virus protection on computer with SAW

[PaulH]

hi,
i realized i have no anti-virus on my computer that i run saw. i also go on the internet with internet explorer. i was considering bitdefender. any recommendations?
thanks,
paul

[Audioman]

This one:

http://www.free-av.com/

Is free, is daily updated, takes only a part of your computer resources...is a complete tool...


Regards

[AudioAstronomer]

Switch to opera 9.

Are you downloading things often? If not, then simply switching browsers would work great.

[mghtx]

i was considering bitdefender

I didn't like it.


switching browsers would work great.

+1.

[Jay Q]

hi,
i realized i have no anti-virus on my computer that i run saw. i also go on the internet with internet explorer. i was considering bitdefender. any recommendations?
thanks,
paulOf the numerous AV apps I've used, NOD32 (http://www.eset.com/) has been the best for me, hands down. It's not the most intuitive app, but it's rock solid (kinda like SAW ;) ).

Jay

[Bruce Callaway]

I use McAfee and have for a number of years. It has kept the DAW clean and has not interfered with SAW. However if I have a client in, to be sure I have no problems, I disconnect the PC from the network.

[antiacid]

I like both Kaspersky and NOD32 because they are simple in use and light on the CPU and IO (unlike norton antivirus for instance that keeps yellin for attention). would recommend not to use a free av package, it probably contains lots of adware and god knows what creepy stuff goes on in the background.

[Craig Allen]

I've had good results using Grisoft's AVG which is free. They've just updated the software, so I don't know what the new version is like. http://www.grisoft.com.

[mako]

Try Avast - there's a free version for non-commercial use. It's excellent.

cheers

mako

[Mark Stebbeds]

Try Avast - there's a free version for non-commercial use. It's excellent.


That's what I use. I have it set up (I think) so it is only checking incoming email, and not scanning the drives. Then, when I sense something is amiss, or fell like doing some housekeeping I'll update and scan.

Rarely do I find anything, because I don't use IE or MS Outlook, a.k.a. Virus Magnets.

Mark

[Arco]

-switch to Firefox or some other non-Iexplorer (although I7 might be safer..?)
-NOD32 works really well although I might end up switching over to (eek) MS onecare (firewall/antivirus/antispyware) which along with my router might be enough. (with newer systems i don't think you notice too much inteference from anti-virus but it would be the first thing i turned off if there was any sign of a power lag. stay away from mcafee or norton--way too big a footprint.)
-get a router to hide behind.


Although NAT routers are not generally purchased for their security benefits, all NAT routers inherently function as very effective hardware firewalls (with a few caveats examined below). As a hardware firewall they prevent "unsolicited", unexpected, unwanted, and potentially annoying or dangerous traffic from the public Internet from passing through the router and entering the user's private LAN network.


http://www.grc.com/nat/nat.htm

[Ian Alexander]

Arco's router idea has worked well here for many years. In addition to NAT or Network Address Translation, most routers have Stateful Packet Inspection, which loosely means that any packets coming in must correspond to a request that went out.

Neither of these services will help, though, if a website is using some ActiveX or other MS "feature", that you have allowed, to suss out info about your machine or install unneeded or dangerous malware.

The other question beyond browsing is email. I think email, more than browsing, is responsible for virus propogation. Your original question didn't mention email on the machine. If you use another machone for email, why not use the other machine for browsing, too?

[Naturally Digital]

That's what I use. I have it set up (I think) so it is only checking incoming email, and not scanning the drives. Then, when I sense something is amiss, or fell like doing some housekeeping I'll update and scan.

Rarely do I find anything, because I don't use IE or MS Outlook, a.k.a. Virus Magnets.

MarkI'm also using Avast right now. It works especially well if you are on outlook as there's a plug-in that scans emails. It takes Outlook a little longer to open but seems a good trade-off to me.

Don't be put off when it asks you to re-register in 90 days (or whatever the time period is). Simply register again and fagedaboudit. It's well worth it.

I still haven't tried the open-source a/v Clamwin http://www.clamwin.com/ OK. Who's gonna be the guinea pig?:D

[bcorkery]

I don't have my studio computer on the Internet but use NOD32 at home and it works pretty seamlessly. Norton has gotten to be a PITA! It's always beating its breast, look what I've done for you, how about me, and that kind of thing. And it's soooo invasive! I've grown to hate it!!!

[PaulH]

thanks all for that useful info!
my saw computer is faster than my laptop, so i'm always tempted to use it for some browsing (though I do not download) and i check my aol mail and my website mail. i'll check out some of the suggestions.
thanks again,
paul

[Jay Q]

-get a router to hide behind.Yes!

One more thing, Paul, about NOD32. I don't know the current state of things, but back when I got NOD, it was considerably better at catching script-based viruses on web pages -- some AV software at the time didn't even have that functionality. Something to consider if you're browsing a lot.

Jay

[studio-c]

I use McAfee and have for a number of years. It has kept the DAW clean and has not interfered with SAW. However if I have a client in, to be sure I have no problems, I disconnect the PC from the network.
I use Norton. I had Norton SystemWorks for a while, but it was waaaaay too intrusive (on computer startup,it hangs up your machine for about 4 minutes while examines something or other, before giving you a popup "All programs are working correctly"). It would always be updating virus definitions in the background, which you wouldn't know till you got a popup.

Regular Norton Antivirus without the systemworks stuff is a bit cleaner. But I still right click and disable it in the tray when I'm doing audio. Don't trust it. I also right click on Windows Messenger, Quicktime or anything else that's in the tray and disable them. Hopefully that's doing something good. I'm not an expert at that stuff.

I just saw that ZoneAlarm has a router. Does anyone know if this is a hardware solution? I'd love to get some hardware that just filters everything coming and going to our network from the DSL line. Then I could just bail on the 5 Norton renewals every year (that's just at the studio. 3 more at home!)

A hardware solution would be great, then we could keep the boxes lean and mean. Anyone know?

Scott

[studio-c]

I don't have my studio computer on the Internet but use NOD32 at home and it works pretty seamlessly. Norton has gotten to be a PITA! It's always beating its breast, look what I've done for you, how about me, and that kind of thing. And it's soooo invasive! I've grown to hate it!!!
You said it much better than I, Bill. :)
Happy New Year, by the way.

Scott

[Cary B. Cornett]

I just saw that ZoneAlarm has a router. Does anyone know if this is a hardware solution? I'd love to get some hardware that just filters everything coming and going to our network from the DSL line. Then I could just bail on the 5 Norton renewals every year (that's just at the studio. 3 more at home!)

A hardware solution would be great, then we could keep the boxes lean and mean. Anyone know?

Scott On my network here, which includes home and studio, I have a Linksys router box between my cable modem and the rest of the network. This system runs "full stealth" meaning that any outside attempt to access a port finds NOTHING. This means that no attack from outside gets in. I do not use the DAW to browse the web or for email. I do all software downloads and such from my "online" machine, then do any needed installs from one machine to another over the internal network. My DAW has no anti-virus stuff of any kind on it, only the functions needed for audio, period. No one but me uses my online computer or the DAW machine, and I am very conservative in my "web habits", so virus infections of MY computers are RARE.

I strongly recommend that you visit
www.grc.com
where you can find some really good information about computer security. You can also run some good system security tests there.

[Mark Stebbeds]

On my network here, which includes home and studio, I have a Linksys router box between my cable modem and the rest of the network.

Me tool



I do not use the DAW to browse the web or for email.

I do without incident, but then I don't use IE or Outlook.



My DAW has no anti-virus stuff of any kind on it, only the functions needed for audio, period.

Mine does, but rarely use it. Until today. Wierd thing. My Avast virus protection expired the other day, and I was lazy about re-registering. When I booted up this morning, some sort of Spy ware protection was on my system running in the background, claiming it found a bunch of spyware. I immediately ran my own Spybot and found nothing. I updated Avast, ran it, and found a few malware and trojans...all related to the fake Spyware app that was loaded on.

I agree that if you are careful, there is no need for virus protection...but then again, in most instances it doesn't hurt.

Mark

[bcorkery]

You said it much better than I, Bill. :)
Happy New Year, by the way.

ScottWelcome home. Dumplings next week? We can talk SAW over the table. (whew, back on topic now!)
:D

[Jay Q]

On my network here, which includes home and studio, I have a Linksys router box between my cable modem and the rest of the network. This system runs "full stealth" meaning that any outside attempt to access a port finds NOTHING. This means that no attack from outside gets in. I do not use the DAW to browse the web or for email. I do all software downloads and such from my "online" machine, then do any needed installs from one machine to another over the internal network. My DAW has no anti-virus stuff of any kind on it, only the functions needed for audio, period.Paul, a router like Cary mentioned is a great way to go if you can. Get one with a firewall -- the marketing sometimes misleads us to think that they have firewalls when they really don't (most use NAT which is okay but not as secure as a firewall).

In any event, remember to disable any AV (or other non-audio) software when working with audio per Scott's comment. You don't want non-essential software stealing precious CPU cycles or RAM.

Jay

[Carl G.]

Scott,
I do the same. On the new machine I searched/tried many.... but still came back with confidence using Norton (only Antivirus). However, just like you, I make sure I DISABLE it while doing production! Easy to do. Older versions would not allow it. Further, the 2007 model is leaner (I'm told).
I also use SpyDoctor plus Adaware - just to be more safe. All this behind a NAT router.

[Cary B. Cornett]

... I don't use IE or Outlook.

MarkNeither do I! Instead I use Firefox and Thunderbird.:cool:

[Mark Stebbeds]

Neither do I! Instead I use Firefox and Thunderbird.:cool:

And that is a big step towards avoiding viruses. I just updated SpyBot and ran it, only to find several spywares in IE...and I seldom use it. Goes to show ya...

Mark

[AcousticGlue]

Using IE or Outlook has nothing to do with getting virii. I use them, don't use any anti-virus. I load McAfee 8.0i once every 5 months just ot maintain that the system is free of virrii then unload it. It is USERS that attract virii, not Microsoft stuff. I work in an environment of Linux. Unix and Microsoft every day, thousands of servers/PCs. Do NOT let anyone tell you any different. Patch your OS, surf till your heart's content, just stay away from crap.

[Mark Stebbeds]

Using IE or Outlook has nothing to do with getting virii. I use them, don't use any anti-virus. I
<snip>
Do NOT let anyone tell you any different. Patch your OS, surf till your heart's content, just stay away from crap.

Nothing personal, but hundreds of IT professionals disagree with you, so I think I won't let you tell me anything different.:) My own experience has also convinced me that non IE and Outlook apps are superior in preventing virii.

I've had it shown to me several times how the vulnerability of IE and Outlook comes from the identical file paths in each and every installation, making it easy for hackers to come in the back door, whereas other browsers and email clients have random directory names in the path, foiling hackers.

Of course visiting certain websites increase your vulnerability, but there is no way of knowing what is crap when you are surfing to your heart's content.

Mark

[Craig Allen]

Nothing personal, but hundreds of IT professionals disagree with you, so I think I won't let you tell me anything different.:) My own experience has also convinced me that non IE and Outlook apps are superior in preventing virii.
True, more junk is written for the market leader, but tons of IT departments use Outlook - every large company I've dealt with during the last several years use it for e-mail.


I've had it shown to me several times how the vulnerability of IE and Outlook comes from the identical file paths in each and every installation, making it easy for hackers to come in the back door, whereas other browsers and email clients have random directory names in the path, foiling hackers.
I've have Firefox and have had Mozilla on my machine and they're not in any type of random folder - maybe I missed that option, but I don't recall any during several installs. And you can change the install folder of Outlook to whatever you want (I did on my personal machine). But that may be different now - I am on an old version of Outlook (I never saw a need to upgrade from Outlook 98).

[Mark Stebbeds]

[QUOTE]True, more junk is written for the market leader, but tons of IT departments use Outlook - every large company I've dealt with during the last several years use it for e-mail.

Yeah they are, but I think it's because they buy corporate bundles and have MS trained IT guys. Many other software business programs such as databases are written to interface with MS Office. AT my wife's former job they used something called Goldmine...and it required MS Word and Outlook. I have a custom audio compression program on board right now that will not work without MS Excel on board, even though I have Open Office. So after a couple years of living without it, I had to reinstall Excel.

Individuals don't make decisions at big companies...you use what you are required to use.:)


I've have Firefox and have had Mozilla on my machine and they're not in any type of random folder - maybe I missed that option, but I don't recall any during several installs.

Although I've seen this demonstrated to me with my own eyes several times, I always have a hard time explaining it, because, well, I never really cared that much to pay close attention...but it's not the folder in which you install it, or the parent folder. It's the default directory path of the install and the file/folder names created that are the target of hackers.

I'll try to find out more from those who have advised me...but who cares. If it's working for you, carry on.

My personal experience has been more efficient junk mail filtering in Thunderbird and Firefox has much better on board cookie and pop up window management, besides offering more security from hackers. My experience the other day was a rarity, when it was always a constant battle when I used IE.

I let my guard down for a couple of days when my virus software registration expired and my computer got infected...but it was an easy fix once I figured it out. And during the cleaning process, discovered a TON of stuff associated with IE...which was dormant because I never use IE, especially since the last Firefox update.

Mark

[Craig Allen]

Individuals don't make decisions at big companies...you use what you are required to use.:)
Sombody made a decision at some level to go with MS.


Although I've seen this demonstrated to me with my own eyes several times, I always have a hard time explaining it, because, well, I never really cared that much to pay close attention...but it's not the folder in which you install it, or the parent folder. It's the default directory path of the install and the file/folder names created that are the target of hackers.

I'll try to find out more from those who have advised me...but who cares. If it's working for you, carry on.
It's not that big of a deal - I wasn't aware of it myself and it didn't appear that was the case on my machine. But I was looking at the root folder.


My personal experience has been more efficient junk mail filtering in Thunderbird and Firefox has much better on board cookie and pop up window management, besides offering more security from hackers. My experience the other day was a rarity, when it was always a constant battle when I used IE.
I tried and wanted to use Thunderbird for a while, but just didn't like it. The filtering was ok, but navigation was difficult for me. That's just my preference. I also still prefer Outlook 98 to Outlook 2003.


I let my guard down for a couple of days when my virus software registration expired and my computer got infected...but it was an easy fix once I figured it out. And during the cleaning process, discovered a TON of stuff associated with IE...which was dormant because I never use IE, especially since the last Firefox update.
I looked up music lyrics once on an unprotected machine because I was lazy and I figured what could really happen looking for music lyrics - it wasn't like I was looking for porn. Within 5 minutes, I got nailed with some nasty stuff. Good luck getting yours cleaned up.

[Jay Q]

I looked up music lyrics once on an unprotected machine because I was lazy and I figured what could really happen looking for music lyrics - it wasn't like I was looking for porn. Within 5 minutes, I got nailed with some nasty stuff. Good luck getting yours cleaned up.Exactly. Same here, but luckily NOD caught it as the page loaded. No reason to think a lyrics site would be trap. That's why I think Acoustic's advice to "stay away from crap" isn't very good (sorry, Acoustic) -- you can't always know what's crap until you smell it.

Jay

[AcousticGlue]

It's simple advice and it depends on what services you have turned on on your machine. If you run an antivirus it opens ports which virii gravitate towards. Turn off unneeded services, these are ports. Keep firewall closed coming in. If your web sites are on an internal box, they need antivirus as do other add-ons. If you surf as an administrator and you click on certain downloads then, yes, you might become infected. Other web sites may not keep a certain amount of safety loaded. Everyonedoes not know how to properly protect their environment. I also see this alot. They leave open ports they do not need. Look at extensions before you download. Keep JAVA up-to-date because it's the biggest black hole of all.

[Cary B. Cornett]

Using IE or Outlook has nothing to do with getting virii. I disagree with this. Both of these programs have vulnerabilities that are specifically targeted by virus writers.

Patch your OS, surf till your heart's content, just stay away from crap. Certain types of activity/sites definitely get targeted more than others. Think "something for nothing", "too good to be true", and, of course, porn as red flags in this respect. Part of why I seldom have to deal with virii is that I am very conservative in my online habits. My 20 year old son, who has not figured this out yet, finds himself having to do a "scorched earth" drive wipe and reinstall about twice a year or so. His computers and mine are on the same network, behind the same firewall, so it boils down to differences in software choice and usage habits.

[Mark Stebbeds]

I looked up music lyrics once on an unprotected machine because I was lazy and I figured what could really happen looking for music lyrics - it wasn't like I was looking for porn. Within 5 minutes, I got nailed with some nasty stuff. Good luck getting yours cleaned up.

It's funny you should mention that because that's exactly what I was doing last week. So maybe we hit the same site.:)

Damn musicians!:D

Mark

[Angie]

Using IE or Outlook has nothing to do with getting virii. I use them, don't use any anti-virus. ..... It is USERS that attract virii, not Microsoft stuff.

Both do seem to increase the chance, in my experience. Some sites also seem to increase the chances. Chris chooses to use IE and Outlook, I use Firefox and Thunderbird. We are on the same LAN. He will find viruses all the time. I still haven't gotten one. We frequent some of the same places except one. There is a Yahoo newsgroup he enjoys. I believe a great many of his problems come from that group. But it is hard to say as I have never been on it with my machine.



I've have Firefox and have had Mozilla on my machine and they're not in any type of random folder - maybe I missed that option, but I don't recall any during several installs.

For instance, Craig, it is extremely easy to find the temp internet folder for IE and always has been. Tell me where it is for Firefox.

I'm in total agreement with everything Mark and Cary have said so far. The vast majority of people getting new computers use what's loaded on them because it is easy. They don't have an IT department watching out for them and feel lucky just to know how to get email. I know people who are afraid to download anything from the internet for fear of catching a virus, but they don't realise they leave themselves open every day by just surfing.

I still have IE loaded for those problem sites. But those have been few and far between until recently. I may have to start using it to get on the TapeOp board again. Anyone know what they might have done to break it?

[Carl G.]

[QUOTE=Craig Allen;61740]

Yeah they are, but I think it's because they buy corporate bundles and have MS trained IT guys. Many other software business programs such as databases are written to interface with MS Office. AT my wife's former job they used something called Goldmine...and it required MS Word and Outlook. ..Mark

I use Goldmine.
My son wrote macros for using Word Perfect.
I wrote Goldmine and offered to everyone for Free (even large Corps).
Had some good takers. I still use it today.
But Goldmine would not back it nor push it.... though our WP macros run better than their Microsoft Macros. Sad Bedfellows.