Chiriquí Chatter

I always believe that there is a silver lining to whatever happens. You can always look at things from a negative perspective or you can see the glass as half full.

My most recent Windows XP problem that knocked out my PC reminded me of this. Since I had to rebuild my PC, I decided to install the 90-day trial of Symantec software and start another year of antivirus evaluations. As you can tell, this post is going to be technical and anti-virus related so if you are not interested in that you can skip it.

I haven’t had to pay for antivirus software for about a year and a half and most of the time I have been using off the shelf commercial to be paid for versions. Almost all versions have a download for trial option assuming that it will be more convenient to pay for it rather than delete it.

Symantec (aka Norton) is one that only provides a 15-day trial, however it is often has the 90-day trial that comes when you buy motherboards or if it is combined with other offers. Since my motherboard had it, I decided to put it back on. I have to admit since I have been using other antivirus for some time, I have learned that Symantec is not all it is cracked up to be and there are many I like better. However, since it is free for 90 days, it is back in my system. My 90-day period will expire on October 26. Then I will uninstall it and put on another vendor’s product.

My evaluation is only pertaining to the antivirus products. My motherboard has a built-in firewall that does a good job and I use some other products for spam.

I have noticed a couple of things I do not like about Norton. I use Microsoft Outlook for my email and Norton installs its anti-spam toolbar on outlook even though I told Norton I was not going to use its anti-span function. You would think that isn’t much of a problem because you can tell out to remove the tool bar and it does. However when I reload Outlook, the tool bar is back. It really annoys me.

The product I use to fight spam on Outlook is called Lashback. It is free and really does a good job. If you tell it that an email is spam it will send an unsubscribe notice to the sender. Once the sender is identified it will put all future emails in a spam folder which you can validate on what ever frequency you like. You can also tell Lashback that you will only accept emails from people on your safe list and you won’t ever get a surprise in your email box. It is really slick and it is free. I have used it for about a year and love it.

Of course you have to be using a POP email service. If you are using the free hotmail or yahoo, you are out of luck. If you use gmail, you can set it up as a POP and it will work in Outlook.

If you want to try this approach of free antivirus software for a year, I will provide the URLs to the companies I have used or plan to use and some comments on any past experiences. Remember to use proper uninstall procedures to insure that the product is completely uninstalled before you try the next companies product. By proper, I mean either use the uninstall link the product may put in the startup menu or go into the Control Panel and remove it. You can also provide a service to the company by sending them your comments on their product after you have tested it. That way you won’t feel as bad for using something for free.

The first products I will provide download URLs for will be the commercial trial products. I will then provide some URLs to venders that also provide free versions.

Commercial Versions:

Symantec (Norton) - This is only for a 15-day period and hardly worth the effort, but 2 weeks is 2 weeks. I will give you the full product page incase you might want to try more than just anti-virus. After you use some of the other products, you most likely won’t go back to Norton.

BitDefender – This is a highly rated product. It worked well, but if I remember right it had a pretty aggressive nag tendency on the trial version. Every time the system comes up it is going to tell you that you are running an evaluation copy and are you ready to pay.

F-Prot Antivirus for Windows – I have used this product and liked it. It is priced at $29 and that allows you to use it on up to five PC’s. That is a pretty good pricing structure and if you have five pc it comes to just $6 per PC/year. Norton – eat your heart out.

F-Secure Internet Security 2006 – I also have used this product and it did a good job. It is priced a little higher at $59/per PC. It does include anti-spy ware and spam ware for that price. I found nothing exceptional to cause me to purchase it, but it will give you a 30-day test period to make your decision.

Kaspersky Lab’s antivirus products – This may be the best anti-virus product on the market. Many evaluations put it at the top. I have used this product and it also did well. It is priced at $59.95/ PC for the anti-virus version.

McAfee – This another of the higher rated products. I have used it and it does the job. The price for the anti-virus version is $39.99 per PC for a year.

NOD32 – This product seems to have a pretty good following in Panama. I have used it and did a good job. Its price for one PC is $39.00 here in Panama.

Norman – I have used this product and it also did the job. Nothing special and I had never heard of it before I did a search on anti-virus software. I couldn’t find the price on their website, but the trial is free. If you want it, you can get the price later.

Panda Software - This is the only software that I have had problems with in the past. However to be fair, the problems could have been Microsoft Windows. It has a price of $29.95 for two PCs for a year.

Trend Micro – I have used this product and like the others it did a good job. It prices out at $49.95/ PC for a year.

Zone Labs – I have never used the full security suite by Zone Labs. It prices out at $49.95 for the firewall and anti-virus version and currently at $19.95 for only anti-virus. I have used the free version of the firewall and it is great. If my motherboard didn’t have a built in firewall I would have the free firewall by Zone Labs installed.

Windows Live OneCare – I have never used Windows Live OneCare. It is offering a 90-day evaluation period. I have seen some write-ups on it and it has been rated well. I must admit, I am not much of a Microsoft fan, but I will try it.

Free Antivirus software:

That covers the commercial versions. Now I will list some antivirus software that is free. I have used some of these and to tell the truth, I have found them to be almost as good as the commercial versions. Most are not as good about updating their virus signature file for current viruses. They normally update once a day. When I used them I would request manual updates at various times of the day, so it never really bothered me. You have to give up something if it is free.

AVG Free Edition – I have used this product and never had a problem. It will update the virus signature file once a day. For more than that you are going to have to manually do it. There is also a commercial version that costs $38,95 for two PCs for a year.

avast! – I have also used this product. When I removed it the next program I installed reported a virus that I had picked up. It is pretty highly rated buy those that use it and I would still install it. They also have a commercial version priced at $39.95 per PC.

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic – I haven’t used this software. It also has a commercial version but it is priced in Euros. If you like it they will probably figure out a way to take your money if you don’t deal in Euros.

Firewall Software:

A person really should be using a firewall in addition to antivirus software. Windows XP has a firewall, but it is not complete enough and the free Zone Alarm firewall is far better. Windows Vista is supposed to be better in that regard, but it won’t be here for a while and I would not be an early adopter of the next version of Windows.

Kerio – I used this firewall in the past and liked it a lot better than Zone Labs, but the company that supported it was dropping support and I removed it from my system. I was just getting ready to buy it when support was dropped. It has been picked up by Sunbelt and I expect it is still an excellent product. It has a price of $19.95 currently. You can download it for a free 30-day trial. If you don’t want to buy it at the end of the trial, it will stop a couple of functions, but will be equivalent to or better than Zone Labs. For $19.95 I think it is a real bargain.

NetVeda – Here is another product I have recently found. You might be interested in looking at some of their offerings, which include a content management capability They have a pretty slick flash presentation and after watching it, I will probably try this product. Their price for the Pro version is $39.95.

Spy Ware Programs:

If your antivirus solution doesn’t provide spy ware support, then you should also have some of the following. I run all the following programs. They are different that antivirus software and you can have them all installed. You run them serially and having them all installed won’t be a problem. You may only have one antivirus program installed at a time or you will have conflicts.

Lavasoft – This one does a good job and I recommend it. They have a commercial version for $39.95, but I just use Ad-Aware Personal.

Spybot – Is another good free program.

ewido – This product has a commercial version. You can down load it for free and use the complete version for 30 days. After that if you want all the function it will cost you $29.95. I kept the free portion, which cleans up a lot that spybot, and lavasoft don’t.

Summary

If you choose to do the evaluation exercise you can have from 375 to 450 days of free security software protecting you from those nasty viruses. At the end of that time you can try out some of the free antivirus software or you may do like me and consider buying an Apple and forgetting about a large part of this nonsense.