X-no-Archive:yes
Actually, I find the whole anti-virus industry to be based on the fact people
scare easily.  This fright is magnified by two other factors, one because the
whole thing sounds "medical"  (virus, inoculation, anti-virus, infection, etc.
. .) and the other is that it deals with things that most people still do not
understand well, to wit computers.

I am not suggesting that Gavin specifically is frightened by any of those
things, I am however saying hoi polloi is.

Therefore the anti-virus companies make a veritable bundle of cash exacerbating
these fears.  I have seen people running 2 virus checkers simultaneously
because they were so scared of their computer contracting a virus.  PCs slow
down and become unstable running one anti-virus, they literally choke with 2.
 That is, if they stay up at all.  When it comes to virus checkers, I say "Turn
them off."  Instead, pay attention to what you are doing.  Your systems will
run faster and be  more stable without these things.

The recent rash of virus infections (there I go, using medical terms) totally
bypassed the anti-virus software.  Yet, in LookOut 97, when I open a message
that has an attachment, if I am foolish enough to double click the attachment,
LookOut still warns me that I am about to do something dangerous.  If I
proceed, it is definitely at my own risk.  I do not need a virus checker to
tell me that something I receive via e-mail containing a VBS or EXE or even DOC
attachment is potentially dangerous for my system.

Infection by floppy?  Please.  I can't remember the last time somebody tried to
give me a floppy disk with something on it.

Downloading stuff from the Internet?  You need to know what you are downloading
and from where.  If you download stuff all over the place. . .

I have seen the concept Word virus once, at a customer site 3 years ago.  I
have never seen any other virii and don't bother sending me attachments with
fun "programs" in them, I have programmed LookOut to move all messages with
attachments to a very specific location, the bit bucket.

FWIW:  The publications seem to indicate that Norton is the best product to use
if you are deluged with virii in your email and you are opening and starting
them or if you are swapping floppy disks with the man on the street corner.

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com


-----Original Message-----
From:   Gavin Scott [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Tuesday, May 30, 2000 4:49 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        OT: Best PC Anti-virus software?

First of all, since this is mostly off-topic, I would ask that unless you
really want to respond to the list, please respond to me privately and I
will summarize back to the list in a day or so.

I'm trying to determine the best (or least of all available evils)
Anti-Virus software for PCs (and perhaps the occasional Mac).

<semi-rant>
For the last year we have been using McAfee's VirusScan, which was sold to
us by an NAI direct marketer.  Now that our one-year "subscription" has run
out, they want us to pay approximately twice the cost of going to Fry's and
buying a new copy of the software for each employee, just for a one year
renewal.

Both McAfee and Norton's web sites say nothing about limitations on how long
you can download virus definition files, and both seem to allow unlimited
downloads of these files, yet I think every version I've seen has eventually
stopped working and demanded money before proceeding.  Our VirusScan
software has just started (a month before the contract is supposed to be up)
refusing to automatically download virus definitions unless we re-subscribe,
and one of us has a Dell PC at home that came with an allegedly free copy of
Norton Anti-Virus 2000 that recently did exactly the same thing after a
month or two.

Ideally I'd like to be able to simply pay a reasonable ($20/user/year is
what I can buy the upgrades for at Fry's) annual fee that would cover both
the "DAT" definition files and software upgrades to the latest version of
the scanning software, but this seems to be impossible to do as a "corporate
user" because as soon as they find out you're a business they require that
you talk to a sales rep who will try to squeeze as much money as possible
out of you.  I'm therefore leaning towards just ordering N copies of one of
the basic single user packages and then buying software upgrades as needed.
</semi-rant>

So I'm looking for suggestions/experiences as to what the best solution is,
are any of the anti-virus companies actually reasonable to deal with, etc.

Thanks,

G.