I am new to Clamwin, but I worry that it is not actively preventing my computer to get invaded by a virus. I only see an option to scan for infected files, and I have run one of these scans on my laptop, which took several hours on a 60 GB disk, and all it did was point out infected files and Trojan horses. I went through and painfully deleted these files, but this made me think that it is only detecting viruses, rather than actually preventing infections. Can anyone tell me if this is true? Does this mean I should also be running a true antivirus program line Avast?

Thanks,

Jack

As pointed out on the main ClamWin web page, ClamWin is presently an On-Demand antivirus scanner. This means that it only scans when you select it to--either manually or via a scheduled scan. We hope that within the next year or so that the developers can deliver a real-time/on-access kernel mode version. For right now, ClamWin is best used as a backup to an on-access/real-time scanner like Avast or Microsoft Security Essentials.

The Clam Sentinel project at https://sourceforge.net/projects/clamsentinel/ on the web is a separate project that enables ClamWin to scan files as they are placed on your computer or as they are modified, which offers protection from malicious files. ClamWin with Clam Sentinel thus offers partial protection of your computer, but it should probably be used with a behavior blocker like WinPatrol or Threatfire for complete protection.

Regards,

So if we get the Clam Sentinel project and installed it and also used Threatfire or Winpatrol, does that mean we don't have to use ClamWin Antivirus? I used to be a McAfee user and I was once told by McAfee support that having multiple antivirus software is not recommended.

Threatfire and WinPatrol are behavior blockers and scan a bit differently than an antivirus does. For instance, they devote some time/effort to the Windows registry entries, and many traditional antiviruses (like ClamWin) do not look at registry entries. The traditional antiviruses are primarily file scanners that look for virus signatures in files.

Once in a while, some antiviruses (with a full set of detection features) may conflict with a behavior blocker, but in my opinion, you should use an antivirus along with a behavior blocker for better protection. No security product is perfect. You can exclude the behavior blocker executable/directory from your AV scanner if there is a conflict.

I personally use WinPatrol with ClamWin/ClamSentinel. It is light on resources and notifies the user of new executables that are set up to autostart or that are hidden. It also provides other information about your system. The free version has a bit of a delay in user notification, but I think it is still adequate. It isn't perfect, but it is another weapon in a layered defense.

Also, keep your eye on BLADE, which is a free product undergoing testing now. Its purpose is to provide protection from drive-by-downloads. Visit https://www.blade-defender.org/ for info.

Regards,

Wow, never really knew so many variants of antivirus software, which is good but also confusing. I am looking forward for ClamWin to have the real time mode. It seems that I cannot use ClamWin for to be able to use it with my company VPN because it is fails the active test. The VPN we have is provided by Firepass/F5.

So in reference with your earlier response, I can still use ClamWin with Microsoft Security Essentials and that would make for a better defense. Does this also consume more system resource as well?

ClamWin should not conflict with Security Essentials since it is an on-demand scanner, and Security Essentials is a real-time/on-access scanner. However, Security Essentials may kick in during ClamWin scans. If it does, see if you can exclude ClamWin's binary directory and its quarantine directory from Security Essentials' scans. There are also some ClamWin temp files created during scanning that may need exclusion also.

Security Essentials started out great, but I am starting to see that it doesn't detect some new malware now when other AVs do. Neither does Bitdefender. I guess even an AV can have a down day now and then-eh! Avast is coming on strong, and so is NOD32. Avira is holding its own. I hope ClamWin gets better when Clam AV turns the heuristics on!

Regards,

Thanks for the clarification Bob. I appreciate it. ClamWin though is a good program no doubt about it.

Cheers.
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