I'd like some advice or recommendations for an effective anti-virus 
package that consumes the minimum amount of system resources.

Most of the machines here at Trinity currently use one of the many 
Symantec Norton variants but I am increasingly unhappy with them due 
to resource hogging.

I also have a number of personal machines that I am running a variety 
of packages on:

Trend security suite        p3 - 700MHz laptop  Win98se
Zone Alarms security suite  Athlon 2500 desktop WinXP home 512MB
McAfee version 8 (2004)     Celeron 400 desktop Win98se
McAfee version 9 (2005)     Celeron 533 desktop WinXP home 512 MB
Norton System Works 2003    P4 - 1.7GHz desktop WinXP home 768 MB
Nod32 (purchased but not yet installed)

I'm relatively unhappy with both McAfee versions for a number of reasons:

1) keeps prompting for me to log into their web-site and re-enter my 
registration information if I haven't manually updated for a couple 
(or more) weeks.  Both machines (and a couple of others also running 
McAfee 9) are set for automatic updates and should already have the 
latest and greatest - my manual check is to simply confirm that.

2) Always insists on scanning any mapped drives with no visible means 
to confine scanning to local drives only.  This is behavior contrary 
to McAfee versions 3, 4, 5 (which I was completely happy with while 
they were supported).


Zone Labs security suite - dunno about this one yet.  I had a lot of 
problems with the initial installation (100% CPU hogging) but was 
eventually fixed.  I don't yet have a feel for how much the machine 
slows down with the software suite active.


Trend security suite: seems to work OK but I can't have the automatic 
updates enabled or the machine locks up.  Prompts me weekly to take 
care of some critical MS updates that were in fact installed (and 
verified) shortly after they were released.  Again - I yet don't have 
a good feel for how much the machine slows down with the software 
suite active but it can't be too bad - I use that laptop all the time.


What I do know is that the Celeron 533 running WinXP slows down to 
completely unacceptable performance with McAfee running.  Performance 
is slow but livable when McAfee is turned off.

Does anyone have recommendations for an anti-virus package suitable 
for slow machines?  Free is nice but I don't mind paying for a 
reasonable package (all the packages mentioned above are legal / 
purchased version).

dwayne

-- 
Dwayne Reid   <dwayner@planet.eon.net>
Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd    Edmonton, AB, CANADA
(780) 489-3199 voice          (780) 487-6397 fax

Celebrating 21 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2005)
  .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-
     `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'
Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address.
This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited
commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email.

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist