Help! AV-which one

From: Pauline Roberts (capyboppy_at_operamail.com)
Date: 10/19/03 

Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 17:23:01 +0100

I have recently been trying out first Avast and then second Antivir as an
alternative to AVG as I have heard they both have fared better in tests.
I have had a few niggles and "not sure abouts" with both, and I am hoping
others could give me some feedback. I know at the end of the day it is up
to me to decide what to go for.
I started with Avast but have had trouble trying to get it to scan e-
mail, and have not had any feedback from the Avast forum on this, despite
having answers on my other questions. I use a smtp server which despite
following the instructions did not seem to be "talking" somewhere along
the line. As well as this, I don't know if it is coincidence but little
things started happening, like lock ups and freezes.
I am now trying out Antivir but I am concerned that I may have had a
couple of false positives. On my first scan it came up with w32/ctx. I
believe this is a worm. This was found in a setup program that does
automatic look ups for updates for f-prot. I thought this strange as to
find a worm in something connected with a virus checker is a bit wierd.
The second one found was defined as "jokedrifting." On looking at the
information, this is normally found in network joke type files. My
program that it was in was called Kilroy.exe a little desktop fun item
that pops up, very similar to Felix and other types. Fellow older folks
will remember the "kilroy is here" slogans everywher in the 70's. As I
have had kilroy on my PC for a long time with no problems I am not sure
about that too.
With either of them I could not get them (that's if they do) to scan
files at the completion of downloads as with AVG.
Avast does "real time" scanning running in the background, but Antivir
doesn't. Avast doesn't check the bootup sector, while Antivir does. It
seems to be "swings and roundabouts" with all three of them, which is why
I am wondering if I should just go back to AVG.
How important is the realtime scanning and bootup scan with virus
checkers? I also noticed on antivirus tests that again, some were better
than others in different ways.
I realise that there are some out there that may say use one of the
paying ones, but after an IFA friend of mine had several virus's on his
machine that one of the top three failed to detect, but AVG did I don't
think so.
I know this is long winded but just wanted to give the full facts of what
I have found.
Gratefully hopeful of guidance :-)

Relevant Pages

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