Re: Anti-Virus

[David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Pluta wrote:
> Since AVG considers every class embedded inside every JAR file to be
> a "file", as far as AVG is concerned WDSC contains hundreds of
> thousands of files.  I have two copies of WDSC, three Java SDKs and a
> copy of Eclipse on my machine; AVG is up to 2 million files and the
> pause is up to 16-30 seconds.  Since it takes roughly a half a second
> to scan 99 files, that means I'm spending 95% of my time hanging.

Most anti-virus products drill into archives these days ... so that
functionality is normal ... but to have it hang like that doesn't sound
right at all.  The anti-virus software I use doesn't hang at all when
dealing with JAR's (and I have software that uses some truly massive JAR
files).

> So, time for the opinion poll: who's got the best A/V software out 
> there?  Is there a worthwhile free edition, or how much will I have
> to spend?  Will it handle multiple machines?  Is it easy to schedule 
> off-hours scans?  Can I eliminate folders from the scan process?

I use Symantec anti-virus corporate edition (site license from my
employer).  I like it a lot more than Symantec's Norton anti-virus ...
because it's not as invasive.  It doesn't have things like "Worm
Blocking" (which is the job of firewall software, not anti-virus, IMHO).

My only gripe is that they only update their 'live update' servers once
a week, or when something truly virulent is found.

I have seen a number multi-license packs for Norton AV for very
reasonable prices available from buy.com and outpost/frys.

david