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From: swsh@ellis.uchicago.edu (Janet M. Swisher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Disinfectant 2.0 vs SAM vs ?
Message-ID: <1990Aug9.221406.14913@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 9 Aug 90 22:14:06 GMT
References: <53318215MES@MSU> <90221.1412203XMQGAA@CMUVM.BITNET>
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Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
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Update times for Disinfectant and SAM are about the same, whether you've got
net access or not.  If you've got net access, you can download Disinfectant,
or you can get the SAM virus definitions that Symantec posts to comp.virus.
If you don't have net access, you're generally going to lag behind in either
case if you don't have a finger on the pulse of the virus world (apologies
for the mixed metaphors).  I encounter people all the time who are still
using Disinfectant 1.5 or 1.6.  At least the SAM users get a postcard.

I agree that for Joe User, the Disinfectant/Gatekeeper/Gatekeeper Aid combo
is perfectly sufficient.  The price/performance ratio can't be beat.

SAM has a couple of features that I really like, namely the automatic floppy
scanning and the dynamic exception learning.  The latter is a great advantage
over Gatekeeper, since it means you don't have to cancel what you were doing,
go to the the control panel, add another program (hoping you spelled it right
and checked the right boxes), and then restart what you were doing.  Of course,
it could be inadvertantly used by a novice to let a virus get through, and I
hear it's not entirely perfect (but if you're doing MPW compiles, you're asking
for trouble anyway :-)  ).

However, my employer paid for SAM, and work is where I use it.  If the money
were coming out of my pocketbook, I'd probably stick with D/G/GA.


Janet

--

Janet Swisher			Internet: swsh@midway.uchicago.edu	
University of Chicago		Phone: (312) 702-7608
Academic and Public Computing	P-mail: 1155 E. 60th St. Chicago IL 60637, USA