Anti-Virus Software

Written By: J.P.

Now Closed: Win a free copy of Symantec Norton AntiVirus! 

       Anti-virus software is important. Increasingly nasty programs are being written to mess-up your computer. How to review an anti-virus program is a tough assignment. What could I do? Write a program to destroy my data and see if the program stops it? Ask people to email me a virus?

I decided to check out the major three anti-virus software. VirusScan by McAfee, PC-cillin by Trend Micro, and Norton AntiVirus by Symantec. (There are many other anti-virus programs.) All three can be tried by downloading the program from Download.com or www.tucows.com and running it for about 30 days. After the time limit you can arrange payment or uninstall it. Or try to uninstall it. I still have some of McAfee sitting on my computer. Do not attempt to try more than one anti-virus software at a time. This creates conflicts.

It is always useful to learn what actual users think of the software. At dowload.com the results are listed: Mcafee 63% 314 votes, Norton 89% 2,369 votes, Trend Micro 94% 399 votes.

There are many comments that make amusing reading. Amazon.com also has user ratings. For the customer reviews. I sum them thus: McAfee. Very few like it. Many problems reported. Trend Micro. Divided between fan mail and poison pen letters. Symantec. Problems reported using older software with XP and then trying to upgrade. Otherwise many positive comments.

The 2001 Secure Computing awards. (Found at: http://www.westcoast.com/events/awards/index.html ) are for products that protect computers. The current winners are: Readers Trust Award. (Awarded by subscribers.) Winner: McAfee VirusScan  Highly commended: Symantec Norton AntiVirus Commended and finalist: Sophos and Panda.

Academy Awards BEST Anti-virus Solution (Awarded by IT professionals.) Winner : Symantec Norton AntiVirus Highly commended: Trend Micro Commended and Finalist: McAfee and Panda Principle Awards (Awarded by judges.) Best Security Software: Symantec Norton AntiVirus.

So for popularity, they all seem to have fans. What is important, is how well does the software work at detecting viruses. At: http://www.virusbtn.com/100/vb100sum.html They test anti-virus software and publish the results. Briefly: Trend Micro has no wins, and no longer submits for testing. Mcafee has 7 wins, 13 failures. Symantec has 16 wins (8 in a row), six failures. It is important to understand that a failure means it did not detect 100% of the viruses. A win means it did detect 100% of the viruses.

There are other sites that test anti-virus software. But this site is the only one that tested all three, and is independent. I did find one site that gave a 100% rating to EVERY anti-virus program tested. When not scanning for a virus the program runs in the background and does nothing. They all do this very well. But they do need computer resources that can slow the speed of your computer. Symantec uses between 1.5% to almost 3% of the cpu while Trend Micro uses up to 9%. McAfee's use varies depending on what else you have running. McAfee also needs 72 mb of RAM or it locks. All the programs give some degree of protection. But from what I see, Symantec appears to have a slight lead of the three.

When you install an anti-virus program it must be updated frequently. The anti-virus companies have updates about every one or two weeks, unless a major virus needs special attention. But, for the nervous user, they all allow a daily automatic update. Trend Micro even has an hourly update. To update, you need internet connection. All the programs do this without any problem. But you have to wonder how easy it will be to update Trend Micro's product during a panic if enough people switch to one hour updates. When the "I Love You" virus hit, Symantec had to double the number of servers to keep up with the demand. Within a week they doubled the number of servers again.

A word of caution on pricing. All the anti-virus companies have a corporate edition. Versions of these can run into the thousands of dollars. They also have renewals that cost less than the product. Some on-line retailers don't make the difference clear.

When you choose an anti-virus software beware of marketing hype. I found one that claimed it was approved by the Australian government. Nice, considering it is the only one made by an Australian company. But the Australian government has appearently approved other anti-virus software. The University of Melborne uses Symantec Norton AntiVirus. Another site claims they have a easier to use anti-virus encyclopedia than the other anti-virus companies. Great, but that doesn't really help to protect your computer.

Do you really need an anti-virus program for your computer? You do if you accept disks or CD from friends. You do if you download files. You do if you check your mail by downloading it onto your computer. One of my dearest friends sent me an email that contained the KAK worm that could have destroyed my data. But I was using email at yahoo.com and they scan email for viruses.