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Open Source Anti-Virus?

By Janet Ku - Mar. 10, 2008

Does anyone know of any good open source anti-virus apps out there that are updated regularly??

I did try clamAV but I thought this was seriously lacking when compared to the Norton Anti-Virus suite I'm using.

This is one area where I'd imagine that Open Source has a significant disadvantage over closed source because of the constant updates that are required...


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  1. By an anonymous user on Mar. 10, 2008

    I have never found a good 'open source' one.. avg is pretty good though and free


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  2. By an anonymous user on Mar. 10, 2008

    Clam AV does actually work pretty well, and ClamWin on windows might do the trick.


    Not sure how often the definitions are update, though..


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  3. By an anonymous user on Mar. 10, 2008

    Hmmmmm... Here's a solution! Lose windoze! Get Linux, or even a mac!


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  4. By J Lee on Aug. 29, 2008

    AVG if free but not open source.


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  5. By Jagadish Mugali on Aug. 29, 2008

    i think you can try for Sysmantic Anti-Virus which is free and also you will get updates for that


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  6. By Rodelio Ramos on Aug. 29, 2008

    You can have a free anti virus like AVG... but opensource anti virus i dont think so.


    If there is an opensource anti virus I will advice you not to use it because it is not secure and codes will be opened to hackers and virus developers eyes.


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  7. By Mike Farley on Sep. 04, 2008

    Only ClamAV. You might want to check uot openav.org.


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  8. By OSAf W on Sep. 11, 2008

    ClamAV in terms of virus recognition and clean up is if not better atleast at par (mostly much better) to the closed source ones. The open and known issue about ClamAV is that it does not have realtime file access scan, which means that the file is not scanned automatically when accessed or downloaded.


    This prblem can be resolved using Winpooch.


    http://winpooch.free.fr/page/home.php?lang=en&page=home


    Its a hack but it still works.


    Also if you use Firefox like me you can install the Clamwin Antivirus Glue extension which will automatically scan the download with ClamAV before letting it be saved on the drive.


    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/771


    There are instructions to modify the extension for any release of Firefox.


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