Anti-Virus for Cortex PC

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  • Gumby
    Moderator
    • May 2004
    • 437

    Anti-Virus for Cortex PC

    For those of you who are more paranoid than Karam , any experience with anti-virus software on your Cortex PC?

    I can say that BitDefender made my Cortex PC unstable. Part of the issue was it insisted on popping up a dialog box after every scan, and since I don't look at my Cortex PC for months at a time, then it probably ran out of resources. But I suspect that anti-virus software can interfere with Cortex log access, and BitDefender didn't seem to allow me to configure exclusions.
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    www.gumbrell.com
  • Alexc
    Automated Home Sr Member
    • Apr 2013
    • 82

    #2
    I have Sophos anti-virus on my Cortex PC and have had no issues.

    Alex

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    • Nad
      Automated Home Guru
      • Jul 2008
      • 145

      #3
      I've had AVG Free running on mine for as long as I can remember with no issues. I'll probably switch over to Panda on the new one though.

      Comment

      • Karam
        Automated Home Legend
        • Mar 2005
        • 863

        #4
        Just pragmatic . My expectation is that anyone with sufficient motive and competence could access my PC, intercept my e-mails, listen into my iPhone and so on. A manufactured sense of security is what spying probably relies best on. I even wonder about firewalls and anti-virus software - who'd be better placed? Not saying that this is a reason to not attampt to protect yourself but pragmatic as to how and against what/whom.

        But getting back to your question, I have used AVG for some continuous periods of time in one or two cases and it seems ok on those PCs. It did used to really slow things up though, so I had a tendency to install, do a scan and then remove.

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        • Gumby
          Moderator
          • May 2004
          • 437

          #5
          I don't think you can achieve absolute security, but there are different grades of competence of "hackers", from script-kiddies to state-sponsored outfits, and with different motivations. I'm not going to keep the NSA out, they've almost certainly already compromised the firewall, but if they are after me I have bigger things to worry about. But I would like to keep the vandals and criminals out as much as possible.

          Just watching the probes logged by my firewall tells me how much speculative probing goes on. Always-on PCs, even if not particularly powerful, are attractive targets _because_ they are always-on, eg as nodes in botnet C&C nets. Perhaps that is why my hard disk light is always on ��.
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          www.gumbrell.com

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          • chris_j_hunter
            Automated Home Legend
            • Dec 2007
            • 1713

            #6
            interesting thread - makes me aware, too, that we need to take more interest in such things - eg: no idea even how to check the firewall log ...

            wonder if there's a way to have Cortex control more (switch on & off) things like WiFi & Ethernet & Internet connections ... to avoid the always-on issues ...

            eg: we rely on WiFi to allow Cortex to communicate with Android tablets, to show NoticeBoard information, but it could be off when House or particular Rooms are Unoccupied, we're asleep, whatever ... and Ethernet connections are needed only in definable circumstances ... etc

            also, being able to restart a Router might be handy, too - eg: ours is prone to issues arising from Memory Creep ... could use a relay to off/on, but might be better to force restart via appropriate commands ...
            Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 27 August 2016, 11:25 PM.
            Our self-build - going further with HA...

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            • JonS
              Automated Home Guru
              • Dec 2007
              • 202

              #7
              I've used Avast for many years on a now v old laptop. No problems with it.

              As for disk light - is the disk fragmented? I have a v small HDD by modern standards and if it gets much over 70% it begins the thrash the disk, which makes the machine hotter and so the fan works harder and it makes more noise.
              JonS

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              • Gumby
                Moderator
                • May 2004
                • 437

                #8
                Seems that the disk light was due to the backups running at unexpected times. But there were lots of accumulated errors found by CHKDSK. Surface scan says actual disk is OK though, but looks like time to reinstall Windows clean.
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                www.gumbrell.com

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