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Low/Zero maintenance antivirus suggestion?


VileTouch

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Ok, I need an antivirus for a node that i will probably never touch again and nobody probably ever care about updating/paying for. It will be behind a proven hardware firewall so there's little concern about outbound infection. it's basically there to catch the odd thumbdrive virus,etc. it needs to be free/cracked, doesn't matter as long as it doesn't need to be re activated manually every so often. needs to scan, clean and update fully automatically with no popups,messages sounds or warnings of any kind.

this of course rules out the 3 usual free avs (avira, avg and avast) so... suggestions?

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Eset antivirus with windows firewall should do the job, IMHO

in the days of windows 2000 i used to do that kind of job with eset, yes (the one that looked like a sidebar) and it provided solid, practically unlimited protection

but it has changed much lately. last i tried (9 i think) was quite noisy and needed constant reactivation via trial reset or searching for fresh keys on a certain site. that would make it unsuitable right away since trial resets can be broken easily with a well placed update and external sites can be shut down any day. not sure about making it totally silent though.

the other option was kaspersky 7 with it's infamous patch (best ever) but that one stopped working in xp unfortunately ...i mean vista. xp was it's last working platform

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bitdefender, lite on system

will have to try that again. hopefully the trial reset is sturdier this time around... last one i tried broke even before the first trial ended...figures.

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Supremo Phantom

if the windows OS is genuine or has a crack that bypasses genuine checks, then microsoft's own antivirus protection is a good solution for you...

all updates to latest product version or definitions are automatic, and since you have a hardware firewall in place, there is no need for a full blown security suite.

SEP is good as an alternative.. the un-managed install does not require a license, and virus definition update will be automatic, but yes ... product updates will require manually download and update.

so keeping that difference in mind, you can opt for either one as a good, free AV solution

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i think you should use avast internet security, it so easy and no maintenance :D

no. needs to be reactivated manually every 2/3 months, it's extremely noisy (BLAM!... DATABASES HAVE BEEN UPDATED!), constantly shows unnecessary ads and popups and in reality offers no real protection. usb infections dance under it's nose while it makes a huge fuss about harmless software. no thanks.

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it's basically there to catch the odd thumbdrive virus,etc.

If that's your main concern, and the terminal is remote / headless, just use Microsoft's MSE/Defender and disable USB autorun. Then set a daily/hourly forced update, e.g. putting "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate in task scheduler.

Otherwise be prepared to do some quarterly maintenance...

Are you using the remote node as a kiosk?

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it's basically there to catch the odd thumbdrive virus,etc.

If that's your main concern, and the terminal is remote / headless, just use Microsoft's MSE/Defender and disable USB autorun. Then set a daily/hourly forced update, e.g. putting "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate in task scheduler.

Otherwise be prepared to do some quarterly maintenance...

Are you using the remote node as a kiosk?

exactly. it is a kiosk. an as such it is unlikely to get any maintenance after it's deployment. the usb/card reader is public (internal use) so there is no autorun but the infected cards are pretty much guaranteed to come, judging by the logs in the rest of the network, though the "regular" computers do have competent avs.

strangely it is easier to convince the board to pay for workstation protection than for a kiosk. (maybe they assume these are not computers running windows too just like ATM and vending machines)

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it's basically there to catch the odd thumbdrive virus,etc.

If that's your main concern, and the terminal is remote / headless, just use Microsoft's MSE/Defender and disable USB autorun. Then set a daily/hourly forced update, e.g. putting "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate in task scheduler.

Otherwise be prepared to do some quarterly maintenance...

Are you using the remote node as a kiosk?

exactly. it is a kiosk.

If you are running it as a kiosk the best way is to freeze the system. Boot up a net image everytime, or use a software like Microsoft's Steadystate.

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it's basically there to catch the odd thumbdrive virus,etc.

If that's your main concern, and the terminal is remote / headless, just use Microsoft's MSE/Defender and disable USB autorun. Then set a daily/hourly forced update, e.g. putting "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate in task scheduler.

Otherwise be prepared to do some quarterly maintenance...

Are you using the remote node as a kiosk?

exactly. it is a kiosk.

If you are running it as a kiosk the best way is to freeze the system. Boot up a net image everytime, or use a software like Microsoft's Steadystate.

that was my first thought. there's even a spare license of deep freeze lying around, but that introduces a new problem: no operational logs are saved...sure i could spend even more hours manually configuring every program to dump the logs to a different partition, and modify my front end to pull the information panel from somewhere else but...tbh, it's not worth it. i've also had problems with it freezing the date and time, causing ssl shenanigans, rolling back windows/av updates (which wouldn't be a problem except it tries to re-download everything every time it boots up), in short...nope.

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that was my first thought. there's even a spare license of deep freeze lying around, but that introduces a new problem: no operational logs are saved...sure i could spend even more hours manually configuring every program to dump the logs to a different partition, and modify my front end to pull the information panel from somewhere else but...tbh, it's not worth it. i've also had problems with it freezing the date and time, causing ssl shenanigans, rolling back windows/av updates (which wouldn't be a problem except it tries to re-download everything every time it boots up), in short...nope.

I feel your pain. :)

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i think you should use avast internet security, it so easy and no maintenance :D

no. needs to be reactivated manually every 2/3 months, it's extremely noisy (BLAM!... DATABASES HAVE BEEN UPDATED!), constantly shows unnecessary ads and popups and in reality offers no real protection. usb infections dance under it's nose while it makes a huge fuss about harmless software. no thanks.

you should insert a lisence for 3 year and it never ask you reactived. the sound of this software can be disable or chance to silent/ gaming mode.

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i think you should use avast internet security, it so easy and no maintenance :D

no. needs to be reactivated manually every 2/3 months, it's extremely noisy (BLAM!... DATABASES HAVE BEEN UPDATED!), constantly shows unnecessary ads and popups and in reality offers no real protection. usb infections dance under it's nose while it makes a huge fuss about harmless software. no thanks.
you should insert a lisence for 3 year and it never ask you reactived. the sound of this software can be disable or chance to silent/ gaming mode.

doesn't help much with it's ineffectiveness,though. the databases are the same as the free version

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What i would recommand is

eset 8 with nikko's activator (i found it here, but i believe that's not the original source), will work permenetly, and you could disable any notifcation's etc.

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What i would recommand is

eset 8 with nikko's activator (i found it here, but i believe that's not the original source), will work permenetly, and you could disable any notifcation's etc.

oh...yes, i remember this. it was very good, but v9 broke it. as far as i know there are only two options now and both are prone to fail with any automatic update. (could be a month, a week, or tomorrow) so i'm holding back on that one. but back when it did work reliably, it was the go to option.

edit: wait, you say eset 8. so that means disabling program updates. won't that cause other issues?

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What i would recommand is

eset 8 with nikko's activator (i found it here, but i believe that's not the original source), will work permenetly, and you could disable any notifcation's etc.

oh...yes, i remember this. it was very good, but v9 broke it. as far as i know there are only two options now and both are prone to fail with any automatic update. (could be a month, a week, or tomorrow) so i'm holding back on that one. but back when it did work reliably, it was the go to option.

That's why i wrote version 8 not 9

You should use version 8, it's perfectly fine.

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