This past week I have been taking training at work to become a systems admin. Ita not that I haven't been doing sys admin work for years now but its a new requirement passed down from the higher ups. All and all it has been fairly good. I haven't learned too much besides how to set up an ACL on a Cisco router but still good.

Here's the topic. Today our lab was to configure a firewall. The firewall of choise was Symantic Raptor. Yes I know this is old but this is what we had to learn. What a piece of trash. I found 2 vuluniberties within this lab alone and we only had lab for 45 mins. Raptor has got to be one of the worst security programs that I have ever seen.

What is the worst program that you have used to promote security but really made you worse off than before you used it?

Well, it definately has to be Norton Systemworks 2004. I've never seen a worse program than it. It hogs an unbelieveable amount of memory, the main windows won't open (how am i supposed to use it?), and it can't detect viruses however outdated they may be. When i got rid of it and installed avast, it immediately detected 148 viruses. I think symantec has gone to the dogs with their security software - they need to do much better than this.

Yes, I have to agree with crs_cwiz. Norton Systemworks 2004 is so infuriating. Sure, the program windows popped up when I clicked on them but it really can't detect viruses... Or even if it can, it can't get rid of them. It's because there were some viruses it couldn't detect (and couldn't fix/quarantine) that it completely messed up my computer and I had to reformat the whole thing. Infuriating is the right word...



Anyway, I was wondering, crs_cwiz, can I ask where you got avast? I was hoping I can install this security program instead. Thank you very much! ^__^

-- scryoko

you had that much trouble with NSW 2004? I haven't had that much trouble with it. Ya it took me a bit to figure out how to properly configure it but once I did it cleaned up all the viruses and then I ran alot better. Also where can I find that Avast program?

You can try Avast! 4 Home Edition for free, but you have to pay for corporate (I think).

Has anybody used AOL's Spyware "Protector"? It is terrible. Also, I couldn't agree with you more about Norton.
I've got Norton AV 2004, and it is pathetic. It can't seem to delete or fix anything, even it detects them! I'm seriously considering switching to Avast! when my subscription expires.

Oh, just found Avast! I was tight about the Home Edition thing - here's the link
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

well i have used Avast before ... its nice software to detect virus. but after using avast for maybe a year or two , i switched to mcafee ,Its a bit better than Avast and uses lesser memory, What bugged me in avast is that i gives a siren and flashes a message when it finds a virus, It looks like its made for kids,

Well mcafee is professional Than that An since 2 years im stuck to this one ! But me too hate norton.! its the most Overrated Antivirus software .. which does not deserve to be in this field,!

Well frenz give try for Mcafee once !

You know what? I went searching for Avast this morning and I was able to find it at download.com. But the best thing of all, which I had hoped for, is that avast at download.com is completely free -- not any of the "free trial"/"demo"/"free to try" thing which only lasts for a certain amount of days. The version I found there is called the Avast Home Edition 4.6, which, for a direct link, is here:

Avast Home Edition 4.6

But there are also other, um... tools? programs? that is Avast related, so if anyone is interested in those as well, here is the general link I got when I clicked the search button for "avast":

Avast search results

Hmm... now about the program... after using it to scan my computer this morning, I have to say that the plus part of Avast is that it lets you decide what type of search you want (i.e. Quick, Standard, or Thorough), with Standard being the regular type of scan that a security program does. And it also lets you decide on what you want to scan (i.e. local disks, removable media, and/or folders), with the added benefit that you can decide to scan all the archived folders that a security program would not normally scan, if I'm correct. Though, of course, a thorough scan takes the longest of them all, it goes through all of your files, if you choose to scan your computer as such. But I have to admit, that the downside with Avast is that when it's performing the scan, you can't really just leave the computer to go do something else and come back half an hour (or more) later hoping that the scan is already complete and that results of what is detected (or not) is shown on your screen. You kind of have to be sitting in front of the computer (or at least be nearby and pay attention every so often) for the windows that pops up to inform you that a virus has been detected. Unlike Norton that repairs/deletes/quarantines all of the viruses at the end of the scan, Avast repairs/deletes/quarantines the viruses as it is still scanning. The downside of this? Well, once a window pops up to tell you that a virus has been found and what would you like to do with it (be it to delete, quarantine, etc. with it), you have to deal with the virus on the spot or else... the scan will not continue -- as in, it will pause, so to speak. I had not known this and so what could have been avoided with those hours of scanning my computer... well, I think you get the drift.



Really? I didn't notice... Well, I guess it might be because I didn't turn the volume on at all, but then, with this Avast Home Edition 4.6, the mesage window doesn't flash though, but, again, I'm still not sure if the siren sounds. lol.

But hm... you know, yeah, I have to admit, there is always a up and downside to everything -- and this program is no different. But I think that when it comes to the fact that your computer's security is at stake, with all your files and whatnot, I think that sitting in front of your computer while it scans for viruses is a small price to pay, right? And as for the siren sounding... I'm not sure if this version does that. I can simply say that turning the volume off would do the trick but then, people might also want to listen to music at the same time or somehing, so it may clash... But really, I think that Avast is a good security program since it can detect the viruses and is actually able to do something about them. But of course, this is still only my opinion. ^_^ What are yours?



Hm... Mcafee: a bit better than Avast with lesser memory usage, huh? You know... I think I will check this one out too. Thanks for sharing! ^_^

-- scryoko

Hmmm, well, I really don't know how Avast warns you when it finds a virus, since after installing it,i have not been infected with a single virus. it seems that avast is very powerful, and ever since i got rid of nsw 2004, my boot up time has been decreased. after over a week or 2 of test-trying avast, i give it 1 10/10 in all aspect. The thing which surprised me is that it even has skins! talk about customisable!!

Original setup for security:
- Norton System Works 2005
- Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta
- McAffee Antivirus

Current security setup :
- Spybot Search and Destroy for spyware
- Adaware for spyware
- Kaspersky Antiviris, Antihacker and antispam

Norton is a system hog and I found it useless, I don't need it and it just keeps on running. So that one got erased pretty fast, which increased the speed of my computer a bit. McAfee Antivirus took ages to complete it's scan, and I know Kaspersky was good so I uninstalled that and installed Kaspersky Trial (I can't buy it in Belgium for some odd reason)

Kaspersky found spyware, mind you MS Spyware beta thing had been running and updating daily for an hour, so it *should* have done the trick I would think. NO, it's just a stupid memory hog and a crap program. I don't know how else to say it, but I wouldn't even recommend MS AntiSpyware if THEY PAID ME for it. Gods no, it's the WORST I have seen in its kind.

I installed Spybot and found 70 pieces of spyware. That says it all to be honest, because MS' piece of crap ran daily at 6AM and 6PM.