Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu!hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu!gaynor From: gaynor@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Jim Gaynor) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Disinfectant 2.0 vs SAM vs ? Message-ID: <3624@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> Date: 9 Aug 90 20:14:47 GMT References: <53318215MES@MSU> Sender: news@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu Organization: Ohio State Univ IRCC Lines: 44 In article <53318215MES@MSU> 18215MES@MSU.BITNET writes: >Hi Folks, >There seems to be some debate here as to which app is the best >for protecting ones MACs from those nasty viruses. >I think that the init which comes with Disinfectant 2.0 is >quite sufficient for my and the MACs I oversee. >However, at a recent meeting of the Appletalk (Ethertalk) users >group here on campus, others seemed to favor SAM. > [further about SAM's disk checking and "free" status about Disinfectant] I put together the "Macintosh Anti-Virus Disk" for Ohio State's Instruction and Research Computing Center (IRCC) for about 9 months or so. (Got a new job, now). This disk was distributed by the Customer Service desk on a disk-exchange basis - you bring in a blank, they'll give you a copy of the Anti-Virus disk. I always recommended Disinfectant, Gatekeeper, and Gatekeeper Aid to the users I spoke to, and the on-disk documentation I wrote said the same thing. Especially when one has net access. Why? A number or reasons. 1) They're free, but still well supported by the authors. (John, I'm told, works on Disinfectant under grant money these days). 2) No Site License hassles, and no worries about illegal copying. Joe User can give copies to as many of his friends as he likes. 3) After having worked with SAM and Virex, it is my -opinion- that Disinfectant and Gatekeeper are better written products, and I have seen fewer conflicts with other programs when using these free packages as opposed to the commercial ones. 4) Product upgrades with Disinfectant are -fast-; John gets it out the moment the virus is found. Commercial products often take weeks to be upgraded and distributed. And ftp is still more reliable than UPS. Those reasons are more than enough for me. And very few people, after I've spoken to them, have disagreed with me. A few did, and a few will. Some folks never learn. -=- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Jim Gaynor - The Ohio State Univ. - IRCC - Facilities Mgmt. - OCES | | Email [gaynor@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu], [gaynor@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu] | |_ "Jim Gaynor explores The Land of VAXen! Will IRCC survive? Nahhh...." _|