There are so many pests out there. They crawl into your box, they eat away resources, they replicate and mail themselves into other boxes. They are nightmares. Unless you have the right anti virus product. Anti virus detects, deletes, and prevents your machine from viruses. So they are called anti virus software ( As if no one knew that ). Not having an Antivirus is good compared to having a wrong one, which is a disaster. You must choose the one which is right for you. I found Norton antivirus the right one for my Network. Many of you may argue that there are better products. My experiences is what I have with Norton. There is another review I am working on very soon, on other Antivirus Products. But in my experience and judgement, I say Norton is the Best.
Norton Anti virus / choosing the Anti virus
I personally look for an anti virus I can rely on. Perhaps thats what makes Norton different from its other peer products. I have used Norton products for more than 3 years now. No other software could impress me better other than Norton. Here is why
1. Norton uses very less resources, in terms of the CPU usage, Physical Memory and hard disk space (virtual).When you scan your machine , you hardly know that its going on. may be a difference on 19 and 20 in terms of your machine performance during a scan. but nevertheless that is ignorable. you can carry on your work as usual, with out hindrance.
2. Anti virus updates or Virus definitions are released almost everyday. the updates or definitions are a way of telling the anti virus software that there is a new worm on the prowl , so better watch out ( in case there is). Your anti virus software is only as good as its last update. Symantec releases an update every day at 5.30 am IST. Either you can download it an install it, or do schedule a live update, in this case the update happens every Wednesday. There are other products that do offer this benefit. I dont take this as a unique feature on Norton.
3. Never in 2 years of my career have I bothered about a new worm hitting my network. If there is a virus or a mass mailing worm, there is always a removal tool from symantec. Either you go through removing it manually, or you just download the removal tool from symantec website and rest assured your machine is clean and free of the worm. Best of all, its free to download. You dont even need to have Norton Installed. It also works if there is any other Antivirus software installed.
Features
Auto Protect
Auto Protect has two parameters, Enabled and Disabled. Always alert , looking out for your system , and always ready for action when it is enabled. should a virus creep in, auto protect does the appropriate action when it comes to dealing with viruses.
You have either have Auto protect Repair the infected file. some files have malicious headers , which break out for its destructive purposes when the file is read or modified. Repair option just manages to remove those headers. The next option is Quarantine, I think many of you know what Quarantine is, since the outbreak of Sars. But still, in this context Quarantine is isolating the infected file. Norton changes the file extension and puts the infected file in a folder specified. If the Repair option does not work , you can try this option.
Usually Auto protect advices the user for action with these options upon encounter with an infected file. The flip side is- when you try to install something, or you are debugging your VB/ VC++ / C# application you get a message from Norton. in this case you can always tell Norton to Authorize this Script.
Email Scanning
The latest and the effective method the scripts use is the address book. If your friends machine is infected, you can be very sure you are getting it too. Usually the infected file comes in attachments, which otherwise it is harmless. You are hit, when you open the attachment , and your machine dont have the latest definitions to deal with this. Usually a stranger sends you an attachment you are sure not to open it. But when its coming from a friend , you dont have a clue if its safe or not. More often than not you open the attachment till you know that it was a mailing worm. What can you expect , other email addresses in your address book also get a similar mail. Norton deals with this on two fronts. Scans incoming mails and attachment attachments. Scans outgoing mails. ( of course when it is enabled) .
The flip side is when installed, your Outlook or outlook express installation will not let you open any attachment. Not to worry, Just change the settings in tool- options - security - and uncheck Do not allow me to open attachments and all the attachments are accessible. But please be careful when you open any attachment. ( follow the tips at the end of this review )
Script Blocking
note:I dont have much information on malicious scripts. Perhaps some of the programmers on Mouthshut, could throw more light on this. I look upto dhavalhirdhav for this
There are some websites , that put some scripts on your local machines. Some are harmful, and some are not. Those harmless scripts are usually programmed to include more functionality in the web page. But if you ever visit the Warez sites or looking for free MP3’s, when you stumble on those endless pop ups there are a lot of chances some of these scripts are already downloaded and doing what they do worst, when during all this time you are struggling to close all the pop ups.
The script blocking functionality will actually stop these scripts from doing their damage. Even if they are sending some information to the outside world.
System Scan
Invoking this feature will scan your machine, the Floppy drive , CD drive Network drives ( if option specified) and Hard drive. the files are scanned one after another , in the precise same way your operating system lists the files. the larger the Hard disk, the longer time it takes. But this is one way to make sure that your machine is safe. When doing a scan it is better to have the Clean Infected file or quarantine enabled. better still, go for quarantine, since there is a chance that cleaning the file isnt always possible. I dont think when you scan your machine you always present. so save yourself the trouble and let Norton do it all for you.
Please Note Do not exclude the system drive and recycle bin when you are scanning. Scan everything.
Final Words from the systems Desk
The latest in Virus world is a semi harmful virus named w32.YaHa.k. This not only attacks through email, it attacks any computer with Microsoft Outlook installed. This Worm once runs on your PC , runs a script, which mails itself to all the addresses in your address book and gets ready to Launch a Denial of Service attacks on all the Pakistani government and news websites. This also Disables your anti virus software, so nothing can stop this.
Disconnect the Pc from the network / Internet
Run the YAHA removal tool from symantec.
smile. you are on candid camera.
Tips Included in comments Section
Comments are most welcome.
Davie