week when I look at some information about wireless communications.

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.