Well - this is something interesting I found at a client site:
Nearly 2 gigabytes of drive space being used by google desktop search, which my client says they weren't even using. Sometimes I say "If you dont use it, its no big deal." - but this program is a hog, use it or not.

A Better Anti-virus

This post will be a kind of work in progress as I dont have time to thoroughly compose it at the moment.

Over the past year I have been dealing with several highly disappointing antivirus programs. My biggest problem being that 95% of the antivirus suites available nearly clobber your pc in the quest to scan viruses - once installed the AV program just uses up all your CPU and RAM making your pc not so fun to use - whats worse the desease or the cure. Personally I dont even run an antivirus suite on my netbook, they kill my battery life, and I know pretty well to stay away from viruses (knock on silicon).

My favorite AV program for some time was AVG Free 7.5 which has just been completely abandoned for updates by AVG (upgrade asap to 8.5). I was a little disappointed when 8.0 came out using a bit more resources, and then 8.5 even worse, but I guess you need to keep up with the competition (viruses that is). For a free AV program AVG is pretty decent, and its relatively speedy still - note that the free version is for NON-commercial use only - meaning you must pay to use it at work.

Currently my preferred paid antivirus suite is NOD32 from ESET, although I am not quite thoroughly excited with it, it does seem to use a low amount of resources (and thats their moto) compared to most other AV programs, but its definitely not the 35 mb of ram advertised on their site.

Here is my no-no list either due to system hogs, or bad interface:

• Symantec / Norton Antivirus - anything they make - stay away
• McAfee - definitely stay away from their desktop apps, the corp versions are so-so.
• Kaspersky - totally shutdown a servers network connection at one site
• AVG Pro corp version- not bad, but not great, some sloppy design work on the admin side
• TrendMicro - what a mess
• eTrust Ez Antivirus - not very good at detection
• CA Computer Associates - same thing
• Clamwin - no active scanner, very dangerous
• Panda - tends to be too restrictive
• Sophos - not really a corporate competitor, but it works 'ok'
• Webroot - kind of a pig
• Spyware Doctor - severe system hog - remove this asap
• PC Tools Internet Security - definite resource hog also, get rid of it
• ParetoLogic Antivirus - resource hog

Heres a couple of reviews I found that dont really seem to have much basis, and maybe quite skewed, but I plan to make a first hand assessment at some point soon:

• http://www.2009softwarereviews.com/default.aspx?refer=2GAS&keyword=EAntivirus
• http://www.pc-scan.net/review/index.php?apid=A102420A&kwd=antivirus%20review

The latter site recommends Pareto Logic which I tried and found the above review to be a scam, that program is a ginormous memory hog.

Programs that I endorse:

• AVG Free 8.5
• Eset NOD32
• Panda Cloud Antivirus - the very best AV I have found to date, just needs network version
• Windows Defender - in addition to a normal antivirus program

Some that I definitely plan to check out:

• Avast antivirus
• Antivir
• Comodo Antivirus  **Did it, great product
• Panda Cloud Antivirus **Checked it- TOP NOTCH free product
• F-Prot
• Microsoft Forefront **Checked, unfortunately its not a good choice for most users

...more to come...

UPDATE:

I tried Comodo Internet Security which is a very impressive program, however, it is not perfect... The program is very thorough, it has an antivirus/spyware engine, and a full firewall, the installer gives you the option of installing one or both the AV and Firewall components, I opted out on the firewall. Once installed you can set the program to run in various modes depending on how hard you want it to work at detecting viruses (how much of your PCs resources you want it to use). During the normal use "out of the box" settings, it uses very little memory/CPU, a mere 30-35mb of RAM and no CPU, during a scan RAM usage remains the same and CPU floats between 2-10%. There is a "paranoid" mode which seems to scan with extreme scrutiny, using slightly more CPU. Now - the thing that prevents me from slapping this on just anyones PC, under the "normal mode" it monitors all activity and warns you when anything suspicous happens - ie a flash video creates a temp file - it will ask you to first confirm the action. I believe this can be minimized, but I havent dug quite deep enough yet. Some people that are annoyed by Vista's nagging confirmations may not deal well with this. But its options are very well layed out, it seems like it would be very good at detecting most any virus without taxing your resources:

...more to come...

NEW!!!: I found these charts below at this site, it DOES NOT mention a few that are worth mentioning such as AVG or Comodo Internet Security, both of which perform better than anything listed in the images below, although the data is definitely valid and worth noting:

***************

***UPDATE 5/10/09

Well I finally found something that is the very best at what it does. Panda Cloud Antivirus is a free virus scanner that only uses about 15 megabytes of ram and so far after installing on several client systems it seems to catch the viruses.

The cloud uses a new cutting edge technology of peer to peer virus prevention, all of the installations of this program subscribe to each other to prevent viruses and there is no such thing as automatic updates - its ALWAYS up to date!!! The options are very slimmed down, and the program never bothers you with stupid questions, it just works.

This is a great program except that its rather new and they have not yet developed a corporate version with centralize management. 

***UPDATE 8/1/2009 Panda stay away - unfortunately Panda has proven by some of my clients to be inefficient at preventing viruses. Back to Eset and AVG.

***Update 2/6/2010: Theres a new wolf in the pack, check out Security Essentials here.

Push email for your mobile

Having trouble getting push email to your smart phone?

(Push is instant delivery vs periodically checking).

Several new phones support push email, but your mail provider may not, in comes mobipush.com who offers free push forwarding. They allow you to forward up to 5 Accounts free. Just click on Free signup on their site.

The setup is drop dead simple, just give it your current email and password, and the site will detect the proper settings.

Next you are presented with 2 choices , you can send a txt to your phone which will have a link to a .cab file installer (for Windows based phones only) that will install the settings to your phone or else you can manually enter the settings to your phone. A step-by-step guide on how to configure your device is on their site.

Many phones only support one push account, Mobipush allows you to funnel several accounts into one, using several accounts allows you to centralize your email, but also keep it segregated and organized. For instance check your work email, personal email and junkmail like facebook all from one phone.

There are several other similar services such as emoze.com, but mobipush seems to be the best bang for your buck.

SMPL-Route

Today we will cover some of the options and features available on the SMPL-Route appliance group. This appliance comes in a number of flavors including:

• SMPL-Route - Enterprise class router/firewall
• SMPL-Route-CF Content Filter Gateway
• SMPL-Route-VPN - VPN Gateway
• SMPL-Route-MW - Wireless Mesh Router
• SMPL-Route-LRW - Long Range Wifi Bridge(1-25 miles)

Each product is custom designed around its particular purpose, using optimal hardware and software for its end purpose. These appliances are driven by open source software powered by Linux or BSD Unix platforms for the highest levels of stability and feature sets.

The base SMPL-Route includes features such as:

• Nat Firewall with 100,000 States
• Up to 256 interfaces per system
• Max 4096 firewall/NAT rules
• Firewall rules independant of NAT Rules
• Reverse Outbound NAT
• SSL VPN
• PPTP VPN
• IPSEC VPN
• Software and Hardware VPN clients/peers
• VLAN and VLAN Routing/Switching
• Multi-WAN Load balancing
• Multi-WAN Failover
• Dynamic DNS
• Traffic Shaping to ensure bandwidth to the desired services (ie VOIP)
• QOS
• Customizable Views
• Real time service and traffic reports
• Basic spam filtering (product like ORF is better recommended for Exchange server)
• Bridging (ie wifi bridge)
• Supports most major routing protocols
• Based on FreeBSD Unix

SMPL-Route-CF is a content filtering gateway that can be used as a router as well, while it lacks some of the features of the standard SMPL-Route, the two can be used in unison to provide an unmatched routing and filtering solution. It provides all of the features found on popular commercial products like Sonicwall and Watchguard, with one key differentiating factor - no annual support contract or update contract required. Some of the features include:

• Web filtering - category based, or static site lists
• Phishing filter
• Active X Filter
• Virus scanning at the gateway (before it hits your PC)
• Spam filtering with per-user quarentine
• By-pass login
• Very concise per-user reports to show who 'problem' users might be
• Based on Debian Linux

SMPL-Route-MW is a mesh wifi product aimed at providing backbone connectivity to large campuses or rural areas where hardwired access is difficult to find. Some features include:

• Multiple Radios to dedicate channels or frequencies
• 2.4 ghz
• 5 ghz
• 900 mhz
• Self healing - when a unit fails other nearby nodes connect to rebuild the routes
• VLANs
• Multiple internet gateways
• QOS
• Linux OS

SMPL-Route-LRW provides Long Range Wireless bridging to give connectivity to sites that are difficult to provide hard wired connections. This is industrial strength wifi that can span up to a 25 mile distance with near wire speed throughput. Features include:

• Multiple Radios to dedicate channels or frequencies
• 2.4 ghz
• 5 ghz
• 900 mhz
• VLANs
• QOS
• 108 mb Turbo bandwidth
• Linux OS

All of these products have been selected for their robust feature sets, often found on far more pricier commercial products. Since they are based on Open Source, some of them provide features that commercial products just have not caught up to yet, making them the logical choice on which to build your network.

For more information about the SMPL Appliances please see the contact page on our website.

Atom cell phones coming soon...

Was just reading this interesting article that talks about Symbian S60 being developed for the Intel Atom platform. S60 is the OS used on Nokia smartphones. With the prototype being made for the Atom, this could mean a new market niche for higher powered hybrid phone / netbooks (small laptops) - a fully integrated communications platform with your normal PC type application capabilities as well as voice.

SMPL Appliances

Simple Technologies introduces SMPL Appliances, these appliances are highly specialized enterprise grade appliances based on open source software. These appliances include:

• SMPL-NAS - Network Attached Storage server
• SMPL-PBX - Asterisk based telephone system
• SMPL-Route - FreeBSD based router, VPN gateways and wifi appliances

These products are custom built around their specific purposes using the latest in industry standard open source software, with a significant cost difference compared to competing commercial products and many more features, in the end they equate to lower TCO and higher productivity - a logical choice for businesses large and small. Our R&D department has spent months pouring over the various offerings available, and they have settled on this collection of products as being the best in their areas of expertise.

Look forward to more details on these products soon...