Hey there guys...long time listener, first time caller here...

I have seen a lot of posts about real-time protection being in the works, and I was wondering when a release is expected, or if there's a beta currently available for testing. I manage a few small home networks that are in need of a viable anti-virus solution that doesn't take up an insane amount of system resources and I'd like to use clamwin for it.

Thanks
-Overkill

I think budtse was able to build the source from SVN, but if you're really tech savy you could try compiling the source yourself, but I don't believe the code is nearly ready to be "beta tested" yet, I think it is still in alpha state.

For everyone else who stumbles upon this thread hoping to get their "when?" question answered:

"Real-time scanning suggestion"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=678

"ClamWin is a real time protection or a on demand sacanning?"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=1230

"when a real time shield/scan ?"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=1154

"Beta version with realtime scanner?"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=67

"Not all the time On-Acces"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=254

"on-access real time scanning"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=420

"On-access scanner"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=214

"Online scanning"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=1185

"Scan a single directory on-access"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=242

"On-access scanning component"
https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=29

As tech savvy as I am, coding is a tad above my head. Furthest I've gone is scripting languages like AutoIt. I think I'll wait for a beta, but thanks for the reading material =)

If any guru can help me I just started clamwin today and now, and after a scan it cam up with this in the scan log. WARNING: Can't open file \\?\C:\pagefile.sys, Permission denied

Please any info anyone?

Welcome to ClamWin!

I'm not a guru, but I've been around long enough to know that antivirus programs can't open files that are being used at scan time or that the system has locked. Pagefile.sys is a Windows system file, and it is normal for it to be locked/permission denied to open. Hiberfile.sys is another one that you will commonly see locked.

You can do a search on Google for any file you want to learn something about. After a few searches, you will learn what files can't be opened that are on your system. Sometimes it can be quite a few--depending on what you have on your system. This isn't unusual, and a good antivirus program will let you know what is going on.

Regards,

Moon Secure Antivirus is an opensource alternative that does provide real-time scanning. It can be found at https://sourceforge.net/projects/moonav/ . I have been using it on a lot of business environment computers and have had no issues.

It takes more than real-time scanning to make a good antivirus--look at Comodo AV, for instance. I looked into Moon a year or so ago and decided it needed further development. How large is their signature database? It takes quite an effort to get a signature system/analysts in place. And, you have to keep at it--day after day. Some estimates say there are somewhere between 200 and 300 new viruses/malware coming out each day. Last time I looked (a couple of days ago), Clam/Clamwin did 250 signatures that day. Clam/ClamWin now has over 155,000 signatures, which is more than some of the commercial AV companies. According to AV Comparatives, Symantec had about 74,000 signatures in August. With each signature, you may be able to spot several variants, depending on the virus/malware. Of course, Clam/ClamWin don't have the heuristics/generic detection capability of the commercial AVs, but some of them rely too much on that and don't keep up the signatures as well as Clam/ClamWin.

Regards,

Moon Antivirus is using the same ClamWin (ClamAV) engine.

Would be nice to see a collaboration between these two projects, to have the best features of both.

Yes, you're right--it might be a good idea for the ClamWin developers to get friendly with the Moon people. I see Moon is on the Virscan.org free file scanning service, so it is far enough along for that. Perhaps they do have a good signature development function. Virscan furnishes the scanners copies of files with malware.

ClamWin is tied to Clam. Without the Clam engine there would be no ClamWin. I'm concerned that the acquisition of Clam by Sourcefire could have a detrimental effect upon ClamWin. Sourcefire has a tendancy to develop the "good stuff" for Linux and sort of ignore Windows use of its Snort product. I can't find any Windows GUI for Sourcefire's Snort intrusion detection program, and there's no easy way for Windows users to implement the Snort "rules" that are constantly being implemented.

Regards.

I have to say looks very good ...

That program was brought to Alch's attention some time ago, and he concluded that it did not offer complete protection due to the programming techniques used. It was also written with a programming tool that is no longer supported.

Regards,

Any estimated release date for the next major release with on-access scanning?
Thanks.

See the post from bOne in this thread on Sept. 22, 2007.

Regards,

Guitarbob, bless you man. Just reading all you say is starting to educate me. I do want to say thanks to Clamwin, with its scanner I found 4 viruses that had been quaritined (damn I can't spell for crap) by Norton but never removed and 1 they never found. So with Clamwin telling me where exactly they were in my computer I was able to isolate and remove all 5 of them. So all I want to do now is find the highest mountain to tell everyone about Clamwin. Again Thank you and Clamwin

The ClamWin developers have done a good job of providing a free, low resource alternative to the commercial antivirus programs, and they are working to make it better. I believe that next year we will see an improved version--still free, low on resources but more competitive.

Regards,