August 2005 — Features
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How to Keep Your Campus Safe from Infection
7.2MBComments: Very low overhead; advertised as the fastest scanner in the world. Web site lacks a little information. Internet module watches IP stack and intercepts viruses before they make it onto your computer. Great support; no automated answering menu; always a live person and never any wait times. Great heuristics; in fact, some of the best reported by independent testers. (Tests report 85 percent, while NOD32 claims they are at 91 percent.) Automatic updates start immediately; no reboot. One of two products that caught viruses importing into my VMware session. After detection, it would no longer allow me to access those files. It is also worth noting that the last few big viruses that disabled other antivirus software products did not disable NOD32. This is an outstanding product, probably the best. These guys are definitely not marketing their product enough, as they are the most decorated antivirus software out there.
Web site: www.norman.com
Local office: Fairfax, VA
Support: 703-267-6109 or 888-GO-NORMAN
(888-466-6762)
Price: $63.74
File size: 12.5MB
Comments: No reboot required after install, but a little sluggish. Technician did return my phone call.
Web site: www.ravantivirus.com
Local office: Romania
Price: $29
Support: Unknown
File size: 12.1MB
Comments: No reboot, says it protects against all malware—107,060 different pests/Trojans to be exact. Not sure the ondemand scanner really scans anything since it always reports the same number of files each time. This product is temporarily unavailable for download, but I found it on the company’s FTP server. According to the company’s Web site, Microsoft acquired RAV’s intellectual property rights, and the company closed down its direct sales (including its e-store) in September 2003. And although the site still offers updates, they seem to have little to no effect.
Final Results
After analyzing the results of my testing, Nod32 was my first choice, followed by Kaspersky. NOD32 excelled in speed and low resources, while Kaspersky did a better job with archives but detected fewer viruses overall. It is worth noting that NOD32 has live US customer support and close to 24/7 e-mail support, whereas Kaspersky has no US support, just resellers. BitDefender and Panda were next in line, with Panda one of the most resource-intensive. All four of these products deal with downloader Trojans, droppers, and a wide verity of malware, which is extremely helpful in this fast-growing epidemic.
Scott Brown has been an information security analyst with Colby-Sawyer College, an independent and comprehensive liberal arts college located in central New Hampshire, since 2004. Prior to joining the school, Brown ran his own computer consulting business for nearly 20 years, specializing in building and repairing hardware and troubleshooting operating systems for small businesses. By the late 1990s, he found himself doing more and more operating system and network troubleshooting. Brown has been working with malware since the beginning, so he clearly understands viruses and other forms of malware.
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