Mike writes:

<<I need a new (antivirus) program and wondering if I could
gain from the knowledge of the members what is a good program to use,>>

The University of Hamburg publishes independent tests of all major a-v
programs.

Go to this site to read the test results:
http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vtc/avtests982/execsum.html

These tests only signify the efficacy of each program, and say nothing
about ease of use, or performance hit, which are important factors you
should consider. Most a-v programs are, in their default configurations,
far too intrusive for normal domestic use by reasonably experienced and
intelligent users. Some are very difficult or impossible to set up exactly
the way YOU want. Often this is by design, on the assumption that the
average computer owner is a dummie and therefore needs protection at all times.

For some, that's fine, especially if you are new to the game, or working in
a multiple-user or otherwise dangerous environment, and I would have no
quarrel with that. But you may not need that high level of protection---and
there's an unavoidable performance cost if you do. On the other hand, with
a new high-speed computer, lightly loaded, this performance cost will be
negligible.

Therefore there is no clear "best" product.

 From the various Digests I read, AVG seems to be the clear winner as far
as freeware goes.

The waters are a bit more muddy when it comes to commercial
products.  McAfee always seems to rate right up with the best when it comes
to detection, but, unless it's vastly improved since I last saw it, it's a
pig to set up properly and tends to be too invasive and resource-hungry.

Nortons seems to be ever-popular, though it generates a few love-hate
relationships, and can in a few setups be troublesome.

I dropped McAfee for Kaspersky, mainly because K just happened to be
available, but I've been very pleased with it, it is remarkably low on its
use of system resources (VERY important on an old computer), and always
seems to come out well in tests.

There is, of course, no product which is 100% effective.  The best product
to use?  Common sense.

Don Penlington
Free computer tutorials at: http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
Also Fractal Galleries,  free icons,  poetry,  and beautiful Queensland beaches.

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