[WEB4LIB] Antivirus software

[Thomas M G Bennett]

You may want to look at http://antivirus.about.com/ for all types of
information on viruses and antivirus products.
http://antivirus.about.com/cs/antivirusvendors/index.htm is a link to a list
with links of Antivirus software Firms which will let you compare each one's
upgrade policies and features from their own WEB sites.  There are also a
link to Free Antivirus Software although the link implies eval it is my
understanding that there are some truly free antivirus packages,
http://antivirus.about.com/cs/evaluations/index.htm .  There are links for
DOS, Windows, Linux/Unix, Macintosh, Amiga, and PC viruses.  All types of
virus information is available from this site also, Virus Encyclopedia,
Wireless Threats, Hoaxes and Myths, etc...

I have used Command Antivirus in the past and still feel that it is the best
value for the buck.  If I remember correctly, workstation licenses were
$2.00 each and I think that is about half or less than McAfee and Norton.
You can down load your own update server software free, at least the last
time I used it it was free, and set it to down load update files from
Command as often as you wanted.  You then set workstations to update their
dat files from your local server on workstation bootup.  The only drawback I
found with them was that they were usually a day late on immediate threat
updates although I would go to Symantec's (Norton) site and down load the
free single fix for new dangerous viruses.  They were very good to work
with, if I found a possible virus I could send them the file and they would
thoroughly investigate it and get back to me quickly.

We use McAfee now because the campus has a site license although I still
prefer Command which uses the FPROT engine.  I was sold on FPROT a few years
ago when I had a PC in our lab that Norton, McAfee, MSAV, and FPROT detected
a virus but only FPROT attempted a generic removal and none of the others
would even give an option to try to remove the virus since none of the
programs could specifically identify the virus (1995).

Thomas

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-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Bill Teschek
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 5:32 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Antivirus software


I'm interested in hearing comments, both pro and con, on various
antivirus software packages for networked PCs in an NT
environment: Norton, Symantec, InoculateIT, MacAfee,
Command/F-PROT, or others that you may prefer. Which do you
like? Which do you hate?


Bill Teschek
Assistant Director
Lane Memorial Library
2 Academy Ave.
Hampton, NH 03842
bteschek at hampton.lib.nh.us
(603)-926-3368
(603)-926-1348 (fax)
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us