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A good, low resource, virus scanner
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Windows 2000 Annoyances Discussion Forum
The following are all of the messages in this thread (9 in all), shown in chronological order. Click any message subject to view that message by itself or to view the thread hierarchy.
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A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 3:15 am
Posted by 2000_man
(59 messages posted)
I've been wading through all of the reviews I can find on the current gen virus scanners
and still can't reach a decision on which one to use. In most of the reviews I've
read BitDefender is currently top ranked with Mcafee and Norton/Symantec in the top
three or four. Now, I've tried both BitDefender Total Security 2008 and Norton 2005
(which is problematic because I can't get it to update) and both seem like insane
resource hogs. I'd just like some input on was seems to work well for you guys
- providing good protection (I'm frequently on a friend's network and his computer
is riddled with viruses) without completely devouring resources.
On a complete side note - about 2 months ago I had posted about partitioning a drive
on which to install 2k and was told that a 25 Gb partition was plenty. I've installed
a few things but have left about 10 Gigs free - but the OS seems to hang more than
when I had it on it's own 80 gig..... is 10 gigs enough breathing room? Does 2k need
more HD to run comfortably? Or should I be looking somewhere else?
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 6:09 am
Posted by Deb
(1462 messages posted)
In my opinion AVG works well with less resource hogging than most. It uses alot while
doing the system scan so you should set it to do the daily scan at a time when you
won't be using your pc.
10 gb of free space should be adequate on your 2nd question.
Deb
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 7:34 am
Posted by DEX
(11847 messages posted)
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites
Click Here
I agree with Dep,,,
Most programs want to take over the PC and most do and AVG is one that will let you
run your PC your way..
Most are nasty to remove from your machine unlike AVG.
Most charge for the program and AVG is one that's free.
And it works ....
A firewall is the true key to keep you safe on the Net..
PLus if you close some of the back doors in win2k it will help...many,many back doors/side
doors in win2k/XP and they are open all the time....once you are on the net...auto
updates for just one...
On your 2nd item 25gb is a TON of info, think back to the days of MB , not that long
ago if you had a 10gb drive you had a great machine.....now a 10gb machine is on
the low end of machines...
Are you a wood worker ?,if so Click Here
On Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 6:09 am, Deb wrote:
>In my opinion AVG works well with less resource hogging than most. It uses alot
while
>doing the system scan so you should set it to do the daily scan at a time when you
>won't be using your pc.
>
>10 gb of free space should be adequate on your 2nd question.
>
>
> Deb
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 9:04 am
Posted by Jim O'Calaghan
(264 messages posted)
Couldn't agree more, with DEX and Deb. AVG does take a little time to load, but it's
'good time' loads a lot of good stuff, and gives powerful protection. Recently I
tried one called Avast, and find that pretty efficient also (first uninstalling AVG)
but it doesn't load any quicker.....both are excellent. Norton, McAfee, wouldn't
touch them, they can be very obstinate if you want to get rid of them. For the
other matter, 10g is plenty, something else is holding things up. Good luck.
Jim
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Posted by C K
(6910 messages posted)
The virus scanners have been pretty well covered, but I use one from www.free-av.com..
It has had pretty good reviews for the past several years now. (I've used it for
about 4 with no problems) on many systems and recommend it to my customers. It's
a little lighter on resource use then any of the precious mentioned and has a good
feature set. They aslo have a paid suite that isn't bad if you want to intigrate
a FW. I use AVG for Win 98 as Win 9X support is all but disappearing from most and
eventually all scanners.
As for 10 gig being enough HDD space? That all depends on how you use your system
and how you store your data, plus what programs you have loaded. Ten gig may be
enough for most users, but not enough depending on other factors in your system.
For instance, defragging may take a lot longer the larger the drives capacity or
if you get under about 30% free space (even though MS may state 10%), depending
on the size files stored on the drive.
Overall there are many factors that could be effecting your speed. Hard to tell
from a form.. :-(
BTW, the lastest version of Norton is better than previous "hog" versions of Norton
as it has been competely rewritten, but is still not a good choice IME.
On Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 3:15 am, 2000_man wrote:
>I've been wading through all of the reviews I can find on the current gen virus
scanners
>and still can't reach a decision on which one to use. In most of the reviews I've
>read BitDefender is currently top ranked with Mcafee and Norton/Symantec in the
top
>three or four. Now, I've tried both BitDefender Total Security 2008 and Norton
2005
>(which is problematic because I can't get it to update) and both seem like insane
>resource hogs. I'd just like some input on was seems to work well for you guys
>- providing good protection (I'm frequently on a friend's network and his computer
>is riddled with viruses) without completely devouring resources.
>
>
>
>
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Posted by 2000_man
(59 messages posted)
You guys are awesome -- I'll check out AVG, it seems to be the top pick so far.
CK: As for the 2k install - I have a dual boot system with 2K on a partitioned 160GB
and XP on it's own 80 Gb (The 80 Gig failed on me once before which is why I use
it for XP - I hate XP and only use it for games that won't run on 2K so I don't care
if it fails again). The 2k drive is installed on a 25 Gig partition with the other
135 gigs is used for storage. I use 2k for pretty much everything - listening to
music, internet, downloading, photoediting, and the few games that will run on it.
I run nothing in the background when at home (because I don't have internet access)
and task manager usually shows about 16 processes. The hang ups usually only occur
on startup (when 2k used yo be on the 80gig - even when it was my only drive - and
thus packed with other stuff) it would startup really fast -- now it hangs at the
log on screen. I also notice that Spybot S&D takes a decade to load however I'm
not sure if this is my computer or the fact that I'm using a newer version than was
previously installed.
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Posted by C K
(6910 messages posted)
Are there errors in the Event Viewer? Usually start troubleshooting by looking there.
If your 80 gig is/was throwing errors, it can cause the system to slow down as Windows
will try to compenate by dropping back in speed until errors stop. Or may have reverted
to PIO mode for the same reason.
Check that in the Device Manager under the IDE channel that the HDD's are installed
on. High CPU activity along with high HDD and slow loading access is usually a sign
of some issues with the DMA usage or lack there of, a driver issue or bad hardware..
Either way, it may be either IDE drivers corrupted or PIO mode usage which can be
corrected by deleting the IDE channel and rebooting to see if WIndows can "refresh"
the driver and reset the registry's DMA error/failure count. (which will cause the
channel to only use PIO mode until reset) This will happen even if you replace the
HDD and repair install Windows.
May be other issues as well, but this is a common one when HDD are having issues
and Windows tries to compensate for the errors.
On Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 12:48 pm, 2000_man wrote:
>You guys are awesome -- I'll check out AVG, it seems to be the top pick so far.
>
>CK: As for the 2k install - I have a dual boot system with 2K on a partitioned 160GB
>and XP on it's own 80 Gb (The 80 Gig failed on me once before which is why I use
>it for XP - I hate XP and only use it for games that won't run on 2K so I don't
care
>if it fails again). The 2k drive is installed on a 25 Gig partition with the other
>135 gigs is used for storage. I use 2k for pretty much everything - listening to
>music, internet, downloading, photoediting, and the few games that will run on it.
> I run nothing in the background when at home (because I don't have internet access)
>and task manager usually shows about 16 processes. The hang ups usually only occur
>on startup (when 2k used yo be on the 80gig - even when it was my only drive - and
>thus packed with other stuff) it would startup really fast -- now it hangs at the
>log on screen. I also notice that Spybot S&D takes a decade to load however I'm
>not sure if this is my computer or the fact that I'm using a newer version than
was
>previously installed.
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Posted by 2000_man
(59 messages posted)
Nothing of interest in the event viewer....and both HDD's are installed in the device
manager. I don't think it matters anymore though since right before I posted this
I think tihe 80 gig failed again.....it refuses to boot into XP. Like I said before
the only thing the 80 gig was for was to run games that wouldn't run on 2k....so
I'm not really upset. I'm going to disconnect it and see if that'll fix the problem.
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re: A good, low resource, virus scanner
Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Posted by C K
(6910 messages posted)
You have to look at the IDE channel listing under the IDE controller(s), not at the
HDD's. That's where the PIO/DMA settings are at, unless the chipset in your computer
needs a utility installed from the motherboard/chipset manufacturer to enable the
DMA modes correctly. VIA and Intel were good at this (needing patches and such).
Depending on the failure of the drive, it can slow down both drives (or make both
fail) when they are on the same channel.
Download the drive manufacturers diagnostics utility and check the drive. See if
that can pick up a problem. Sometimes, but not always, they will. Not all drive
manufacturers have a utility but the major ones do.
On Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 7:10 pm, 2000_man wrote:
>Nothing of interest in the event viewer....and both HDD's are installed in the device
>manager. I don't think it matters anymore though since right before I posted this
>I think tihe 80 gig failed again.....it refuses to boot into XP. Like I said before
>the only thing the 80 gig was for was to run games that wouldn't run on 2k....so
>I'm not really upset. I'm going to disconnect it and see if that'll fix the problem.
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