Anti-Virus and SOWGB

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Here's my RANT!

I've been reading all of this crap about anti-virus programs stopping people from playing the game.

Come on people, get smart here.

First, I use AVG, and I have disabled it from starting up when I turn my computer on, so it's not active.

I have no need to do a full system scan because I know what sites I visit, and I know what files I download.

If I need to scan a file, or a folder, I right click what I want scanned, and choose my AVG scan option.

That's it.

I don't know where you folks go to have the virus scanner active at all times, unless you folks download files by using a torrent program, or you visit, and download porn crap.

Take responsibility for what you download, and where you go on the internet, and for god sake, never give out your legitimate email to anyone except to those who you can trust. Create a email on Google, or Yahoo, and never open any emails that have attachments.

And....stop bugging the shit out of Norb about this. It's not his problem, and it shouldn't be his problem. He is doing his best to help everyone out, and program at the same time.

thanks...

[Chamberlain]

I have been using AVG and WebRoot Antivirus with SpySweeper and right from the beginning I had no problems with either installing and playing this game. Still don't. As a matter of fact, I had both of these products installed with TC2M and never had an issue with that game either, and still don't.

All that has to be done is to just add, if you have to, the file in the exclude list of your Anti Virus so it will not stop the game from playing.

My OS is Vista...

Chamberlain

[J Canuck]

I have never heard of AVG. I have always stayed away from Freeware when it came to anti-virus and firewalls. I am a satisfied customer of Trend Micro (PC-cillin) and ZoneAlarm since years ago when my IT people were using and recommending them. Furthermore, they are not the resource hogs like many of the big names. The Freeware I do use is Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware and Malwarebytes Anti Mal-ware, which I only turn on when I want a periodic disc drive scan.

However, a lot of water has gone under the anti-virus and firewall bridges - perhaps it is no longer necessary to put out the bucks to get top quality security programs. To max performance while playing solo, I shut down everything including my internet connection. I plan to use my exclude lists when I get around to multi-player. Anyway, I’m not as hot to trot for having anti-virus running as I am to keep my firewall up and strong.

Would people around here mind expressing your thoughts/experiences with AVG or other security Freeware in the multi-player world especially with SOWG?

[norb]

AVG was initially deleting the file as a virus. No warning, no exception. We emailed them about it, they fixed it pretty quickly.

[Old Soldier]

J Canuck,

Tried Norton, McAfee and freeware Avast, AVG and Rising.

Did not like Norton or McAfee and used AVG for several years until Version 8 was released. Seemed to slow my computer down.

Also used ZA as my firewall.

Finally settled on Vipre .... antivirus, antispyware and integrated firewall. Smooth sailing!

I use Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware and Malwarebytes Anti Mal-ware as well.

[norb]

I use malwarebytes, it has never flagged any of our files. I also made sure and sent the dll through jottiscan first and it all came back negative.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

I've been using AVG for years and have had only a few problems where it would flag a program as a virus when it was not. This was always due to the fact that it was packed in the way that virus writers pack their's. SOW was one such program. (Norb, do you have a sinister past?? Just kidding.) However, setting exceptions for these few programs cures the problem. I find AVG to be quite fast and very resource efficient compared to the garbage made by the likes of Symantec and McAfee. If you have a multi-core CPU, AVG even takes advantage of that by using several cores to do it's scanning. Very fast!

I also use E-Nod at work mainly because it works with a server OS such as MS Server 2003 or 2008. It is not free, but is also very fast and not a resource hog.

I would recommend either of these programs. These along with a program such as Spybot, which scans for malware and also free, should keep a computer fairly well protected. For a firewall I just use the one that comes with windows. I have also used Zone Alarm in the past which is very good too. Since I don't visit pirate or porn sites, the windows firewall is more than adequate.

[Franciscus]

I have played SOW both in my desktop - first with AVG internet security (paid version) and now with Kaspersky's (ditched AVG after misteriously one day it failed to activate all components... :blink:) - and in my laptop with Avast and Windows firewall.

No problems activating, deactivating, playing, whatever, with either.

I would not advice though to turn off your protections. Just a simple act like inserting a pen with work from the office can get your PC full of virus, etc., even before you do anything yourself...

Regards

[BOSTON]

Sound advice!