Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware
ClamAV best AntiVirus ever?
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Aug 19th 2005 at 8:09AM
While Forrester might have its pick, the folks at Electric Mail are choosing ClamAV for the bulk of their AntiVirus needs. Granted, it isn't designed to do all the things McAfee's suite does, but when it comes to the speed in which it detects virus-laden email, apparently ClamAV is the fastest. Why should this matter? Well Electric Rain happens to provide email service to a bunch of folks, and I'm guessing most of them would rather not get viruses passed along. So while the rest of the AV gang is trying to figure out what's going on, ClamAV has found the virus already.When I say "speed" I really mean time-to-update. Electric Rain's report (found over at linuxpipeline)
said this: "A scoring system was devised based on who was first,
second, and third to release a virus signature. Anti-Virus outranked
the other two antivirus vendors by a wide margin. One key measure is
that Clam Anti-Virus came in first 77% of the time. Kudos to Clam
Anti-Virus!"
The report goes on to explain that compounding the problem is when major vendor apps don't really catch a virus, they just think they have. Variants might have similar signatures, which might appear to be cleaned, but the actual "real" updated signature can see some pretty horrific lag times. So much for getting what you pay for... At the end of the day I agree with the author of the article when he says you need more than one AV program, especially if this is your lifeblood. Just like you need about 6 anti-spyware apps, 2 firewalls, and a sack of doorknobs to feel really safe...
The report goes on to explain that compounding the problem is when major vendor apps don't really catch a virus, they just think they have. Variants might have similar signatures, which might appear to be cleaned, but the actual "real" updated signature can see some pretty horrific lag times. So much for getting what you pay for... At the end of the day I agree with the author of the article when he says you need more than one AV program, especially if this is your lifeblood. Just like you need about 6 anti-spyware apps, 2 firewalls, and a sack of doorknobs to feel really safe...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mat said 11:13AM on 8-19-2005
While ClamWin might be the fastest to release updates and its ClamAV email scanning software is the nuts but its not the best desktop AV software out there by a long way. I'm 110% behind Open Source and I love what these guys are doing but I find ClamWin to be sloooow to scan machines, it doesn't do file checking on the fly (ie when new files are downloaded or files added to the computer), it doesn't scan emails or attachments and its a real memory hog. It'll probably be great in a few versions time but at the mo it doesn't cut it IMHO.
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Dave M. said 1:11PM on 8-19-2005
I'll tell you one thing. ClamAV doesn't like MS at all. I tried that software a short while ago and it did a number on my Windows Media Player. It thought that WMP was a virus and quarinteened it. I had to use System Restore to get it back.I dumped ClamAV right after that.
Mind you, I'm no fan of MS or WMP, but I don't want an anti-virus program deciding what software I am going to use.
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Shep Eddy said 2:02PM on 8-19-2005
I have used Norton SystemWorks/AV for years but I don't like the way it can bog down Outlook 2000 during mail scans. This ClamAV sounded like what I've been looking for to work with Outlook (I would disable Norton mail scan). The above comments worry me. Anyone have any better luck with ClamAV.
*My OS is XP home.
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Dave M. said 11:24AM on 8-20-2005
I'm sure that there are plenty that have had great luck with ClamAV. The friend that turned me on to it had no problems with it at all.
I currently NortonAV myself. I don't see any large delays when downloading mail. However, I use Thunderbird for my mail client. I have learned that staying away from MS software is the best way to stay virus/spyware free. I use Firefox for a browser, I use Gmail to read all my mail that has been forwarded from all my other email accounts. I use Thunderbird to download my mail so that it doesn't fill up my mail servers. I do use Word and Excel, but not a lot.
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